furnace... One or two for Old Detroit home

[Marianne Marzolla]

My partner and I recently purchased a 1300 sq ft home in Detroit's Bagley neighborhood. It was built in 1929 and needs a complete rehab. The system is a boiler and all the radiators are missing. We had the heating system quoted and the contractor suggested we change to forced air and put a furnace in the basement and in the attic. He says this will make the duct work easier to install. Has anyone heard of this before? Any thoughts?

[Rob Hayes]

I have been in the HVAC business since 1982 so I am very familiar with your options. What you are saying is done frequently in our area and a nice option to be able to zone (multiple thermostats) which helps comfort when done correctly but like the previous post said a 1300 sq ft home is rather small for a multiple system home. The question I have is, was ALL supply and return water lines removed or just the base board, meaning the stubs in each room are available to install new baseboard? If so I would say that would be your least expensive option. The benefit of switching to a hot air ducted system is to be able to add central AC which will add value to the home and may help sell the home. If you are renovating anyway this can be done with one system located in the basement and opening up Sheetrock walls to add proper ducting. You can then add a electronic zoning system if separate thermostats are wanted for the first and second floor. This option will add several thousand dollars to the project and not really needed if your flipping, if you where going to live in yourself then I would highly suggest it. Sight unseen these are my suggestions. I would get several estimates for re installing the baseboard and boiler and I would get several estimates for adding hot air/ central ac in both single and multiple (2) systems. As in most cases be careful that the contractors are reputable and GUARANTEE work to new homeowner! Nothing worse then selling a house and getting a call the first 20 degree or 90 degree day that the system will not maintain temperature and the contractor is not answering his phone :) good luck