We measure before we quote
Crawlspace clearance, panel capacity and outdoor unit siting are taken on the survey and written down. No price is issued on a phone description of a house.
- Home
- About
A small shop on Channing Way.
What we do, how we quote, what we will not do, and the limits we would rather you knew about before you hire us than after.
How we work
Survey, options, then the work.
We are a small licensed HVAC contractor working on residential heating and cooling in Berkeley and the cities immediately around it, with a light commercial side that is mostly small storefronts and offices on the same streets.
Because the housing stock here is old and specific, we sell a survey before we sell equipment. An hour in the house, in the crawlspace, at the panel and around the outside gives us enough to write you real options. Without it, any number we gave you would be a guess dressed up as a quote.
Every quote goes out in writing with two or three routes on it, each with what it costs, what it involves, what it does and what it does not do. You are welcome to take it to somebody else. We would rather be compared on a document than on a conversation.
What you can hold us to
Four commitments.
Short list, because a long one is not a commitment.
The patching is in the quote
Closing a wall cavity or a floor opening, making good where a line crosses plaster, and putting the crawlspace back as we found it are priced with the job, not added afterwards.
We will tell you not to buy something
If a repair is worth doing, we say so instead of quoting a replacement. If your existing furnace and duct are sound, we say that too, even when it means a smaller job.
Dates are agreed before we start
You know which days we will be in the house and roughly what happens on each one. If something slips, you hear it from us before you notice it.
Limits
What we do not do.
Being clear about this is faster than being asked.
- No 24-hour emergency cover. A small shop cannot staff it properly. Overnight calls are answered first thing and no-heat situations go to the front of the day.
- No electrical panel upgrades. We tell you when one is needed and work alongside your electrician. We do not pretend it is a small detail.
- No roofing, no solar, no insulation contracting. We will point out attic insulation that is undermining your system, and then recommend somebody who does it for a living.
- No savings figures. We will not put a percentage or a payback period in front of you. It depends on the house, the rate plan and how you live in it, and nobody can know it from a survey.
- No work outside the service area. Nothing over the tunnel, nothing over the bridge. The radius is what makes the local knowledge worth anything.
Credentials
Insurance, permits and warranty.
- Insurance
- General liability and workers' compensationCertificates available on request, and sent automatically with any quote over a certain size or where a building manager needs them on file.
- Refrigerant
- EPA Section 608 certifiedRequired to handle refrigerant legally. Recovery is done properly on every removal, including on equipment being scrapped.
- Permits
- We pull them and we meet the inspectorReplacing heating equipment is permitted work. An unpermitted install is a problem that surfaces years later at the worst possible moment, usually during a sale.
- Warranty
- Manufacturer's warranty on equipment, ours on the labourThe terms are written on the quote in plain sentences, not referenced in a footnote.
Start with a survey.
An hour in the house, and you get the options in writing — whether or not you use us.