American Scientific & Environmental Consulting

BEWARE: Unprofessional and Unreliable In July 2018 I contracted Gregory Bickle at ASEC to install a radon mitigation system in my older home. The home features a crawlspace with dirt flooring. There was a dispute between Gregory and I about the work that was to be done but luckily my understanding matched the invoice. Gregory was very unprofessional and resorted to calling me names and threatening to put a lien on my home. Reluctantly he agreed to do the work as listed in the invoice. His sister finished the work on my home and during a major rain downpour she negligently left the hatch to my crawlspace open. I now had flooding in my crawlspace. Gregory and his sister concluded that the job was complete and the flooding in the crawlspace was now my problem to deal with. I ended up spending several hours with a shopvac and removed about 40 gallons of water from my crawlspace. 7 months later I noticed that the fan was no longer running. I have contacted Gregory several times leaving messages asking about a warranty on the fan and he has yet to contact me. Let this serve as a warning to you that if your thinking about using ASEC services that you should consider moving on and calling a real professional.

We hired American Scientific & Environmental Consulting (ASEC) in the fall of 2013 to perform three jobs: 1) Installation of a radon mitigation system 2) Installation of a sump pump 3) Water remediation in our finished basement, which was damaged during the Boulder flood In total, we spent about $5,000 with ASEC. There were significant problems with each of the jobs that ASEC performed, which the company refused to remedy. Most notably: -The installed radon mitigation system was not sealed properly and water leaked into our home as a result. -The sump pump stopped working after about a week because the pump?s fittings were incorrectly sized and came apart in the sump well. The pump kept running but merely churned water in the well instead of sending it out of the house. -ASEC failed to perform testing for the mold removal work and did not deliver a Certificate of Remediation, as required by our contract, suggesting that we pay for the testing out of pocket. In the end, we had to hire someone else to fix the most significant problems, at an additional cost of $635. When we attempted to reduce our payment to ASEC by this amount, the company initiated proceedings to put a lien on our house. Not wanting to incur the hassle and expense such a proceeding would entail, we caved and paid ASEC in full. Our attempts to work through these issues with ASEC also resulted in what I will charitably describe as unprofessional interactions by phone and by email, with the company citing us as the cause of the various problems and leveling personal attacks: -When I notified the company that the sump pump did not seem to be working properly and asked that they remedy it, the company responded that they were ?NOT [responsible for] damage due to your mistake. The pump was working fine. It is not ?defective? and you are not man enough to take responsibility for your actions.? -When I tried to ascertain how much ASEC was seeking in payment, because the invoice I received didn?t match the statement of work and was largely indecipherable, the company responded by email, ?How do you possibly make a living with a mind that malfunctions so badly?? -And when I wrote to the company that ?I would like nothing more thank to settle the remaining balance on my account and plan to do so as soon as you have completed all of the items in our Agreement and provided me with a clear invoice,? I received the following in reply: ?Get an attorney, we are going to court! Do NOT contact me again. Talk to my attorney who will be placing a Lien on your house next week. Get ready to pay triple charges, my attorney fees, and damages for slander. As a contractor I am open to abuse by people like you, but, I also have legal rights that you are about to learn about in a big way. I am an honest man who has seriously tried to help you. I did not want this job to begin with and you know it. Everything we did in your house was extremely difficult and was only accomplished because of my knowledge and professionalism (THE SAME PROFESSIONALISM YOU HAVE INSULTED and SLANDERED). You act like a spoiled only child and your ego is going to ruin you.? Needless to say, this devolved into a very challenging and upsetting situation. I?ve never seen anything like it.

They did a good job. My only complaint about them was that I had called to schedule an appointment with them, which they seemed to have forgotten that I had scheduled the appointment. We scheduled probably for 1 o'clock, I called when he did not turn out and he asked if he could come out by 2 o'clock, and then he did arrive at 2 o'clock. So, that was nice but that part was a little disconcerting, however after that they did show up on time. They did do an excellent job and we have not had any other issues with that.

I had them come by for an estimate to reroute an existing radon exhaust pipe. Basically the pipe vented out the side of the garage like a dryer vent pointing down beside the side door to the backyard. This means it is blowing radon exhaust right into the area you would be going in/out of the door. All I needed to do was reroute the exhaust pipe to go straight up through the garage roof. I explained that this what I wanted to the guy who came by to do the estimate, and had let them know it was a small job over the phone before they came by. What ended up happening in-person at the estimate is he tried to convince me to do a lot of extra work I did not need or ask for. He said they would replace and relocate the fan unit (both not needed) and in addition to going out the garage roof, wanted to pipe it all the way up and around the eave of the second floor roof (again not needed to be up to code). During this, he made a comment like "the owner [of the company] will want to replace and relocate your fan" and that sort of thing, as if perhaps he had gotten some pressure to overbid the job. He didn't seem willing to talk about only the work that was needed. At this point I felt like this was not going to be a good fit, so I went with one of their competitors that did an excellent job, up to code, and what I asked for. Also, when I first called in to schedule the estimate there was a loud crying baby in the background and I would guess it must have been the owners wife working from home. Normally I don't care about these things or take off points, but reflecting on every touch point the only professional thing about this estimate was that they showed up on time.

I have a modified A-Frame which for a number of reasons had to be installed on a side of the house with an overhead deck and trellises on the wall. The exhaust had to extend some 35 feet to the peak of the roof. The installers were very sensitive to the way it would look and we spent a fair amount of time picking the best route. There was no resistance on their part to using a route that was more difficult. They also used venting pipe that resembles downspout colored the same as the house. They did a great job, were neat and clean and put tarps over my floors to prevent damage. They finished in about 4 hours and you can't tell it's there. There was no up charge even though the actual install was probably more than they bargained for. The only very minor criticism was that they left the debris from drilling through the concrete slab by the side of the driveway. I'd definitely use them again.

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While the cost was slightly higher than some other vendors, I felt the attention to detail and quality of work was superb. All of my floor joints and cracks in the basement were sealed. The other vendors didn't even mention that this was necessary. I was also quite please with the attic mount above the garage ($150 extra), as I have no visible or audible fan noise whatsoever. "Floats" for my window wells were an extra $25 each, but that was disclosed both at the initial meeting as well as on the day of the install. Three contractors showed up on time and proceeded to finish the work quickly, professionally, and neatly. A very positive experience!

American Scientific Environmental Consulting American Scientific Environmental Consulting, was good, we were satisfied with their work. We thought they were very thorough in their approach and their solutions, they took the time to actually caulk all the cracks in the basement. They found a good solution for the exit, they gave us everything they promise and they were definitely above average, pricing was probably more expensive but, we thought it was fair. They did the work on fairly short notice and took care of it. The only complain I have is that they finished up fast and could have been a little more thorough.

I had a very good experience. Prior to radon mitigation I had tested my property several times and came up with readings ranging from 18 to 20 pCi/L. After mitigation I've tested 3 times in the past year and had on result of .7 and two of .9 pCi/L.

It went very well. It was a good experience.

Three men came out to do the work, two of which were the son-in-law's of the owner. A co-worker of mine who referred me to this business had told me that he suspected the workers of theft of a video camera while working in his home. I checked my house and noticed someone stole money from my son who was saving up for a trip ($860) while they were in my home. The money was there that morning. The workers and I were the only ones in the home. We got the police involved who started a criminal investigation. The police gave the three workers a test to determine if they were telling the truth. Two of the workers complied to take the test, but one refused. Two separate police departments came up with the same result, with the signs pointing towards this person. One of the workers even implicated this person. It also came out that the person suspected of theft allegedly had a history of theft. We are unable to prove the case at this time as the company/worker is refusing to accept responsibility. If they would have done the right thing by returning my son's money, the situation could have ended much better. I now have a radon system that isn't set up nor guaranteed, as I canceled my check. I could pay them but I don't want them back in my home. There were not broken windows, no signs of forced entry. It seemed that all signs were pointing to this worker, but we are unable to prove it. This experience was terrible; I just don't want anyone else to have these people in their home. I'm very disappointed that the company advertises as bonded and insured, but refused to take ownership in this situation.