I am so sorry not to have read these reviews before agreeing to let this company into my house. They advertise reasonable prices for duct cleaning through the local mailings of coupons that show up in the value pak envelope every month. They first came in and went up to the roof and reported that there were rats or vermin chewing and living and dying i the ducts. For a large fee they raised all the ducts off the floor of the attic. I felt better.
I am a senior and live alone. I turned on the heat, the furnace began to shake the house, i called the duct guys back they said the rats were again in the ducts, and causing problems, the ducts would need to be replaced with new vermin resistant ducts. This too would stop the vibrations in the house. Another large sum of money was agreed to, more than $3000.00 for the job. I felt better.
I went up into the attic to see the new ducts, they were shiny and clean metallic all new, UNTIL i crawled farther into the attic beyond the access hole and realized all the ducts that could not be seen from the access area had not been changed, in fact the last 20 feet of each of these ducts were the original old black plastic covered ones to which the new silver ducts had been carefully attached. This was not an oversight, these were carefully taped together purposefully halfway through the run, where I was not able to see from the access point.
There is more, while in the roof, the contractor began to warn me that he was seeing mold. I was alarmed, very much so as I know mold can be dangerous. For an additional 3000.00 plus, he assured me he would encapsulate the rafters and remove the mold and hepa vacuum any mold sores in the attic. And for 1800 additional dollars, he could get the furnace blower and belt repaired to stop the shaking, and relevel the unit.
In crawling around the attic I would have expected to see some evidence of encapsulation or spraying, the rafters were untouched as it seems, dusty and dirty as one would expect on a house at least 15 years old, not rafters that had just been "treated" in some way.
A little overwhelmed, I sent them away, and called a local HVAC man, and he looked at the furnace and noticed the front access cover was not fully attached and could cause the rattle i was hearing, but upon removal of the panel, immediately saw that there was the large remnants of a filter stuck in the blower and causing the entire thing to spin unevenly, thus the vibration of the house. This gentleman said the filter could possibly be sucked in by the intake fan, but he was surprised. For less than 90.00 the house had stopped vibrating and I had found a reliable HVAC person.
In hindsight, I rue the day I let these people into the house, I had to take out a special line of credit to pay for project, I had to suffer their presence again in the house when they came back to actually finish the duct work, the new contractor of course had no explanation other than "oversight" on the part of the previous contractor having carefully taped the new ducts to the existing ones. Again I have no idea whether or not the attic area has been treated for mold "remediation".
This is a perfect business model for scams, the work is in the roof and in the case of mold remediation, quite arguably invisible. Seniors like myself generally do not clamber around the attic. The company offers lifetime warranties and covers themselves in the odd case like mine where the discovery of unfinished work is made, but for the most part they are masters of the upsell once inside the house on the backs of the discount coupons. The work is shoddy and suspect, generally unnecessary, very expensive and of questionable integrity. Who doesn't like mold in the roof, who doesn't want rats in the airducts? Hindsight being 20 20, all the work they"did" was unnecessary and I am in the hole for thousands of dollars and completely feel the fool.
Do not let ocean air care near your home!!!
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