We decided we need to add AC to our house and replace the aging furnace when we moved in a couple years ago. I ended up reaching out to 7 companies for quotes because most of them said it was impossible to add AC to our house. One company told me our only option was to add mini-splits in every room.
Different companies had different ways of evaluating the house. Everyone focused on the fact that there wasn't enough vertical room in the garage to add evaporator coils, supposedly. Some measured every window, some did a quick video tour, and some just went off of square footage. Our sales person from Cardinal, Tom, gave the most thorough evaluation of what really mattered by focusing mostly on making sure there was enough return air vents to supply a unit of the size we were adding. Tom was very patient answering all of my questions providing helpful information without trying to push me towards more expensive options.
Our installers were incredibly hard working and did a great job. I think our lead installer was Jake. They had to reroute a duct to make enough space to add the evaporator coils, which no other company was willing to do! Jake didn't make it look easy, he had to fight for a couple hours to make it work, and he worked extremely hard to get the duct moved only a couple of feet.
It's been almost 2 years and we're extremely pleased with the work Cardinal did. We had a hard time deciding between traditional AC and a heat pump, but Tom gave us no nonsense advice that helped us decide on the heat pump, and our energy bills are thanking him...