Howard in Nepean

In mid-February when the temperature dropped to -40C, the furnace failed and I received a call from the person who oversees the house when we are away. I immediately called Enercare and was told that since pipes were frozen, it couldn't get worse, so they took 18 hours to respond. By this time, all plumbing was frozen solid and copper pipes bulged and burst. The first tech determined that there was a melted flange at the fresh air intake of the high-efficiency furnace and patched it saying that a new flange would be delivered to our house to be installed. The flange arrived 2 days later and another tech came to install it. She determined the cause for the failure to be a cracked secondary heat ex-changer and red-tagged the furnace (at -40C outside temperature) and shut it off. We had several electric heaters plugged in to warm the area. [Question: why didn't the first tech find the real fault?] The replacement secondary heat ex-changer arrived the following day and I called to ask them to install it. When I was told it would be two days hence, I asked, in shock, "Are you for real?' and the person at Enercare simply hung up on me. The furnace is a Trane which is now 8 years old - it was purchased from and installed by Enercare, as well at a Carrier air-conditioner purchased and installed by Enercare about 3 years ago. In summary: 1 - Enercare failed to do emergency service in a timely manner, resulting in maximizing the damage to our house. When I spoke with a "supervisor" after having their receptionist hang up on me, he admitted that they "dropped the ball", but no remedial action was taken, nor was a technician dispatched earlier - I still had to wait the 2 days to get the heat ex-changer installed. 2 - Damaged to our house, fortunately well insured, exceeds $70,000; all plumbing had to be removed and reinstalled (all pipes, all faucets, some PVC pipes. Still to be determined damage to appliances (e.g., ice maker in refrigerator). In order to open the walls and ceilings to access the plumbing, tests of the walls revealed that they contained asbestos, which required a special haz-mat team to set up containment areas. 3 - Other HVAC services have told me that their mandated response time is 3 hours, not 18 like Enercare. Another HVAC shop who just performed the annual service told me that there was evidence that Enercare had not properly cleaned the system - the blower cage fan was very dirty and the flame sensor was also not clean [Enercare had serviced this in February 2016, 3 months ago.] I do NOT recommend Enercare.

Some of our 26 year old eaves-troughs needed replacing. I called 3 contractors, 2 of which actually showed up and gave me a quote. I selected Bronson Johnson based on their rating here as well as the fact that their quote was substantially lower than the other one I had. The work was done in a professional, honest and friendly manner; some of my old eaves-troughs were retained and two new sections across the front and back were installed. Some repairs were made to the soffits which had come apart. When the work was completed, they made sure there was no debris left on our driveway.