Bodman Construction

Update: September 2013 I'm providing this update to stress how it important it is to have a trusted adviser like Mr. Bodman on your side when issues arise about renovations, home reconstruction or major changes to your home. It?s not enough to hire an experienced renovator. You need a trusted adviser. Mr. Bodman fulfills both requirements. Background Unusual problems arise with restoring historic or older homes. When they do, you need an experienced adviser who to tell you alternatives that will work in your situation, and are the most cost-effective. In our case, he rebuilt our entire home within the existing structure. He knows our house from the inside out. Tip: Contractor estimating skills A big problem we have here in the south is a lack of contractor estimating skills. For example, one challenge we faced with our rebuild job was to extend a load bearing beam. Several contractors told us it would cost $15K and take a week to do the work. Mr. Bodman's estimate: $1200 and 1.5 days labor. The higher estimates came from contractors who simply weren't sure about what to do. They were panicking and hiking up their estimates 10 times figuring they might get caught in a situation they can't get out of leading to them hiring other workers with the right skills. One of these contractors worked for a local builder. This same contractor quickly picked up on our concern the job be done safely. He viewed our concerns as "customer panic signs" and thought he could prey on us by jacking up his estimate. Mr. Bodman as a trusted adviser We?ve had consistent problems with an air-conditioning unit. The unit was installed by Bill?s heating and air, Hinesville, Georgia (see my negative review). We?ve had four A/C vendors deal with this unit over the past five years. We had to piece together all the issues to try to fix the problem. The vendor (Bill?s) installed a 5 ton unit that would freeze up and stop working. We never could get the vendor to respond to the problem, therefore our negative review. We hired a separate A/C vendor who diagnosed the problem as inadequate return air. This means that not enough air was getting back to the air handler causing unit to work too hard and to freeze up. The solution? The vendor tore out ducting, installed a new triple duct feeding into one 14? return. They correctly diagnosed the problem. But their fix for $1200 didn?t resolve the issue. They installed three large ducts to a 14-inch return air duct. This didn?t fix the problem because the 14-inch return will limit air getting to the three large ducts attached to the A/C unit. It still freezes up. The vendor recommended we tear out our A/C unit and install a 3 ton unit. Their reason? Since the return air duct will allow only 3 tons of air we shouldn?t have a unit larger than 3 tons to deliver service. They did not recommend putting in a larger return air duct. We retained a third vendor and told them what and told them what we had learned. They recommended a 3.5 ton unit and a new return air duct. We were getting closer to a solution, but we had concerns about this vendor?s return air duct proposal. It would have involved jack knifing a new return air duct around our basement area. This may or may not have solved our return air problem given the number of twists and turns in the new ducting. It also involved tearing up our main bedroom closet to access the area from the basement to run the duct. We weren?t eager to do that because we just finished rebuilding the house. We retained a fourth A/C vendor and told them what we had learned. They recommended we find a way to install a new return air duct 24 inches around to allow return air to our current 5 ton unit. They also misdiagnosed our current return air duct. They claimed it wasn?t there. We had Mr. Bodman with us for advice during our consultations with these vendors. We did so because proposals would involve changes to our home. He came up with the solution: open a 24 inch square hole to the side of the fireplace in our great room. This hole would be almost directly above the A/C unit. I was concerned his solution might disrupt the stonework and the structural integrity of the fireplace. He soothed my concerns by explaining the fireplace skirt was simply framed in with wood and covered by mortar and stone work. We are now waiting for him to compete this work. We may not need a new A/C unit after all, but if we do, we?ll have plenty return air to help any new unit we buy. I cite this case to show how important it is to have in a trusted adviser on your side when you?re getting estimates for work that could lead to changes to your home. In this case, not one of the four A/C vendors could solve our problem. Mr. Bodman would be the first to tell you he is not and A/C expert. But he is an expert at renovating homes. His advice and guidance through this ordeal has spared us thousands of dollars in unnecessary costs. First, the original installer didn?t recognize that our home could not handle a modern 5 ton A/C unit. The previous unit in the house was less efficient and fault-tolerant. This is typical with new A/C units in older homes. The modern unit couldn?t work efficiently with the original ducting in our older home. The original installer failed to consider this. Second, our remaining vendors correctly diagnosed a lack of return air problem. But their solutions either didn?t work (as with the $1200 triple duct system) or had obvious limits from the beginning. Third, having Mr. Bodman with us during these consultations was key to fixing our problem. He came up with the solution. If we had relied solely on the A/C vendors, we might still have a problem after paying much money for a new system we may not have needed. Fourth, Mr. Bodman proved to our fourth A/C contractor we really did have a functioning return air duct that they told us didn?t exist. Lesson Learned Our entire problem could have been avoided if the original installer knew modern A/C units don?t always work with ducting systems in older homes. He never thought about the return air problem because he was incompetent. p.s. If A/C contractors try to install return air vents over the doorway?s to rooms in your house, find a new contractor. Air should flow across the room (thereby cooling the entire room) as it is sucked out of the room back to the A/C unit. An installer placing a return near your door is either incompetent or has no other options. Most of the time, it?s the former.