On 01/15 I saw a tan patch on the metal ceiling grate of my living room. Ventillation, air conditiong air or HVAC comes thru these grates in rooms & closets of our home. I called Pro Air HVAC contractor who installed a new Trane HVAC Unit in our home 11/04, but all techs busy, could not come for 1-2 days, so I called Air Now HVAC whose ad in phone book said service in 1 hour. They came in 1 hour said the tan patch on the grate was mold, but took no samples for correct lab identification. They told my wife & I we had to move to a local hotel for 2 days while they installed all new HVAC ducts in our attic, & we came bck to live in our home after 2 days. The tan patch was gone from the ceiling grate, & we paid their entire bill of $ 6,300.00.
Air Now had cleaned up their tools and most dust from their work, but I took all our clothes to a local Cleaning Company, told them the history, as stated above, and we washed all our sheets and bedding in our home's washer and dryer using detergent covering a many items, including mold. Using a mask recommended by Home Depot that Professionals use in cleaning & remediation, I Cleaned our carpets, tiles, walls, & ceilings of our home & garage using a vaccuum cleaner Home Depot recommended, wearing gloves, & old clothes I put in garbage after I cleaned.
Shortly after Air now had installed the HVAC ducts in our attic my wife & I began suffering itchy papular rashes that covered most of our bodies, called " contact dermatitis " by a dermatolgist, treated with soaps, lotions, salves without relief, and I suffering new onset asthma, sinusitis, rhinitis, which is chronic, classified after a pulmonologist or lung specialist exam, including as moderate, and one PFT or breathing test said I had the lungs of a 102 year old man.
I am 74 years old, a retired medical doctor, my wife is 67 years old, a musician. I have never smoked, had asthma, or chronic sinus or nasal problems or rhinitis in my life, or had exposure to any air excess air pollution. My past medical records affirm these facts. There is no family history of asthma.
In 01 a Pro Air HVAC tech came to our home on a routine check of the Trane HVAC unit Pro Air installed 11, removed all the metal ceiling grates in our home as my wife and I watched, showed us Air Now had not put any type of sealant to the distal ends of the HVAC attic ducts and the boxes to which they attach above the ceiling grates, and applied mastic sealant.
In 2-3 weeks our rashes resolved with the normal loss of the skin cells of the outer skin, or epidermis, but my asthma is life long. This has had a major change for me, prior to Air Now substandard work I was athletic, walking or biking 2to 4 miles or more most days of the week and swimming up to 30 laps of our small home pool several times each week.
We request Air Now return all money we paid them, and they were still working on items involving the HVAC ducts they installed in our attic in 08, and the tens of thousands of $ we had to pay 2 forensic companies for forensics and remediation, and the maximal number of dollars allowed by their liability insunce group, or FCCI. This is one to two million dollars. This would help to cover medical ecpenses for my asthma rehabilitation and treatmet.
My asthma and the skin rashes my wife and I suffered are classical for fiber glass blown into our home for one year until Pro Air HVAC came found Air Now had not placed mastc sealant and placed it.
During that year my wife an I breathed fiber glass each time our Trane HVAC unit was ventillating our home, which is 24/7/365. We also eat fiber glass in our food and water wore it in our clothes, and slept in it in our beds. The microscopic fiber glass particles were imbedded in ou skins, causing our rashes, until sealant Air Now should have applied was applied one year later by Pro Air. I have color photos of our skin rashes, and my metical records that give proof to my statements.
Every person and business makes mistakes and if honest repays people for medical, property, or other damages they caused. The public must be informed of methods to evaluate home contractors before service begins, during, and after services. I do not believe Air now's name be mentioned as we all makes mistakes, but the large number of elderly and not elderly living in or visiting Florida need to be protected from the illness and large monetary loss my wife and I have.
I am retired with 30 yrs. Federal medical service, including actve military and VA service, plus additional years private medical practice, training and research in Chicago and California. I was awarded as one Of Top Doctors in America, by Consumers Research Council, of Washington, D.C.
Two books Of Forensic and Remediation with color grafts and pictures were given me by Pure Air Controls, Inc. Of Clearwarer, Fl., who stated they will stated, under oath Air Now did Substandard work by State of Florida and Federal Standards.
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