Furnace install, redux.

[sarahmichelef]

Except I don't think I specifically blogged anything about the install the day it happened. So, you know, enjoy the first time around! As usual, things didn't exactly go according to plan.

We were originally supposed to have the furnace installed last Thursday - the day after Basement Flood part 3 1/2. We rescheduled it for Monday. The guys showed up right on time, early even. First thing they did was replace the old thermostat (like this one, only older, and bronzer in hue) with the new, programmable one. The new one's footprint is obviously very different from the old one, so we had some plaster patching and sanding and painting to do. (The first two of those being done as of this writing; we'll probably do the painting after the holidays.)

As they opened stuff up, they discovered that the coils for the AC were totally rusted out. We opted to remove them entirely and not put new ones in - they said that it would be trivial to do later, and we really won't miss the AC - we never even turned it on last summer, and only used it for 2 or 3 days the summer before that. We do just fine with window fans and hiding in the basement.

Next, they came to tell M that they could not run the vent pipes out the way the estimator had planned for them to - there was cement in the way. (It should be noted that FOUR estimators all came to the same conclusion - they were going to route the vent pipes out over the hall, through the hall closet, and over the shower.) This means that there are now two 4" PVC pipes running from the furnace closet through the laundry room (below the level of the drop celing) and out that side of the house. Pretty it ain't, but it's a price we're willing to pay for fuel efficient heating, and somewhere down the line if we want to it will be relatively easy to add on a drywall box around the pipes.

I got home sometime after that, and they were banging and drilling and we heard them make the hole in the wall right under the kitchen windows. Later in the afternoon, M came in and said, "Remember the asbestos pipe? Yeah, they took it out." See, we went with this particular company because they were willing to leave in place / work with an exhaust pipe that everyone agreed was insulated with asbestos. Previously, the furnace and water heater vented out this pipe; now only the water heater does. So yeah, they took out the pipe. When M went to look at it out on the driveway, he got told, "Don't touch that; it's asbestos."

They finished up the install around 6 and headed out. After dinner we went to have a look around. Here is the laundry list of what we found:

1. hose ends (we realized after a bit of pondering that they were the hookups for the AC) terminated with duct tape and sort of hanging loosely in the furnace closet
2. a missing drop ceiling panel where they ran the new conduit to replace the old vent pipe
3. a missing back to a closet that they had to take out to do some of the install
4. a spot above the new conduit where it goes into the side wall of the house where the guys had just crammed broken bits of cement back into the gap instead of mortaring it
5. a spot where the new conduit comes out of the furnace closet area where the patch job was pretty ugly (but we figured it is what it is and we can life with it - the whole thing was a retrofit job)
6. the spot where the new furnace vent pipes come through the laundry closet wall and then through the drywall to the exterior wall in the laundry room were TOTAL DRYWALL HACK JOBS. Just ugly, ugly cuts.

We figured we'd hear from them about payment on Tuesday. The only call I got that day was from one of the installers asking me if he'd left his hammer here. I told him that we hadn't seen one but we'd let them know if we did. Wednesday I did hear from the office, and I said that we had some issues that we wanted to talk to someone about - we set up an appointment for today. I was kind of anxious about it because it could have gotten confrontational and they could have refused to address any of these issues, at which point we were perfectly prepared to take the complaints to the BBB.

Despite the storm, the operations manager showed up right at 12:30. We grabbed our list and headed to the basement. Showed him the concrete issue, the missing ceiling tile, the missing closet back. He simply bent the feeder lines for the AC up and out of the way, which was fine, we just weren't confident enough in that being the right answer to do it ourselves (and we figure that's what we pay them for). We gained a LOT of confidence in him (we had chosen this company in part because they were the ONLY ones who didn't try to upsell us on the furnace) when he looked at the patch job where the new conduit comes out of the furnace closet (point #5 above) and said, "You guys didn't mention this, but that's just UGLY." and explained how they would make it prettier. They are going to use the same prettier-making technique for the drywall cuts in the laundry, and they'll add back in some of the insulation that the guys took out of the exterior wall. They'll finish mortaring in the broken concrete in the exterior wall (point #4 above). We'll have to do the finishing work (sanding the mortar, priming the metal flashing & painting). They will replace the missing ceiling tile and put a new plywood back in the closet. We're to call them after the first of the year to make an appointment for all of this to happen. Sometime after that, they'll come back and do the second Energy Star audit.

In short, the inspection went as well as we could possibly have hoped. We may well have gotten the install guys in some trouble but honestly, I'm not too concerned about that. And there has been NO mention of us owing them any money, which is good because we aren't paying them 'til the job's done to our satisfaction.

Comments

[elliesam.livejournal.com]

What a hassle. But good for you. Gotta stick up for getting it done right. Otherwise they disappear off the face of the earth as soon as they get paid.