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Most of the houses we work in here have been remodelled at least once. What is in the ceiling is rarely what the drawings say, so we measure before we propose.
Old duct, new duct, and the join
A remodelled house almost always has two generations of ductwork in it. Somebody extended the existing system into the new part, usually with flexible duct, usually connected into a plenum that was sized for a smaller house, and usually without anybody measuring what came out the other end.
It works, in the sense that air moves. What it does not do is deliver the design airflow to the new rooms, or leave enough for the old ones, and the complaint that arrives two summers later is that the house has never been right since the work.
That is a measurable problem with a measurable answer, and it is almost never solved by a bigger machine.
Six things
Checked in order of cost, with the reading that proves the answer shown to you rather than described.
Once a year, with combustion tested on gas heat and the figures recorded so next year’s visit has something to compare against.
Static pressure, duct leakage and delivered airflow at the registers that matter. Three numbers that settle most comfort arguments.
Primary drain, secondary pan and float switch, tested. In a house with a coil above a finished ceiling this is the cheapest insurance you can buy.
The converted garage, the guest suite, the office over the garage. Sometimes the right answer is a separate system rather than a larger one.
Sized from the house as it is now, permitted and tested, with the ductwork assessed first — including the parts added during somebody else’s remodel.
Three things that are different in a building
The city and the association, and they are not related. The association will care about where the outdoor unit sits, how it looks, how loud it is, whether anything crosses a common wall or roof, and which hours work may happen in. Get that in writing before ordering anything.
A balcony, a roof with restricted access, a chase that was sized for what was installed in 1984. The equipment that fits is sometimes not the equipment you would choose, and we would rather show you that constraint early than discover it on the day.
In a good many buildings nobody can say with confidence whether a given piece of plant belongs to the owner or the association until something expensive fails. We write down what we found, which does not settle the question but stops the argument starting from nothing.
Salt air, honestly
Equipment near the water corrodes faster. That is true and it is not a reason to be alarmed: what it changes is the maintenance interval and, on a replacement, whether a coastal coil coating is worth the money for your particular address. Three streets back from the sand is a different proposition from the peninsula.
What we will not do is use it as a sales argument. We will tell you where your house sits on that scale and let you decide, and if the honest answer is that your equipment has ten good years left in it, that is what we will say.