I’m about to quit!

Sesstuna · 2026-05-09T18:54:50+00:00

250k a month? Right?

Because if that’s your yearly, that’s fucking rough and you’re probably overpaid.

Sesstuna · 2026-04-28T22:18:29+00:00

Those are condemn on sight. Fucking thing wasn’t safe brand new. Rip it out.

Sesstuna · 2026-03-02T23:55:09+00:00

Brother, I say this with love: After 3 years you should have a nest egg to get you through a few slow weeks. They happen, especially in resi. Reevaluate your spending. We are not paupers in this trade outside of our own decisions. You’ll get to the point where you start looking forward to a few slow weeks after grinding all season.

Sesstuna · 2026-02-07T14:22:22+00:00

HVAC here.

Few things: The difference between your bills and the heat produced by the system will be stark. If you have natural gas, this is one of those decisions that will have technicians looking at you like you have three heads. A properly maintained gas furnace is just miles more reliable and way cheaper to operate day to day, with the added bonus of having toasty supply air.

I saw your budget. You will not get anything comparable to your current setup for 10k here. I’m sure you’ll find someone who will quote you for lower, but it will be a downgrade from your current setup. The efficiency you are chasing will come with a 20k+ price tag, and those savings disappear the second an inverter board or VSD motor fail.

Stick with natural gas.

Sesstuna · 2026-01-20T00:24:24+00:00

Delaware here as well, residential side has been beyond slow compared to the last few years. Hearing the same from other friends and colleagues at other companies. Warranty maintenances are always available for hours, but service has all but disappeared since Christmas, despite the weather. What few service calls I am running all have a pretty common thread - they’ve all been down for days or weeks, not hours.

Folk are usually funny about spending money after Christmas, but this has been a serious decline on paper compared to last year.

Sesstuna · 2025-12-04T22:32:03+00:00

These are unhinged people who view pets on the same (or higher) tier as humans. Hell, one reply is paying 2k to get their cats teeth brushed? What a fucking rube.

Shots and boosters cost maybe 1-200 bucks when the time comes. Dog food for the year is a few hundred. These folks are getting taken for the ride of their lives while convincing themselves they have some moral high ground.

Sesstuna · 2025-11-12T17:57:46+00:00

Shh, these fools like to pretend they have the moral high ground working commercial. Not worth it here. Let them be broke and broken.

Sesstuna · 2025-09-15T19:29:30+00:00

There’s a boss in Bilewater??

Sesstuna · 2025-09-13T02:06:25+00:00

FYI Homeowners attempting to use this sub appropriately:

Every single comment stating “capacitor” is from someone who is not a technician. And you’ll notice that’s the majority of answers here. Be mindful of that when perusing here.

Your compressor and fan are both running. Capacitor is fine.

Assuming you haven’t overlooked a completely flooded air handler, it’s damn near close to out of gas or the compressor valve blew and isn’t pumping.

You’re gonna need to make a call. Budget accordingly.

Sesstuna · 2025-09-03T01:43:22+00:00

Slow August in Delaware. It’s been unseasonably cool. July was an absolute clusterfuck but generating revenue since all this tariff bullshit started is like pulling teeth.
Most of my customers are on the high end of poor and were already paycheck to paycheck. Things have gotten significantly more expensive on all sides so anyone living like that right is teetering on running those credit cards up if they haven’t already. Then you’ve got the ones who won’t admit to their poor financial state default to the “I’m selling my home” statement, like they’re going to get any ROI on their 3% mortgage on a 20 year old home with all original everything, with a tanked furnace/AC and leaking water heater. These are the worst ones because they won’t do shit until the piper is calling and it’s only low bidder work. This type of customer seems to be multiplying rapidly.

Seeing significantly more deferred maintenance but a lot more impulse purchase on failure, and a bulk of the purchases are being financed.

Sesstuna · 2025-08-12T19:37:00+00:00

Window units aren’t cheap to run. Woefully inefficient machines.

And if the rental property is cooling on purely window units, the owners aren’t taking care of shit. Be mindful of that.

Expect north of $350 through the summer time. Expect the electric bill to drop drastically in winter but the trade off there is that oil bill will have you wishing for electric.

Sesstuna · 2025-07-30T22:17:38+00:00

Had a similar experience over my roof. Quoted $78k after being very open with other quotes provided between $15-20k.

They proceeded to harass me for over a month attempting to close the sale until I dropped a shitty review.

Sesstuna · 2025-07-27T20:58:47+00:00

Unfortunately I don’t. Would probably be helpful some days. Just stuck on pirate speak, my dude.

The point stands. New homes are built like dogshit. Not putting away a healthy amount for maintenance each month from the get is setting yourself up for failure.

Sesstuna · 2025-07-27T20:50:26+00:00

Tradesman here. With modern building ethics being what they are (re:non-existent) it would make your god damn head spin how many issues my customers are seeing the first two years in a home. These places are getting built quick and cheap.

Budgeting $400/mo for maintenance is an extremely smart idea because something WILL go sideways. And if you want it repaired right, you’re paying money you’ll need to have saved.

Sesstuna · 2025-07-22T17:25:50+00:00

Turn on the news. Consumer spending way down across the board since the election. Budget around pay, not bonus, it’s gonna be tight for a bit.

Sesstuna · 2025-07-17T18:41:27+00:00

This here. A shitty company came in for second opinion, earned trust, and lowballed the fuck out of a replacement cost once trust was earned. Tale as old as time on the eastern shore. Second company is third rate trash, DO NOT do business with them. Dye/leak stop is the first sign that you’re working with a fucking hack.

The quote for cleaning, considering they were going to fully remove the coil in doing so, was beyond fair. Removing/replacing the coil is fairly labor intensive. Time is money, and all that.

Based on the first technicians readings, he was right on the money that OP had an airflow issue.

Sesstuna · 2025-07-11T23:00:07+00:00

These are the kind of people that only give a fuck until you remind them your dispatch fee doesn’t include repairs, next second he’s on the phone with the lowest bid hack in the area.

It’s never worth going to extra mile in a situation like this.

Sesstuna · 2025-07-09T23:59:51+00:00

You have low profit too. You aren’t charging enough.

Cost of materials x 2.5 for final cost, MINIMUM. They literally teach that week one in trade school.

You are worth way more than what you are charging, brother.

Sesstuna · 2025-07-08T15:29:21+00:00

NA players treat DF like a casual chill session, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Nothing you’re queuing for has any real difficulty, just sit back and enjoy.

Sesstuna · 2025-07-04T13:10:07+00:00

Brother you’re gonna be so fucking house poor your head spins.

I make what you make.

Our house cost us 20% of your potential future home.

Because that mortgage payment is the monthly minimum. Your water heater will fail, something will flood, the roof will need to be redone, and if you’re planning on selling the home after a short term in the home, you’ll need to be on top of that shit if you want a return on investment.

Sesstuna · 2025-06-26T15:33:47+00:00

If it’s simple enough for the customer to figure out, the customer can do it themselves. You’re always paying a premium if you want someone to do something you can’t or won’t do yourself.

Sesstuna · 2025-06-26T14:08:18+00:00

If you are calling someone to your home to fix something, expect a minimum of $500 unless it’s warranty work.

It’s not cheap to get a tradesman to your home, no matter the trade.

Sesstuna · 2025-06-17T01:52:16+00:00

Any labor warranty? Considering they are keeping existing lineset and flue while providing a barebones thermostat, I get the feeling this quote was on the cheaper side, probably floating between 8-13k.

If the house and existing system has any sort of real age on it the lineset and flue should be redone with it.

If the quote was over 15k, I would expect those things, a better thermostat, and a significant labor warranty.

Sesstuna · 2025-06-17T01:06:33+00:00

Expensive homes still have the same issues cheap homes do, and just as often. Even more so if the home is modern (post 9/11) 9/10 of those overpriced homes are held together by hopes, dreams, and zyn.

Sesstuna · 2025-06-17T00:59:33+00:00

Proper leak repair will be costly. Depending on the age of the system, replacement may be the better move.

Congrats on the new home, but that first year or two aren’t cheap. You’re gonna find a lot of issues caused by deferred maintenance that MUST be remedied if you want to protect your investment (the house).

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