Questions for contractors

reckless

How do you HVAC guys feel about people buying their own furnace or A/c units and hiring a pro to install it?

Thanks for your thoughts!!

Marty S.

I'm just a worker but the boss has done that before . Can tell you that the normal mark up includes labor warranty so no mark up means no warranty.

COLDIRON

Not totally opposed to it .. but there are draw backs.. is the installer guarantying the system? No.

What happens when it's 95 degrees or 5 degrees and something goes wrong.. is the installer around or do you panic and find someone from the book , not that there are bad contractor's in the book.

You can save upfront money.
Installers warranty.... If the unit breaks in half you get to keep both half's.

hennyh

First of all I'm not an official contractor. However consensus from contractors seems to be that you won't save much money with this approach.

A contractor needs to make $X on an install. X can come from labor and markup on equipment. If there's no markup on equipment then you'll just end up paying more for installation labor. In addition warranty can be problematic.

Secondly, a contractor likely has much better buying power then a homeowner shopping online.

I say either hire the entire job done or do 100% of the work yourself. (I chose the later and have absolutely no regrets)