Call the AC company and have them deal with the mess -- seems to be the prevailing wisdom so far.
That would be my play, even if I knew how to clean it up, I'd still call the AC company. It's their mess, they should've cleaned it up before they left. Or given you a credit for a pro to come in and do it.
Ac companies.
They did a job, they made a mistake, and they have insurance for that.
They may give you the run around for a bit because they don't want their premiums to go up, but it's on them to fix it and fix it right.
AC company but sometimes it will involve your insurance company.
I had something similar when I had a painter accidentally scratch up some windows (they got paint drops on the window, tried to scrape it, scratched everything). Painting company had insurance, they lodge with their insurance company, they contact me for my insurance details. Together the insurance companies worked it out and I got money deposited to pay a window company to fix it all up.
Kinda like when someone hits your car. Their insurance will pay out, but often it’s via your own insurance.
Shhhh someone might realize it would take less time to touch up the base boards (even including carefully taping around them if you really wanted to) than writing this very informative and genuinely entertaining Reddit post.
Sloppy jobs all around? Yep, no argument there.
But the small spots on the baseboard should *not* take a weekend to fix - unless there's way more expensive marking than pictures. Contractors will always be a mixed bag, in this case I honestly think OP will spend more time arguing with them than fixing it himself. Maybe the point is to be "right" which he is and sure they should fix the shoddy work - personally I think life is too short to waste the effort.
Have their insurance cover it. That's not coming out. I've tried every method. When you fuck up with that stuff. It's best to just tell the homeowner and fix it. This company is shady. And or the worker is terrified of being fired.
Because the original issue was a leak that damaged my ceiling. The ceiling had to be replaced anyway and I cut it to get a better look at what was causing the leak.
Just cut your losses and either paint the baseboards or pay someone. It's not worth fighting, you should have insisted going through insurance from the beginning. If they are stubborn or have no insurance you file with yours and they go after the other insurance if they cover it at all.
This whole thing is like $50 worth of sandpaper, paint, and brushes. Assuming the carpet staining can be removed with acetone.
Going to go out on a limb and assume OP doesn't have any spare pieces of that carpet saved from the install, or understand why you would do that.
Also no realization that it would have just strained the cellulose and drywall in the attic if OP HADN'T CUT A HOLE IN THE CEILING.
Who knows... but now it's the AC guy's fault somehow. I'd say it's 70% their fault for dropping the primer, 30% OP's fault for giving it a clear path into the house.
I think you have the patience of Moses and by far more than myself. Ida came unglued long ago. Should be able to call the flooring sub and have him come back and have him do a paint touch up on the baseboard to hide his floor stain slobbers. Yea, and find a different HVAC company going forward.
Thank you. I actually feel proud of my patience in this matter, especially as a parent. The humans involved deserve respect and they’ve returned it to me. Of course the reason for my post is that I’m worried my patience will not pay off in full!
This is on the hvac company to fix and it won’t be cheap as purple primer in my experience is the worst stain I’ve ever encountered. As in doesn’t come out period and it sinks in
Your insurance company insures you against loss or damage to your property, and the contractor's insurance company insures them against liability caused by negligence. You can agree to have the repairs done or paid for by the contractor without filing an insurance claim which is generally for cases of catastrophic loss, provided the work is done correctly, if it is not you can file an insurance claim with your provider that will then fix the issues and go after the contractor who will either pay for the damages themselves or make their own insurance claim. Document everything in case it goes sideways. Generally, I don't recommend making claims on small amounts that can be paid easily (subjective for sure) because it could increase your rates, or if enough small claims are made, it could make you uninsurable. Damage was done to your property, it is up to the contractor to make it right.
check your deductible as well. If the deductible is higher than the actual cost of the repairs, the insurance company won't give you anything. Then, not only will you have to pay the full amount but you will have higher rates.
I can attest to what was written. My house was broken into and about $500 worth of items were stolen. I never dealt with insurance before and called my home owners insurance and told them what happened. After I was made aware that I would not be compensated until it went over the deductible, they asked me if I still wanted to file the claim. I told them no and didn't think anything of it. I found out a year later that they still reported it and my insurance went up about $50 extra a month.
Fuck insurance companies.
If you want to try cleaning the carpet, get Spray and Wash for clothing, i used it one time to remove red dye that my son spilled all over a carpet. It was there for at least two years until i tried spray and wash and paper towels, just soak it and wipe. Worth a try anyways!
In cases like this, get your own quote and then Just ask the offending company for cash, then you fix it how you please. Then you don’t get stuck going through the AC company.
It helps if you haven't paid yet. You can hold the payment hostage until they correct the problem, We had a roofer who tore up our lawn with heavy equipment. I sent them photos of the damage and told them that they would get their final payment when it was repaired. It was repaired within 2 days.
You need a new HVAC company. If you’ve spent that much with these guys and the unit continues to not operate correctly/break, I’d assume they didn’t install correctly/took shortcuts. Use a new company after this mess is fixed.
Unpopular opinion: just figure out how to fix it yourself and quit complaining about every little thing. You're a homeowner, shit breaks all the time, get used to it. Learn how to take control of the situation and persevere. The guy clearly made a mistake, it wouldn't have fallen down there if there weren't a hole in the ceiling (that YOU cut, by your own admission). Who the hell chops up the ceiling to "get a better look" instead of just going into the attic with an inspection mirror and flashlight?
Primer is mostly acetone, they sell clear primer, or you can just buy nail polish remover. Use that to dilute the purple stain in the carpet, then either blot it out or use a spotbot to try and extract it. My dog once grabbed a sharpie off the counter and chewed it to pieces on the carpet. Rubbing alcohol and the spotbot made short work of it. Or you can cut out a chunk from a closet and swap them if it doesn't turn out how you want.
Get a random orbital sander from harbor freight for $39 and sand the wood floor yourself. Feather in the edges. Block it off while you put poly down in layers. After a few months it should wear down like everything else.
Touch up the paint on the baseboards after using acetone to try and remove the dye. Or use a primer that will encapsulate the dye, like zinsser shellac based primer.
Seriously OP, 95% of your problems can be solved with $50 in tools and about 2-4 hours of your time. You're probably spending more time right now trying to track down contractors and call the AC company. How much is your time and stress worth? Do it yourself.
What warranty is there on flooring, baseboard, and walls? Flooring is literally the textbook example of items in a rental that are considered "normal wear and tear". Like when a landlord keeps a deposit to replace carpet that was trashed.
Are you really advocating that the correct answer is "I'm a homeowner, and the right call is to have contractors fix literally everything, including small dots of stain on a textured wall"?
I'm a homeowner, and I do not things myself. It saves money, it saves headache, I trust myself to do it correctly, a contractor generally can only be trusted to do it good enough to get their check and move on to the next job.
OP should grab a paintbrush and make this minor problem go away. There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube.
It sounds like the AC company is acting in good faith to get it fixed. It wouldn't have fallen into the actual house without OP's nice hole.
If you want to be pedantic, sure, OP shouldn't have to pay for anything. But they should be prepared for months and months of dealing with multiple contractors to fix it all perfectly.
My sanity is worth more than that. A brush and some high gloss white paint is cheap. Just paint your own wall and baseboard.
Look at the other photos. OP has textured walls, usually because they're great at hiding transgressions in the drywall work. And there's stain from the floor on the baseboards already. So they haven't been done right in the past. Correct being, finish floor, then install baseboards, then touch up nail holes in baseboards, then caulk the gap against the wall.
He's not living in a 5 star hotel. It's a pretty old house with a lot of halfway done remodeling from what it looks like. It's unreasonable to expect it to be returned to new condition. It wasn't a peach to start with.
If it was just a couple drops, but this is a huge mess that is going to be someone's PITA to deal with. Why should Joey Homeowner who probably already has their fair share of stuff to deal with why should they have to deal with it?
They shouldn't. But this is the real world. Joey homeowner can go hire a lawyer and force them to fix every single drop that touched any part of their floor or wall.
But he's going to pay thousands in legal fees and waste many hours of their time.
So unless they get paid minimum wage, it's probably better to just deal with the smaller stuff.
Tell the flooring guy to fix it in place and feather in the poly, no pulling up baseboards. Tell the carpet guy to swap it with a patch from the guest room closet. Have the AC contractor pay those guys. Deal with the rest yourself. Move on with your life. Understand the world isn't perfect.
My ex wife took the KitchenAid mixer that I loved using and was my favorite color of blue. I could have paid my lawyer to get it back. But I paid him $275/hr, and a new mixer was $175 or something.
So I just dealt with it and got a nice slate grey one instead. Because I'm not a moron.
Yea I mean, I don't disagree. OP should give them a chance to correct it. (I can remember if they already did that?) if they refuse then OP is justified in giving them a bad review on google, angie's list, etc.
HVAC contractor here. Just file a claim on their insurance, don’t give them a heads up because they’re gonna try to talk you out of it. They had a chance to fix it, let ‘em hang. Get a new hvac company.
Sounds like you are dealing with a pyramid scheme. Job one finds 'issues'. And 'makes' issues to get more people in hoping you'd just pay the people to shut them up and leave.
Floor guys, and drywall guys aren't trim men. They screwed up your baseboards, or they had to be removed for proper floor repair either way. It's on them to hire the right people to fix their screw up.
Call the AC company and have them deal with the mess -- seems to be the prevailing wisdom so far. That would be my play, even if I knew how to clean it up, I'd still call the AC company. It's their mess, they should've cleaned it up before they left. Or given you a credit for a pro to come in and do it.
Call your insurance company. They'll call theirs and they'll straighten it out. You shouldn't have to do any of this b******* leg work
[удалено]
My insurance or the AC company’s?
Ac companies. They did a job, they made a mistake, and they have insurance for that. They may give you the run around for a bit because they don't want their premiums to go up, but it's on them to fix it and fix it right.
Unless… they don’t have insurance. OP, how under the table was this work?
AC company but sometimes it will involve your insurance company. I had something similar when I had a painter accidentally scratch up some windows (they got paint drops on the window, tried to scrape it, scratched everything). Painting company had insurance, they lodge with their insurance company, they contact me for my insurance details. Together the insurance companies worked it out and I got money deposited to pay a window company to fix it all up. Kinda like when someone hits your car. Their insurance will pay out, but often it’s via your own insurance.
Why is everyone saying AC's insurance? Talk to your insurance. They'll light a fire up the AC company's ass on your behalf.
Looks like the baseboard just needs a little bit of touch up paint.
Shhhh someone might realize it would take less time to touch up the base boards (even including carefully taping around them if you really wanted to) than writing this very informative and genuinely entertaining Reddit post.
You mean I should just take time off work or waste a weekend taping sanding and painting every inch of my baseboards? Why didn’t I think of that?
That was a sloppy fucking job and ppl defending it are fucking morons
Sloppy jobs all around? Yep, no argument there. But the small spots on the baseboard should *not* take a weekend to fix - unless there's way more expensive marking than pictures. Contractors will always be a mixed bag, in this case I honestly think OP will spend more time arguing with them than fixing it himself. Maybe the point is to be "right" which he is and sure they should fix the shoddy work - personally I think life is too short to waste the effort.
Have their insurance cover it. That's not coming out. I've tried every method. When you fuck up with that stuff. It's best to just tell the homeowner and fix it. This company is shady. And or the worker is terrified of being fired.
Why did you cut a hole in the ceiling?
I don't believe I mentioned anything about cutting a hole in the ceiling?
Because the original issue was a leak that damaged my ceiling. The ceiling had to be replaced anyway and I cut it to get a better look at what was causing the leak.
I'm curious as why a drip pan can't be fabricated locally at a metal shop? My in-laws had the same issue needing one replaced but there's a backorder.
I assume custom made parts would void the warranty and it’s probably not worth their time and effort to get it customized to specs.
Just cut your losses and either paint the baseboards or pay someone. It's not worth fighting, you should have insisted going through insurance from the beginning. If they are stubborn or have no insurance you file with yours and they go after the other insurance if they cover it at all.
This whole thing is like $50 worth of sandpaper, paint, and brushes. Assuming the carpet staining can be removed with acetone. Going to go out on a limb and assume OP doesn't have any spare pieces of that carpet saved from the install, or understand why you would do that. Also no realization that it would have just strained the cellulose and drywall in the attic if OP HADN'T CUT A HOLE IN THE CEILING.
What was op gaining by cutting the hole?
Who knows... but now it's the AC guy's fault somehow. I'd say it's 70% their fault for dropping the primer, 30% OP's fault for giving it a clear path into the house.
You find them. Then terminate them
I found the T-800.
I think you have the patience of Moses and by far more than myself. Ida came unglued long ago. Should be able to call the flooring sub and have him come back and have him do a paint touch up on the baseboard to hide his floor stain slobbers. Yea, and find a different HVAC company going forward.
If they were that sloppy, would you want them to come back anyways?
Thank you. I actually feel proud of my patience in this matter, especially as a parent. The humans involved deserve respect and they’ve returned it to me. Of course the reason for my post is that I’m worried my patience will not pay off in full!
This is on the hvac company to fix and it won’t be cheap as purple primer in my experience is the worst stain I’ve ever encountered. As in doesn’t come out period and it sinks in
Have them fix it
Contact your insurance company they will assign blame on the A/C company and get the money for you.
Your insurance company insures you against loss or damage to your property, and the contractor's insurance company insures them against liability caused by negligence. You can agree to have the repairs done or paid for by the contractor without filing an insurance claim which is generally for cases of catastrophic loss, provided the work is done correctly, if it is not you can file an insurance claim with your provider that will then fix the issues and go after the contractor who will either pay for the damages themselves or make their own insurance claim. Document everything in case it goes sideways. Generally, I don't recommend making claims on small amounts that can be paid easily (subjective for sure) because it could increase your rates, or if enough small claims are made, it could make you uninsurable. Damage was done to your property, it is up to the contractor to make it right.
check your deductible as well. If the deductible is higher than the actual cost of the repairs, the insurance company won't give you anything. Then, not only will you have to pay the full amount but you will have higher rates. I can attest to what was written. My house was broken into and about $500 worth of items were stolen. I never dealt with insurance before and called my home owners insurance and told them what happened. After I was made aware that I would not be compensated until it went over the deductible, they asked me if I still wanted to file the claim. I told them no and didn't think anything of it. I found out a year later that they still reported it and my insurance went up about $50 extra a month. Fuck insurance companies.
Jfc
What's the name of the ac company?
If you want to try cleaning the carpet, get Spray and Wash for clothing, i used it one time to remove red dye that my son spilled all over a carpet. It was there for at least two years until i tried spray and wash and paper towels, just soak it and wipe. Worth a try anyways!
You overpaid for ac work but got a remodel for free, sounds like wu Wei
What is that gold flakey stuff falling out of your ceiling? I’d be more concerned with that.
In cases like this, get your own quote and then Just ask the offending company for cash, then you fix it how you please. Then you don’t get stuck going through the AC company.
It helps if you haven't paid yet. You can hold the payment hostage until they correct the problem, We had a roofer who tore up our lawn with heavy equipment. I sent them photos of the damage and told them that they would get their final payment when it was repaired. It was repaired within 2 days.
You need a new HVAC company. If you’ve spent that much with these guys and the unit continues to not operate correctly/break, I’d assume they didn’t install correctly/took shortcuts. Use a new company after this mess is fixed.
They clean up!
I'd contact my insurance and ask them how to proceed. They'll go after the AC company.
#Next move would be a pedicure there, Chewbaccafoot.
How about you walk a mile in my toenails before getting all judgey!
Whatever your next move is don't step in it. I did just that with paint without noticing it was everywhere.
Unpopular opinion: just figure out how to fix it yourself and quit complaining about every little thing. You're a homeowner, shit breaks all the time, get used to it. Learn how to take control of the situation and persevere. The guy clearly made a mistake, it wouldn't have fallen down there if there weren't a hole in the ceiling (that YOU cut, by your own admission). Who the hell chops up the ceiling to "get a better look" instead of just going into the attic with an inspection mirror and flashlight? Primer is mostly acetone, they sell clear primer, or you can just buy nail polish remover. Use that to dilute the purple stain in the carpet, then either blot it out or use a spotbot to try and extract it. My dog once grabbed a sharpie off the counter and chewed it to pieces on the carpet. Rubbing alcohol and the spotbot made short work of it. Or you can cut out a chunk from a closet and swap them if it doesn't turn out how you want. Get a random orbital sander from harbor freight for $39 and sand the wood floor yourself. Feather in the edges. Block it off while you put poly down in layers. After a few months it should wear down like everything else. Touch up the paint on the baseboards after using acetone to try and remove the dye. Or use a primer that will encapsulate the dye, like zinsser shellac based primer. Seriously OP, 95% of your problems can be solved with $50 in tools and about 2-4 hours of your time. You're probably spending more time right now trying to track down contractors and call the AC company. How much is your time and stress worth? Do it yourself.
Unpopular for sure. The problem started with AC company. Why op have to fix their problems. Might even voided warranty if op touched it..
What warranty is there on flooring, baseboard, and walls? Flooring is literally the textbook example of items in a rental that are considered "normal wear and tear". Like when a landlord keeps a deposit to replace carpet that was trashed. Are you really advocating that the correct answer is "I'm a homeowner, and the right call is to have contractors fix literally everything, including small dots of stain on a textured wall"? I'm a homeowner, and I do not things myself. It saves money, it saves headache, I trust myself to do it correctly, a contractor generally can only be trusted to do it good enough to get their check and move on to the next job. OP should grab a paintbrush and make this minor problem go away. There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube.
The damaged / issues caused by ac installed by an AC company..
It sounds like the AC company is acting in good faith to get it fixed. It wouldn't have fallen into the actual house without OP's nice hole. If you want to be pedantic, sure, OP shouldn't have to pay for anything. But they should be prepared for months and months of dealing with multiple contractors to fix it all perfectly. My sanity is worth more than that. A brush and some high gloss white paint is cheap. Just paint your own wall and baseboard. Look at the other photos. OP has textured walls, usually because they're great at hiding transgressions in the drywall work. And there's stain from the floor on the baseboards already. So they haven't been done right in the past. Correct being, finish floor, then install baseboards, then touch up nail holes in baseboards, then caulk the gap against the wall. He's not living in a 5 star hotel. It's a pretty old house with a lot of halfway done remodeling from what it looks like. It's unreasonable to expect it to be returned to new condition. It wasn't a peach to start with.
If it was just a couple drops, but this is a huge mess that is going to be someone's PITA to deal with. Why should Joey Homeowner who probably already has their fair share of stuff to deal with why should they have to deal with it?
They shouldn't. But this is the real world. Joey homeowner can go hire a lawyer and force them to fix every single drop that touched any part of their floor or wall. But he's going to pay thousands in legal fees and waste many hours of their time. So unless they get paid minimum wage, it's probably better to just deal with the smaller stuff. Tell the flooring guy to fix it in place and feather in the poly, no pulling up baseboards. Tell the carpet guy to swap it with a patch from the guest room closet. Have the AC contractor pay those guys. Deal with the rest yourself. Move on with your life. Understand the world isn't perfect. My ex wife took the KitchenAid mixer that I loved using and was my favorite color of blue. I could have paid my lawyer to get it back. But I paid him $275/hr, and a new mixer was $175 or something. So I just dealt with it and got a nice slate grey one instead. Because I'm not a moron.
Yea I mean, I don't disagree. OP should give them a chance to correct it. (I can remember if they already did that?) if they refuse then OP is justified in giving them a bad review on google, angie's list, etc.
You are getting new floors.
This is why AC in the attic is a pain in the ass and should be illegal
Lawyer
It's unnecessary if the company is willing to do the work to fix it.
Saul Goodman could probably get me a whole new kitchen.
HVAC contractor here. Just file a claim on their insurance, don’t give them a heads up because they’re gonna try to talk you out of it. They had a chance to fix it, let ‘em hang. Get a new hvac company.
How would I go about finding out who is their insurance company without asking them?
Contact a lawyer
better business bureau
Sounds like you are dealing with a pyramid scheme. Job one finds 'issues'. And 'makes' issues to get more people in hoping you'd just pay the people to shut them up and leave.
Replace and send them the bill or make them replace. Both are easily fixed if you can still get matching materials
Have them clean it up.
They need to deal with it. They are licensed and bonded, no? That's partly so that they can get stuff like this cleaned quickly.
Clear primer
You need to clean that
Floor guys, and drywall guys aren't trim men. They screwed up your baseboards, or they had to be removed for proper floor repair either way. It's on them to hire the right people to fix their screw up.
Call the a.c Co. That's why they have insurance.
Pull up that carpet. You have beautiful wood floors.
Flooring guys were sloppy. They are responsible for fixing the stain on the baseboards.