Sarkinen Plumbing Inc

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Summary - in Oct 2013 Sarkinen was hired to install a furnace in our home (back when they did that work), which included a 2 year warranty on the work. In September 2015 when we had our AC unit installed, we found out they installed the furnace

without the required permits and it was not installed correctly. Upon reaching out to them about this and some pushing, they tried to fix it. It failed inspection (vent cut, venting backwards, wrong chimney liner), and left us paying for a large portion of the repairs ourselves.



10/24/2013. Sarkinen installed a furnace in our home without the required permits and was not to code.



9/24/2015. The City inspected our AC installation and asked to told us there was no permit for the furnace and it was not installed to code. He said the venting was wrong, the insulation was missing, and the chimney liner was missing. I called Sarkinen that day. At first they said they don't do that kind of work anymore. When told the work is still covered by the 2 year warranty, they said they would send qualified technician to take a look.



10/5/2015. The tech was scheduled for 9-11 am and showed up at 1pm. He looked at the work and asked me what needed to be done. I told him the inspector said the vent was wrong, insulation was missing, and the chimney liner was missing. He then

called the inspector to ask about what materials should be used. I asked him 3 times if he knew how to do this work. Hey said yes, it was easy; he just wanted to make sure he did it the way the City wanted it. He then left for 2 hours to buy the parts and

came back at about 3pm and finished the work at ~6:30pm.



10/8/2015. The City inspector returned and said it was done wrong again. 1) the venting was cut. 2) One vent was backwards, as visible by the air flow direction arrow on the vent itself. 3) The wrong chimney liner was used. The inspector recommended we not use our furnace stating it was a safety issue and could damage our chimney. I called Sarkinen Plumbing. They spoke with the City inspector while I stood there and said they would call me back after talking with the technician and owner.



10/9/2015. Sarkinen called back. First they wanted my copy of the contract to see whether or not it spelled out that they were to do the chimney liner. I told them that based on how they installed the furnace, a chimney liner was required by Code. Second they were upset that the inspection was rescheduled and wanted to discuss that with the City. Not that it's relevant, but I told them the City scheduled it prior to speaking with me so it had to be rescheduled for when I was could be home. Then Sarkinen said their tech hadn't gotten back to them and all they had was my word that it wasn't done right. I pointed out they spoke with the City inspector's, plus the inspection slip stating corrections were needed. I told them they need to send a professional HVAC person to come out and do the job right or reimburse us to do it. They again needed to get back to me.



10/12/2015. Sarkinen emailed back. They said "what we are offering is that you hire a company to take care of the backwards venting portion only, whichever company you prefer, and when work is completed we will go 50/50 for the venting portion." They argued that the chimney liner wasn't in their scope so they won't pay for it (even though it's required by Code based on how they chose to install the furnace.)



10/14/15. After 17 hours of my time making phone calls and waiting around for people to fix the problem I found another company to repair it. The other company fixed it in a little over an hour, including the insulation that had mostly fallen off after only 3 days, and passed inspection.



I sent them the bill and they paid for only 50% of the repairs (after sending 3 emails due to no response requesting payment) to bring their furnace installation to code.

We had Sarkinen out to trouble shoot a water pressure problem, they showed up on time with with an up front price. They were considerate and friendly. A great company who's employees live and work in my community. They are certainly setting the standard for how a company should treat people.