Sandium

I get why Sandium has great reviews. They're install services are great and since 99% of systems probably work reliably for years that's the extet of dealing with them. But their after service support has been awful and if you're stuck with a system that fails prematurely then good luck. We paid $40k+ for a brand new Samsung heat pump system and all new ductwork last year. One of our attic air handlers died on Dec 11 taking out our bedroom zone and leaving us with nothing but space heaters for our bedrooms during our first winter with the brand new system. Took till early Jan to finally get it fixed which left us with space heaters over the holidays. Seems crazy to me when we paid a very significant premium for sandium over other competitors truly believing they were the best. Once the temporary fix was in the technician realized that the bearing failed because the cabinet was deformed. That could only have happened in original transit. They ordered a new air handler which took 3+ months to arrive. Now I'm being told this can't be installed till June or July because they're too busy. Given the system is likely to fail when under load this means there's a pretty good chance I'll lose cooling during a heat wave before they can get the new unit in. I'm by no means excited to get this new unit in as it'll be very disruptive and require removing our existing closet built ins but it has to be done. This whole situation is incredibly unacceptable. To take 6-7 months to fix a brand new system is crazy to me. I've really tried to be patient on this and it pains me to leave this review but hopefully anyone who reads this can see how unacceptable this situation is. I'm not even going to get into the back and forth with Samsung and the supply company since I made the check out to sandium and so they should be responsible for the system. When you hire an hvac company, turn around time for fixing things matters. I totally get that things can go wrong but the response to things going wrong matters. Sandium is too busy with new work to bother with that. It's not like fixing this is a favor to me. It's getting my system into the condition it should have been in on day 1.

Sandium did a fantastic job. I highly recommend them for any of your heating and cooling needs. Their professional approach even made them more cost effective than using a Costco deal. Tyler was very punctual with the quote and project coordination and the work was completed on time and in a very professional manner by Hector and Oswaldo. We've enjoyed both our cooling and heating with no issues since the install.

Great! It took a while and a deposit to get on their busy schedule, but the tech showed up on time and pursued a clear, deliberate diagnostic strategy. He let me watch and kept me informed of his thinking which was logical. He found a frozen valve hidden behind a panel in the HVAC unit that had to be ordered. He came back with it on schedule, replaced it, and we have A/C again. He took pains to minimize lost refrigerant, cleaned the outside equipment, and suggested ways to fix some related, minor problems at minimum expense. The price was not cheap but worth every penny. I would hire him again in a heartbeat.

They are California certified. The total cost is not $9500, its $4500.

Excellent workmanship. Easy to deal with. Very Professional. Michael, the president is very knowledgeable, communicates clearly, explained my options, and was easy to work with. Hector and Pat the installers were very meticulous, easy to speak with, and did a first class job replacing my old equipment and checking out the new components after they installed them. I never saw them wasting time, or doing anything other than concentrating on my project. Pricing was very competitive. I highly recommend Sandium and would definitely use them again if needed.

Needed a major HVAC/insulation upgrade at my house and wanted to get a rebate for this work through Energy Upgrade California (EUC). Got quotes from a few local providers. The other providers just suggested duct replacement in my tiny crawlspace, which probably would not have done much to improve anything. On the other hand, Tyler at Sandium provided me with a great solution for my house involving furnace relocation, new ducting and ceiling vents, attic and wall insulation, and air sealing. Sandium seems to specialize in a whole house approach. Tyler was extremely knowledgable about the science involved with the home environment. He took IR images of the walls on a hot day and basically showed me that many of my walls were acting as a radiant furnace in the summer. He came up with a plan to relocate my furnace and air handler to the center of my attic for even air flow throughout the house and he was very thoughtful about where to cut in the new vents to provide maximum comfort in each room. Sandium secured all the permits, handled all of the paperwork, and hired all of the subcontractors required to take part in the EUC program. The main job took about a week. Jesus (Chava) was the site manager and he was awesome. He patiently explained to me everything he was doing and involved me in the process every step of the way. You can tell right away that he takes pride in his work and he and his partner really did a seamless job on everything. I've had the system at my place for almost four months and there is a huge improvement in my home environment. I'm using the heating and cooling less and it is noticeably more comfortable in here. We ended up taking the EUC Advanced Home Upgrade process that scored me a rebate of over $3k. If you are doing something as important as upgrading the HVAC at your place, do yourself a favor and hire these guys. They are total pros.

They were an expert. They were very efficient. They were able to answer my questions. They were responsive.

A few years ago Sandium installed a high-efficiency Carrier Infinity Furnace to replace our older model. I've never been happy with the complicated set-back thermostat control that comes with the Carrier, and this was the second time I called Sandium to look at why the thermostat control wasn't working properly. Long and short of the story was that I had a NEST thermostat as an option to replace the Carrier proprietary one, and the Sandium technician did the replacement as included in the service call. The Carrier Infinity series can be tricky for a NEST install if features like multi-zone heating are used, and NEST does not provide a recommended install procedure for homeowners to do their own install. Although Sandium is not listed by NEST as a professional installer, they understand exactly if a Carrier furnace configuration is compatible with the NEST, and how to do the install. So at substantially less expense and bother than calling a recommended NEST installer, Sandium was able to solve my problem and do a proper NEST install. I recommend them for anyone who is puzzled over the installation and compatibility questions with the NEST and the furnaces that Sandium sells.

The Sandium team were very professional and helpful. We wanted to have our HVAC ductwork cleaned and requested a quote. Tyler performed an inspection of the system and informed us the existing ducts had asbestos and could not be cleaned without the chance of asbestos being released. During the inspection, he noticed the return air paths into the furnace were not effective and recommended installing a new filter box. This entailed raising the furnace/AC system by a couple of feet to make room for it. After the new ducts were installed and the filter box installed, his team installed attic eave vents and blown in insulation to bring the R factor to R 50. He also helped us submit paperwork to the BayREN upgrade incentive program so that we received a rebate for a percentage of the project. The Sandium crew of Jesus "Chava" Lomeli & Jamie Rocha were outstanding during the project, I would definitely recommend this company for work and have done so.

Nik from Sandium and his team did a fantastic job, all the way from the initial engineering, proposal, installation and ongoing support.

Our air-conditioner broke down, and even though they were booked up for 2 to 3 weeks they fit us in their schedule at the end of the week so we didn't have to suffer too long during the heat wave. They arrived on time, set up the new air conditioner, hauled away the old one and left the garage and yard cleaner than they found it. We have used them before, and their employees are always professional, polite, and always clean up after themselves very well. We've been very happy with them and will use them again in the future .

Let me just say that the Sandium team is the best! Background: We have an older home, which only had wall heaters. Additionally, my wife and I have really bad allergies, as well as the addition of our newborn baby. So we decided to invest in adding central air and heating. Also, we have a family room that was an addition to the original house, so this room does not have crawl space in the attic. The Quote: This was a big investment and we wanted to make sure it got done correctly. I got a quote from two other vendors aside from Sandium. The 1st contractor is a well-known Santa Clara contractor. The quote for their services was pretty much the same as Sandium. However, they wanted to run the vents for the family through the roof. I was very hesitant to do this, with the potential for it leak. Additionally, the person who came to provide the quote did not even look into the attic space. The 2nd contractor was a sub-contractor for a large distributor. Their quote was significantly higher than the other two, plus the guy who came over was continually trying to upsell other products. His approach had a very strong sales tone to it. I'll hand it to him, he did take a peek into the attic, but did not actually go up into the attic. He too went with the approach of cutting into the roof for our family room. Then there was Sandium. Tyler came over and took his time to assess the house and our needs. He wasn't anything like the other two contractors. He listened to what we were looking to do and really gave thought around what could be done. I shared with him that the previous contractors wanted to cut into our roof, which we were hesitant to do. He went into the attic and even climbed up onto our roof. After doing so, he didn't see the need to cut into the roof and was confident that his team could run vents through the attic. We even went to the extent of discussing the option of ductless air conditioners, which he didn't advise us doing, but he's team could install if we purchased the units. The Job: The project took from Monday through Friday. Required installing a new furnace into the attic with a new catwalk and platform, new condenser in the backyard, vents throughout the house and new Nest thermostat. They also removed our two wall heaters and did a rough cover up of the holes left by the heaters. All in all, they did a very good job. The two workers who were here the whole week were very respectful of our house. They made sure to clean up their mess everyday before leaving, given we had a 3-month old baby during this project. Every morning before I left for work, they would explain to me what work was planned for that day. They finished the project as planned. Tyler did a final walk-through with me, which was appreciated. The only negative we have is more cosmetic. There were some small pilot holes that I've noticed that were used to place the vents, and were not covered by the vents. Overall, Sandium was one of the best contractors we've worked with. I will say that Sandium is very lucky to have Tyler. The man knows his stuff and is just an easy guy to work with.

My wife has bad allergies and we were faced with the prospect of either moving or finding a way to get cleaner air in our house. We'd tried room filtration units without significant improvement. We have an unusual situation in our house in that it's mid-century open ceiling house with two package units on the roof. This makes any work on the ducting an "out of the ordinary" situation. I called two of Sandium's competitors who looked at our situation and were totally stumped. Both said there was no way to install the filtration in our house. I called Sandium, which has expertise in whole house air filtration. Tyler Lewis came out and looked at our house. Unlike the other estimators, he studied the system carefully and seemed to have a more nuanced grasp of the situation. He said he thought he had an idea that might work - albeit somewhat unconventional. He took some pictures and brought out one of his installers to have a look at our roof systems. Together they came up with a very creative solution that would permit installation of whole house filtration systems on both of our roof-based systems. We waited a bit to schedule the installation, but when we did, Tyler's crew worked diligently and creatively to get the job done. A few days later, Tyler brought out his instrumentation to measure the reduction in particles in our house occasioned by the fliter installations. We got a 25-30 fold reduction! My wife is breathing much easier! I cannot say enough good things about Sandium, Tyler Lewis and the crew. While most companies (as attested to by my experience) would shy away from a non-standard job, Sandium applied itself to the task with enthusiasm, intelligence and creativity - something you don't see in this kind of industry often. And their overall performance was above reproach - professional, honest and punctual. I'll be using them for all my HVAC needs.

Sandium did a great job replacing our furnace and all the ducts. I highly recommend them.

I had Sandium install a new furnace and re-pipe the air ducts of my home during summer time in 2013. By February 2014 I have seen significant reduction in energy consumption. Their workmanship was meticulous. They watched every detail. I also signed up the energy audit program by paying a minimum cost I got $2000 rebate from PG&E. Plus it gave me peace of mind that Sandium's workmanship indeed reduced energy leakage significantly. Also Sandium helped me applied the BayREN Santa Clara county energy rebate. I even paid city to inspect the new furnace and the inspector also commended their workmanship.

They did a great job. They were extremely professional and very reassuring because I was kind of freaked out about the asbestos thing. They just answered all of my questions and spent a lot of time with me, reassuring me. I felt like I could trust him.

They replaced an old single stage furnace and ducting in ~ 2 days with a high efficiency multi-stage condensing furnace and properly sized ducting. The installation was quick and the final results exceeded expectations. Although the price was higher than replacing the old furnace with another single stage furnace, it was worth while as 1. The wiring was brought up to code. 2. The gas piping was brought up to code. 3. The new furnace and ducting provided better heating than before. 4. The hole in the floor for the original furnace to draw air for combustion was sealed off. 5. The noise level when the furnace was running at max (with the closet door open) was significantly less than the original with the closet door closed (which the original installer also said nothing could be done). 6. The heating bill went down. 7. The closet walls were no longer warm to touch.

The house we moved into came with two zone heating. The furnace units did already contain the AC evaporater coils. The piping was also already in place. Sandium came and determined which condensers would be compatible as well as which would satisfy the noise requirements of Los Altos. They installed the outside condensers and did the final hookups (refrigerant, control wires, and electrical). Overall, a fine job.

Mike came out to revew the work and sent a quote through email. I was able to modify and tweak the work to be done through email. with Mike. The only drawback is that Sandim is quite busy - atleast a 4 week leadtime. I was getting a lot of other work done at the time including putting a new roof on. And since my old ducts were wrapped in asbestos, I had to contract with another company to remove the ducts. This meant going without; any heat for three weeks. It started getting a bit code toward the end of October. The Sandium team did an exceptional job. The work took one day rather than two. Sandium used three people rather than the 2 quoted to get the job done in one day - at no extra charge. They did an excellent job cleaning my old registers. All in all, they did some extra work that they did not charge for. A great job, very professional.

Called to get a heater tune up and inspection for a possible problem during the non heating season. I spoke with a lady on the phone and told her what I wanted to get done. The lady who answered the phone reply was "We are not taking on new customers.". I asked why and she stated that they get enough business from their existing customers (a very odd statement to get from any service company). I mentioned that I was in no rush to get this work done and that their web site was advertising getting heating system tuned up now during the non heating season. She then said they are back logged and I will have to wait for over two weeks to get on their schedule. At this point she was getting impatient on the phone and was brushing me off with an attitude that new customers are not important to their business. So I gave up and started to look for other vendors. Very disappointed, I read such positive reviews of their work and it was their phone receptionist that destroyed doing any future business with them. I can't understand a company that bothers to advertise and not be interested in doing the work. May be they were back logged with a lot of AC work at that time, but the phone receptionist could have been more customer friendly and just state they are very back logged and new clients have to wait 2-3 weeks to get on their schedule. I would have been more than understanding of that situation, but the phone receptionist left me with no option by curtly telling me they don't want your business in the most rude way possible. A company that does good work needs to have excellence at all levels of the company especially at the first point of contact to succeed.

Sandium was contacted to get an additional opinion on an A/C and furnace inspection. Initially they were contacted to determine if the A/C needed repair. And provide an estimate for A/C maintenance and air duct cleaning. The estimator/technician confirmed other vendors finding and provided an initial estimate for the replacement of a furnace. There were a few reasons this firm was chosen over others. 1. They were on time within the scheduled window. 2. A formal estimate was provided the next day in email. The estimate was detailed and followup emails included potential additional cost such as thermostat and city permits. There were no surprises. 3. This vendor did not provide and estimate for air duct cleaning and referred me to EPA studies. Basically suggested I review the criteria for air duct cleaning and the likely hood that it could make things worse. The installation crew was professional. Careful and completed work within the time specified despite some surprises. Was properly equipped and knowledge about the equipment being installed. A couple of negatives... The work crew could have used a little more information from the estimating technician. However this is not really unexpected since the initial estimate and the work date were months apart. None the less a little review could have gone a long way. Very pleased with the work.

They installed my home AC and furnace about two years ago. The experience I had with John was excellent. He's a person that owns your trust. The price we paid is more on the expensive side, but we had nearly the best units on the market at that time installed. Now, having been using the AC and heating units for 3 solid years and never encountered any problem, I would say my investment is well worth it. Trusting Sandium and letting them install my home AC and furnace is definitely a correct decision I made.

Tyler was on time and did a compete inspection. He pointed out some basic issues with my duct work that unfortunately the HVAC installer didn't mention. Since Tyler's recommendations will both make my system more efficient and safer [asbestos issues] I'm sorry I went with the other contractor.

Sandium were very efficient. They were very good in Attention to detail.

It has been 5 years and everything still works great