• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

I'm not cut out for manual labor

Share this page

G

Guest

Guest
Guest
Offline
Closed on the new shack today. Spent the day doing some stuff - fixing locks, and a little bit of yard work, as well as dealing with the first raft of contractors. Just got home and I'm exhausted. It's going to be takeout for dinner tonight, that's for sure.

I'm not cut out for manual labor in 80 degree heat at all any more. I hate to say it, but I'm starting to develop a deep appreciation for my nice air conditioned office, where the most strenuous thing I do is carry a soda back from the machine to my desk.

I'll be totally ready to go back by the end of next week...
 
Just wait, Alana, until you reach Social Security age! Glad to hear, though, that things are moving forward nicely!
 
Yeah! The week will pro'lly go by in a blur anyhow. Then back to the Jay-Oh-Bee for rest and recoup. The "moving" bit would be the thing I'd dread more than the work making the place habitable, tho.
"Fixing" is tolerable, schlepping is hateful. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif
 
Moving is fine. Throw enough people at it and it becomes easy. Working with contractors is the tough part. The HVAC is giving me fits right now. I have two quotes for what might as well be two different systems. I have nfc why they think there is so much difference in what needs to be done...
 
Find the local Chamber of Commerce, get some feedback from those who've had work done and find out if they're satisfied they got what they paid for. Get the "winning" company to have a look at it. We're as captive to HVAC companies as we are to car dealerships if driving new cars. More "homework" I know, but it could be worth the effort.

...but I have some prejudice in that approach. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
Here's an interesting homily about business practise...
I have two quotes.

The system we have isn't working. It may or may not have water damage - no power on right now to tell. The bottom half of the house is affected - the system is a split with another air handler in the attic.

The first quote is for a total bottom half replacement system, including all the ductwork. Top of the line Carrier, 17seer, and about $14k. Includes service for the top half.

The second one is from an hvac guy recommended by another contractor (who also knows the first one and recommended against him). Now I don't know this guy from Adam, so I can't rate the quality of his recommendation, but he did say he used the guy on his house. The second guy came in and took a look around. He recommended waiting to see if the system ran at all, and then cut into the ducts and see if they are ok. If not, he said to not replace them. To put this into perspective, replacing the ducts is about 7k out of the first quote, so you can imagine I'm keen to avoid this if possible.

Both will install anything needed next week.

So to sum up, the second one is coming back tomorrow (when the power is on) to check the system and the ductwork.

I just thought the difference in business practise was enlightening...
 
There's some merit in seeing what's happening with power on, y'know... may be something as silly as a capacitor wot's been shunted due to the water damage and render'd useless. I'd be inclined to go with the one who wants to diagnose the system instead of wholesale replacement. It's a major expense either way, but differences in methodology would be my determinant.
 
Yup, no argument here - see the last two sentences in my post...

I still am surprised at the difference in business practise, but then it's getting warm here...
 
I'm for not replacing stuff if it works. Especially
at those numbers. Ducting seems to perform
acceptably well for numbers of years.
 
we were worried about mold, especially given the circumstances of the purchase.

one guy quoted me to replace everything, without checking anything. the other looked inside the ducts to see if there was a chance of a problem...

as it turns out, the system works. i'll be out $500 (including $150 of R22) instead of the 14k+ mentioned before to get it up to spec.
 
Back
Top