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Single-storey houses, west-facing walls, and a system sized for a different house
Almost every house along this corridor has been added to, converted or re-glazed since its heating system went in. The system does not know, and in August that shows.
The calls we take most
No cooling in a heat wave
The week everybody calls at once. Diagnosed and priced before anything is fitted, with the repair figure given separately from any replacement figure so you can compare them yourself rather than take one number on trust.
One room is unbearable
Usually a converted garage, an addition or a west-facing bedroom. Before anybody prices a system: airflow at that register against the others, static pressure, return capacity, and what the room is actually made of. Those four answers decide between a cheap fix and a real project.
Bills climbing in summer
Attic air here goes well over a hundred degrees, so duct leakage in that space is unusually expensive. Leakage, static pressure, charge and filter restriction measured before anybody talks about efficiency ratings.
Adding cooling to a room that has none
Ductless where the room is the problem, an extension of the existing system only where the measurements say it can carry it. Which of those applies is established before a price, not after.
Annual service
Coils, drains, filter fit, electrical connections, charge against the manufacturer’s target, and combustion testing on any gas appliance, with the readings recorded so this year can be compared with last year.
Before you buy, sell or let
What is installed, how old each unit is from its serial number, what condition it is in and what putting it right would realistically cost. In writing, quickly.
In this climate the attic is the problem and the solution at once
On a hot afternoon here the air in an unvented attic can sit far above the outdoor temperature, and most of the ductwork in this housing stock runs straight through it. Every joint that leaks is throwing cooled air into that space, and every foot of poorly insulated duct is picking heat up on the way to the room.
What we measure: duct leakage, static pressure, airflow at each register and the temperature of the air leaving the equipment against the temperature arriving at the far register. That last comparison is the one that shows a duct problem immediately and almost nobody takes it.
What usually fixes it: sealing joints and boots properly with mastic rather than tape, re-supporting runs that sag or kink, replacing insulation that has fallen away, and adding return capacity where the system is starved. None of that is exotic and all of it costs a fraction of equipment.
What we will not claim: a percentage saving. That depends on how leaky your ducts actually are, which is why we measure before quoting and not after.
Four things we say to homeowners here
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One hot room is not a whole-house job
Price the room before you price the house. The difference is large and the outcome is frequently better, because the room usually needs something the house does not.
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The ducts decide what is possible
A system can only deliver what the ductwork carries. Measuring takes an afternoon and it determines which options are genuinely open to you.
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Age alone is not a reason to replace
A system that holds its charge, moves the air it should and passes its safety checks works, whatever the year on the label. Age changes the arithmetic on an expensive repair and nothing else.
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A gas appliance with no carbon monoxide alarm is the one urgent item
Everything else on this page can wait for a convenient week. That cannot. Fit one, and have the combustion tested and the heat exchanger inspected.