Friday, March 11, 2011

There is something to be said...

About doing business with a company that has been around for a while. Getting three bids on a job and picking the lowest bid may not be the wisest choice. There are benefits in doing business with companies that may be a little higher on price. These established companies have been around longer and have been tested for their integrity and customer satisfaction levels. These companies have been able to maintain their reputations through the good and bad economic times. Bottom line, they have an easily obtainable "tract record" of how they do business.

In the field of radon mitigation, the above statements are certainly true. In more than 25 years of radon mitigation we have seen everything from “Central Vacuum System” installers mitigating homes, as well as plumbers and HVAC contractors. Even newly “certified” radon mitigators have cost homeowners large sums of money and delayed real estate transaction in an effort to break into a market. The cost to break into the market is at the expense of the customer and not the mitigator. The end result is a sub-standard work product. Take a look at the photo on the left. This is a system installed by a “certified” mitigator. The issues with his systems may not be obvious at first, but he has created a low point in the manifold ducting, which will collect water. This mistake is fairly common among inexperienced mitigators and will cause premature wear on the blower motor, noise throughout the house and not mention what is the homeowner going to do with all that water. How are they going to get rid of it? Call the mitigator every few months at the tune of $100 service call to empty the water? No, I do not think so. The system needs to be installed correctly.

Our point is this, we understand the cost of a service is certainly important and should be weighed, but it is not the only consideration. The expertise brought to the project and the quality of work is just as important. In other words at the end of the day, was the work performed right the first time and did the customer get what they paid for? These questions certainly are legitimate to ask. Take a look at the photo to the left. Mitigators out of the state of PA installed this system (yeah, here in Chesterfield, VA). Cost was the only consideration when considering radon mitigation. We were asked to fix the aesthetics of this system. This mitigator did not care what the system looked like. We know this because he put the system within three feet of the front door. With a little extra effort, we were able to locate the system in the garage and vent through the rear roof.

Please watch the clip below, it is about a family that had a radon issue and evidently chose unknowingly to go with a radon mitigator that was less than legitimate in his services and practices...
No one should have to go through something like this: