Dave in Riverdale

Kris and his team were at best uneven. And their ability to stay on the job left a lot to be desired. Kris's subcontractor who did our bathroom tiling did a great job on time and on budget. Our kitchen renovation on the other hand turned out fine but took forever. This was hard on our family and I had to repeatedly call to get the team to come back and move the job forward. My sense was that these folks were juggling a number of jobs as most contractors do and they got stacked up. I don't know how to get past this type of problem but I know it's no fun to live through. Kris is a nice guy and he tries hard but big jobs and scheduling seem to be a major challenge. I think Greenwall is fine for small, interior jobs but I'd hesitate to recommend them for larger jobs or external jobs.

Summary/Details/Room for Improvement/Things I learned/Overall Summary: Button’s is a great company. They have a ton of integrity. Great people. Great products. Excellent sales experience. Would recommend without hesitation. Details: Mine was a big purchase (for me): a top of the line high efficiency furnace, filter system, thermostat, humidifier, power vent, water heater and an air conditioner hookup. I did a ton of research for this job. The net was really helpful narrowing down reviews and feedback about brands of furnaces and types of water heaters. I spent a lot of time reading contractors talking to one another in forum postings on hvac-talk. I found a video comparing the exact furnace I was considering with another brand that had been recommended to me. I even found a site that compared furnace loudness across a dozen or so brands. I was a knowledgeable consumer going in. Steve Thomas from Buttons was a terrific on sales. He gave me as much time and info as I requested. He wanted me to have everything I needed to make a decision I’d be happy about. He even called in a specialist for a second sales/info call when an ancient chimney forced a change of plans. There was no pushiness and Steve was always a call away if I had further questions. The office staff were also great (hi Lidy) and helped me out with a few paperworky things along the way. For the install Button’s sent out a three man team. Tod and his team worked extremely hard on this big job and did a very professional install. They answered all my questions on the day, made helpful suggestions about where to locate my air conditioner and programmed my new thermostat while walking me through it. The new furnace has been working great and we’ve all really noticed the much more even heat throughout the house. Kudos. Room for Improvement: Based on my experience I have a few minor suggestions for improvement: Call ahead the day before install. My install was booked a month ahead of time. We knew what day they were coming but didn’t have anymore details. It would have been helpful to get a call the day before saying when the team was arriving. I wanted to go over things with the install team and didn’t know whether they were going to arrive and get going at 8am, 9am or when. I ended up calling that morning at 9:15 to make sure I had the right date. The office tracked down the team by cell and confirmed they were on the way. It shouldn’t really be the client calling the firm in situations like this. Big jobs can be too big. My job was massive. Even for a three man crew. I went into work late and got home and the team was still working on getting everything in. The job was complicated by an old furnace that proved very hard to get out. This big of a job meant there were a few tiny cleanups missed (thermostat drillings, basement venting drillings) and part of the job (air con hookup) was deferred. I’d recommend next time breaking the job up and doing it over two visits. Perhaps not as economical as getting it all done in one day but would provide more contingency time. Internal communication – Buttons was great on preplanning duct design and building and had lots of measurements and pictures to go by but a couple of sales requests were missed. The team didn’t bring coolant for the air conditioning unit and there wasn’t enough room to haul everything away at the end of the job. Both issues were resolved quickly and without any problems but I would have preferred for the team to be fully prepped with everything they needed when they arrived. Things I learned: Equipment wise I’d do more research on getting a pad to go under my furnace. The basement in my 110 year old house isn’t always waterproof and my spanking new furnace is sitting directly on the floor. It’s not going to rust for a long time I hope but I’d feel better if I had thought to arrange for a pad for it to sit on. The other small equipment comment I’ll make is that I went for a pulse format humidifier rather than a continual stream model in an effort to conserve water. Again my old house’s plumbing is not well insulated and so I can detect it pulsing water periodically from other spots in the house. Not a big deal but I’d probably go for the continuous model next time. Overall – If I could give these guys an 11 I would. They are a fantastic company to deal with. I wish all companies had this much integrity and were this classy to work with. Well done to the whole team.

I read a lot of homestar reviews, called the top three ranked cleaners and chose this firm. I was getting a new furnace and hadn't left much time for a duct cleaning. Joe, the owner was very helpful on the phone. But what cinched it for me was that at the end of the call he said he would appreciate my business. Asking for the sale seems like a basic business thing to do but no one else did it. It worked and he got my business. Will came out and did the cleaning and it was very thorough. I followed along and he explained everything. Even though I was replacing my furnace two days later he did a thorough furnace cleaning on my old beast of a furnace so that the soot and crap in it didn't undo all the duct cleaning he had done. This proved especially helpful for the furnace install team a few days later as they had to take the old furnace apart to get it out. If it had been full of soot it would have been a mess. I like this firm and recommend them.