Elm Home Services

The absolute worst service imaginable. Had a technician come out to look at a wall heater and was specifically told that I would have to order a part for that heater. Was even told what part to order. Once the part arrived they informed me they don't work on that type of heater. Interesting since I told them what type of heater it was before they came out on the first service call. Then they proceeded to argue with me about what I was told and stated they do not fix this type of item. Stay away from this company! Completely unreliable.

It was great!!!

Wow! What a disappointment with this business. Our AC went out on JUNE 12th and we had Elm out to give us a quote. We have used them many times previously at our clinic as well as at my home. Danny Rivera came out and gave us the option of repairing the aged unit on the roof or replacing it. We opted for replacement instead. We received an estimate for replacement and signed off on it June 14th. We were told the unit would need to be made by the factory and they would need 14 to 21 business days to ship the unit. OKAY....we were stuck with this. Typical Chicago weather then dropped on us with 90+ F for multiple days in a row. The grooming facility that rents from us had to shut down multiple times as it was too hot to safely groom animals. We called and asked if there was any way to get the unit faster and were told no. We called 2 other contractors who had the ability to get us up and running THE NEXT DAY. When we called Elm and told them we had other companies that could get this done ASAP we were told too bad, so sad you already signed with us. Mind you - we did not go for 3 estimates from different companies because we knew this company and had a good working relationship with them. My 2 biggest complaints are that Danny walked into a busy HOT veterinary hospital with a busy SUPER HOT grooming facility and did not even think to offer us options that would get us up and running immediately. We received the estimate from him and made a stupid assumption that this was the only option for a business of our size. He finally told us that he didn't offer any other options because we did not ask!!!! I'm sorry - I am not an AC professional. I save lives for a living and I expect the people I hire and work with to be as thorough and THOUGHTFUL as my crew is when we are dealing with a critical problem. Danny ignored our pleas for help (calling almost daily) until the day Friday before the 4th of July - remember how wonderful that weather was??? He sent a repairman out to fix the leak and they then discovered that the blower had failed as well. He blamed this on the 2 other crews that came out to check the units. I'm sorry - unplugging a blower will not make it fail. Being a very old unit that is on it's last leg makes it fail. This reinforced our decision that replacement was the only option available. Well folks, it is well past the 14-21 day window. They are delivering the unit tomorrow - July 10th. I have had to cancel the rent payment for the grooming facility as compensation for a month's worth of lost business. If you want good communication from a service provider who understands your needs and requirements I cannot recommend Elm Heating and Cooling. They dropped the proverbial ball for 2 businesses. If I can't rely on someone to offer me options and understand the critical nature of a timely repair to get us up and running I will never use this business again.

Installation took a long time because of my vents but the men worked hard to get it done by my deadline. Cleaned up well.

I think they were responsive. We had an air conditioner go out and we difficult install; they did a really nice job.

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They never let us down. They are always trustworthy. They are absolutely fantastic and they are honest. We also use them to clean our air ducts. The man showed me how to get the vents out of the dry wall so I can clean ducts. They are good with women in explaining things. They have a great attitude and don't try to sell you what you don't need. We've used them for 20 or 30 years.

I can't say enough good things. Thankfully it has been unseasonably warm, so we did not need emergency service. We called on a Saturday and a technician was at our place within about an hour. Once he declared our furnace dead, we scheduled an appointment to have a replacement installed Tuesday. They had an cancellation on Monday, and came then instead and installed a new furnace with a temporary setup going through the chimney. Thursday they needed to return to finish installing the high-efficiency exhaust. The previous owner(s) of our house did some funky things in our basement and, as a result, they literally spent 8 hours installing and fixing the exhaust system. They also noticed the exhaust for our water heater was not angled upwards enough (a flaw pointed out by our home inspector) so he fixed that, too. They were friendly, on time, and they worked a long day. I would call them again in a heartbeat.

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I left a message for the contractor on Sunday, thinking that he would return my call on Monday.  I was pleasantly surprised that he called back on Sunday.  He was available to meet with me the following day, but I could not do so.  Instead we met first thing on Tuesday morning.   Ed inspected the situation, reviewed his suggestion of what work he would do, quoted me a price for the water heater replacement and we agreed that he would start the work immediately.  The work was completed within 4 hours and this included a separate project of replacing a basement sink with another one I had.  Upon completion Ed showed me what he had done and explained how to adjust the water temperature.  He took the old water heater, as well as the old slop sink, so that I did not have to deal with disposing of these.  Overall, it was a good experience.

I have good experience with them. They are usually very prompt. They ask you if you want morning or afternoon and I have had no problem with them at all. I have used them for years. They come and check the furnace. They come and check the air conditioner. They run specials sometimes where you can plan and clean the furnace and the air conditioner they might give you a deal. I am satisfied with their service. They came out when I need them. They are also in the neighborhood so I know they are not coming from that far. They come they do their work and they leave and if I satisfied with someone I usually will stay with them.

They gave us a quote on the price, which I thought was too high and I had called them to let them know we wanted to get other bids for the service. They came out again and offered a lower price and went over, but they had sent out a different person to look at the furnace and he said that the issue is something that may not to be addressed which the first guy did not say this. The price reduction and both gentleman having different things to tell us made me question the providers intentions a little bit and I am now a little confused on if I need to have the problem resolved or not due to hearing two different things from the provider.

The main reason why I went with them is they were the only heating and air conditioning company that when we needed duct work up our second floor, it's an old 1920 bungalow and all the other ones were more than happy to sell us a new furnace and central conditioner, but there was no duct work up there. So, Elm was the one that pointed that out. They were very good. The pricing was better.

I called on Wed. and was able to get the first appt. for the next Monday, which is exactly what I wanted. The technician, Brendan, called around 7:00 and said he'd be to the house around 8:30. The appt. took about 2 hours. Brendan was polite and knowledgeable. He gave me some maintenance suggestions but didn't try to sell me anything. I saved some money by paying for the annual maintenance contract at the time I made the appt. We've used Elm for 10 years and have never had a bad experience.

They were terrible. They were not on time, they failed to install everything that was agreed to, and their invoicing was inaccurate. They refused to honor the original quote. They originally installed the wrong piece of equipment and after I called them on it, they sheepishly admitted that they had made a mistake and I think that if I hadn't caught the error, they would've left the wrong unit in place and charged me for the more expensive unit that I had installed.

My lines to the ac condenser unit froze. I knew it was one of three things. I placed a call to elm heating and air to have the problem fixed. I also requested a cleaning of said unit. I returned from work and upon seeing a 400 bill I asked my adult child who stayed home for the service person what they were told. The bill said the thermostat was faulty (needed a new one) recharged Freon, and recommended replacement of unit and unit was cleaned. I called the service dept and was told a manager would return my call. After several hours call was returned. In the meantime I went out and inspected the unit it wasn't cleaned still had some grass stuck in the grill. I asked the manager why my ac coil wasn't cleaned. Was informed that was a separate service and I didn't authorize it. I did ask for a cleaning and with a frozen line it is either a dirty ac coil/ dirty filters, or low Freon. So since the Freon was supposedly low why didn't they fix the leak? Or charge me for fixing a leak? Why didn't they clean the ac/coil? Having just changed my filters to coincide with the start of the AC season it wasn't that, and having installed the thermostat myself 9 yrs ago and still working today in 2014 that wasn't the problem. The manager started shouting at me when I questioned him  and informed him that  my profession is a tradesperson. He told me "Good for you." That is not professional in my opinion. The sad part is they would have made more money if they would have been honest because when it was time to replace my unit I would have called them. Unfortunately for them as opposed to Chicago contractors those Southern boys are sure helpful and friendly and provide you tube videos to troubleshoot your problems then walk you step by step through it. So that's what I did. Cleaned the coil myself.

My central a/c failed, I called them Friday afternoon, they came out within an hour and diagnosed the problem (I already knew what the problem was because I had someone else out earlier that day). I decided on a new energy efficient a/c and furnace replacement.  He showed me all my options and prices and gave me a written proposal.  They arrived the next day, Saturday morning, and started doing the work.  By Saturday afternoon my new system was blowing cold air.  There was still some work to finish, mostly due to the furnace installation, which they completed several days later.
Re my rating of B for price.  That is just a guess because I don't know how much this exact system would have cost from someone else.  Also, the cost would have been lower if I had selected a single stage furnace and less efficient a/c (I selected a dual stage Carrier with a SEER rating of 17)
 I am writing this review a year after I had the installation done.  As such, I have had a year to reflect on this and still feel the same way today as I did then.  I am very happy they did the installation the next day, and on a Saturday as it was very hot and humid at the time.  I am also very happy with the quality of the products installed, I have drastically reduced my energy usage with new new high efficiency system over my 30 year old system.
I will use Elm again.

Installed the water heater & plunbing.  Since Dad (a senior)  ws a disabled  customer he could not get down to see what work was being done.  This spring the pipes began leaking.  It was discover that the installer used GAS BLACK PIPE for the water intake for the water heater.  Just one more example of why  this company exploits seniors and take advantage of them.   Last fall the frunace failed & when we went to have it replaced, (not bey ELM) it was discovered that the furnace was way too large (BTU's) for his house, again, it was installed by Elm.   Shame on them. They should not be a recomended BBB company.

Tech was timely, professional and provided services requiested.  Didn't have any additional work done.  Recommended upgrading furnace.

went well

Did routine annual boiler maintenance and fixed a leaking pipe.

I needed a Humidistat replaced. Company was very responsive and accomidating to my needs. Tech arrived at promised time and evaluated my current humidifier. He showed me that a solenoid was bad and the fan was not working properly. He said he could repair it but recommended a new one for about $200 more than the repairs would have costed. The tech called his dispatch and they installed the humidifier on the same service call even though they were extremely busy. Now I have a new humidifier under warranty and they cleaned my furnace for free. Great people, from the lady who answers the phone all the way to the great technician who went out of his way to fit me in the busy schedule. Definitely making them my first call for any heating and cooling needs.