Chris, the salesman, arrived on time and was very pleasant and informative during the sale. Most salesmen don't know when you've had enough, and just keep talking until you succumb. Chris wasn't like that. He told us that he'd been an installer and seemed well informed about what needed to be done and the equipment that he recommended. In particular, he recommended replacing all of the duct work, and explained why - we were increasing the blower sizes to provide more even cooling, and it was pointless to do that and try to use the same ducts. He offered premium equipment (Lennox) and said that his installers were so meticulous that they would want to take pictures of the completed job to use for future sales. The overall price was competitive when compared to another, bigger name company supplying no name equipment of different sizes than our original equipment, but proposing to reuse our existing ducts. They estimated the job would take 3-5 days. Chris provided a written estimate and scope of work and left to allow us time to think about it. My husband is an engineer, and asked for the system sizing and duct work calculations (Manual D and Manual J, for those who know of such things) and they were promised. So, we chose Comfort Systems. They arrived on the date promised and set straight to work. That was the last thing that went right on the job. As they had not provided their calculations, and my husband is an engineer, he did the calculations himself and discovered that the furnace that they proposed for the second floor was grossly oversized, which would make it short cycle and destroy its efficiency and effectiveness. He called Chris and discussed it, and Chris argued that his sizing was correct, but agreed to use a smaller unit. He was again asked for the calculations and assured my husband that he had done them using a and quot;modifiedand quot; approach. The installation crew began by removing both outside condenser units, even though they planned to complete one system before starting the other. Had it been a normal November, that might have been okay, but we had an unusual heat wave and no A/C - upstairs or down. It was miserable. The removal of existing equipment and ducts was efficient, and they were soon into the installation of the downstairs system. My husband worked from home throughout the process to be available to answer questions. On the first day of installation, my husband called Chris to come to the job to discuss the sizing of the A/C for downstairs, believing the specific unit to be too small. Chris brought Matt, the GM, to that meeting. Matt agreed the specified unit was marginal and would agree to use a larger unit, but Chris was adamant that he chose the right unit and promised to replace it this summer (at his own expense) if it is not capable of keeping up. We have that in writing and expect to see Chris again in July. Well into the job, a question arose about the duct work for the high efficiency air filters, and the proposed solution would have largely defeated the purpose and efficiency of the $400 each units. It became evident that there had been no design work done, or no installation instruction given to the crew. They were just making it up as they went in the field. We stopped the work and my husband offered a better solution, which was adopted. Things seemed to be going better for a while, and we soon had a system running downstairs, though 3 days into the estimated 5 day job, and having lost any usable space in the crawlspace to a tangle of new ducts running every which way. Then the work turned to the attic, and the problems really started. Our neat, orderly original ducts were taken out and replaced with a tangle of new ducts, rendering the attic almost unusable for storage. The installer asked if he could install the unit vertically instead of horizontally as the old unit had been installed. We agreed, not knowing the implications of it, which are that the cool air goes out the top and runs by the hot roof sheathing, only to have to be piped back down to the attic floor for distribution to the ceiling registers on the second floor. Anyone who knows anything about ducts, and my husband had to learn for this job, knows that you want the shortest straightest runs you can have, with no sharp bends, to increase air flow and efficiency. That's not what we got. We also discovered that, even though the scope was clear, and everything except the register boots was supposed to be removed and replaced, that they'd left a 3'-4' section of old ductwork in place at each boot to avoid crawling in to the edges of the attic to replace the whole ducts. That added an extra joint in each duct (joints are bad) and also sections of old, smaller duct, in the larger, new runs, thus defeating the purpose of replacing the ducts at all. Also included in the scope was and quot;upsizingand quot; three ducts to handle the larger blower that they installed. We had to remind them about that. Twice. Finally, we asked about starting the unit, because we needed it running with the unusual weather, that had now turned cold. As they left one day, they said, yes, it's ready to go. We turned it on. That evening, my husband went up to look at the new system, and learned that they had not connected the drain system, so we had a large puddle on the attic floor. Fortunately, it didn't get to the ceiling, as was easily cleaned up. He also saw and quot;Bugs Bunny,and quot; the vertical unit with the gigantic duct ears standing in the attic. Another meeting with Chris. A long punch list. We asked to have the unit put on its side like the old one had been. Chris said no, we'd requested it be vertical, and they couldn't lay it down. We corrected him and said it was his installer's choice, that they'd clearly intended (as had we) that it be laid down because they had brought the pan for that and had to get another one to stand it vertically, he still said no. We asked how much it would take to do it. We meant time and effort. He said $2,000. We surrendered, but went over the punch list. It included removing the remaining short sections of ductwork that they'd left in the and quot;newand quot; duct system, correcting some and quot;splitand quot; ducts, as all were supposed to be new and dedicated, supplying and installing another new thermostat upstairs to match the one they'd installed downstairs (where they'd supplied a lesser model), upsizing the three ducts that they'd and quot;forgotten,and quot; trying to straighten out the tangle of ducts and balancing the system. It took three crews, about a dozen men, a full day to correct most of the problems. Remember, this was a total gut and replace job, so all of the work was theirs. By the time we were and quot;done,and quot; 17 work days had elapsed. For the 3-5 day job. My husband spent almost three weeks working from home. Three and quot;after the saleand quot; meetings to correct deficiencies in the work (the equipment is fantastic) and three or four follow up calls with the lead mechanic (Tommy) and the lead installer (Philip) to get the systems working and quot;right.and quot; Oh, and Chris was banned from the job after a rather heated discussion with my husband in the midst of the repair visits. Tommy and Philip were great. They did everything they could reasonably do to fix problems that others had created. The systems are in and working, and the house is more comfortable now, but no installer would ever want a picture of this job to be seen by a perspective customer. So much for pride in the work. I said I'd never use these guys again, but to be fair, I have no choice. One of the selling features was a 10 year parts and labor guarantee on the equipment and installation. Essentially, our only required cost to keep them running is replacing the filters. The catch? The warranty is through Comfort Systems, the Dave Lennox Signature Dealer in our area... Ugh.
Our advice to you? Demand to see the calculations and have them explained to you upfront. They are not easy to understand, but the process is wel