Mountain Air Heating & Cooling

unknown

unknown

I did not use this contractor to replace the heat pump at my home because they did not respond to my Invitation to Bid. I sent out bid requests to 4 local HVAC contractors but did not receive a bid back from any of them. Why? Because I tried to protect myself by including a few simple contractual type agreements in my Invitation to bid which the bidding contractor had to sign and return with their bid. None of the agreements were outrageous. They were simple things like; requiring the contractor to repair any damages made by the contractor’s employees to my property and the neighboring property, requiring the contractor to repair any damages made by his employees to the new equipment being installed, etc. You would think that these reasonable and normal expectations should be a given and no problem for any reputable contractor; right? Wrong! These types of contractual agreements may work for a general contractor who could possibly provide the sub-contractor with future business but, if you are a homeowner of only one home, forget about it. The sub-contractor won’t even respond. I did receive a phone call from one of the subs saying he was “too busy and with all the procedures, he would not be submitting a bid”. So forget anything you may read about protecting yourself when choosing and hiring a sub-contractor. I was very surprised to learn that most sub-contractors don’t even have a contract of their own and, those that do, are very brief and worded to protect themselves, not you. There should be a law requiring a general contract to protect both parties as part of any job of this scope. But, there is no such law so, it is up to you to carefully research and carefully select a reputable contractor. I ended up going with Sears for the replacement of my Heat Pump. I at least received a renewable 5-year maintenance agreement for my Heat Pump which includes an annual service visit, giving me a little peace of mind.

First of all, I believe the owner of this company wanted to do the right thing with regard to this project. Unfortunately, he did not have competent personnel to calculate the required load for the project and perform the installation. His technicians were unresponsive with regard to accomplishing the work on time and what orignially was supposed to have been completed in two weeks was stretched out over a much longer period. The following are issues that occurred during this project: 1) The required load for my home was underestimated by 2 tons. This was significant because the house is relatively small by modern standards. I questioned the original estimate and was told by the company owner that the service manager thought it was valid. I also questioned the service manager directly when he was performing the estimate. I asked him specifically if he had factored in the thermal effect of the tall windows, glass doors, and the high vaulted ceiling covered by a metal roof. He essentially ignored what I was asking him and said he was taking the measurements. After the installation was complete, it was clear that the equipment that was installed was not sufficient to carry the load. I requested a review by a factory representative. That review was performed and my suspicion was confirmed. This resulted in an effort to mitigate the mistake that had been made and there were no good options for me at that point. I ended up having to pay for an additional 2 ton unit, labor to install it, and ended up having a triple zoned house instead of a dual zoned one. 2) Two of the units were improperly installed according to the manufacturers specifications. Specifically, risers designed to mitigate icing conditions around the units were not attached at the time of installation. 3) The inside air handlers were placed too close to the intakes creating excessive noise inside. The squirrel cages are within 2-3 feet of the intake grille. 4) The installing techinicians--which included the service manager--damaged the house structurally by cutting out most of a two by six stud to install a return vent. This caused me to bring in another contractor to reinforce the damaged stud. The job required that the stud be scabbed and that the drywall surrounding the area be removed and reinstalled. 5) Plugs requied to seal off the inside units where ond of the lines enters the unit were left off. I found them in a bag months later. 6) The installing technicians failed to install a filter in the upper unit. I discovered this after noticing debris in the upper level of the house. My experience with this company was very frustrating and cost significantly more than the original estimate. The technicians lacked interpersonal skills and were unresponsive when I asked questions. The company owner did his best to work with me, but was unable to control and direct the activities of his technicians in a positive way. It is with some trepidation that I put these comments on here. I liked the company's owner and, as mentioned above, believe he was sincere in his efforts. My only reason in posting this is so that people will know to question these technicians if they are performing this kind of installation in the future. Hopefully, their skills will have improved.

.

It had it flaws. Management was great and helpful. Parts were sketchy. Price was just about ballpark. It's an excellent company and communication works well. You will always be well informed. Don't be afraid to give them a call. If only they had A- on Angie's list it would work well.

Although Mountain Air is primarily a HVAC operation they also do plumbing. Their plumber replaced an existing whole house filter with a larger unit that he mounted on the wall. He did this because the new filter was quite a bit heavier and he felt that it required a sturdier installation. He had to re-route the water line and make 4 or 5 welds. He explained why he did certain things and made some good recommendations.

We set an appointment with Mountain Air on Friday to service our HVAC on the following Thursday. They called on Tuesday to state why we are not at our house. We responded that the appointment is for 0800 Thursday. They stated that they made the mistake and will see us Thursday. The technician never showed up at 0800 on Thursday and when we called to inquire why, he stated he had to handle calls in West Virginia and wasn't sure when he would be there. We then asked why did we make an appointment if he wasnt going to show up as we are not sure what other time we would be home to let him in. It was at this time the technician hung-up. We called the main office and explained what happenned. They stated that they will get a technician out to service the unit and will call back with a time that they will arrive. After three hours of waiting they never called back and we ended up calling another company.

Overall it went very well and I was very pleased with how quick it was resolved.

Workers arrived when they said and perfomed all tasks professionally and skillfully. Technicians were very courteous and explained the issues well.

They were very efficient and timely. They managed to get the job done over the phone and we had no complaint. The price was a little bit high.

did not use them

Called Monday morning after having cooling problem all weekend. It didn't help that the outside temp was 104 degrees! Called Mountain Air Heating and Cooling to set up service call. They were very busy but would try to fit me in. By 2pm they had been to the house and installed an new condensate pump and checked freon and at a very reasonable rate. Workers were very polite and did not leave any messes for me to clean up.