New Home HVAC Inspection in Whittaker, Michigan

Buying a house in Whittaker means inheriting its furnace, its air conditioner, its water heater and its ducts, and the general home inspection tells you almost nothing about any of them. Temprasure does the HVAC inspection that the inspector's report recommends: we open the equipment in a Whittaker house, test it with a combustion analyzer and gauges, walk the ductwork, and deliver a written report to you inside the contingency window. Whittaker is about 16 minutes from our shop, so scheduling around a tight deadline is manageable, and the 1970s–90s rural ranches and 2000s acreage homes around an old crossroads housing around Talladay Road area is exactly the kind where what we find changes the negotiation.

Whittaker houses and what that means for pre-purchase inspection

Around the crossroads itself the houses are 1880s–1930s farm-village homes with Michigan basements, balloon framing and a forced-air system that was retrofitted into a house built for a wood or coal stove. Those homes tend to have a single undersized return and a furnace that has been replaced two or three times without the ductwork ever being touched. Along Whittaker, Willis and Talladay Roads the common house is a 1970s–90s ranch or raised ranch on a crawlspace or block basement, with the original furnace in a utility room and a condenser that was added in the 1990s on whatever circuit was available. The 2000s subdivisions between Bemis and Willis Roads are colonials and ranches on poured basements with builder-grade equipment that is reaching replacement age, and a lot of them run propane rather than gas. Manufactured homes and modulars on the side roads often have small downflow furnaces and package units that need parts most shops do not stock.

Flips and former rentals in Whittaker are a category we approach carefully. A house in Talladay Road area that has been turned over for sale often has a new thermostat, a wiped-down furnace cabinet and a fresh filter in front of equipment that was never serviced, and an air conditioner that was topped off with refrigerant for the showing rather than having its leak found. Our inspection in Whittaker looks past the presentation: serial-number ages, heat exchanger condition, charge by superheat and subcooling rather than a pressure reading, and the Washtenaw County permit record for any equipment the listing calls new. When a 1970s–90s rural ranches and 2000s acreage homes around an old crossroads rental in 48190 has had a decade of deferred maintenance, the report says so plainly, with photos.

We write more service agreements in Whittaker every year because the math is easy to see once a homeowner has lived through one no-heat night. Two visits a year, spring for the air conditioner and fall for the furnace, on equipment in the 1970s–90s rural ranches and 2000s acreage homes around an old crossroads around Willis Road west toward Mooreville and Stony Creek that is often fifteen years old. The DTE Energy furnaces get a combustion check and a cleaned flame sensor; the condensers near Judd Road area get their capacitors measured and coils washed. Whittaker is about 16 minutes from the shop, and agreement customers go to the front of the line in a heat wave or a cold snap.

Local details we plan around in Whittaker

• Crawlspace ductwork on the 1970s ranches here is frequently rusted, disconnected or chewed, and we check it on every furnace call before we blame the equipment.
• Permits for Whittaker addresses are issued by Washtenaw County, not by a village or city, because the community has no government of its own.
• Every home in Whittaker is on a private well, and the water is hard with enough iron to shorten water heater life and clog humidifier pads within a season.
• Whittaker is on flat, open ground with Stony Creek running through the low land to the north and east, and the creek bottom holds moisture that keeps nearby crawlspaces damp through late spring. There is almost no windbreak between the crossroads and the fields to the west, so winter wind hits the exposed side of every house. Summer is humid and still, and homes without mature shade trees run their air conditioning longer than their size would suggest.