Home Disrepair: January 2012

The latest adventure at the hacienda here has been the old floor furnace deciding to give up the ghost. I had problems with the furnace 4 years ago and it ended up costing a bundle to repair it. So, when it went on the blink again this year I was open to removing it altogether. There comes a time in the "repair/replace" discussion when you have to eliminate the repair portion as being throwing money into an open hole in the ground. So, then the discussion became one of "replace it with WHAT?"

New floor furnace? No longer allowed in California. Something about open flames beneath floor surfaces and fires. Sissies.

New wall furnace? I spent about a week investigating that idea and looking at options. The problem with a wall furnace in this house is the hallway is really tight to begin with, losing 6" along the wall to a furnace makes the passageway really problematic and uncomfortable.

New central forced-air furnace? This turned out to be the answer, not the one I wanted to hear since the cost was about five times more than the bill to just fix the old floor furnace again. However, how many times do I fix the floor furnace before I'm kicking myself for not just bringing the house in the 21st century and making it comfortable? What finally won out at the end of the day was the thought that if I have to spend another 10 years in this house, wouldn't I rather just have a modern heating system to make my home comfortable instead of repairing that old floor furnace who knows how many times? I answer myself "yes" and let the games begin.

I got bids from 3 contractors and eventually chose Perfect Air (based in Long Beach but servicing the surrounding areas of Lakewood, Bellflower, Cerritos, Seal Beach, Artesia, etc...) based on their reviews on Yelp. I like Yelp, I like the whole concept of customers being able to review service providers. It helps the cream rise to the top.

So, Perfect Air came out this week and installed a new furnace into my little 1939 bungalow. We now have 6 glorious ducts pumping warm air into all the rooms instead of one central floor furnace charged with heating the whole 840 square feet. We've had to make some adjustments with the new system, the biggest being that we aren't able to leave the hall door closed when it's heating because the pull from the return vent is so strong it pulls the door shut and the cats can't get between the back of the house and the front - which is a crisis in their little furry worlds. But that's a minor adjustment. Otherwise, we're pretty thrilled.

The inspector from the City was thrilled. I'll quote him below because companies like Perfect Air should rise to the top.

"I've been checking this young man's work for three years now, and I am telling you, you have a winner." -- Dan Rodger, Mechanical Inspector for the City of Long Beach.

Pictures!