Heating, cooling and water heater service in Salem Township, MI

About Salem Township

Salem Township is the far northeast corner of Washtenaw County, tucked against Plymouth, Northville and South Lyon, and we reach it from the shop in about twenty-five minutes by way of US-23 or M-14 to Gotfredson or Napier Road. It is one of the most rural townships we serve, with a tiny historic village at Salem itself on Six Mile Road, a scattering of nineteenth-century churches and cemeteries, and a grid of gravel roads running between fields and woodlots. For decades Salem fought off the suburban growth that filled Plymouth and Northville Townships next door, and most of the township is still zoned for large lots. That has made it a place for people who want five or ten acres, a horse barn and a quiet road but still need to reach Plymouth or Ann Arbor for work. The Napier Road edge, closest to Plymouth, has the newest and largest homes. Residents are a mix of long-time farming families, equestrians, executives and engineers from the Plymouth-area auto and tech employers, and retirees who built their last house on land they had owned for years.

What Salem Township houses need from an HVAC company

Salem's houses are nearly all custom or owner-built rather than tract, and they are spread thin, so our calls here are long drives between very different problems. The 1850s–1920s farmhouses in and around the village have Michigan basements, rough stone walls and ductwork added in the 1960s or later, often with a furnace that is serving an addition it was never sized for. The 1970s–90s ranches and split-levels along Currie, Tower and Angle Roads sit on crawlspaces or walkout basements and frequently started life on fuel oil or propane. The 1995–2015 estate homes near Napier Road and along North Territorial are large two-stories with two or more furnaces, zoned systems and finished walkouts, commonly on propane with a buried tank. Many properties have a heated barn, workshop or pole building with its own unit heater. Older homes with converted oil furnaces and unlined chimneys are the most frequent safety finding we make here.

Weather and the equipment it tests

Salem is higher and more rolling than the townships along the Huron, and it is exposed to wind from every direction across open fields, with winter gusts that make the northwest corner of any house the cold corner. Snowfall runs slightly heavier here than in Ypsilanti because of the elevation and the distance from the river valley. Woodlots and the Johnson Creek drain hold summer humidity in the low spots, while the higher ground stays drier.

Local details we plan around

• DTE gas reaches a few corridors near the village and the Plymouth border, but propane is the dominant fuel across the township and many homes have large buried tanks.
• Every home is on a private well, and Salem's well water is hard and often high in iron and sulfur, which attacks water heater anodes and leaves scale on humidifier pads.
• Septic systems serve the entire township, and condensate from high-efficiency furnaces needs to be neutralized or kept out of the septic line.
• Mechanical permits go through Washtenaw County, and the county inspector's northern rotation can add a few days to an inspection schedule.
• Older farmhouses and 1970s ranches that were converted from fuel oil often still have the original oil chimney, and lining it is a standard part of any gas furnace replacement.
• Power outages on the long rural lines are frequent in ice storms, and generator transfer wiring for the furnace and well pump is one of the most common questions we get here.