Oakland County
Furnace Repair in Ferndale, MI
Our shop is at 1880 E Nine Mile, so Ferndale calls are a few blocks, not a drive.
Ferndale is where the shop is. Most of the city went up between the first world war and the second, which means small lots, tight basements, and a lot of houses running heating systems that have been converted twice since they were installed. The upside is that the equipment down there is familiar to us. The downside for a homeowner is that a 1926 house rarely has the clean, square mechanical room a modern install assumes, and that shows up in what a repair actually takes.
What we run into in Ferndale heating systems
- A large share of Ferndale basements still show the ghost of a gravity system: an oversized plenum, big round trunk lines, and a modern furnace bolted into ductwork that was designed for hot air to rise on its own.
- Tight side-yard setbacks put a lot of flue and intake terminations close to a property line or a neighbouring window, which constrains where a high-efficiency unit can vent.
- Bungalows with a finished upstairs almost always run cold up there in January, because the original duct layout never had a second floor to serve.
Getting someone out
For a no-heat emergency, ring (248) 398-4015 rather than using the form. That line runs 24 hours. Scheduled work, including anything that can wait until the morning, runs Mon–Fri 8am–5pm out of the shop at 1880 E Nine Mile Rd, Ferndale, MI 48220.
It helps to know what you have before anyone arrives. The age of the unit, the brand on the front, and whether it is doing nothing at all or doing something wrong will usually narrow the problem down over the phone.
This page covers what is particular about Ferndale. For how the work itself goes, what tends to fail, and the repair-or-replace question, see furnace repair.
Furnace Repair in Ferndale: questions we get
Do you work on the older Ferndale houses with converted gravity systems?
Yes. Houses built in the 1920s and 1930s were heated by gravity furnaces, and most have since been converted to forced air using the original oversized ductwork. That combination has its own failure patterns, particularly around airflow and static pressure, and it is the most common heating system in this city.
How long does a gas furnace last?
Most residential gas furnaces run fifteen to twenty years. Units that were correctly sized, vented properly, and had their filters changed regularly reach the top of that range and sometimes pass it. Units that were oversized for the house tend to short cycle their whole lives and wear out earlier.
Why does my furnace keep turning on and off?
Short cycling has a handful of usual causes. A filter that has not been changed in a season is the most common and the cheapest. After that, a dirty flame sensor, a failing high-limit switch, a blocked or partly blocked flue, or a furnace that was simply sized too large for the house. The pattern of how long it runs before dropping out narrows it down quickly.