Our guarantee covers the labor and the install — not equipment failures the manufacturer already covers.

01 — Workmanship, definedWhat we're actually promising

Workmanship is the part we controlled: how the duct joints were sealed, whether the refrigerant lines were brazed clean and pressure-tested before the system was charged, whether the thermostat got a real low-voltage wire run to a common terminal instead of a battery-powered workaround, whether the condensate line was pitched to actually drain. If one of those fails because we did it wrong, that's on us, and we come back and fix it at no charge for labor.

Mastic on a duct joint should hold for the life of the ductwork. Tape doesn't — it lets go in a hot attic within a couple of summers, which is exactly why we don't use it on the joints we're responsible for. If a joint we sealed with mastic separates, that's a workmanship failure and it's covered.

02 — Equipment, separatedWhat the manufacturer covers instead

The condenser, the furnace's heat exchanger, the mini-split's compressor, the circuit boards inside a smart thermostat — those are built by someone else, and they carry that manufacturer's own warranty on its own terms. We register the equipment where the manufacturer requires it and we'll help you file that claim, but we don't extend our own guarantee to cover a part failure inside the unit itself. Naming a specific manufacturer term here would be a promise we can't actually keep on their behalf, so we don't — you get that paperwork at the time of install, tied to the specific unit that went in.

03 — What voids the guaranteeThe failure modes we see

The most common one: a different contractor opens the system later, maybe to add a room or chase a leak, and something they touched fails. We can't stand behind work we didn't do, so once another crew has been inside the system, our guarantee on that section ends. Second most common: the filter never gets changed, static pressure climbs, and the coil ices up or the blower motor burns out early — that's a maintenance failure, not an install defect, and it's why we push the seasonal tune-up plan on the maintenance page as hard as we do. Third: a power surge, a lightning strike or storm damage. None of that is something we built into the system, and none of it is covered.

04 — Filing a claimWhat actually happens when you call

Tell us the job address and what's going on — a room that won't cool, or a thermostat that stopped reading correctly. We schedule a visit, and on-site we open the panel or the attic access and look at what actually failed before we say which side of this page it falls under. If it's workmanship, there's no labor charge to correct it. If it's the equipment, we help you route the claim to the manufacturer and we'll still do the labor at our standard rate unless that manufacturer's program covers it.

We won't tell you a compressor failure is a workmanship issue to avoid an awkward conversation, and we won't tell you a duct joint we sealed is somehow the equipment's fault. Get it backwards either way and the next callout just costs more than it needed to.

05 — Related workWhere this connects

The seasonal tune-up plan described on the maintenance page exists partly to catch the maintenance failures listed above before they turn into a bigger repair — a coil checked twice a year doesn't ice over unnoticed. If you're not sure whether what you're seeing is workmanship, equipment, or just overdue maintenance, call before you assume; that call is free.