Heating, cooling and water heater service in Saline, MI

About Saline

Saline is about twenty minutes southwest of our shop by way of Michigan Avenue or Textile Road, and it is a town that has kept its center. The brick blocks along Michigan Avenue downtown date to the 1860s–90s, the Saline River was dammed to make the Mill Pond that gives the north side of town its character, and the Depot Museum and Rentschler Farm keep the railroad-and-farming history visible. For most of the twentieth century Saline was a small market town with a Ford plant on the east edge of the city providing steady jobs. From the 1980s on it became one of the most sought-after school districts in the county, and subdivisions spread out along Maple Road, Ann Arbor-Saline Road and Textile Road to meet the demand. Today the population is heavy on families who chose the schools, university and hospital employees who did not want to live in Ann Arbor itself, and retirees who have been in the same house since the plant was hiring. The Farmers Market on Saturdays and the Celtic Festival in summer give downtown a steady pulse.

What Saline houses need from an HVAC company

Saline's housing splits by distance from downtown. Within a few blocks of Michigan Avenue and around the Mill Pond, homes are 1870s–1930s two-stories and foursquares on stone or early block basements, many with a furnace that was swapped in during the 1980s and is now on its third owner. The ring beyond that, including the Harper Drive and Old Creek Drive neighborhoods, is 1950s–70s ranches and split-levels, some on crawlspaces, with ductwork that was never sized for central air. The bulk of our work here is in the 1990s–2000s subdivisions off Maple and Ann Arbor-Saline Roads: large colonials on poured basements with two-zone systems or two separate furnaces, 80 percent equipment and single-stage condensers that are now hitting twenty years. Saline builders used a lot of fan-powered humidifiers, and many are still running with the original solenoid and a pad that has never been changed.

Weather and the equipment it tests

The Mill Pond and the Saline River keep the north and west sides of town humid in summer, and basements near Curtiss Park are among the dampest we see in the county. South and east of downtown the land flattens into open farm country, and the subdivisions along Textile Road take steady west wind in winter with little tree cover to break it. The city sits far enough from Lake Erie and Lake Michigan that snowfall is moderate and winter is mostly about freeze-thaw cycling.

Local details we plan around

• Saline has its own municipal water system drawn from wells, and the water is notably hard, so water heater flushing and humidifier scale are bigger issues here than in Ann Arbor.
• The city issues its own mechanical permits through its building department, and a replacement furnace or condenser is expected to be permitted and inspected.
• The downtown historic area has older houses with shared chimney flues, and a furnace upgrade to 90 percent often leaves an orphaned water heater that needs a liner.
• Many 1990s colonials here were built with two furnaces in the basement, one for each floor, which doubles the replacement conversation when both reach end of life together.
• Homes just outside the city limits in Saline, Lodi, York and Pittsfield Townships may be on wells, septic and sometimes propane, even with a Saline mailing address.