Ductwork Replacement in Ann Arbor, Michigan

A new furnace on old ducts in Ann Arbor is a common disappointment, and we would rather prevent it than explain it afterward. On every installation estimate in Washtenaw County we check whether the existing ductwork can carry what the new equipment needs, and in the pre-war two-stories and 1950s–60s ranches, with university-era infill on every side homes around Veterans Memorial Park the answer is often no. Temprasure replaces ductwork in Ann Arbor alongside the equipment when both are needed, commissioning them as one system, or on its own when the furnace is fine and the ducts are the only problem. The design, the materials, the sealing and the final measurements are the same either way, and the estimate is free.

Ann Arbor houses and what that means for duct replacement

Ann Arbor gives us almost every housing type in one zip code. The Old West Side and Old Fourth Ward are full of 1880s–1920s frame houses with stone or rubble foundations, fieldstone basements that stay damp, and furnaces that replaced boilers or gravity units sometime in the 1960s or 70s. Many of those homes still have cast-iron radiators fed by a boiler, and a surprising number have both a boiler and a separate forced-air system added for cooling. Burns Park and Ann Arbor Hills houses are larger 1920s–50s builds with plaster walls, so getting a second return or a bigger supply trunk in is slow work. The ranches and split-levels of the west side were built with 80,000 to 100,000 BTU furnaces that are now oversized for insulated versions of the same house. Condos near Briarwood and Pittsfield Village often have furnaces in closets or attics with tight clearances. Student rentals near campus run the oldest equipment in the city, and landlords routinely call us for emergency service and new-purchase inspections.

Finished basements and additions in Ann Arbor get ducted properly or they get a single run stolen from a bedroom above. The pre-war two-stories and 1950s–60s ranches, with university-era infill on every side houses in Washtenaw County that have been expanded over the years, the family room added off the back, the room built over the garage, the basement finished for a teenager, usually have the second kind. On a Ann Arbor replacement or extension we calculate the load for the new space, size supply and return for it, and tie it into the trunk at a point that does not rob the rest of the house. Where the main trunk is undersized for the enlarged house, which is common near Veterans Memorial Park, we replace it as part of the job. The DTE Energy bill for the whole house usually drops when the system stops running long cycles to satisfy the one room that could never catch up.

Ductwork in Ann Arbor tells the story of the house. The pre-war two-stories and 1950s–60s ranches, with university-era infill on every side near Northside and Lower Town and Kerrytown often have original sheet-metal trunks with branch runs added over the decades, panned joist returns that leak into the basement, and flex duct in the newer sections out toward Dicken that has sagged or been crushed. We repair, seal and replace ducts across Ann Arbor, about 16 minutes from our shop, and we start every duct job by measuring static pressure so the fix addresses the actual restriction rather than the one that is easiest to see.

Local details we plan around in Ann Arbor

• The large number of boiler-and-radiator homes means we see hydronic work here far more than anywhere else in our radius.
• Fieldstone foundations in the oldest neighborhoods sweat enough that furnace cabinets and water heater bases corrode early unless they sit on blocks or a pad.
• A lot of pre-1950 houses have been converted to duplexes or student rentals, which means two systems crammed into one basement and undersized gas lines serving both.
• The Huron River cuts a deep valley through the north side of Ann Arbor, and the Northside, Lower Town and Gallup Park neighborhoods feel it as morning fog, heavier dew and basements that sweat in July. The downtown core holds heat with all its brick and pavement, so attics and upper floors there run several degrees hotter than the leafy blocks of Burns Park and the Old West Side, where mature oaks and maples shade roofs and cut peak cooling loads noticeably.