Ductwork Replacement in Whittaker, Michigan

Houses in Whittaker that were built in the 1970s–90s rural ranches and 2000s acreage homes around an old crossroads have ductwork from that era, and a good share of it has reached the end. Temprasure comes out to Talladay Road area and anywhere else in 48190 with a manometer and a light, measures the static pressure the blower is fighting, walks the trunk and branches and returns, and tells you honestly whether sealing and a new return will get there or whether the system needs to come out. When it is replacement, we design it for the house as it is now, install it in a few days with the basement disruption spelled out in advance, and balance it with numbers you keep.

Whittaker houses and what that means for duct replacement

Around the crossroads itself the houses are 1880s–1930s farm-village homes with Michigan basements, balloon framing and a forced-air system that was retrofitted into a house built for a wood or coal stove. Those homes tend to have a single undersized return and a furnace that has been replaced two or three times without the ductwork ever being touched. Along Whittaker, Willis and Talladay Roads the common house is a 1970s–90s ranch or raised ranch on a crawlspace or block basement, with the original furnace in a utility room and a condenser that was added in the 1990s on whatever circuit was available. The 2000s subdivisions between Bemis and Willis Roads are colonials and ranches on poured basements with builder-grade equipment that is reaching replacement age, and a lot of them run propane rather than gas. Manufactured homes and modulars on the side roads often have small downflow furnaces and package units that need parts most shops do not stock.

Two-story subdivision houses in Whittaker from the 1970s–90s rural ranches and 2000s acreage homes around an old crossroads are the second most common replacement. The basement trunk is usually fine; the problem is the attic. Flex duct was pulled between the trusses in Talladay Road area twenty or thirty years ago, and it has since sagged, kinked, been crushed by stored boxes, chewed by mice and patched with tape, and the single return in the upstairs hall was never enough. Past a point, patching is throwing money at it. We replace the attic system with a designed layout: shorter, straighter runs, rigid metal where a chase allows, insulated flex kept to the last few feet, and a dedicated return on the second floor. The upstairs of a Whittaker colonial in 48190 comes within a degree or two of the first floor when it is done.

We run duct work across Whittaker, about 16 minutes from our Ypsilanti shop, and the jobs cluster in the 1970s–90s rural ranches and 2000s acreage homes around an old crossroads near the Whittaker crossroads at Whittaker and Willis Roads, Stony Creek Road and Augusta Township Hall. Leaky returns in a Washtenaw County basement pull in moisture and dust; undersized supplies starve the coil in summer and overheat the exchanger in winter. Sealing and repairing what is there solves most of it. Replacing a trunk or rerouting a run solves the rest, and we tell you which your house needs after measuring, not before.

Local details we plan around in Whittaker

• Every home in Whittaker is on a private well, and the water is hard with enough iron to shorten water heater life and clog humidifier pads within a season.
• Septic drain fields are universal, so we keep high-efficiency furnace condensate out of the septic line with a neutralizer or a separate discharge.
• Permits for Whittaker addresses are issued by Washtenaw County, not by a village or city, because the community has no government of its own.
• Whittaker is on flat, open ground with Stony Creek running through the low land to the north and east, and the creek bottom holds moisture that keeps nearby crawlspaces damp through late spring. There is almost no windbreak between the crossroads and the fields to the west, so winter wind hits the exposed side of every house. Summer is humid and still, and homes without mature shade trees run their air conditioning longer than their size would suggest.