I know this is an open ended question but is $22000 a crazy quote for a entirely new home ac/heat/ducting/electrical etc system. We're waiting for a few more quotes.
Yes. Crazy. Unless it's huge, multi zone, etc. I The markup in hvac equipment is astronomical. The labor rates charged by many companies is also nuts. Find a smaller company, get another quote with equipment that closely matches the specs of the first quote. Smaller companies don't stick it to you as much, and often the level of service is superior. They want and need the word of mouth. " billybobs hvac saved me 4000 bucks compared to abc hvac using The same equipment". That sells jobs quickly.
To give you an idea, I can get a new 90% furnace and a.c. installed using existing ductwork, for an 1800 sqft home, sized appropriately (ie not undersized to save money) for just under $5000. This is from a small 2 man company. Same warranty as The big boy companies. The same quote from a company with hundreds of employees was $10000.
IMO $10,000 give or take, as stated above HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical can be way overpriced by the big guys. I just had one done minus the duct work for $5500. Equipment was 3500 labor balance, 2 guys one long day, labor was still to high but the total was here I wanted to be
Yes, we have natural gas, it gets cold enough that a heat pump will run in emergency mode. We want hot air. The last quote from the hvac company only offers one heat pump in their premium package everything else is just a furnace.
Sure sounds high! But....the last place I worked at had a transplant form Texas. He still takes the summers off to head back down there and "work" since the $$$ is so much better. Maybe its one of those things...just the going rates down there? Maybe I should come out of retirement for one summer.....
I had to google "hand expert", this is what came up I thought maybe you needed carpal tunnel surgery or something Not a hand expert...but I agree with this guys, without knowing the details its hard to say for sure, but yeah, sounds high.
questions- is there duct work in place from previous system. or are you replacing one of the old octopus type gravity units. ac system and furnace can be bought on line. heck there are only 3 distinct manufactures and Goodman is the biggest ( got a goodman furnace and ac a few years back there were at least 6 different name brand stickers in the packaging you got to choose which one you wanted to call it) you can get most of the duct work you would need at one of the box stores ( don't kid yourself that is the same place that high priced contractor goes and then marks it up) the only fancy part might be the transition/ plenum area where the "A" coil goes Plenty of guys/gals in hvac and electrical doing side jobs ( some will even pull permits if need) but maybe you are out side your comfort zone with doing a lot of it yourself. There isn't anything really magical or difficult , will need a hvac person to charge the AC ( after its all together you have to pump down a vacuum then introduce the Freon- latest stuff is 410 series that I am aware of). If you can pull a garden hose through a fence you can string electric- they even have plastic conduit now if needed if going hard wall pre-bent pieces are available ( the condenser coil/ compressor will need a a water tight line- yep hardware store or big box store again) I really do object to the extremely high pricing of hvac co. on the mundane stuff. I am in and out and around the box stores enough that I see all the various contractor trucks in the lots. ) Now I am what is commonly called jack of all trades master of none so none of this looks like voodo to me. There are others on here that I admire their skills in certain areas and wish I had some of their abilities to add to my own. Yes, I will call someone once in a blue moon if there is no other avenue of escape. Charging the AC,pumping the septic,. I also have friends that are better in some areas than myself and vice a versa which helps also. ( Guess I am cheap on top of it all)
