I Guaraaannnteeee!

I can still remember as a kid sitting with my dad (usually because I was being punished) on Saturday afternoon watching PBS. There was a guy who had a cooking show and his catch phrase was "I guaraaaannnteee".

As a contractor this word, guarantee, can be very tricky. When asked "Do you guarantee your work?" the first tendency is to respond "Of course I do!" As if to say "How dare you ask me such a question." But let's look deeper at this.

We'll use the HVAC trade for example since it is the one that I am the most familiar with. Most HVAC contractors give a 90 day guarantee on repairs and service work. This is because when you are dealing with a complex mechanical system that has so many moving parts there are things that can change in the system that you have no control over and may directly or indirectly affect the work that you have done on another part of the system.

As an HVAC contractor I also give a one year warranty on installations. This warranty covers the labor that I do, not the equipment. The equipment is covered by the manufacturer's warranty which is usually between 5 and 10 years. So the labor warranty basically covers if I make a mistake in the installation that causes a problem. Usually this means that I wired something up wrong or I didn't properly charge the unit with refrigerant. However, if the equipment fails within the first year even though the cost of the equipment is covered by the manufacturer, the labor to replace or repair the equipment is not and I charge the customer for this.

Another big aspect of the question of a contractor guarantee involves the customer and their willingness to do the job the right way. I will give two examples to illustrate.

1. I was recently involved in a project where the customer (the owner of a commercial building) had a leak about 5 feet below ground on a six inch water line in a parking lot. The customer called the contractor out. The contractor dug up the parking lot and located the leak. It seems that when the pipe was put in 15 years earlier the installer used the schedule 40 pipe instead of schedule 80. Because of this and the fact that the pipe had been damaged on installation, there was a leak in a portion of the pipe. The contractor suggested that the building owner replace the entire pipe. The building owner opted for a cheaper route and chose to have the contractor simply repair the leaky spot on the pipe. Three months later the pipe leaked at another spot.
Now the building owner is trying to get the contractor to come back and do this repair under warranty. NO WAY!

2. A customer of mine needed a new HVAC system. I gave her a price for the job which involved a new Air Handler and evap coil inside and a new Condensing unit outside. But she said she couldn't afford both and just wanted the outside unit replaced. I explained to her that while this would work it would be less efficient and would lead to the premature failure of the system. She wanted to do it anyway. Needless to say she was calling me back less than a year after I did the install. Needless to say I did not offer any warranty or guarantee on this job.

I know you all love those shows on HG TV like Holmes on Holmes. You know those shows that make contractors all look like money hungry idiots that don't know the difference between a wrench and a hammer and are out to take your money and ruin your house. While those shows do a good job of showing the shoddy work that contractors do, they don't show the part where the contractor explained to the homeowner how the job should be done and the homeowner explained to the contractor how they couldn't afford to do it that way and asked him to take a shortcut to save them money. Anybody can look like a hero when they have an unlimited budget, a thousand tv camera's, and some cool overalls!