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

About Superior Township

Superior Township sits directly north of Ypsilanti, and Prospect Road or Harris Road gets us from the shop into its subdivisions in about a dozen minutes. It is a township of two very different halves. The southwest corner, closest to the city and to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, was developed in the 1950s and 60s and holds the MacArthur Boulevard neighborhood and the ranches off Clark, Ford and Harris Roads. North and east of that, the township is still largely open: farm fields, woodlots, the Cherry Hill and LeFurge Woods preserves, and country roads like Vorhies, Gotfredson and Plymouth-Ann Arbor. Dixboro, at the Plymouth Road and Church Street crossroads, is a small 1820s settlement with a village green, a white church and a general store that still feels like a separate place. The 1990s and 2000s brought larger subdivisions along Prospect Road and Geddes Road, including Prospect Pointe, Legacy Park and Arbor Ridge, which drew Ann Arbor and hospital commuters who wanted space. Superior Township has long valued its open land and has a conservation stewardship program that keeps much of the northern half from being built on.

What Superior Township houses need from an HVAC company

The southwest neighborhoods near MacArthur Boulevard are compact 1950s–60s ranches and bungalows on crawlspaces or shallow block basements, with the original duct trunk often running through an uninsulated crawl, so the floors stay cold even with a new furnace. The newer subdivisions along Prospect and Geddes Roads are 1995–2012 colonials and larger two-stories on full basements, generally with original 80 percent furnaces and single-stage condensers that are coming due for replacement. The rural stretch north of Geddes is where things get interesting: 1880s farmhouses with Michigan basements and multiple additions, 1970s–80s custom ranches on five-acre parcels, and newer acreage homes with 90-plus furnaces, some of them on propane and some on well water. Dixboro's older homes are frame two-stories with stone foundations and low basement ceilings. Horse farms and larger estates off Vorhies and Cherry Hill Roads sometimes have two or three furnaces serving one sprawling house.

Weather and the equipment it tests

Superior Township rises gently away from the Huron River, so the subdivisions along Geddes and Prospect are drier and windier than the Ypsilanti lowlands just south of them. Open fields in the northern half let winter wind run unchecked, and acreage homes with a west-facing wall feel it in January. Frains Lake and the wetlands around LeFurge Woods add humidity in summer to the homes nearest them, and heavy tree cover around Dixboro keeps cooling loads lower there.

Local details we plan around

• DTE gas reaches the subdivisions and the older neighborhoods, but a meaningful number of homes north of Geddes Road run on propane tanks, which affects furnace orifice sizing and regulator setup.
• Well water across the rural half is hard and often high in iron, and we see heavy sediment in water heaters and crusted humidifier pads on those homes.
• Septic systems are common outside the subdivisions, so condensate from a 90-plus furnace should not be routed anywhere it can overload a drain field.
• The township contracts its building inspections, and mechanical permits for furnace and AC replacements are still required and reviewed.
• Power outages are more frequent on the rural tree-lined roads, and homeowners there ask us about generator-ready furnace wiring more than anywhere else nearby.
• The 1950s MacArthur Boulevard area homes often have small 60-amp or 100-amp panels, so adding central air usually involves a panel upgrade first.