Furnace Installation in Rockville and Gaithersburg, MD
A furnace that has run its course has to be replaced with one that is the right size and vented correctly. Get either one wrong and you feel it in your comfort and your fuel bills for the next fifteen years. We put in gas and propane furnaces in Rockville, Gaithersburg, Germantown, Derwood, Olney and Montgomery Village. Furnaces are what we install. We service hot water boilers but do not install them, and we do not handle steam or oil equipment.
It starts with a visit to look things over. Your technician sizes the furnace to your house, checks the venting and the gas supply, and hands you a written proposal that lays out your options. We only book the installation once you have approved it.
Signs your furnace is ready to be replaced
It is fifteen to twenty years old
Most gas and propane furnaces in this climate work for about that long. Once a furnace passes that mark, a repair only rents you a little more time, and a breakdown in the middle of January will pick its own moment.
The heat exchanger is cracked
The heat exchanger is the metal chamber that keeps exhaust out of the air you breathe. When it cracks, carbon monoxide can get into your living space. It cannot realistically be fixed. Once a technician finds this, the repair talk is over and the replacement talk begins.
Repairs have become a pattern
An ignitor this year, a control board the next, a blower motor after that. Once the furnace needs a fix every season, the parts are giving out one after another, and your money goes further toward a replacement.
Fuel use keeps climbing
As burners get dirty and the heat exchanger scales up, an aging furnace loses efficiency. When your gas or propane use rises from one winter to the next, and nothing in the house has changed, your furnace is giving back less than you pay for.
Uneven heat through the house
The rooms farthest from the furnace stay cold while others run warm. Sometimes the cause is the ductwork. Sometimes it is a furnace that can no longer push enough air. The visit sorts out which one before anyone talks about new equipment.
It still has a standing pilot light
A furnace old enough to run a standing pilot is decades behind what is built now. That is true of how efficiently it runs and of how safely it is made. It has done its job. Replacing it is already past due.
How a furnace installation goes
The visit and honest sizing
Your technician measures the house and looks at the ductwork, the venting, and the gas supply, then sizes the system to fit the home.
Written proposal with options
You get your equipment options with their efficiency ratings and the full scope of work on paper. Any venting changes, drain work, or plenum and transition work the new unit needs are written down up front rather than sprung on you later.
Installation day
We take out the old furnace and carry it away. The new one goes in. We hook up the gas, the vent, the drain, and the power, then seal it into your ducts.
Final testing and safety check
We set the gas pressure by the numbers and test how it burns. We check how much the air warms as it crosses the furnace. Then we take a carbon monoxide reading. Before we leave, the furnace runs through full cycles.
Closeout and warranty
We put the warranty in your name and handle the paperwork. Every document ends up in your hands for your records.
Choosing between a standard and a high-efficiency furnace
The real choice is between a standard furnace that turns about 80 percent of its fuel into heat, and a high-efficiency furnace that reaches 95 percent or better. The high-efficiency unit pulls more heat out of the same fuel. In return it needs plastic vent pipes run out through a wall or roof, and a drain for the water it makes. In some houses that is easy. In others it brings extra work you have to plan for. That is most common where the old furnace shares a chimney with the water heater, because the water heater stays and the chimney then needs a liner.
Fuel plays a part too. Houses past the gas mains run on propane, and a furnace has to be set up for it with the right parts and settings. In every case the size follows the house, never a hunch. A furnace that is too big starts and stops, heats unevenly, and wears out sooner. The right furnace is the one matched to the house, not the largest one that fits in the closet.
Furnace replacement in Rockville, Derwood and Boyds homes
In the 1950s Twinbrook and College Gardens ramblers, a new furnace usually brings venting choices. The old equipment vents into a brick chimney, and that chimney needs a liner once the appliance changes. The main duct in those houses runs through a crawl space or a low basement, and the return ducts are too small by any modern standard. A proper installation fixes that instead of carrying it forward. The 1960s and 70s ramblers near Olde Towne Gaithersburg behave much the same way.
Derwood houses from the 1970s and 80s are often on their third furnace, and what we find is what the last two installs left behind. An adapted flue. A duct transition that does not quite fit. A return nobody enlarged. Out past the gas mains around Boyds, propane furnaces are the norm, and some owners use the moment to weigh a heat pump instead. We walk through both routes on the visit.
Why the visit takes a little longer
Swapping the part that quit is the short version of the job. It is also the version you end up paying for twice.
So we check what that part was fighting. The airflow, the coil, the drain line, the wiring, the refrigerant. Anything wrong there gets written down. Then you can decide what to do about it now, instead of finding out next season.
Furnace Installation questions, answered
How long does a gas furnace last?
Fifteen to twenty years is the usual span around here, and maintenance is the biggest factor in where you land. A furnace that gets serviced every year reaches the upper end. One left running on clogged filters gives out early. Age alone does not settle it, but once a furnace is past fifteen, big repairs stop paying off.
How long does furnace installation take?
A replacement with no venting changes is usually done in one day, and the house has heat again that evening. Jobs that add venting changes, a chimney liner, or plenum work for the new unit can run into a second day. Your written proposal names the expected time before you approve anything.
What is the difference between an 80 percent and a 95 percent furnace?
The number is how much of the fuel turns into usable heat. An 80 percent furnace sends hot exhaust up a flue. A 95 percent furnace holds on to most of that heat and vents cooler exhaust out a plastic pipe. It burns less fuel, but it needs venting and drain changes that shape the job.
Do you install propane furnaces?
Yes. Propane furnaces are steady work out past the gas mains around Boyds, where houses sit on well and septic beyond the reach of natural gas. We set the furnace up for propane during the install, with the right parts and settings, then test how it burns.
Can you replace my oil furnace?
We do not service or maintain oil equipment, so oil furnace repair is not something we can take on. Swapping an oil furnace for a propane furnace or a heat pump is another story, and we can look at that on a visit.
What paperwork comes with replacing a furnace?
We handle the paperwork tied to a furnace replacement as part of the job. Missing paperwork on furnace work tends to surface during home sales and inspections, so it is not a corner worth cutting.
Should I switch from a furnace to a heat pump?
It comes down to your fuel. Houses on natural gas usually stay with gas heat, or add a heat pump alongside the furnace so the system can switch between them. Houses on propane or electric heat often do better with a heat pump. The visit walks through both with real numbers for your house rather than a blanket rule.
Call us or send a request, and we will get your furnace estimate on the calendar.
Or tell us what your system is doing
Send us the details and we will call you back. If the house is very hot or very cold right now, calling is faster.