New Home HVAC Inspection in Augusta Township, Michigan

Buying a house in Augusta Township means inheriting its furnace, its air conditioner, its water heater and its ducts, and the general home inspection tells you almost nothing about any of them. Temprasure does the HVAC inspection that the inspector's report recommends: we open the equipment in a Augusta Township house, test it with a combustion analyzer and gauges, walk the ductwork, and deliver a written report to you inside the contingency window. Augusta Township is about 18 minutes from our shop, so scheduling around a tight deadline is manageable, and the 1960s–90s rural ranches and newer acreage builds on former farmland housing around Tuttle Hill Road corridor is exactly the kind where what we find changes the negotiation.

Augusta Township houses and what that means for pre-purchase inspection

Augusta's housing is a long timeline laid out along the roads. The 1860s–1920s farmhouses have Michigan basements, two or three additions and forced-air systems that were added long after the house was built, usually with ductwork that never reached the upstairs properly. The 1960s–80s ranches and split-levels that make up the biggest share of the township sit on crawlspaces or shallow basements, with furnaces in hallway closets or utility rooms and ductwork under the floor that has collected decades of moisture and rodent traffic. Newer acreage homes and the subdivisions off Whittaker and Bemis Roads are 1995–2015 colonials and ranches on full poured basements with 80 or 90 percent furnaces, many on propane, and condensers sized by the builder's rule of thumb rather than a load calculation. Manufactured homes with package units or small furnaces are common on the back roads. A good number of properties also have a pole barn or shop with a hanging heater we end up servicing.

Flips and former rentals in Augusta Township are a category we approach carefully. A house in Tuttle Hill Road corridor that has been turned over for sale often has a new thermostat, a wiped-down furnace cabinet and a fresh filter in front of equipment that was never serviced, and an air conditioner that was topped off with refrigerant for the showing rather than having its leak found. Our inspection in Augusta Township looks past the presentation: serial-number ages, heat exchanger condition, charge by superheat and subcooling rather than a pressure reading, and the Washtenaw County permit record for any equipment the listing calls new. When a 1960s–90s rural ranches and newer acreage builds on former farmland rental in 48191 has had a decade of deferred maintenance, the report says so plainly, with photos.

We write more service agreements in Augusta Township every year because the math is easy to see once a homeowner has lived through one no-heat night. Two visits a year, spring for the air conditioner and fall for the furnace, on equipment in the 1960s–90s rural ranches and newer acreage builds on former farmland around Whittaker Road corridor and the Whittaker Road farm stands that is often fifteen years old. The DTE Energy furnaces get a combustion check and a cleaned flame sensor; the condensers near Bemis Road area get their capacitors measured and coils washed. Augusta Township is about 18 minutes from the shop, and agreement customers go to the front of the line in a heat wave or a cold snap.

Local details we plan around in Augusta Township

• Septic systems serve nearly every home, and condensate from a high-efficiency furnace should be neutralized or routed away from the septic line.
• Long rural power lines mean regular outages, and many homeowners here have or want a generator transfer setup for their furnace and well pump.
• DTE gas mains follow Whittaker Road, Willis Road and a few others, but a large share of the township's homes run on propane, and we size and set up equipment accordingly.
• Augusta is low, flat and open, and the land along Stony Creek and Paint Creek holds water well into spring, so basements and crawlspaces in the township's middle run damp for months. Winter wind crosses the fields with nothing in the way, and the exposed north and west sides of farmhouses and acreage homes carry heavier heating loads than their square footage would suggest. Summer humidity is high across the creek bottoms, and shade is scarce outside the older farmsteads with their windbreaks.