The Right Size for Your House, Not the Biggest One We Can Sell
Nobody should pay for more furnace than their house needs. So before a price exists, a technician measures your rooms and works out what holds them warm on the worst night of the year. Here that night is minus 19, because Waterloo sits at 330 metres and the higher ground carries a colder number than the towns down by the lake. We do not have to look that up.
Buy bigger than the answer and you pay twice. Once on the invoice, and again every winter, in short runs that never settle, an igniter that gives out early, and a back bedroom that still does not catch up. It is the complaint we hear most about a furnace somebody else sold.
The permit question is ours, not yours. Waterloo's building permit rules and the checklist the city gives homeowners do not quite agree about a furnace swap, we have known that for years, and we ask the building division about your address rather than guess. The answer and any fee reach you on the quote.
What Is in the Quote, Every Time
One crew, one visit, one scope. If it is on this list it is already in the number.
- Your rooms measured and the size taken from them, not from the old nameplate.
- The permit question put to the building division, and the application filed if the answer is yes.
- The old furnace disconnected, drained and taken away, with the gas line capped properly.
- Venting sized and run for the new unit, because a condensing furnace does not vent like the one leaving.
- The return air read, and the metal box the furnace blows into rebuilt where it is choking the fan.
- A drain line for the water a condensing furnace makes, which matters more in a finished basement.
- Electrical checked, and anything new filed with the Electrical Safety Authority.
- Thermostat set up, a full heating cycle run, and the warranty registered in your name.
If the air conditioner is the same age, ask about doing both at once. The cooling coil lives in that same metal box and one fan drives the pair, so one visit usually beats two. We set out the case either way on our replacing both at the same time page.
Which Furnace Is Worth the Extra Money
How many speeds a furnace has is what you live with between the cold snaps, not during them. A single stage unit runs flat out or not at all. A two stage one sits on low through most of the season and steps up when it has to. A modulating one slides anywhere in between, so the room holds the temperature you set. As an Authorized Lennox Dealer we will tell you which of the three your house would actually feel, and which one is money you would not get back. Our furnace installation page covers the range, and furnace repair is the better call when the unit is sound and one part has failed.
| How the furnace fires | What you notice indoors | Where it earns the money |
|---|---|---|
| Single stage | Full output or nothing, so the room overshoots and then drifts back. | A tight house with ducts that already move the air. |
| Two stage | Low fire covers most of the season and the second speed waits for the hard nights. | The usual answer in this city, and the first thing we try for a bedroom that never catches up. |
| Modulating | Output slides up and down, so the house holds one temperature instead of swinging. | Older streets still on their original ductwork, and anyone who feels every change. |
Efficiency ratings matter less than the sizing and the install. A well-fitted two stage beats a badly fitted modulating unit every winter, which is why we would rather talk about your basement than a brochure.
Who Turns Up on the Day
Over 10 years fitting furnaces around this region, an Authorized Lennox Dealer, and five HomeStars Best of Award wins voted by homeowners rather than handed over by a trade body. Sina owns the company and is still on most of the driveways. Waterloo is a short run from our shop, so the person who quotes your job is the one who comes back to commission it, and he is easy to get hold of afterwards.
Very quick, thorough and professional service. The furnace was replaced without issue in a very prompt manner. Sina was exceptionally polite, courteous and punctual.
HomeStars reviewWhy Your Number Is What It Is, and Why It Will Not Move
We do not price a furnace down the phone, because the furnace itself is rarely what moves the total. Venting, sheet metal and the state of the gas and the electrical do most of it, and none of that can be read from a photo. So a technician comes out first, and the number he writes is the number you pay.
Our financing options page sets out the ways to spread it.
| What we find in the basement | Which way it moves the number |
|---|---|
| What your rooms actually need | We measure the house instead of reading the old nameplate, and the answer often comes back a size smaller. That unit costs less to buy and less to run. |
| How many speeds you pay for | One speed, two speeds and a unit that slides between them are three prices for the same house. |
| The vent route out | A condensing furnace takes its own intake and exhaust through a wall. On a 1970s house the short route is not always the tidy one. |
| The sheet metal above the furnace | The box the new unit blows into rarely matches the old one, and cutting metal on the day is hours rather than parts. |
| Gas and electrical | An adequate line and circuit keeps it simple. A longer run, a new circuit or a tired panel does not. |
| The permit | 1 percent of what the job costs where the city charges for it, with a $132 minimum. On your quote from the start. |
| Anything added while we are there | A humidifier, a filter cabinet or a smart thermostat costs less fitted during the install than booked as its own visit. |
Four Steps, and the Number Comes First
Nothing is ordered until you have the price and the date in writing.
You tell us which room gives up first
Phone us, or use the form to tell us how old the furnace is, which room never keeps up, and whether you live there or let it out.
We measure, then we ask the city
Your technician measures room by room to work out what the house needs, follows the vent route, reads the return air and the electrical, then puts your job to the building division.
The quote comes in writing
Equipment, size, venting, duct work and any permit fee, each named and each priced, so there is nothing to decode later.
We install it and hand it over
We take the old furnace away on the truck, then set the new one and run its venting. We make the gas and electrical connections, and prove a full heating cycle before the warranty goes in your name.
The Waterloo neighbourhoods we work in
The stretch built between 1961 and 1980 is the biggest block of housing in this city, and those basements are a different afternoon from the walk-outs out past Laurelwood. We have worked in both, often on the same week. Give us the neighbourhood when you call and we will book the visit.
- Uptown Waterloo
- Uptown North
- Uptown West
- Mary Allen
- MacGregor Albert
- Westmount
- Westvale
- Beechwood
- Beechwood West
- Upper Beechwood
- Colonial Acres
- Lincoln Heights
- Lincoln Village
- Lakeshore North
- Lakeshore South
- Eastbridge
- Conservation Meadows
- Clair Hills
- Laurelwood
- Vista Hills
- Columbia Forest
- Glasgow Heights
- Craigleith
- Sugarbush North
- Dansbridge
- Rummelhardt
Also in Waterloo: heat pump installation and central air installation, plus every service on our Waterloo HVAC page.
