All of our service personnel are highly trained in their field of expertise and have been background and drug tested. Our hiring policies are very strict and we have found that only about one in twenty applicants qualify to be considered as employees.

We have the old philosophy that the best place for an unqualified, unethical, or drug using service technician is working for our competition, and those that we have turned away are doing just that.

Absolutely not! It is our philosophy that commissioned service programs create an unnecessary temptation for a service person to sell a customer something that they don't need. About sixty percent of our competitors utilize a commission type compensation program. The owners of Gundlach's when asked why they don't pay this way would ask you if "you would trust a service technician's diagnosis of your plumbing or air conditioning system if you knew that the higher the repair cost, the more money he would put in his pocket?"

As far as we know, we are the only service contractor in town that offers a two year service repair warranty for our residential customers. We also have a no hassle warranty policy. If we made a mistake, we will be more than happy to correct it. We have had some customers that have used Gundlach's for their entire lives and we would like to keep you as one as well.

Every preferred customer saves about 15% on any plumbing or air conditioning service work performed. You will also receive a quarterly news letter with special offers and best of all you will receive around the clock service if you need us in an emergency. We will also give you a gift certificate for sending your friend our way.

All you have to do is set up a maintenance program on either your plumbing or air conditioning system. Most of our customers have found that they save enough on repairs over the years that it pays for itself.

Yes, you will save on power consumption. The amount will depend on the age and quality of your existing system and what you choose as its replacement. We would be glad to set up an appointment with one of our comfort system experts to evaluate your existing system and provide you with a few options.

We are the only contractor that we are aware of that now offers a utility savings guarantee. If you do not save what we tell you we will write you a check for the difference for that following year. Most contractors are not willing to do this because so much of the efficiency of a new unit depends on the quality of the installation. All of our installations are permitted, duct tested, and certified by our own quality control personnel to ensure that you get the highest saving possible out of your new system.

Gundlach's is the only contractor in town that we are aware of that provides what we call a turn key re-piping program. We replace all the piping in your home with a combination of type L copper pipe and A-Pex type tubing. Any exposed piping will be in copper and all of the valves, hose bibs, and angle stops under the sinks will be new. During the project your home will be protected with drop cloths and plastic zip walls. You will not have to leave for a week for us to do the work if you don't want to. We will make sure that you always have one operational bathroom prior to leaving each day.

After the plumbing is finished it will be inspected by the city or county building department. Then our drywall contractor comes in and patches and textures all of the holes that were put in the walls to accommodate the new piping. The final step in the process is clean up. We have a professional house cleaning service come in and clean your home of any drywall dust etc. All you have left to do is a little painting.

Yes and No. You have to pay to install one before you can save anything. The cost of installation of a quality tankless water heater of the proper size for your home can be between $2,000.00 and $4,000.00. You can buy a lot of gas for that kind of money, so your return on investment is relatively poor. New air conditioning systems provide much better returns on investment. The primary reason for installing a tankless water heater is so that you will have an endless supply of hot water. If you have a large family or a large tub or shower, tankless water heaters are nice to have and less expensive to operate than larger tank type water heaters. Tankless water heaters don't require a great deal of space either.

It depends on what you would like to achieve. If you just want some better than bottle quality drinking water you may want to consider an under the sink R.O. unit. We do not recommend it for families with small children because most of the fluoride and other minerals needed for healthy bones and teeth are removed along with contaminants. If you have small children and want better drinking water, a good quality multi-staged media filter system would be best.

If you want to filter your water for the entire home we recommend a whole house filtration system that is auto back-flushing. This provided good tasting and healthy drinking water at every faucet in the home but does not soften the water. If you wish to have soft water a good quality softener would be required up stream of the filter. When selecting any filtration or water softening equipment be sure that it is NSF/ANSI 44 certified. Any water softening system that does not carry this label is not up to current building code and will reduce the available water pressure in the home. All of our Pro Series products that we offer are certified.

When choosing a new air conditioning system there are two test criterias that are used. The SEER rating for air conditioning equipment is an efficiency rating that is tested at 82° F outside air temperature. This test is fine for areas of the country like Florida or Texas where the high humidity requires that systems run at 82° F. Here in Bakersfield, 82° F weather is window weather. Due to our dryer climate, we typically do not run our air conditioning units until the temperature outside reaches over 90° F.

Here in Bakersfield we have always relied on the EER efficiency rating to determine an accurate operational efficiency of air conditioning equipment. The EER is tested at 95° F. We have found in some cases that equipment with a higher SEER rating can have the same EER rating of a 13 SEER unit. With cost differences up to $3000.00 for higher efficiency equipment you may never get your money back through savings in electrical usage.

If you would like some more information the PG&E web sight has a good article that explains more on the subject.

There are some rebates available at this time. PG&E is offering a duct sealing rebate that will pay you to test and seal your ductwork system and a $200-$400 rebate for high efficiency furnace installations. The amount of the rebate depends on equipment size and efficiency. Manufacturers rebate are available on some higher end products. Please contact us for an appointment so we can show you some of the choices that are currently available.

No! The only time that an air conditioning system should need additional refrigerant is if some of the refrigerant charge has leaked out. If your system is low on refrigerant then there is a system leak that is in need of a repair. We have found that adding refrigerant has become a common scam among our competitors that pay on a commission basis. You see, the technician can't make any money unless he sells you something.

If a technician says that your system is low on Freon, your follow-up question should be; "did you find the leak?" Chances are, if it is a scam the tech will fumble and bumble around and start telling you that it can leak out the access ports etc. Your next question is "weren't there any caps on the ports?" It is competitors like these that give our industry a bad name.

The coupon is for residential customers only and is only valid when used in conjunction with an approved flat rate repair. All of our technicians have a flat rate book that provides pricing for common repair tasks. The typical service invoice will consist of a trip or diagnostic charge plus the flat rate repair cost. Once the repair is finished just present the coupon and the technician will remove the trip or diagnostic charge from the ticket.

If you do not approve the flat rate repair cost you will be responsible for payment of the trip or diagnostic charge.

The flat rate repair system has been developed so that our customers will know what their repair cost will be prior to starting the work. We have developed a book with all the most common repairs and cost associated with that repair. We have found that our customers prefer this system.

We have discovered that most customers are not comfortable with the old "time and material" system. They were never sure what the bill would be, and didn't think it was fair to pay extra for the less experienced or slower technician.

Under the flat rate system you are not charged extra to go pick up a part, or extra labor required because the technician didn't have the correct parts or tools for the job. The flat rate system forces us to keep our technicians well supplied and trained. The more efficient we are as a service company, the more profitable we become. Many of our competitors on the old "time and material" system are more profitable when their people are poorly trained, poorly stocked and unorganized. We just didn't think that would be fair to our customers. Do you?

It is best to call a plumber, especially if it is a reoccurring problem. A trained plumber understands plumbing system design and pitfalls. The plumber should also have the equipment needed to perform further diagnostic or repair if required. Any company with the name rooter or drain in its title usually hires what we refer to as cable jockeys, these guys are generally paid on commission and lack the necessary skill to do anything beyond snaking out a plugged line. You will also discover that the cost of having one of these companies out isn't any less expensive than a real plumber, so why not get a professional technician for your money?