Ductwork Replacement in Saline, Michigan

Some ductwork in Saline is past sealing. The trunk in a 1990s–2000s subdivision colonials around a 19th-century downtown house near Downtown Saline has rusted through from decades of basement damp, the returns are panned joist bays that cannot be made tight from below, or the whole system was sized for a furnace half the size of what is in the basement now. Temprasure replaces ductwork across Washtenaw County with a designed system, not a copy of what was there: a Manual J load for every room, a Manual D duct design, sheet-metal trunks sealed with mastic, returns on every floor and a filter cabinet that does not choke the blower. Saline is about 22 minutes from our shop, and the estimate is free.

Saline houses and what that means for duct replacement

Saline's housing splits by distance from downtown. Within a few blocks of Michigan Avenue and around the Mill Pond, homes are 1870s–1930s two-stories and foursquares on stone or early block basements, many with a furnace that was swapped in during the 1980s and is now on its third owner. The ring beyond that, including the Harper Drive and Old Creek Drive neighborhoods, is 1950s–70s ranches and split-levels, some on crawlspaces, with ductwork that was never sized for central air. The bulk of our work here is in the 1990s–2000s subdivisions off Maple and Ann Arbor-Saline Roads: large colonials on poured basements with two-zone systems or two separate furnaces, 80 percent equipment and single-stage condensers that are now hitting twenty years. Saline builders used a lot of fan-powered humidifiers, and many are still running with the original solenoid and a pad that has never been changed.

Adding central air to the older Saline housing near the Saline Farmers Market is a duct project first. The 1990s–2000s subdivision colonials around a 19th-century downtown two-stories and bungalows were built for a furnace, sometimes a gravity furnace whose octopus ducts are still in the basement, and heating needs a fraction of the airflow that cooling does. Hanging a coil and a condenser on those ducts gives you a system that freezes every July. On a Saline house like that, we design a new trunk and branch system to carry the cooling airflow, add returns upstairs where the heat collects, and often route the second-floor supply through closets or a chase rather than through an unconditioned attic. The air conditioner then goes in on a system that can use it.

Saline has about 9,000 in the city, with a much larger school district around it residents and a housing stock, mostly 1990s–2000s subdivision colonials around a 19th-century downtown, that has been through more HVAC changes than its ductwork has. When a 1990s furnace was replaced with a high-efficiency unit, or central air was added to a house near the Saline Mill Pond that never had it, the ducts usually stayed the same. We repair and replace ductwork throughout Saline, from the older blocks around Mill Pond area to the newer streets near Downtown Saline, sealing with mastic rather than tape and sizing replacements to the equipment that is actually installed.

Local details we plan around in Saline

• Homes just outside the city limits in Saline, Lodi, York and Pittsfield Townships may be on wells, septic and sometimes propane, even with a Saline mailing address.
• The downtown historic area has older houses with shared chimney flues, and a furnace upgrade to 90 percent often leaves an orphaned water heater that needs a liner.
• The city issues its own mechanical permits through its building department, and a replacement furnace or condenser is expected to be permitted and inspected.
• The Mill Pond and the Saline River keep the north and west sides of town humid in summer, and basements near Curtiss Park are among the dampest we see in the county. South and east of downtown the land flattens into open farm country, and the subdivisions along Textile Road take steady west wind in winter with little tree cover to break it. The city sits far enough from Lake Erie and Lake Michigan that snowfall is moderate and winter is mostly about freeze-thaw cycling.