Started Calling…
I had the misfortune of making the decision to start calling contractors on June 9th, 2008. I say misfortune because it was the Monday after a weekend long heat wave. The first heat wave of the season here in New York. So, the point is that I started calling all these HVAC contractors and they were all off on emergency calls.
The list
I kept a list of everyone I called with dates and the dates and messages when the contractors called me back. I decided that just calling everyone who was close by was the way to go. On this list I noted certifications, phone numbers, emails, dates that they called back as well general impressions. To give you an idea, my list was five pages long - typed!
The Selection…
We received 3 formal bids and 2 informal bids. The bid prices ranged from $30,000 - $55,000. The reason for the range in price was because there was inconsistency in how large a unit we needed. The range was a 3 ton system to a 6 ton system. We selected a contractor (Choice Heating & Cooling) that bid $38,672. We chose Joe at Choice because:
- he was thorough
- he appeared happy to answer all questions
- he warned us of the negative and didn't only schmooz us with the positive
- he was responsive every time we called
The bid details can be found here
I followed most of the "Steps to GeoThermal"