Calvey Heating & Air

We used them for fixing broken vents when rodents got into them. I found the owner who stopped by to fix them honest and good to work with. He quickly found the problem area and fixed it, and also fixed a bunch of other leaks which has made our HVAC quite noticeably more effective.

We recently purchased an older house in San Mateo. It had the original floor gas furnace, which has just a single grate in the center of the house. The exterior rooms were very cold, while the main room was very hot. And the upstairs was completely unheated.
I shopped around with multiple heating contractors, getting estimates. Joe Calvey came over and suggested a heat pump system. This would give me both heating and AC in the summer (important for the upstairs), and give me multiple zones of heating (which was important for me) The price was the same as a new gas furnace with AC system would be, and estimate from other more traditional contractors were about the same.
Never having experienced this system before, I did research online and liked what I found. Installation took about a week, with all new ductwork installed in the attic, and a outdoor unit placed in my backyard. Enrique and Carlos were great installers, answering my questions and accommodating my requests for locations of heating vents, intakes, controls, etc.
Now that the system is on and fully functional, the heat is great. The house is evenly warm, no hot spots or cold spots. The outdoor unit is very quiet, and the indoor units are essentially silent.
I am very satisfied with the process and final result, and with the responsiveness and quality of the work. I highly recommend Calvey heating and air.

When almost every other HVAC contractor was either not taking new customers or booked out till after the new year Calvey was able to come out and give a fair estimate (honest, straightforward, respectful and no games) and get not only a new furnace installed but all new ducting as well (completed right before Christmas too). Their workers were knowledgeable, friendly, clean, communicative, respectful and did a great job. Very happy with Calvey Heating & Air.

We used Calvey Heating & Air to fix up our AC when it wasn’t working. They came out when they said they would and fixed our problem promptly.

Got the vents in the house cleaned by these folks. Called and got an appointment within a week. When they came out they were very courteous and professional. Did a preview of the job with me, did the work quickly and the were no issues. Cleaned up after all was done. Very happy with the result.

Calvert Heating cleaned and fixed a dryer vent for me. The previous owners must have installed it as a temporary fix and not cleaned it for 20 years…
Bernie is just a wonderful person — on time, gives good advice, does a great job and leaves everything clean and working. Could not be happier and will use the company again.

Calvey quickly diagnosed a short in my A/​C and had me feeling cool again in no time. Didn’t try to push for other repairs even though my unit is very old.
Gave me a decent quote if I wanted to replace the unit and tips to maintain the old one in the meantime.

We were having a problem with a house fly infestation and so our best guess at location of the source was in the vents (since flies showed up in every room.) Also, we wanted to get the vents cleaned as we rent a house, and we’re pretty sure they have never been cleaned out in the 36 years of its existence!
After searching a bit on Unilocal,we came across Calvey Heating & Air. I booked the appointment through Unilocal,and they were very quick to respond and got me a pretty quick appointment time.
The serviceman (Bernie, I believe the father of the owner) called me 15 minutes before arriving, which happened to be right when the appointment window was to start. He was very polite, and professional. He took the time to answer all of my questions. My 3.5 year old son loved him as well, and I like to think he’s a good judge of character!
Anyway, after two hours, the vents were all cleaned. My allergies have certainly improved since the cleaning. Unfortunately, the fly problem didn’t go away immediately, but it naturally abated shortly after. I also expect our electric furnace (house original… i.e., 36 years old) should run a bit more efficient this year, which will be great.
So to summarize. Price was very reasonable. Staff was very quick to respond/​communicate. Service was very professional and polite. All in all, absolutely no complaints. Thanks for the help!

I’ve used Joe for two major jobs over the past year. Installed a furnace and did pre-​work for A/​C last winter, and had him back for the A/​C this summer after I decided for sure that I wanted to get the A/​C done.
He and his team were fantastic. Very professional, knowledgeable, and able to provide a few options for each job with different prices and pros/​cons, and work within my general budget. His service is high quality, and he’s really good with people too. Good sense of humor, and enjoys what he does.
The work has been excellent. He always follows up to make sure everything is just right, and if there are any tweaks needed he does them right away at no charge of course. I highly recommend Joe, and would definitely use him again.

This is a follow-​up to my earlier review. Here is a summary, to catch you up quickly:
1. Calvey came out on 28 Oct 2014 to clean the ducts, but damaged them in the process.
2. The first evidence was that air was not coming out of a floor register in a bedroom, but we never have the heat when we sleep, so it wasn’t noticed.
3. It wasn’t until spring 2015 that I asked my contractor, who had originally remodeled the house, to come over and look in the crawl space. He confirmed that a flexible duct had been removed, and said they had to procure replacement material because the original had been too badly damaged to be put back in service.
4. Yesterday, I turned the heat on, for the first time since the duct was repaired, and observed fiberglass insulation coming out of the duct work. I went around to all the registers, and saw fiberglass insulation stuck in all of them, and also in the plenums underneath the floor registers and beneath the cabinets that have registers in the kick plates.
5. I have received several messages from Calvey since posting my first review, mostly attributing this to poorly installed ductwork by the contractor, without providing any explanation of why we had no previous problems, or why there would be debris and fiberglass coming out AFTER Calvey had performed their «professional» cleaning.
For everyone’s sake, here is my foolproof method of dealing with issues.
1. I made a mistake. [Take Responsibility]
2. I am sorry. [Express real regret].
3. I’ll make sure it never happens again. [Take corrective action]
Not these guys. To add insult to injury, I got the following response today (with my remarks interspersed):
«You have convinced yourself that it was us and there is nothing I can do to change your mind.»
Really. Just «I’m sorry you feel that way.» So a non-​apology, spit in my face is your step 1.
«My father is a perfectionist too. This has never happened to us like this and he is fairly devastated. «
Really, blame the victim for your mistake is your step number 2. You want me to feel sorry for YOU? What unmitigated gall?
«However you are entitled your opinion. «
Really. Your step 3 is deny accountability and dispute the facts. Just a dismissal of this a ‘difference of opinion.’ Well _​_​_​_​YOU!
«The only thing I can guarantee you is that if he damaged it he would have known and he never would have left it like this. «
Really, if you knew what you were doing, you would have turned the fan on and checked to feel air coming out of each register. It would have been obvious that something was amiss. But you didn’t you do the simplest thing to confirm that the system still worked. So you think it’s ok to lie also.
All I hope at this point, is they just SHUT UP, because they’re only making it worse.

We just had our 40 yr ancient furnace replaced by Calveyheatingandair last week!!! So far it runs great and is so much quieter than our old system. Mr Calvey suggested a couple of features for our system: a wifi thermostat, which allows us to control our furnace with our smartphone! I know can u believe it!
And a Honeywell HEPA filter, which already has noticeably reduced the dust in our home. All in all we are very satisfied! A nice company to work with.

Joe Calvey was a pleasure to work with. Very responsive. Fair prices. Take responsibility for his work.

Had Calvey replace our furnace in our rental property in Palo Alto. Fair price and great job. Easy to get a hold of.
I found Joe the owner very honest and personable. 5 stars all the way and thanks to Hector and the team for the install.

We bought a home recently and our inspection report stated that one of the ducts had come undone.
I called around several companies to see if I could get someone over to repair it. I got the impression from these companies that this job was too little for them to take on.
So I called Calvey based on the recommendations of one of my co workers .
Vikki at the office treated my project like it was a big job and listened to my issue.
She scheduled Bernie to have a look. He quoted me $ 300 and he finished up within 2 hours.
Easy set up, honest service.
When our system finally gives out we know who we will be calling.

During the last heat wave our AC unit suddenly decided to stop working. I have a 4 year old and having no AC for any duration of time is not an option.
We called another company out for a quote and they told us that our compressor was blown and that we needed to change the whole unit out.
They quoted us $ 5300, which was a little bit of a shock. We talked to our neighbors, as we were a little bit apprehensive about replacing it as it was only a 7 year old unit.
They recommend calling Calvey. They came out 3 days after we called them.
Within 30 minutes Mike, their tech, told us it had a bad fan. And that a replacement would cost $ 490 installed !!!
They rushed it in and installed it within 48 hours.
Honest companies like this are hard to come by and I would recommend them to anyone, especially if you want to save a lot of money .
Thanks guys!

Just had mike come out to fix our AC unit.
He got it up and running in 30 minutes. Friendly and efficient. Will definitely use them again.

My AC is slowly leaking freon and stopped working suddenly. I have a 8-​month-​old baby at home who gets uncomfortable when the weather gets too hot. I needed someone to come over to check for leaks and to add freon before the next heat wave this weekend.
I called yesterday and was told the next available appointment will be Sept 18 (that’s more than 2 weeks out!) and it costs $ 135 to diagnose the issue. I’m sure this company does a great job but it’s hard to get an appointment and too expensive to diagnose an issue that I’m already aware of. Who knows how much the final bill will be?
If you are not in a rush to fix your AC, they might still work for you.

I picked Calvey Heating and Air purely based on Unilocal reviews and can attest to their quality of work and professionalism. Joe Calvey took personal interest and has been approachable, responsive, and eager to ensure his customer his happy. Prompt, on-​time, and professional.
We got a AC unit installed and Joe made sure the work did not exceed budget and time committed. He was flexible in scheduling which is helpful for those with day jobs.

I’m sure that this company does a great job, at least according to reviews. I will never know, because its the middle August and when I called to schedule an appointment I was told that the next available opening was a month away. Not really going to wait a month in the heat for my AC to be repaired.
If you are not in a rush they might still work for you.

Just to be clear, for anyone reading this review:
* Joe is correct in pointing out that the work in question was done some time ago; I would put more weight on those who review more recent work.
* Joe is not to blame for not completing this job; I was frustrated with the quality of work that was being done, and decided to just finish things myself.