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Nobody knows what is installed, because nobody ever wrote it down
Most houses we attend have had three or four contractors over thirty years and no record from any of them. The first hour of our first visit fixes that, and it is the hour that saves you money later.
The calls we take most
Nothing is working
No heat on a cold morning, no cooling in a heat spell, a furnace that lights and shuts down, a breaker that keeps going. Diagnosed and priced before anything is fitted. If a repair is not worth the money on that machine, we say so in those words rather than hinting at it.
A room that never warms or never cools
Measured, not guessed. Airflow at that register against the others, static pressure, the condition of the duct run and whether the room has a path back to the return. In this housing stock the answer is usually under the floor and cheap to fix.
Before you buy, or before you sell
What is installed, how old each unit actually is from its serial number, what condition it is in and what putting it right would realistically cost. In writing, quickly. Escrow does not wait, and a general inspection report that says “appeared operational” tells you nothing.
A second opinion
You have been told the system needs replacing and you are not sure. We will measure it and tell you what we find, including when the first contractor was right. That happens, and we say so.
Annual service
Burners, heat exchanger, flue, coils, drains, filter fit, electrical connections, charge and combustion, with the readings recorded. Same visit, same checklist, same document, every year.
Rentals and flats
Owners and managers who are not local. Tenant reports the fault, we attend, we report back with photographs and a price, and nothing is authorised that you have not seen in writing first.
What is actually in the document
It is one sheet per building, and there is nothing clever about it. That is rather the point — it is the thing that should already exist and almost never does.
Per unit: make, model, serial number, manufacture date read off the serial, what it heats or cools, its filter size, where its isolator and its condensate run are, and a photograph of the rating plate.
Per visit: the date, the outdoor conditions, static pressure, airflow, charge against target, temperature split, amp draw, and combustion readings where there is gas. Plus what we did and what we did not do.
And plainly stated: what is fine, what is worn, what has failed, and what is simply old but working. The last category is a real one and it is where a lot of unnecessary replacement comes from.
Four things we say to homeowners
- Age alone is not a reason to replace
- A system that holds its charge, moves the air it should and passes its safety checks is a system that works, whatever the year on the label. Age changes the arithmetic on an expensive repair. It does not by itself justify a new machine.
- A bigger unit will not fix a duct problem
- If the air is not arriving in a room, more capacity at the source pushes harder against the same restriction. Measure the register before anybody sizes anything, and get a second opinion if a replacement is the first thing offered.
- Ask for the repair price separately
- Repair and replacement should be two numbers on the same visit, so you can compare them yourself. A quote that only has the larger figure on it has made the decision for you.
- A gas appliance and no carbon monoxide alarm is the one urgent item
- Everything else here can wait for a convenient week. That cannot. Fit one, and have the furnace combustion tested and the heat exchanger inspected.