I connected with them to set up a NEST thermostat system and they were able to come out within a week. Ray was no only on time, he was early, he was friendly, was very cognizant of alerting me with regards to prices, and explained things very thoroughly. Overall a wonderful experience! Will definitely keep them in my mind in case of future needs!!

As thermostats hit 90 degrees, I wanted to get my HVAC system inspected plus get some routine maintenance. Apparently I wasn't the only one, as most places turned down my request for an estimate. Enter Home Upgrade Specialist. They were super fast to respond and equally fast in scheduling time to come out.

Elia came out to perform my service and inspection. He was incredibly knowledgeable, thoughtful, kind and patient with me as I asked questions.

I will absolutely use HUS again for HVAC, and likely other things. too.

Obviously, many people on Yelp have had a positive experience with Home Upgrade Specialist. Unfortunately, mine was frustrating although it started out quite good.
The very short version is: Well-priced for the equipment installed.
Communication and follow through and constant flake outs-absolutely terrible. 3 to 5 days turned into 7 weeks and counting to finish the details.

When I called up the company, I spoke with Tait on the phone and told him that we were looking to install a central air system in a single-family home in Westwood area. It had central heat but no cooling. Tait came out a few days later and looked at the project with me. He was polite, seemed professional and knowledgeable. We discussed a couple of approaches that would work well for this house. One, being a standard central air system and the other being the standard central air system plus a mini split for an addition. I do not live in this house and it is a rental house that was vacant with tenants scheduled to move in 2 1/2 weeks before the project started.

Tait made another visit with his installer and they saw that there was a lot of attic space so they came up with a new approach. We discussed it along with the homeowners who lived out of state and decided this new approach, while more expensive, would be the best option. All of the new ducts would come out of the ceiling and the old registers would be removed, capped and patched. All the external ducts would be painted.

When the job commenced a few days later, I would have rated them five stars. The work started when said they were going to and things were moving on target. My first cause for concern was when I went in the backyard and saw the compressor, which look like a small Volkswagen in a space that was supposed to be kept clear. It was discussed that the compressor would go all the way on the side of the yard next to a palm tree and be out of the way. I was not informed that there was a change and it was aesthetically shocking. After a few discussions and emails, I was told that the compressor could not go by the tree because it was too close to the property line. We could either basically be left where it was or go up on the roof. This would've been a really good discussion to have before they located the compressor and not after. The compressor stayed on the lawn moved over a bit.

A couple of days later when the system was in place and I went to see the inside of the house, I noticed an incredibly large 8-foot crack in the living room ceiling and then another 2 or 3 foot crack near that one. It was right below where they had suspended the furnace in the attic above. There were also a number of bumps and bruises in the hallway which was not surprising because that's where they hoisted up the furnace access to gain access to the attic. When I called Tait and told him about it I was asked am I sure that these cracks weren't already there. Mind you this house had gone through a nine month top to bottom renovation except for the AC prior to this and was in move-in shape. Needless to say, I was rather annoyed and I said yes I was sure and that it was in the location right where the furnace was suspended, what do you think happened? Of course by this time, I started to figure out that he had not been back to the job site since his initial visit with me and then the installer right after. As far as I know, that has been the case for the entire job.
Finally, that got resolved and the ceiling was patched but the hallway wasn't. I literally had to call and argue with him and another person at the office to get stuff touched up for about 2 1/2 more weeks. When that finally got resolved and it was patched but the registers were not patched-oh yes, that was also forgotten. Days later when someone was there to remove the registers and patch those, the worker patched and sealed up what was actually a mail slot for the US mail. While I can understand how this would happen since it looked similar to a register, the worker literally had to pull mail out of the slot before patching it. After three weeks, this was just a head scratcher and a joke and I went with it. I requested a new mailbox to be sent and I sent a number of links from Amazon.com starting at $20 of acceptable mailboxes that need to be mounted right away.
Guess what still hasn't happened three weeks later. I sent another round of links for mailboxes and they refused to purchase those as well. Tait then said he could restore the slot except that of course the door and hardware that used to be there was all gone. He had no answer for that. By this point I was really losing patience with this company. I also spoke with Eva at the office, again she was very polite and professional and I was told things to be handled but they just were not.

Mail box finally got mounted last week (7 weeks in) and external ducts painted.

All in all, its a good system, passed inspection but the end details were frustrating and dragged on.

We are so happy with our decision to use Home Upgrade Specialist (HUS) for our HVAC install. We live in a 2-story historic craftsman that has never been gutted (so, lathe & plaster, no natural channels for running duct, and a desire to keep it's historic integrity). We did already have central heating on the first floor through giant iron floor vents, but nothing on the 2nd floor, and no insulation. With new babies in the house, that was becoming unbearable with the recent heat waves we had.

First, we had to upgrade our electric panel to support HVAC. HUS handled that and coordinated all the inspections and permits.

Second, the HVAC. Given the magnitude of this, we certainly took our time making sure we were investing in what was best for us and the house. There was never any pressure from Simon and team to hurry up. They were always very up front with costs and estimates, and when I ran them by my contractor friends, try friends would say "yeah, sounds about right given what you have".

The easiest solution would have been to replace the 1st floor central and do mini-splits upstairs, but we were able to get creative and find channels in the roof chases to run duct. So we went for it and did full central HVAC - 2 separate systems. The cost wasn't much more than going for the mini-split option.

Once we were ready to go forward and had all our questions answered, the HUS team was ready to go on our schedule. A truck arrived on a Monday morning with all the equipment, and by Thursday, we had ice cold AC.

FINALLY, right before we went forward with install, we asked if it would be possible to move the floor vents to the wall (which I didn't think were think enough to support ducts and vents). Simon's foreman pod a visit and said it would be no problem at all and they could send a hardwood floor guy out after to fix the holes left in our floor.

So, in the end, this was a 3 phase job:
1. Upgrade electrical panel
2. Install dual zone HVAC system
3. Relocate floor vents and patch hardwood floor

And Simon and his team at Home Upgrade Specialist handled all of it (we separated steps 1 and 2 by a few months due to COVID). It was a large job, but Simon and his team handled it with ease and made sure to take consideration for our old home with its nuances that weren't meant for 21st century luxuries.

I would highly highly recommend Home Upgrade Specialists for HVAC installs - and particularly if you're wondering if it's possible in an old craftsman without compromising the character or charm of your home.

Edit on 6/30/2021 - The moment of truth has arrived with our new LADWP bill that includes a full 2-month period using our new system. It hardly made a dent! Overall, our May/June bill was $100 more than the March/April bill and it's actually $30 LESS than our same bill from 2020 when we were running portable units inside our home. So. wow wow wow wow WOW!

Thank you so much Elia! Quick response, detailed explanation, reasonable price, and great job done!
-Kevin

Very responsive. Explained job to be performed in detail. Flexible with schedule. Showed up on time and delivered as promised