Heating and Cooling in Redford, MI

Redford heating and cooling for a township built mostly in the 1950s

The township's Historical Commission describes block after block of brick ranches and bungalows, most of them built in the 1950s. Census Bureau estimates show how unusual that is. Across Metro Detroit as a whole, roughly one home in four dates from the 1940s and 1950s and about seven in ten are detached houses. Half of Redford's homes were built in 1955 or earlier. For Metro Detroit as a whole the midpoint is 1968.

Maverick Heating and Cooling is family-owned, with a crew of four, and has been in business for 7 years. When we give you a time, we keep it. Before anything is started you hear what failed, what can be done and what each choice costs. The finished work is 100% satisfaction guaranteed. We serve every city within 50 miles of Dearborn Heights: Redford, its neighbors Livonia and Detroit, and every town on our service area page.

Houses from the 1950s, ducts sized for heat

A house from 1955 is about 70 years old. A furnace typically lasts 15 to 20 years, so that house has likely worn out three or four and is on the next. The ducts usually stay when a furnace goes, so many are originals, sized for heat because few houses then were built with central air.

In a bungalow with rooms upstairs, those rooms sit right under the roof, often with one or two small supply ducts and no return, so they stay hot in July. A bigger air conditioner rarely fixes that. Duct changes or a ductless mini-split upstairs usually do.

Combined sewers and flooded basements

Redford Township says major portions of its sewer system are combined sewers, where rain water and household sewage share one pipe. In a major storm, water can come back up a basement floor drain from an overloaded combined sewer, or in from a flooded street. In late May 2011, CBS Detroit reported more than a foot of water in a basement at Fenton Street and Midland.

A furnace or water heater that has stood in that water should stay off until it has been checked, however dry it looks. Under industry guidance, a gas valve or control that has been flooded is replaced, not dried out, and often the whole appliance goes with it.

DTE supplies both the gas and the electricity

DTE Gas serves the whole township and DTE Electric delivers the electricity. Cross into Livonia and the gas company changes to Consumers Energy. If you smell gas, do not call us first. Leave the building right away without touching switches or looking for the leak, then call 911 and DTE Gas from outside. The DTE Gas leak hotline is 800-947-5000.