Ductwork Replacement in Dexter, Michigan

Houses in Dexter that were built in the 1990s–2000s subdivision homes around an 1830s village core have ductwork from that era, and a good share of it has reached the end. Temprasure comes out to Mill Creek neighborhood and anywhere else in 48130 with a manometer and a light, measures the static pressure the blower is fighting, walks the trunk and branches and returns, and tells you honestly whether sealing and a new return will get there or whether the system needs to come out. When it is replacement, we design it for the house as it is now, install it in a few days with the basement disruption spelled out in advance, and balance it with numbers you keep.

Dexter houses and what that means for duct replacement

In the historic core around Grand Street, Fifth Street and Broad Street, we work on 1840s–1910s frame and brick homes with fieldstone basements, low ceilings and ductwork that has been reworked three or four times. Some of these still have radiators on a boiler and a separate air handler for cooling tucked into an attic. The subdivisions that make up most of Dexter's housing were built between roughly 1994 and 2008. Huron Farms and Dexter Crossing are two-story colonials and cape-style homes on full poured basements, usually with an original 80 percent furnace, a 10 to 12 SEER condenser, and a water heater that has already been replaced once. Westridge and the newer phases carry 90-plus furnaces and two-stage equipment. Beyond the city line, Mast Road, Island Lake Road and North Territorial have 1970s–90s custom homes and older farmhouses on well, septic and sometimes propane, with walkout basements that bring their own moisture issues.

Finished basements and additions in Dexter get ducted properly or they get a single run stolen from a bedroom above. The 1990s–2000s subdivision homes around an 1830s village core houses in Washtenaw County that have been expanded over the years, the family room added off the back, the room built over the garage, the basement finished for a teenager, usually have the second kind. On a Dexter replacement or extension we calculate the load for the new space, size supply and return for it, and tie it into the trunk at a point that does not rob the rest of the house. Where the main trunk is undersized for the enlarged house, which is common near the Dexter Cider Mill, we replace it as part of the job. The DTE Energy bill for the whole house usually drops when the system stops running long cycles to satisfy the one room that could never catch up.

Ductwork in Dexter tells the story of the house. The 1990s–2000s subdivision homes around an 1830s village core near Huron Farms and Baker Road corridor often have original sheet-metal trunks with branch runs added over the decades, panned joist returns that leak into the basement, and flex duct in the newer sections out toward Mast Road area that has sagged or been crushed. We repair, seal and replace ducts across Dexter, about 32 minutes from our shop, and we start every duct job by measuring static pressure so the fix addresses the actual restriction rather than the one that is easiest to see.

Local details we plan around in Dexter

• The Huron River and Mill Creek floodplain means basements in the oldest part of town have flooded more than once, and we routinely find equipment that was underwater.
• Mechanical permits in the city go through Dexter's building department, while township addresses go through Washtenaw County, and the two have slightly different inspection habits.
• The city proper is on DTE gas, but Consumers Energy territory begins just west of town and many addresses with a Dexter mailing address are actually on Consumers or on propane.
• Dexter sits where Mill Creek drops into the Huron River, and the lowest streets near the Cider Mill and Mill Creek Park hold fog and humidity on summer mornings. The town is far enough west that it picks up a little more snow than Ypsilanti and feels polar vortex cold snaps a degree or two harder. Hills and heavy oak cover around Gordon Hall and the metroparks shade a lot of roofs, which holds down cooling loads compared with the open subdivisions to the south.