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Six services, one method
Measure the house, agree what goes where, put the price in writing, then start. The mid-century work gets its own page because it deserves one.
Air conditioning repair
Peninsula summers are short and sharp, which means a system can sit unused for nine months and then be asked for everything in a single week. Most of what fails is one of a handful of things, and most of it is cheaper than people expect.
What is expensive is a contractor replacing parts by elimination and billing you for the education.
- Capacitors, contactors, relays and control boards
- Condenser and blower motors
- Refrigerant leak search, recovery and recharge
- Frozen coils and airflow faults
- Condensate drains, pumps and float switches
- Thermostats, sensors, wiring and controls
The fee: a flat diagnostic charge covers the visit and the diagnosis, and comes off the repair if you go ahead. You hear the number before we come out.
Ductless & small-duct systems
Our most common project, and not only in the mid-century houses. Any room a ducted system was never designed to reach — a converted garage, an ADU, an addition over a patio, a home office at the end of a hallway — is a ductless problem.
- Wall heads
- The familiar slim unit high on a wall. Cheapest, most flexible, most visible. Placement matters more than people assume.
- Ceiling cassettes
- Flush into a dropped ceiling where one already exists. Almost invisible, but they need a void, which many Peninsula houses do not have.
- Slim ducted units
- Hidden in a closet or laundry, feeding two or three nearby rooms through short duct runs and ordinary ceiling grilles. No visible indoor unit at all.
- Multi-zone outdoor units
- One outdoor unit serving several indoor heads, each controlled separately. Fewer condensers, less noise, fewer things on the elevation.
Heating & heat pumps
Peninsula winters are mild, which is exactly why a heat pump makes so much sense here. Temperatures almost never drop far enough to hurt efficiency, and one piece of equipment then covers both directions.
We also still service and replace plenty of gas furnaces, and we assess radiant slab systems in the older houses — see the Eichler page for how we approach those.
- Furnace service and repair
- Heat-exchanger, flue and combustion checks
- Furnace replacement
- Heat-pump conversions, ducted and ductless
- Radiant slab assessment
- Thermostats, zoning and scheduling
Ductwork
For the houses that do have ducting — the ranch houses, the two-storeys, the later additions — the ducting is usually where the comfort problem actually lives. Equipment gets replaced far more often than it needs to be because nobody measured the airflow first.
- Static pressure and airflow measured before anything is recommended
- Leak testing and sealing at joints, boots and the plenum
- Replacing crushed, disconnected or degraded flexible duct
- Enlarging or adding returns where the blower is starved
- Register and damper balancing for one difficult room
Eichler & mid-century homes
No attic, a radiant slab, a beam ceiling and a wall of glass. It has its own page because it is a genuinely different job.
Maintenance, written down
A yearly visit is only worth paying for if somebody records what they found. Otherwise you are buying a filter change and a shrug.
- Condenser coil cleaned and inspected
- Refrigerant charge verified against superheat and subcooling
- Capacitor measured against its rating, not eyeballed
- Contactor condition, terminal tightness and amp draws logged
- Condensate pan, trap, pump and line cleared
- Indoor unit filters cleaned — ductless filters are washable and rarely washed
- Static pressure and temperature split recorded
- Readings left with you, so next year's numbers mean something
Not sure which of these you need?
Describe the house and what it is doing. Working that out is free.