The first question is not what is wrong. It is how we get to it.
Heating, cooling and ventilation across Berkeley and the East Bay, in buildings where the equipment is usually somewhere awkward. Half the surprises in this trade are access surprises, and nearly all of them can be settled with one photograph before anybody gets in a van.
Three photographs, and most of the guesswork disappears
Send them with the enquiry and we can tell you what the visit will involve, whether it is one person or two, and whether anything needs moving before we arrive.
The way in
The hatch, the door, the ladder point or the stairs. With a tape measure in the shot if you have one. Opening sizes decide more about a job than the fault does — a furnace that cannot come out through its own door is a different job from one that can.
The equipment, from a distance
Far enough back to show what is around it. We are not looking at the unit so much as at the space: the clearance, the route, and what has been stacked against it since it was installed.
The rating plate
Close enough to read. Model and serial numbers tell us the age, the capacity and which parts it takes, which means we arrive with the right things rather than arriving twice.
Houses
Shingle and craftsman houses with the furnace in a basement you cross on your hands and knees, bungalows with a floor furnace under the living room, flats where the equipment is in a cupboard that has become a linen closet, and hillside properties where the outdoor unit is down a set of steps nobody wants to carry anything up.
Every first visit finds everything, records model and serial numbers, takes the readings, and checks the gas appliances whatever the call was about.
Premises
Shops and cafes along Shattuck and the avenues, offices above them, studios and small workshops, and older buildings where the roof is reached through a hatch in a stock room and the ladder was removed years ago.
Commercial work starts with a written survey of every unit, what it serves, and — on this site specifically — how each one is reached and what that means for the cost of maintaining it.
Can you even get to it?
Five places equipment ends up, crossed with the four reasons it becomes hard to reach. What each one means for the visit, what it costs over the life of the equipment, what can be improved for very little — and the one situation where the answer is that nobody is going in until something changes.
The work, plainly
- Diagnosis with instruments
Static pressure, airflow, refrigerant charge against the manufacturer’s target, temperature split, electrical readings, and a combustion analysis on anything that burns gas.
- Repair, costed first
What it is, what it costs, and what it does not fix. Replacement is discussed after a repair has a number against it.
- Access improvement
Hatches enlarged, boarding laid in attics, a fixed ladder point, a platform where an appliance sits on blocks, lighting and a switch. Small work that makes every future visit cheaper.
- Relocation where it is genuinely worth it
Moving equipment out of a space nobody can work in is sometimes the cheapest thing you will ever do to a building. We will say when it is and when it is not.
- Ductless and heat pumps
For houses with no duct route, sized per room, with the outdoor unit sited where somebody can actually service it in ten years.
- Duct repair and sealing
Leakage measured, joints sealed, crawl-space and attic runs insulated, returns added, registers balanced against a target.
- Gas appliance testing
Combustion analysis, heat exchanger inspection, flue checked as installed, carbon monoxide alarms fitted where there is none.
- Commercial surveys and maintenance
Every unit mapped to what it serves and to how it is reached, with the same readings each visit.
What we will not do
Enter a space that is not safe
No fall protection on a roof edge, no fixed boarding in an attic, standing water or exposed wiring in a crawl space, a space that cannot be ventilated. We will tell you what would make it workable and what that costs. We will not go in and hope.
Force access we have not been given
A locked plant room, a neighbour’s side passage, a roof reached across somebody else’s property. We need the owner’s authority, and we will ask for it rather than assume it.
Move your belongings
Where storage is in the way we will tell you before the visit so it can be cleared. We are not insured to move somebody’s possessions and a visit that turns into an afternoon of shifting boxes helps nobody.
Condemn a heat exchanger without showing you
It is a real reason to shut a furnace down and the most abused finding in this trade. If we call it, you get the camera image or the combustion reading, and you are welcome to a second opinion.
Recommend replacement on age alone
Age changes the arithmetic on a repair. It is not a fault.
Asked often enough to write down
What photographs should I send before you come?
Three, and they settle most of the guesswork. The way in — the hatch, the door, the ladder point or the steps, with a tape measure in the shot if you have one. The equipment from far enough back to show what is around it and what has been stacked against it. And the rating plate, close enough to read, because the model and serial numbers tell us the age, the capacity and which parts it takes. With those three we can tell you whether it is a one-person or a two-person job and whether anything needs clearing first.
Our attic has no boarding. Can you still work up there?
We can survey it and we can look at the unit, but we will not carry out repairs standing on joists and ceiling plaster. It is not a judgement about your house — it is how people in this trade get hurt and how ceilings get a foot through them. Boarding a route from the hatch to the unit and a platform to work on is a modest job, and once it exists every future visit is shorter and cheaper. We will specify exactly what is needed and roughly what it costs.
Why does access affect the price?
Because it affects the time, and it does so on every single visit for the life of the equipment. A unit reached in twenty minutes gets maintained; one that takes an hour to reach gets maintained less often, quietly, by everybody who ever works on it. That is the real cost, and it is much larger than the hourly difference. The cheapest improvement available to most buildings is not to the equipment at all — it is a light, a platform, a wider opening or a fixed ladder.
The furnace is in a closet that has become a linen store. Is that a problem?
Two problems, and the second one matters more. The first is practical: a blocked return and a filter nobody can reach means the filter does not get changed. The second is that gas appliances have required clearances and a defined combustion air supply, usually through louvres or grilles of a specified size, and those get covered by shelving or sealed during draught-proofing by somebody who did not know what they were for. That is invisible and it is genuinely dangerous, so if we find it we will say so plainly and ask that the space stays clear.
The outdoor unit is in a narrow side passage. Does that matter?
It can, and not only for working on it. A condenser boxed into a space narrower than the manufacturer specifies recirculates its own hot discharge air and loses capacity, quietly — the system still runs, it simply costs more and works harder. That is measurable, and it is worth measuring before anybody concludes the unit is undersized. Where a unit genuinely cannot be worked on where it stands, relocating it is frequently cheaper over ten years than paying for the difficulty every visit, and on a replacement it costs very little extra.
Will you build the ladder or the walkway for us?
No. We will specify exactly what is needed, give you a realistic figure and co-ordinate with whoever installs it, but fixed ladders, walkways, edge protection and structural openings are a builder’s or a specialist’s work. We would rather say that than take on a trade we are not the right people for, particularly where somebody’s safety depends on it being done properly.
Which areas do you cover?
Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito, Emeryville, Oakland, Kensington, Richmond and Piedmont.
1676 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley, CA 94709. Monday to Friday, 8am to 4.30pm.
We cover Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito, Emeryville, Oakland, Kensington, Richmond and Piedmont.