You will know whose name is on the van before it arrives.
Heating, cooling and ventilation across Vacaville and Solano County. This is a small firm and that is the point: when you book, you are told who is coming, and the person who quotes the job is the person who does it. A surprising amount of this trade cannot say either of those things.
Three things you get told before anybody comes out
Who is coming
A name, and the fact that they work here rather than for somebody we hired for the afternoon. If that ever changes for a particular job, you will be told before the visit and not on the doorstep.
What the visit costs
Before we set out, not afterwards. What it covers, what it does not, and whether it comes off the price if you go ahead. No figure for the work itself until somebody has seen it.
What we will measure
Static pressure, airflow, refrigerant charge against the manufacturer’s target, temperature split, and combustion on anything that burns gas. Written down with the date, and the sheet is yours either way.
Somebody is coming out. Do you know who?
Five ways people end up with a contractor at the door, crossed with the four kinds of person who actually turn up. What each route costs you, the four questions that settle it in about ninety seconds, and what it means when you genuinely cannot tell who is standing there.
Houses
Long uniform tracts north and east of town built in the same few years and reaching the same point together, older stock around the centre, and newer well-sealed houses that behave nothing like either. Hot dry summers, a real drop overnight, and a great many systems sized as if that drop did not happen.
Premises
Shops and restaurants along Alamo and Monte Vista, offices and professional suites, small industrial and storage units out toward the interstate, and the medical and dental suites that have filled in around them.
The work, plainly
- Diagnosis with instruments
Pressure, airflow, charge, temperature split and combustion, written down with the date and the conditions.
- Repair, costed first
What it is, what it costs, and what it does not fix. Replacement is discussed after a repair has a number against it.
- Load calculation and replacement
Room by room, on the house as it stands now rather than on the size of the unit coming out.
- Attic duct sealing and insulation
Leakage measured, joints sealed, runs insulated, registers balanced against a measured target.
- Ductless for additions and conversions
Sized for the room it serves, with the line set routed where it can be serviced.
- Gas appliance safety
Combustion analysis, heat exchanger inspection, flue checked as installed, carbon monoxide alarms fitted where there is none.
- Commercial surveys and maintenance
Every unit mapped to what it serves, the same readings each visit, in a form a landlord, a tenant or an inspector can use.
- Second opinions
On somebody else’s quote, measured rather than argued, and we will tell you plainly when the first quote was right.
What we will not do
| We will not | Why |
|---|---|
| Buy your details from a lead site | Those sites sell one enquiry to several firms, which is why the phone does not stop afterwards. We would rather be found than bought, and it keeps the price down. |
| Knock on doors | Nobody good is looking for work door to door in the middle of a heatwave. If somebody does that on our behalf, it is not us. |
| Send somebody without telling you | You get a name when you book. If that has to change we will say so before the visit rather than on the doorstep. |
| Quote a price before we have seen it | A figure given on the telephone is a guess dressed as a quote, and it is always a low one. |
| Condemn a heat exchanger without showing you | It is a real reason to shut a furnace down and the most abused finding in this trade. You get the camera image or the combustion reading, and you are welcome to a second opinion. |
| Recommend replacement on age alone | Age changes the arithmetic on a repair. It is not a fault. |
| Publish reviews, ratings or a founding date | There are none on this site because we are not going to invent any. |
Asked often enough to write down
Who will actually come to my house?
Somebody whose name you will be given when you book, and who works here rather than for a company we hired for the afternoon. If that ever has to change for a particular job, you will be told before the visit rather than on the doorstep. It is a small firm and that is the main thing a small firm can offer, so we are not going to undo it quietly.
What should I ask any contractor before letting them in?
Four things, and you can ask all of them on the telephone. Whose licence is the work carried out under. Who will be invoicing me. Is the person coming employed by that company. And who warrants the labour, for how long. None of those is rude, all of them have a one-sentence answer, and a firm that will not answer them has answered them.
Somebody knocked on our door offering a free inspection. Should we?
We would not. Not as a judgement about the person, but as arithmetic: a competent firm in this trade is busy when the weather is extreme, and that is exactly when door-knocking happens. Take the card, say you will think about it, and check the licence in your own time. Be particularly careful of anybody who is in the area anyway, has a discount that ends today, or has noticed something about your equipment from the street — all three are scripts. And do not let anybody into an attic or a crawl space on the strength of a doorstep conversation.
Why is our system running constantly but the back bedroom never cools?
Usually because the air is not getting there rather than because the unit is too small. We measure the airflow at that room’s registers and compare it with what the room needs, and what we typically find is duct that has come off a boot in a very hot attic, no route for air to get back out of the room with the door shut, or registers balanced the wrong way by somebody years ago. A larger unit pushed through the same ducts changes very little and costs a great deal.
Will you look at a quote we already have?
Yes, and we will tell you plainly when the other quote was right, which happens often. A second opinion that always finds something is not a second opinion. What we will do is take our own measurements and show you both sets of numbers, so you are comparing readings rather than opinions.
Do you buy leads from comparison websites?
No. Those sites sell one enquiry to several firms at once, which is why the phone does not stop for a week afterwards, and the contractor has to recover what they paid for your name somewhere. We would rather be found or recommended. It keeps the price down and it means nobody is racing three other firms to quote your house in ten minutes.
Which areas do you cover?
Vacaville, Fairfield, Dixon, Suisun City, Winters, Davis, Elmira and Allendale.
102 Helen Power Dr
Vacaville, CA 95687. Monday to Friday, 7.30am to 4.30pm.
We cover Vacaville, Fairfield, Dixon, Suisun City, Winters, Davis, Elmira and Allendale.