HVAC Installation & Replacement in Van Buren Township, Michigan

The subdivisions and older blocks of Van Buren Township are full of systems that went in all at once and are reaching the end all at once. Builder-grade furnaces and condensers installed in the 1960s–70s ranches along the lake and 1990s–2010s subdivision colonials around Country Walk tend to fail within a few years of each other, which is why HVAC installation in Van Buren Township is a steady part of our work. What we do differently than the larger outfits in Wayne County is simple: no sales team, no same-day-only pricing, a load calculation instead of a nameplate match, and the owner on the install. A new system in 48111 from Temprasure is sized for the house, permitted, inspected and commissioned, and it comes with a free estimate that you can sit on as long as you want.

Van Buren Township houses and what that means for hvac installation

We see three different kinds of houses in Van Buren. Along Belleville Lake's north shore and down Huron River Drive are 1960s and 70s ranches and tri-levels that started as lake places and grew sunrooms, decks and second stories, usually without the furnace or ductwork ever being resized. The newer subdivisions off Haggerty, Belleville Road and Savage Road are 1995 to 2010 colonials and ranches on poured basements with original 80 percent furnaces and condensers that are now 15 to 25 years old and failing in clusters. The north side near Ecorse Road and Rawsonville has older post-war ranches on crawlspaces and slabs with tight furnace closets and short duct runs. Water heaters across the township are overwhelmingly 40 and 50 gallon atmospheric gas tanks. Finished basements in the subdivisions put the furnace in a utility room with a louvered door that rarely supplies enough combustion air, and we find a lot of 90-plus furnaces installed with the intake and exhaust terminating too close together.

Venting is the second thing we look at hard in Van Buren Township. A high-efficiency condensing furnace vents through the side wall in PVC, which frees up the masonry chimney that an older 80% furnace shared with the water heater. In the 1960s–70s ranches along the lake and 1990s–2010s subdivision colonials common near French Landing Dam, that leaves a 40-gallon atmospheric water heater alone on a chimney that is now too large for it, and the flue gases can condense and eat the liner. We address that on the estimate, either with a chimney liner sized for the water heater or by talking through a power-vent water heater at the same time. Van Buren Township homes on DTE Energy gas also get the gas line pressure-tested and the drip leg and shutoff brought up to current code as part of the install.

With about 30,000, spread across 36 square miles on both sides of I-94 residents and housing that runs from the 1960s–70s ranches along the lake and 1990s–2010s subdivision colonials around Belleville Road corridor to the newer streets near Woodbury Green, Van Buren Township keeps us busy year-round. The equipment is on DTE Energy for heat and DTE Energy for cooling, the basements near Lower Huron Metropark are prone to the same moisture issues as the rest of Wayne County, and the ductwork in a lot of these houses was never sized for the air conditioner that was bolted on later. We are 7 miles away, we service every brand, and we quote a flat rate before we start.

Local details we plan around in Van Buren Township

• Township water comes from the Detroit system, so sediment buildup in water heaters is lighter than in the well-served parts of Sumpter and Augusta Townships.
• Van Buren Township runs its own building department, and furnace, AC and water heater replacements need a mechanical permit pulled before the work starts.
• Many of the 1990s subdivision homes were built with flex-duct branches run across the basement ceiling that have been crushed by drywall or storage, which shows as weak airflow to the second floor.
• The township straddles the Huron River valley, so the lake shore and the land along Lower Huron Metropark carry high humidity and damp basements, while the open fields north of I-94 toward Willow Run take the full force of west winds. Belleville Lake keeps the air a touch cooler on summer afternoons but foggier on spring and fall mornings. Freeze-thaw cycling is constant through January and February, and snowfall is moderate without any lake-effect contribution.