Heating, cooling and water heater service in Dexter, MI

About Dexter

Dexter is on the far western edge of our radius, about thirty minutes from the shop by I-94 and Baker Road or by Dexter-Ann Arbor Road through Scio Township. It was founded in the 1820s where Mill Creek meets the Huron River, and the village stayed small for a century and a half, with Gordon Hall on its hill, a working depot, and the Cider Mill drawing Ann Arbor families every fall. Dexter did not incorporate as a city until 2014. The growth came in the 1990s and 2000s, when Huron Farms, Dexter Crossing and Westridge filled the open land south and east of downtown with family subdivisions and the school district's reputation did the rest. Downtown has been rebuilt around that growth with a new library, new storefronts on Main Street and a riverfront park, but it still reads as a small town where people walk to the bakery. The population skews toward families with school-age kids, Ann Arbor professionals who wanted land, and a long-standing core of residents whose families farmed Webster and Lima Townships.

What Dexter houses need from an HVAC company

In the historic core around Grand Street, Fifth Street and Broad Street, we work on 1840s–1910s frame and brick homes with fieldstone basements, low ceilings and ductwork that has been reworked three or four times. Some of these still have radiators on a boiler and a separate air handler for cooling tucked into an attic. The subdivisions that make up most of Dexter's housing were built between roughly 1994 and 2008. Huron Farms and Dexter Crossing are two-story colonials and cape-style homes on full poured basements, usually with an original 80 percent furnace, a 10 to 12 SEER condenser, and a water heater that has already been replaced once. Westridge and the newer phases carry 90-plus furnaces and two-stage equipment. Beyond the city line, Mast Road, Island Lake Road and North Territorial have 1970s–90s custom homes and older farmhouses on well, septic and sometimes propane, with walkout basements that bring their own moisture issues.

Weather and the equipment it tests

Dexter sits where Mill Creek drops into the Huron River, and the lowest streets near the Cider Mill and Mill Creek Park hold fog and humidity on summer mornings. The town is far enough west that it picks up a little more snow than Ypsilanti and feels polar vortex cold snaps a degree or two harder. Hills and heavy oak cover around Gordon Hall and the metroparks shade a lot of roofs, which holds down cooling loads compared with the open subdivisions to the south.

Local details we plan around

• The city proper is on DTE gas, but Consumers Energy territory begins just west of town and many addresses with a Dexter mailing address are actually on Consumers or on propane.
• Dexter's municipal water is softened at the plant, but homes outside the city on private wells have very hard water with iron that attacks water heater anodes quickly.
• The Huron River and Mill Creek floodplain means basements in the oldest part of town have flooded more than once, and we routinely find equipment that was underwater.
• Mechanical permits in the city go through Dexter's building department, while township addresses go through Washtenaw County, and the two have slightly different inspection habits.
• Many of the 1990s subdivision homes have a furnace and water heater sharing an undersized masonry chimney that needs a liner when either appliance is upgraded.