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Posted by Walter R. on June 10, 2006, 7:46 pm
When I was shopping for a new furnace and A/c, I obtained 8 bids. I made
sure I had all of them quote on very similar equipment. They ranged from $
8,000 to 16,000. (2 units). First of all I eliminated all contractors that
where not enthusiastic about getting a building permit, leaving 4
contractors. Then I eliminated out-of-range bids. Then I checked them out
with the Contractors License Board for license, insurance and bonds. Was
very satisfied with the contractor that bid $ 8,000.
--
Walter
www.rationality.net
show/hide quoted text
> I'm looking to replace my 12 yr old furnace (came with the house when I
> bought it a few years ago) with some decent and am looking for a good
> contractor to do the job. Although no one here can tell me which
> contractors are good in my area, perhaps you can help me out. So far I
> have 3 bids on the job and am not looking for too many more bids.
> House is a 2 story colonial and a total of about 1600sq.ft. without the
> basement. I'm looking to get the furnace replaced with a 92% AFUE (or
> greater) two stage unit.
> Anyway, here's the story.
> Company A:
> A couple of weeks ago I had the A/C serviced at which point I had the
> service tech look at pricing out a new furnace as well. He noted that
> the present furnace is way oversized for the house's duct work (125000
> BTU). He recommended an 80K BTU unit along with all the associated
> replacements (humidifier), etc. While he was there, he also
> reconfigured the existing furnace to slow down the blower and allow it
> to run the air slower over the A-coil so as to make it more effective.
> He gave me a quote on a Trane, but didn't really detail model numbers,
> etc. His total time was probably around 1 hour including the time it
> took to service the A/C.
> Company B:
> This guy came in purely to give me a quote. He looked at the furnace
> (didn't really take any measurements) and recommended a 100K BTU
> furnace for the house, indicating that two stage units can be sized
> lower than the existing furnaces. This guy had all the pamphlets for
> the furnace components and went over them in detail. He gave me two
> proposals listing all the part #'s for everything he was putting in -
> one with a new AC unit and one without - knowing that the AC unit
> outside is only 5 years old. Total time spent at my house was around
> 80 minutes.
> Company C:
> The guy also came in to give me a quote: He took measurements from the
> furnace (measured all the duct work around the furnace) and indicated
> what the work would be - while we were around the furnace; He also
> took a look at the AC condenser before he gave me the quote. Anyway,
> he gave me the quote detailing the work and all the components he was
> going to use (with part #'s). Total time spent at my house was around
> 30 minutes.
> Company A/B are selling Trane units while Company C is selling Lennox -
> I don't think that's a make/break situation are both are very good
> units and a hell of a step up from what I have now.
> Lastly, Company A/C are within 10% of each other in cost while Company
> B is about 80% more expensive than Company C.
> Also Company A has been around for 35years while Company C has been
> around for at least 15 years and they do offer 2years labor. Not sure
> how long Company B has been around as this wasn't brought up by the
> sales guy.
> Sorry for being long winded on this but I would like to get honest
> opinions on this.
> Thank you.
>
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Posted by trader4 on June 15, 2006, 8:37 am
Walter R. wrote:
show/hide quoted text
> When I was shopping for a new furnace and A/c, I obtained 8 bids. I made
> sure I had all of them quote on very similar equipment. They ranged from $
> 8,000 to 16,000. (2 units). First of all I eliminated all contractors that
> where not enthusiastic about getting a building permit, leaving 4
> contractors. Then I eliminated out-of-range bids. Then I checked them out
> with the Contractors License Board for license, insurance and bonds. Was
> very satisfied with the contractor that bid $ 8,000.
> --
> Walter
> www.rationality.net
> -
> > I'm looking to replace my 12 yr old furnace (came with the house when I
> > bought it a few years ago) with some decent and am looking for a good
> > contractor to do the job. Although no one here can tell me which
> > contractors are good in my area, perhaps you can help me out. So far I
> > have 3 bids on the job and am not looking for too many more bids.
> > House is a 2 story colonial and a total of about 1600sq.ft. without the
> > basement. I'm looking to get the furnace replaced with a 92% AFUE (or
> > greater) two stage unit.
> > Anyway, here's the story.
> > Company A:
> > A couple of weeks ago I had the A/C serviced at which point I had the
> > service tech look at pricing out a new furnace as well. He noted that
> > the present furnace is way oversized for the house's duct work (125000
> > BTU). He recommended an 80K BTU unit along with all the associated
> > replacements (humidifier), etc. While he was there, he also
> > reconfigured the existing furnace to slow down the blower and allow it
> > to run the air slower over the A-coil so as to make it more effective.
> > He gave me a quote on a Trane, but didn't really detail model numbers,
> > etc. His total time was probably around 1 hour including the time it
> > took to service the A/C.
> > Company B:
> > This guy came in purely to give me a quote. He looked at the furnace
> > (didn't really take any measurements) and recommended a 100K BTU
> > furnace for the house, indicating that two stage units can be sized
> > lower than the existing furnaces. This guy had all the pamphlets for
> > the furnace components and went over them in detail. He gave me two
> > proposals listing all the part #'s for everything he was putting in -
> > one with a new AC unit and one without - knowing that the AC unit
> > outside is only 5 years old. Total time spent at my house was around
> > 80 minutes.
> > Company C:
> > The guy also came in to give me a quote: He took measurements from the
> > furnace (measured all the duct work around the furnace) and indicated
> > what the work would be - while we were around the furnace; He also
> > took a look at the AC condenser before he gave me the quote. Anyway,
> > he gave me the quote detailing the work and all the components he was
> > going to use (with part #'s). Total time spent at my house was around
> > 30 minutes.
> > Company A/B are selling Trane units while Company C is selling Lennox -
> > I don't think that's a make/break situation are both are very good
> > units and a hell of a step up from what I have now.
> > Lastly, Company A/C are within 10% of each other in cost while Company
> > B is about 80% more expensive than Company C.
> > Also Company A has been around for 35years while Company C has been
> > around for at least 15 years and they do offer 2years labor. Not sure
> > how long Company B has been around as this wasn't brought up by the
> > sales guy.
> > Sorry for being long winded on this but I would like to get honest
> > opinions on this.
> > Thank you.
You also have another important reference point for sizing the new
system. And that is how the current system is performing. Does it
heat/cool the house off quickly? If it does, then I'd be inclined to
go with a smaller system. If it does not, then I wouldn't, at least
not without understanding how the smaller system is gonna make it work.
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> bought it a few years ago) with some decent and am looking for a good
> contractor to do the job. Although no one here can tell me which
> contractors are good in my area, perhaps you can help me out. So far I
> have 3 bids on the job and am not looking for too many more bids.
> House is a 2 story colonial and a total of about 1600sq.ft. without the
> basement. I'm looking to get the furnace replaced with a 92% AFUE (or
> greater) two stage unit.
> Anyway, here's the story.
> Company A:
> A couple of weeks ago I had the A/C serviced at which point I had the
> service tech look at pricing out a new furnace as well. He noted that
> the present furnace is way oversized for the house's duct work (125000
> BTU). He recommended an 80K BTU unit along with all the associated
> replacements (humidifier), etc. While he was there, he also
> reconfigured the existing furnace to slow down the blower and allow it
> to run the air slower over the A-coil so as to make it more effective.
> He gave me a quote on a Trane, but didn't really detail model numbers,
> etc. His total time was probably around 1 hour including the time it
> took to service the A/C.
> Company B:
> This guy came in purely to give me a quote. He looked at the furnace
> (didn't really take any measurements) and recommended a 100K BTU
> furnace for the house, indicating that two stage units can be sized
> lower than the existing furnaces. This guy had all the pamphlets for
> the furnace components and went over them in detail. He gave me two
> proposals listing all the part #'s for everything he was putting in -
> one with a new AC unit and one without - knowing that the AC unit
> outside is only 5 years old. Total time spent at my house was around
> 80 minutes.
> Company C:
> The guy also came in to give me a quote: He took measurements from the
> furnace (measured all the duct work around the furnace) and indicated
> what the work would be - while we were around the furnace; He also
> took a look at the AC condenser before he gave me the quote. Anyway,
> he gave me the quote detailing the work and all the components he was
> going to use (with part #'s). Total time spent at my house was around
> 30 minutes.
> Company A/B are selling Trane units while Company C is selling Lennox -
> I don't think that's a make/break situation are both are very good
> units and a hell of a step up from what I have now.
> Lastly, Company A/C are within 10% of each other in cost while Company
> B is about 80% more expensive than Company C.
> Also Company A has been around for 35years while Company C has been
> around for at least 15 years and they do offer 2years labor. Not sure
> how long Company B has been around as this wasn't brought up by the
> sales guy.
> Sorry for being long winded on this but I would like to get honest
> opinions on this.
> Thank you.
>