Perhaps you have no clue what proper heating installation looks like, so you’re concerned that you won’t know whether the technician you hire is doing his job correctly. Well, here are some suggestions.
When you hire a professional to complete heating installation work in your home,
you want to make sure that the supposed “expert” is going to know how to do the job. Like other skilled professionals, though, you hired this technician because you, yourself do not know how to complete the heating installation job yourself. So how do you make sure the person that you’ve hired knows what he’s doing if you don’t know what he’s supposed to do?
Well, the obvious way is to wait until the work has been completed and see if your heating system actually works. The problem with that method, of course, is that if the job has been botched, you could be putting your family and your home in jeopardy by turning your heat on. Instead of waiting until it might be too late to tell that the person you hired didn’t really know his stuff, you can observe him while the work is in the process of being done.
First, you need to look in on the technician as he does his job. You see, in order to unobtrusively evaluate the heating installation professional you’ve hired, you want to find an excuse to observe his work without appearing to be evaluating his expertise. One possibility includes bringing (or offering) him water, coffee, or another type of beverage. Another would be double-checking the spelling of his company’s name for purposes of writing out a check (if they take checks, that is).
A third potential strategy could include bringing him pictures of your child, pet, or gall bladder surgery, as if you cannot help but share. (Of course, the third option should be considered only if you succumb to desperation; because obsessive behavior could make you appear less than sane, avoiding such appearances is preferred.)
Once you’ve created an arsenal of artifices, you’re ready to consider what kinds of behaviors would indicate that the heating installation might be something other than a professional job. Here are two tell-tale signs of amateur technician-ship:
1. Smoking on the Job
Only a ridiculously careless and unprofessional technician would consider lighting up anywhere near a residential heat source. Even the least knowledgeable individual knows that the outcome of the equation “gas + open flame” is not a good thing. If you even suspect that this behavior is a possibility, do not delay: Ask the technician to leave immediately.
2. Phoning a Friend
If he were on a game show, this would be acceptable, but if he needs to call someone to “talk him through” the process, he is clearly not yet ready to be working on his own. If you have a tech working solo, and yet you hear his voice extensively while he’s on the job, you know that either he’s chatting casually on your dime (and, thus, being distracted from the job at hand) or he’s incompetent on his own. Either way, your furnace deserves better.
If your heating installation job is being attempted by a non-professional technician, you need to find someone worthy of the work, instead.
