Investor · Bedford, IN · Member since 2015 · 69 posts · 29 votes
What is cost of a Furnace These Days?
Just picked up a home. Am squaring up the floor joists in the crawl space. While doing so contractor notes the rusted thru duct-work, (made of tin back in those days.) - Fine, let's replace with the insulated tubing stuff...
Furnace is from the 60's likely (50+ years) but appears functional. The floor has rotted below the furnace so we are replacing it, but have to lift this furnace up and out of the closet. I am considering replacing.
Here is why: Years ago I bought a home and replaced the furnace and all duct work etc. I've been in business for years and have merchant retail cert... (purchase tax exempt) so I attempted to purchase a furnace at cost at the local wholesale supply, but they would not even give me a price since I wasn't HVAC certified. So I found a neighbor kid that was HVAC cert. (had the card in his wallet)... took him to the store, and purchased the $2500 furnace for $600. and paid him $10/hour to install. (he did a fantastic job).
DOES IT STILL WORK THIS WAY?
Curious, since I'm going to have this old furnace lifted out of the closet anyways.
If i replace a furnace with an equal sized furnace (existing ductwork) i pay 500 for a new low end furnace (100k btu, 80percent, gas) pay another 2-300 for the install/removal. Plus any required nonsense (pipe, metal tape, sheet metal screws, wire, sheet metal)
We installed 2 new units in a duplex in the past year. One was a 90+ one was 80. We also opted to install the coil for A/c and it came out to be around 2200 all in per unit .
@Anthony Newbold We're putting several units in every month... depending on the size, we spend between $1,500 & $2,000 for a furnace swap on our rentals.
When we go high efficiency, it's about $1,800 to $2,400.
That is here in Indianapolis, from our licensed HVAC contractor.
In the last 30 days I bought a new high efficiency furnace and AC for my personal house. I have about a 1700 sq ft house. My cost was under $7K. I have purchased furnaces online before for anywhere between $700 to $1,200 delivered. It is very hard to find good furnace AC guys in my area as the oil field pays so well that most folks look for work there. Since the oil field has been hit hard lately, maybe we will see more folks taking up trades. I understand that folks installing furnaces need to make money, but it should be a fair price.
In Oklahoma---, a new furnace, A-Coil, installed, old removed, new copper lines from condenser to coil. Labor and materials $3750. No ductwork.
For the same with a New condenser as well $4750.
My regular guy bid the job and another company bid. Almost the same price for both bids.
Did three of these this summer for my apartments. Will do another 16 apartments over the next 4 years. The old systems are shot, very inefficient. 1968 model Lennox equipment.
It is possible to buy the equipment online for about 1/2 of the total bid, but then I would be dealing with a part time installer, if I could find one. Seems high but it has to be right.
We installed 2 new units in a duplex in the past year. One was a 90+ one was 80. We also opted to install the coil for A/c and it came out to be around 2200 all in per unit .
Thank you Bryan,
So this was normal retail? Not the purchase at wholesale with someone's HVAC card?
In the last 30 days I bought a new high efficiency furnace and AC for my personal house. I have about a 1700 sq ft house. My cost was under $7K. I have purchased furnaces online before for anywhere between $700 to $1,200 delivered. It is very hard to find good furnace AC guys in my area as the oil field pays so well that most folks look for work there. Since the oil field has been hit hard lately, maybe we will see more folks taking up trades. I understand that folks installing furnaces need to make money, but it should be a fair price.
Thank you Jerry,
We have AC guys here in our area but they all charge $2500 for the part that I paid $600 wholesale brand new from the distributor.
I suppose I could buy online as well, but prefer using someone's HVAC card. In my industry (computer-electronics) we are lucky to make $20 on a $100 sale. I was shocked at the HVAC guys making $1900 off of $2500 sale ($600 cost).
We are putting all new duct-work in the crawlspace and pulled the furnace that was on top of the rotted floor to do so.
Now that it's all out in my living room it is apparent that this pristine (on the outside) has rusted A-coil, and should probably be replaced.
So now next question would be....... what is reasonable/ wholesale cost for me, for furnace, A-coil, outside part (compressor), parts and stuff...... not to mention labor.
Oh hey, did I say I got a really good deal on this house? ;)
i just got a quote last week for new furnace, a-coil, ac unit ,and all new duct (supply and return) all in the Attic installed for $12,300.I think its a bit high.the furnace is 80% and both units are Lennox.if anyone in southeast Michigan has any comments I would love the feedback.
If i replace a furnace with an equal sized furnace (existing ductwork) i pay 500 for a new low end furnace (100k btu, 80percent, gas) pay another 2-300 for the install/removal. Plus any required nonsense (pipe, metal tape, sheet metal screws, wire, sheet metal)
Wow! Such a range!! The $600 > $2,500 markup is unbelievable. I did not know that. I replaced a few over the years. I was lucky to get a decent "fly by night" guy who did decent work who referred by a class D landlord in the area (Class D landlord = "guy who gets stuff cheaper than you can possibly believe!). I paid about 3 grand for new Pensottie direct vent oil BOILER installs. Including 6 plate boiler, burner, one circulator, and some plex and copper usually.
I will be installing some heat pumps next year. I expect about 3k each. Does anyone know how to get these done cheaper? I'm in Central Maine.
If i replace a furnace with an equal sized furnace (existing ductwork) i pay 500 for a new low end furnace (100k btu, 80percent, gas) pay another 2-300 for the install/removal. Plus any required nonsense (pipe, metal tape, sheet metal screws, wire, sheet metal)
Seth!,
Absolutely Perfect. This is what I'm talking about. I work the same way. I am a no-nonsense kind of investor. I know I am new to BP, and yes, I love to hear all of the new ideas and welcoming from everyone. But I am NOT new to negotiating.
What you just described above was what I was hoping for an entire post to be filled with. Please keep reading: At the end of this post you will see what I ACTUALLY DID!
OK... So I'm adding to my own post. But here is what I've accomplished thus far:
I use craigslist when needed and I have NO problem telling my contractor that I do that when necessary. I just hired another ROCKSTAR painter and painted my entire 1400SF house for about $400 (I paid for the paint.)
I try to be NO nonsense but 'sensitive', so my contractor knows the story of how I found out about the markup of HVAC 10+ years ago, so I need his HVAC card for wholesale and am more than happy to pay him his normal exhorbitant labor costs.
Somehow he feels the need to share with me that he has found similar wholesale prices on craigslist. AND HE'S RIGHT!..... (wow!),, It's true! I don't even need his HVAC card to purchase. For what the local HVAC people are selling for $2500 I can have DELIVERED via normal UPS or FedEX for $539!
Who would have known? I regularly use Craigslist for labor, but NEVER use Craigslist for parts. Now I have an upper hand......
So... having said that. And having told my contractor I will buy the parts/ all the parts at below wholesale that I've got it all under control and don't really need him.
BUT.... I really do. So I had him acquire all of the necessary products via his own wholesaler. (after all I'm going to do it anyways.) (and he got the product procured in less than 24 hours.)
So here is what I am ending up with. I am providing all of this information for everyone so that we ALL can make informed decisions regarding this situation that I found myself in.
4.) Required Lines necessary to connect the above= $115
All in all I wrote a check for $2,000 to cover the above. And they are now in my living room awaiting installation.
Quoted Labor= $600
I am sure that there will be about $300 of Non-Sense additional this and that, and we shall see how much more labor I will get hit with.
But I really appreciate this forum, and I want all of you to know what you, and I, and WE, are capable of by simply digging deeper. I appreciate my contractor. I just simply will not hold back and share what I know and expect.... and once we understand each other most things going forward are much better.
Anyhow... this is where I am at right now. We all know there will be some added costs somewhere. I will keep all posted.
that's about right, I never mess with high efficiency stuff. don't forget Freon (cant buy direct), lineset (don't reuse old stuff),...and all the miscellaeneous parts u didn't mention to completel the install. figure 300-ish.
Huge markup in the HVAC business. If you call on of the companies in your area. Rest assured, they are making a killing at the quoted prices, most residential customers don't question.
As an investor I feel a fair price in Indiana, for a OK new furnace/AC combo is about 3k installed, give or take on a 1500 sq ft house. If I were to call a company, they would try and charge 6-7k for the same units.
We do our own & buy from ACwholesalers out of FL. Prices are great.
We had an interesting issue with an old house. The metal venting had been installed (many years ago) above the dropped ceiling to feed the downstairs & upper floor vents. The elderly ladies decided to crank the a/c so cold (64deg F) that the subsequent heavy condensation forming on the old metal venting started dripping through the ceiling tile & dining room light.
They finally compromised with a higher temp, bought a dehumidifier & have repainted the ceiling tiles.
Nice detailed post. But if I'm not mistaken, a down flow unit should go in an attic. I thought you were in a crawl with this.
Interesting...the one I mentioned earlier (also a Goodman) was a down flow situated in the ground floor laundry room. The old home is on a rubble crawlspace & the attic has minimal clearance with insulation only in the attic floor joists.
The only reason we install new furnaces is so that the tenants have more affordable heating costs. Better to pay us higher rents than have them feed the utility co.
All the venting runs above the downstairs dropped ceiling. It's definitely better than running it through a cold crawl space or uninsulated attic. The latter became a major issue with one installed by a fellow investor. He ran all the venting up to the roof-line & then down through the uninsulated but 'finished attic' to service the upper 750 sq ft apartment. The heating costs ran at least $350 a month so he has a lot of tenant turnover!!!