New home HVAC inspection...

[jw33]

Would any HVAC folks be willing to take a look at a new house HVAC installtion and give it a once over to see if everything looks to be correct? The home is located in Prosper and it has two York LX units with a gas furnace. Like most things I've found in the home so far I suspect there may have been some shortcuts taken or just outright dumdassery commited. I already have a third party home inspector who has gone over the build once before the sheetrock went up and we are coming up on our first walk-through now that the house is 95% complete in about a week or two. I'd like to get a price and a general list of things that can be checked at this point.

[Who Needs 8]

Who's the builder?

[jw33]

Gallery

[jw33]

So about a week ago they had the electric meter installed and attempted to do the start-up on the HVAC. I walked into the house later that afternoon and the down stairs is cooler than outside, (maybe 83 degrees) but the upstairs is about 90 degrees. A quick glance at a few vents with a handheld IR gun verified the upstairs vents were blowing 90degree air and both upstair and downstair thermostats were set at 77. I went ahead and turned everything off for the weekend. It turned out that someone had driven a nail into one of the A/C lines and they made the repair the following day. Now everything is working alright however it just doesn't seem to cool down the house that much. In the downstairs it will get to around 78 by running all the time and the upstairs will barely hold 83. Also for some reason they installed the HVAC controls inside one of the upstairs bedrooms. I would think they would have put it some place more central like the game room? Could the system just need to be balanced or is it overfilled/underfilled with refrigerant? Could there have been damaged done to one of the compressors by running it with a leak for a full day?

[bard]

I guess you never found anyone. Big Bear AC works the area and I'm sure he or his brother will come check everything out and answer all your questions. Placing the thermostat in a bedroom sounds odd to me as well unless the return is also in there. If the house isn't sealed up and insulated then the units will never catch up . Even if it is buttoned up, the lack of window coverings will make it tough but it should reach set point.

[sdun]

How efficiently built the house was built will make more of a difference on how long they run to get to temp than the units themselves. If the windows are quality low-e units window coverings won't be the killer that it was in the past. Are the windows vinyl, aluminum, or wood? Is the attic insulation blown? Is the house decked with cool deck?
If everything is built with efficiency in mind the house should get cold and hold it there even empty.

[jw33]

The house is fairly well built/insulated/tight as far as I can tell. Has vinyl windows and blown insulation in the attic with the radiant barrier under the decking. The house is around 3900sqft, has some pretty high ceiling area in the living room, and the units are York LX 3.5 and 4 ton. I just don't think it is taking much heat out of the air. The vents do blow cool, but I don't think they are blowing as cool as they should. I'm really wondering too why they stuck the upstairs controls in a bedroom when there is a large open gameroom right on the other side of the same wall?

Compared to our house now, (10-yr old Ryland 1600sqft with a single Carrier) the new house doesn't even come close to cooling off as well. Right now I'm almost certain our attic insulation isn't as thick and I know the doors/windows are junk and it will down right freeze your ass out. It can get the temp down in the low 70's if you want it there even in the heat of the day. Just for the record we keep it at around 78-79 when we're home and only turn it down to 77 at night. We're not the kind of folks who try to keep the house at 70-72, ever.

[jw33]

So these fucking shysters have come out and jacked around with the system and it is still not working correctly. They are being pretty shady about what they are up to however I'm not a fucking retard. It's obvious they have added refrigerant and now the smaller unit that is for the upstairs is freezing up the suction line again which I believe indicates there is a leak somewhere. You wouldn't believe the hack job they did on the air handler/duct work in the attic. It looks like a 4-5 year old kid tore it apart and taped it back together. I swear building this house has completely gone to shit as of the last two weeks and I'm seriously at the point of telling them to keep the motherfucker and shove it up their ass sideways. The money we have involved at this point isn't that bad of a loss and I'm just tired of worrying about it.

[yellowstang]

A friend of mine had issues with a build and ended up walking away. Lost I think $2K in earnest money, but it was worth it as he would have spent more to cool the house down in the summer than the 2K he lost. There were other things too, but the AC/heat system was installed by monkeys.

[junk racing]

i can take a look at it, give me a call and we can discuss 972 989 7419