Heating and Cooling in Troy, MI

A heating and cooling company for Troy's 1960s and 1970s homes

Troy is largely a city of subdivision homes. Census Bureau estimates put nearly half of its housing in the 1960s and 1970s, with the 1970s alone accounting for roughly a third. More than a quarter followed in the 1980s and 1990s. About seven in ten homes are detached houses, and close to nine in ten heat with natural gas. In practice that usually means a gas furnace, sheet-metal ducts and, in most houses, central air.

Maverick Heating and Cooling has spent 7 years on that kind of system across Oakland County. We are family-owned. When you call 248-930-2080 from Troy, we tell you honestly when we can be there, we arrive when we said we would, and you hear what is wrong, your options and the price before a tool comes out.

What a 50-year-old Troy house means for the furnace

A gas furnace typically lasts 15 to 20 years, so a house built in the 1970s is often on its second or third furnace and air conditioner. The ducts are another matter. They are often the originals, laid out for the first furnace and for a house that may have gained better windows and more insulation since.

That matters most at replacement time. A new furnace should be sized by a load calculation on the house as it stands today, not by copying the label on the old one. Too large a furnace heats in short bursts, runs louder and wears faster. Our furnace installation page explains how sizing works, and ductwork repair and sealing covers ducts that leak or starve a room. Signs that an older Troy system deserves a look:

• Rooms at the end of a long duct run that never get comfortable
• A furnace that starts and stops every few minutes
• An air conditioner more than 10 years old that runs all afternoon

Electric and water service in Troy

DTE supplies Troy's electricity. The water is municipal, supplied through the Great Lakes Water Authority, and private wells are not typical. In Troy it is usually age, not well sediment, that wears out a tank water heater. Tanks typically last 10 to 15 years, so one installed with the last furnace may be due as well.

Winter does most of the work

Oakland County weather calls for roughly nine to ten times as much heating as cooling over a year, so the furnace is the hardest-working appliance in a Troy house. A fall furnace tune-up can catch the weak igniter or dirty flame sensor before January does. We also work in Rochester Hills and Royal Oak.