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Houses where the equipment is somewhere awkward
Crawl spaces you cross on your hands and knees, floor furnaces under the living room, cupboards that became linen closets, and outdoor units down a flight of steps.
Two hours, a sheet you keep, and an access note
Everything found and identified, rating plates photographed, model and serial numbers recorded. Then the readings: static pressure and airflow where there are ducts, refrigerant charge against the manufacturer’s target where there is cooling, temperature split, and the electrical readings that show a component on its way out.
On any gas appliance a combustion analysis and a proper look at the flue happen on that visit whatever you rang about, and where there is no working carbon monoxide alarm we fit one.
And one extra page nobody else writes: how each piece of equipment is reached, what that adds to every future visit, and the three cheapest things that would improve it. On a house you intend to keep, that page is worth more than the readings.
Four findings, and two of them are about the space rather than the equipment
The hatch is smaller than the appliance
Somebody installed the furnace before the wall went up, or the opening has been reduced by later work. It does not matter until the day it has to come out, and then it matters enormously. It is worth knowing now rather than on the morning of a replacement, and enlarging an opening is usually a small job.
The crawl space has become storage
Boxes stacked against a flue, a bicycle leaning on a duct, and a route to the appliance that involves moving somebody’s belongings. We will tell you before the visit rather than charging you for an hour of shifting. Clearance around a gas appliance is also a safety matter rather than a preference.
Duct in an unconditioned space, leaking
Where ducts exist they are frequently under the floor or in the roof with joints that were never sealed and sections that have come off. Measured leakage is routinely a large fraction of total airflow, and on the return side it means the house is breathing whatever is down there.
An appliance nobody has tested
Wall furnaces, floor furnaces and older gas furnaces are not automatically dangerous and not automatically fine. A combustion analysis and a look at the flue take twenty minutes and give a real answer either way.
What we do in houses
- Diagnosis and repair
No heat, no cooling, short cycling, noise, a room that never matches. Measured, costed and repaired where a repair is right.
- Access improvement
Openings enlarged, attic boarding laid, a platform built where an appliance sits on blocks, a light and a switch fitted. Small work that makes every future visit shorter.
- Ductless for houses with no duct route
Sized per room, with the outdoor unit sited where somebody can still service it in ten years.
- Heat pumps and replacement
Sized from the house as it stands. Where a panel upgrade is needed we give you the amperage in writing for an electrician.
- Duct repair and sealing
Leakage measured, joints sealed, runs insulated, returns added where a house has one and five rooms.
- Gas appliance testing
Combustion analysis, heat exchanger inspection, flue checked as installed, carbon monoxide alarms fitted where there is none.
Tell us what the house is doing — and send the photographs
Which room, what time of day, how long it has been like that, and three pictures: the way in, the equipment from a distance, and the rating plate. 1676 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley. Monday to Friday, 8am to 4.30pm.