Heating, cooling and water heater service in Whitmore Lake, MI

About Whitmore Lake

Whitmore Lake is a lake town at the top of Washtenaw County, straddling the Livingston County line, and we get there in just under half an hour by taking US-23 north from Ann Arbor to the Eight Mile or Six Mile exits. The lake itself is about 680 acres, and the community grew up around it as a summer resort for Detroit and Ann Arbor families in the early 1900s, with cottages shoulder to shoulder on East Shore Drive and a small Main Street of taverns and bait shops. Most of those cottages were winterized decades ago and are now full-time homes, which is where a lot of our work here comes from. Northfield Township, which governs the Washtenaw side, has its hall, community center and schools right in town, and Whitmore Lake High School sits on Main Street. Since the 1990s, subdivisions have spread along Barker, Spencer and Nine Mile Roads for people who wanted US-23 access to both Ann Arbor and Brighton. The population is a mix of lake families who have been here for generations, commuters, and retirees who kept the cottage.

What Whitmore Lake houses need from an HVAC company

Lakefront homes on East Shore Drive and along Whitmore Lake Road are the defining housing type: 1920s–60s cottages that were raised, expanded and insulated over the years, with furnaces in crawlspaces, half-basements or closets, ductwork routed through whatever chase was available, and water heaters wedged under stairs. Many have had a second floor added onto a frame that was built for one, and the ductwork rarely followed. Behind the lake, the older streets off Main Street hold 1940s–70s ranches and bungalows on crawlspaces, some of which started on fuel oil. The 1990s–2010s subdivisions off Barker, Spencer and Nine Mile Roads are colonials on full poured basements with builder-grade 80 percent furnaces, single-stage condensers and bypass humidifiers nearing replacement. Outlying homes on North Territorial and Six Mile are acreage builds and farmhouses on propane and wells. High water tables around both lakes keep below-grade equipment at risk.

Weather and the equipment it tests

Whitmore Lake and Horseshoe Lake dominate the local weather for the homes around them: summer humidity is high, morning fog is common from May through October, and basements and crawlspaces near the shoreline rarely dry out. The lakes also moderate the first freezes slightly, but by January the open ice and surrounding fields let northwest wind blow across unbroken. Snow runs a bit heavier here than in Ypsilanti because of the slightly higher ground and the township's position farther from the Huron valley.

Local details we plan around

• The community sits on the Washtenaw-Livingston line, so some Whitmore Lake addresses are governed by Northfield Township and others by Green Oak Township, and permits go through different offices.
• DTE gas serves most of the Northfield side, but some Green Oak addresses are on Consumers Energy and outlying roads on either side run on propane.
• Almost all homes are on private wells, and the water around the lakes is hard with iron, so water heaters and humidifiers need regular attention.
• Septic serves most of the community, though a sewer system around the lake was added to protect water quality, and condensate routing depends on which a house is on.
• Lake cottages with crawlspaces that sit near the water table are the most common place we find rusted furnace cabinets, flooded condensate pumps and failed water heater bottoms.
• Many winterized cottages have original 60-amp panels or multiple subpanels added over the years, and a new air conditioner usually means an electrician visits first.