Furnace Installation & Replacement in Plymouth, Michigan

Temprasure installs gas furnaces throughout Plymouth, and the question we get most often is whether a high-efficiency 96 percent unit is worth it over an 80. The honest answer depends on the house. In the 1880s–1940s historic two-stories and bungalows with 1950s–60s ranches on the edges common around Sheldon Road neighborhoods, a condensing furnace saves real money on DTE Energy gas across a 6,000-degree-day winter, but it also needs a side-wall PVC vent and may leave the water heater alone on an oversized chimney. We sort all of that out on a free estimate at your Plymouth home before you decide, and we tell you plainly which option we would put in our own house.

Plymouth houses and what that means for furnace installation

Plymouth's housing is the oldest in our Wayne County area and the most sensitive to how a replacement is done. The historic blocks around Kellogg Park and in Old Village are 1880s to 1920s two-stories with Michigan basements, fieldstone foundations, and ductwork that was retrofitted when the original coal or gravity furnace came out. Hot-water radiators and boilers are still in service in some of these houses, and in others the radiators came out but the duct runs they were replaced with are undersized and noisy. The 1920s to 40s bungalows along Penniman, Harvey and Ann Arbor Trail have small basements, short duct runs and finished attics. On the south and west edges toward the township line, 1950s and 60s ranches on block basements make up the newer stock. Central air is an add-on nearly everywhere in the city, and in the historic district the condenser location is a planning conversation as much as a mechanical one. Water heaters are gas tanks in low, often damp basements.

Chimneys decide a lot of furnace replacements in Plymouth. The 1880s–1940s historic two-stories and bungalows with 1950s–60s ranches on the edges around Sheldon Road neighborhoods were built with a masonry chimney that served both the furnace and the water heater, and when a homeowner switches to a 96 percent condensing furnace that vents out the side wall in PVC, the water heater is left alone in a flue far too large for it. The exhaust cools, condenses on the brick, and in bad cases backdrafts into the basement. On every Plymouth, MI estimate where a high-efficiency furnace is on the table, we look at the chimney and price a properly sized liner or a power-vent solution for the water heater as part of the job, so the upgrade does not create a new problem.

Plymouth winters are long enough that a furnace runs more hours in a year here than an air conditioner runs in five. We maintain and repair the gas furnaces in the 1880s–1940s historic two-stories and bungalows with 1950s–60s ranches on the edges near Hines Park at Wilcox Lake and Kellogg Park, the hot-water boilers in the older houses around the Mill Street area, and the furnaces in newer subdivisions out toward Downtown Plymouth around Kellogg Park where builder-grade equipment hits its first real failures around year ten. The shop is 15 miles away, the truck carries the parts that fail, and a heating call in Plymouth ends with heat on the first visit far more often than not.

Local details we plan around in Plymouth

• The city of Plymouth has historic district review for exterior changes on designated properties, which can affect where a condenser or vent termination is allowed on a street-facing wall.
• Knob-and-tube remnants and early 60-amp services turn up in the historic blocks, and adding air conditioning often starts with an electrician.
• Plymouth city water is Detroit-system supply, and water heater problems here are more about flooded basements than hard water.
• Plymouth sits in the Middle Rouge valley, and the low ground in Old Village and along Hines Park near Wilcox Lake runs humid, with basements that take on water in spring and after heavy summer storms. The dense old tree canopy downtown keeps summer afternoons cooler than the open subdivisions in the township but traps dampness and drops leaves into every condenser. Winters are typical Southeast Michigan freeze-thaw with the occasional deep cold snap.