Windows and Heatpumps and Ducts … Oh My!
So, what a bunch of schiesters! So many Toms, Dicks and Harrys out there think that they’ve got a clue how to run a home improvement business. Yeesh!
If you didn’t guess by the title, we’re into home improvement mode. The house is 22+ years old, and still has the original windows and heat pump. The windows leak air like sieves, and the heat pump seems to put out the opposite of what we want — cold air in the winter and warm air in the summer. And, I fear that the ducts are plugged with 22 years of dust and cat hair and whatever flotsam has made its way in there and gotten wadded up into the works. Yuck.
I’ve spent the past 3-4 days trying to find appropriate vendors to get some work done — correctly.
First, don’t believe the hype ads you get in those crappy ValPak and Money Mailer envelopes. There’s one duct cleaning vendor in there (sorry, no names. I don’t want to be sued) who claims to be a BBB member. According to the BBB, he’s not, never has been, and probably never will be. He’s got numerous complaints against him, none of which are resolved. And, he’s operating under no fewer than SIX (count ‘em) business names.
Another place “quotes” a price in their ad. But, when you ask for an appointment, they want to send a representative to do an estimate. What about the advertised price? Well, it “may not apply, so we have to do a quote.”
Yeesh.
Anyway, next week I or we have appointments set up for one lawn care/landscaping/gutter cleaning company, four window companies, and one heating and air conditioning company.
All four of the window companies I chose to bring in have very good records with the BBB. They either have no complaints registered at all, or very few, and the ones registered have been resolved. None have any complaints in the past 12 months.
I figure that you can’t hardly screw up cutting the grass, cleaning gutters is pretty easy (I just don’t get along well with ladders) and digging a couple unruly bushes out of the ground should be a no-brainer, too. So, we’re just gonna have the guy come in and do the lawn and gutters and the bushes.
The A/C company we’ve been using for years to maintain the existing piece of stuff that’s sputtering away on a daily basis seems to be rather reliable. So, we’re just going to have them come in and tell us how much it’s all going to cost. We’ll cringe and cry a little, and then have them come on out and do the work.
So, we’ll see how this all goes — and whether or not we’re going on a real vacation in the fall ….
some times people ask The Hub about those people who advertise in the mailers and the guys who run around with carpenters crack and death metal dirty t-shirts on the job site “Are those guys your compatition?”
“Uh. Not really.”
Sounds like there are networking opportunities there for the Hub - exchanging refferals with reputable contractors.
[...] We decided last night on a vendor for our new windows. Yay! In reality, the process was not as brutal as I had expected it would be. I had scheduled four window companies to come out and do their pitch. I cancelled the fourth, because, frankly, I didn’t get a warm fuzzy feeling from their scheduling people — they were insistent that we schedule their sales rep when both Donna and I were available — even though that was just plain inconvenient for us. And, this even after I explained that we would not be making a decision at the time of the appoinment. The other three companies were happy to schedule the appointment as close to my desired time as possible. [...]