I keep reading on here that there's not much difference in the brands
and that the most important thing to hire a good "installer".
I also read that some people recommend calling a distributor (Trane for
example) in your area and asking them who the best installer in the
area is.

The contractors I'm looking at all employ at least 10-24 techs and some
more than 25. So obviously I'm going with the name value of the
company as opposed to any individual person. Is it reasonable to
assume that all techs employed by a "good" company will do a "good"
install job? Or is it better to try and single out an individual
person to do the job? I imagine this would require going with a
smaller, independent contractor of sorts.

Best is small company or individual....They are putting *their* name on the
job, not their employer's name.

"RAJ" wrote in message
ups.com...
I keep reading on here that there's not much difference in the brands
and that the most important thing to hire a good "installer".
I also read that some people recommend calling a distributor (Trane for
example) in your area and asking them who the best installer in the
area is.

The contractors I'm looking at all employ at least 10-24 techs and some
more than 25. So obviously I'm going with the name value of the
company as opposed to any individual person. Is it reasonable to
assume that all techs employed by a "good" company will do a "good"
install job? Or is it better to try and single out an individual
person to do the job? I imagine this would require going with a
smaller, independent contractor of sorts.

I've had experiences with both.

We hired a larger Company with a better name recognition to install an HVAC
system. They were pretty competitive on price so I had them do it. They did
a good jog at the install and I knew if there were any issues the company
would stand behind the work and fix it. We built a Granny unit a few year
later and I contacted the Installer for the big company to see if they
wanted to do it on their own. He no longer worked for the Big Company and
could only do work though the new company. They never got back with a quote
so I went back to the big company. They did a crappy job and made many
mistakes. I got to the point where I was fabricating things to get the job
done right. It was horrible. Though they did stand behind their work and
made several visits out to be sure that all was done properly and that we
were happy with the result.

I think it is about the Installer, the one who takes pride in the work and
not just someone who happens to do it for a living. Most of the people I've
dealt with building the granny are not up to the par of how I would do the
work. Though I guess if they were they would charge twice as much and take 3
times as long like me...

I do think the smaller guys have more to lose if they mess up something,
though they tend to have higher prices as they cant get the price break to
buy in quantity as the big guys do....

Scott-

"RAJ" wrote in message
ups.com...
I keep reading on here that there's not much difference in the brands
and that the most important thing to hire a good "installer".
I also read that some people recommend calling a distributor (Trane for
example) in your area and asking them who the best installer in the
area is.

The contractors I'm looking at all employ at least 10-24 techs and some
more than 25. So obviously I'm going with the name value of the
company as opposed to any individual person. Is it reasonable to
assume that all techs employed by a "good" company will do a "good"
install job? Or is it better to try and single out an individual
person to do the job? I imagine this would require going with a
smaller, independent contractor of sorts.