Sila Heating, Cooling and Plumbing

Denis did a great job!

Very professional and prompt

I am a single female and this was the first home I have purchased. Last December during a bitter cold snap and in the midst of a basement renovation (which unexpectadely found damaged floor joists), my heating went out. Wonderful--another issue to address. Unique Indoor Air had a coupon do to a diagnosis of the furnance, so I called them. The technican came out and said that I had a cracked heat exchanger and the reason it would not turn on is for safety reasons (carbon monoxide). He said under no circumstances should I manipulate it so it turns on. The tech was very sweet and sympathetic; he called his main office and scheduled a sales guy to come out within a day to give me an estimate. I specifically remember the tech saying, "give her some options." A day later the sales guy comes out. The sellers disclosures said that there was poor air floor on the top floor so I also inquired about that. The sales guy immediately suggests a brand new everything: rip out the current duct and replace with high velocity ducts for $20K. Yeah. Right. Existing duct work with central AC was one of the reasons I bought the house. The look on my face must of said, "you gotta be f***** kiddin' me." The sales guy said, "I'm sorry this is not what you want to hear." I diplomatically explained that basement renovation was because the seller gave me money in escrow to address water intrusion and mold; I've had to pay an additional amount out of pocket to address the rotten floor joists and I only have my $8000 tax credit for this unexpected furnance issue. Later at work, when a co-worker asked how the estimate went, I broke down and sobbed. To be fair, they did offer to provide me space heaters in the interim. And they did get me two estimates with 48 hours: one to replace just the gas furnance ($~3,500) and the other was to replace the furnance, coil and AC unit ($~7,500). These offers were extremely competitive with the others I received but I did not want any further interaction with this company. Several months later I'm still p***** off about it. How insensitive!! The water was turned off, I was living at a friend's house and the only thing keeping my house at 40 degrees was the neighbors on either side of me. This company wanted to milk me for $20K. Maybe they thought a single woman in a barely above freezing house would be willing and able to drop that kind of cash. I would take a pass on contacting this company.

The individual who showed up at my house on March 9 seemed to have adequate knowledge of which product would best apply to my situation. However, based on a few questions I asked him on site, I realized he was effectively a salesmen with little knowledge on the technical side. He told me he would follow up with some installers/technicians for clarification. He never did and simply sent the proposal the next day. I sent two follow up questions to him in an email neither of which he bothered to answer. I had to follow up with a phone call. He still could not answer the questions and decided a technician would have to come to my house to further investigate. The appointment with the technician was on March 17. The technician answered the follow up questions but then informed me that the humidifier that was specified would likely not fit in my mechanical closet. He said he would physically measure the humidifier that was specified to determine if it would fit and I would hear back from the company with an answer in a day or two. I never heard back. I sent the salesmen an email on March 31 asking if he could follow up with the technician. Today is April 11. I have not heard back from the salesmen, technician or anyone else at the company. Unique Indoor Comfort/Sila has some great reviews which is why I contacted them in the first place. Clearly they have treated other people well in the past. They did not treat me well. I will not be using them for any HVAC work at my house nor will I recommend them to anyone else.

If you have an unfinished basement that you plan to finish, then I would caution against using Unique Indoor Comfort. We wanted a high velocity (small duct) air conditioning system for two floors of our 100-year old house. The sales rep, in hindsight, was a salesman first and foremost. We presumed we were dealing with an HVAC consultant who would accurately describe the system and plan the installation to meet our needs. However, he did not listen to our concerns about (1) preserving the vintage inlaid wood floor in our house when the vent covers were placed; and (2) making the best use of our open, still unfinished basement. The final hardware installation was technically excellent, but unsatisfactory at a number of levels. Although the installers were competent and professional, the planning and layout were poor. Financing: Unique's sales-installation representative not only didn't listen to our goals for the hardware installation, but he provided us a financing package that turned out not to be what he represented. He told us it was a "no interest, deferred payments for six months" loan; it was in fact a "no interest, immediate minimum payments" loan -- as the bank informed us when we were already late on our first payment. No disclosure of the amount of monthly minimum payments or number of months of payment. Our recommendation: for home improvements related to energy efficiency, owners should utilize financing from an organization like EnerBank, which many reputable installers and contractors offer: the loans as simple, clear, and are in fact "no interest, no payment" for the period advertised. Planning & Installation: First, it was difficult to visualize the dimensions of all the system components. The brochures and website place great emphasis on the use of 2-inch diameter ducts to preserve the homeowner?s existing living space, but never provide useful visual schematics for visualizing the dimensions of the return duct and main distribution trunks. The finished return duct (with insulation) is ca. 18 inches in diameter, and the trunk, 12 inches. The salesman had a notebook of photos, but I only recall one that showed the return duct work (in the back of a closet). He brought a section of the small duct (4 inches, including insulation) and sample vent covers, but no trunk or return duct sections. This was unfortunate, because we might have foreseen the problems that the salesman overlooked and recommended alternate placement of the air handler. However, without information on how much room the system was going to take up, we had to rely on the salesman for planning the system to accommodate our future finished basement. After installed, the air handler, trunk, and return system took up about three times the volume it should have -- which we expressed almost immediately to the company's representative. We were dismayed and couldn?t understand why the salesman hadn?t recommend placing the air handler directly under the return trunk/cavity, which would have taken less space and not compromised our plans for finishing the basement. It was bad enough that several of the small ducts were ?outside? our future basement ceiling. (Imagine a plumber installing a water pipe on the outside of a finished bathroom wall...) We ultimately asked Indoor Comfort to give us a new bid to relocate the air handler where it should have been placed initially ? directly under the return duct. The bid seemed much higher than it should have been (predictable labor, minimal obvious material costs). We also thought Indoor Comfort should have been willing to swallow at least some of the cost because their planning and execution of the original installation were unsatisfactory. Although we were unhappy with the bid, we accepted it because we would not have been able to finish our basement unless we relocated the air handler. The rework took 2 men 6 hours to complete (for almost $1,300). The salesman called after we returned the customer survey, in which we had expressed our dissatisfaction with the project. He argued that he had spent ample time with us, showing us his photos of past projects. His explanation for why he had not recommended the alternative placement did not make sense. I think our unfortunate experience could have been avoided if the salesman had listened more carefully to our concerns. Our surprise with the financing package could have been avoided if an informed person had explained the terms to us. His installers were certainly up to the task of executing the installation, however, the salesman did not clearly communicate to them our objectives for the space. (We will update this review if Unique Indoor Comfort addresses our dissatisfaction.) 2/27/2011: after discussion with the sales rep some weeks ago about "making things right" -- during which he clearly understood that we thought at minimum we believed the cost of the change order (to reposition the unit) should be shared between us and Unique, we didn't hear from him or the company again -- until 2/25, when we received an "Overdue" notice for the work. What is interesting about this is that neither during nor after the work did Unique provide us a final (or even preliminary) invoice. Since we'd not heard back from the sales guy, we foolishly believed he might be trying to work out an equitable sharing of the additional costs; obviously, we were wrong.

Technician showed up as scheduled and was very professional. I would recommend this company.

When my 1500 square foot duplex in DC started having problems with the 17 year old furnace / blower, I called several companies listed on Angie's List for replacement quotes. Unique (Brentin) scheduled an appointment for the next day and provided me with an estimate by the end of the same day. Other companies scheduled an appointment for the estimate a week out, or gave me a quote over the phone. While Unique's quote came in about 10% higher than the other companies, they negotiated and matched the price of the lowest bidder company, which made my decision easy. Two days after my acceptance of their proposal, Unique's technicians installed the new system and it works great! I was not shopping for the most expensive/efficient unit; just something reliable and economical. I give Unique an A+ for punctuality, reliability, professionalism, follow-up, and most important, delivery! Highly recommended!

Schedule an appt. for cleaning and general winter maintenance of furnace. A few days before the appt. they called me to ask to reschedule; no problem. The technician came at 8am on his first stop, so that was convenient (no waiting during a window of time). He was courteous, professional and clean -- he put on those booties without me having to ask. He did the general maintenance and then showed me a possible issue that needed fixing (not urgent). A few days later, someone from the office called to give me an estimate on the repair. Overall a pleasant, hassle-free experience.

Overall excellent. THey were responsive and came back to fix a problem. THere was a small issue. several months after completion we found that squirrels had made their way into our attic through the hole used to bring in the wiring. I went in and sealed this off with hardware cloth after removal of the squirrels.

First the technician suggested some explanations for the problem that I was pretty sure weren't correct: that the radiators needed to be bled (but my plumbers had already spend hours bleeding them), and that I needed a pump to better circulate the hot water through the system. While the pump may be useful, it doesn't explain the fact that the pipes branching off to this bad loop hardly heat _at all_, while just before the branch it's "piping hot." To the technician's credit, when I insisted a bit that I didn't think his explanations were sufficient, he stayed for quite a while and called his boss a few times looking for a better explanation. His last suggestion was that the pipes in this loop may have been frozen (this call was in February) because they pass through some uninsulated walls. I am now sure that this isn't the real cause, however, because I have run the heat a few times since the spring thaw, and observe the same problem. I appreciate that the technician was respectful and patient and made a commendable effort to diagnose the problem. Unfortunately, it seems to be a difficult problem, and I'm pretty sure he did not find the correct diagnosis. (I think the pipes may be connected wrong, so this loop is being fed with the return water).

I happened to be in the utility room of my basement when the boiler kicked in, and I saw flames shoot out across the floor. I quickly turned off the heat (the day of Washington's second blizzard). I waited two days for other companies to return my calls so I finally turned to Angie's List and found Unique Indoor Comfort. I reached them Friday at 5 pm, and they were at my house by 11 am the next day, which was a fast turn-around given the number of outages from the snowstorms. Rick, the service tech, was exceptional. He was courteous, efficient, skilled, honest and thorough. He walked me through his inspection of the boiler and determined that the system was just clogged up and needed a thorough cleaning. He spent about an hour on it and then showed me in detail exactly what he did. I couldn't have been happier that all it needed was a good cleaning -- the unit hadn't been serviced since I moved in my house 6 yrs ago. The diagnostic cost $98.00 and the cleaning was going to be another $119, I believe. I opted for the 1 yr service plan, which was $205. With the Angie's List coupon, the total cost was $273.00.

They were professional and followed up with me. Their personal attention was great. We went with a different company, but they certianly offered solid product.

The furnace that we had wasn?t adequate for the house and we needed some extra heating. We didn?t go with them even though they were very nice and responsive. We chose another company to get the job done. The other company seemed to be clearer about exactly what they were going to do to complete the job. However, Unique Indoor Comfort was fine and we would have probably gone with them if we hadn?t liked the other company. Their salesperson was very persuasive and a very nice young man. They were very good too. I was really sorry that I had to choose the other company and they would have been great as well. The estimate was comparable to the estimate that we finally went with. If need be, then I would use their services in the future.

The pricing was very competitive and we had checked around. We really like them. They came back to do some follow up work. We were impressed with their knowledge.

They were quick and on time. They were reliable. We might use them again down the road. We had no complaints.

Fairly well. The company was very responsive, especially since I had an issue right after the massive snowstorm. They came out the following day and fixed everything within a few hours.

Our furnace stopped working unexpectedly the morning of the expected round-2 snow blizzard. We had already suffered no heat for over 36 hours due to power outage from the round-1 snowstorm, and we desperately wanted to avoid repeating that experience. We just had the furnace serviced 3 months ago by another Angie's list company, but Unique was the only company from several that we phoned who was willing/able to come out same day before the snow began to fall. Rick showed up right on time, was very professional, and actually got the furnace blowing again pretty quickly. The true cause of the outage was not obvious and he was extremely thorough as he checked all of the possibilities, despite the imminent snow. The likely culprit may be our older thermostat, but we didn't replace it at the time as the one he had on hand was too big for the space on our wall. Price paid reflects discount coupon. For now, (as long as power holds up) we have heat because Rick came out in the pinch.

They came out and diagnosed the problem and replaced the faulty part and reset the thermostat. They were very professional and came on time. They were very conscientious and protected my floor while they worked. Their pricing was reasonable and they also cleaned up after themselves.

The A/C/ repairman, Rick, was wonderful to work with. Our A/C unit had frozen up as a result of a clogged filter, and while Rick suspected that this may be a simple filter repair, he still took the time to thoroughly check out the HVAC system and explain to me what the problem was. He was professional, punctual, and most importantly, upfront and honest about what did and did not need repaired. We will always request Rick from now on and use this company for all our heating and cooling issues.

They discovered that a problem had been made in the installation last year. They seem to have corrected it but it doesn?t thrill me that this mistake was made in the first place. The price included extending the warranty out for another year and service in the fall or any other repairs that might need to be done.

I thought that they use the most scientific and technologically advanced systems that I have ever known of. They are extremely professional and were magicians in hiding all of the duct work. They cleaned up and left no mess at all. They were very fast and once they started the job they finished it in two days. It was all new duct work which is their specialty, and it works flawlessly.

Company was non-responsive to a request for proposal for HVAC. Did not return email or telephone calls.

Great. The representative came to the house to meet with me, examine and take measurements of the space, explain the system, and answer any questions. The scheduled around my schedule. Their guys were clean, professional, courteous. They finished the job within the timeframe that was negotiated. Their representative followed up with me to ensure all was satisfactory. During the process he answered all of my questions as they came up.

They were to come out and look to see if my furnace could be moved to the attic. Someone did come out, by the name of Mike. He told me he would get me the quote the following morning. It has now been 2 weeks and I have not gotten a quote and have called 3 times. Someone finally called me to ask me about putting a high velocity system in of $15,000, but never gave me a quote for what we discussed.

THIS WAS THE BEST GROUP OF TECHNICIANS THAT WE HAVE EVER HAD DO WORK IN ANY OF OUR HOUSES. THEY WERE FAST, CLEAN AND THE FINAL PRODUCT WAS BETTER THAN PROMISED.