If the house is cold and there is a baby or someone elderly in it, stop reading and call. Everything else on this page can wait.
We will tell you what it usually is, what it usually costs, whether it can wait until morning — and the one thing worth checking yourself before you pay anyone to drive out.
Diagnostic call-out is $110 weekday, $180 evenings and weekends. It comes off the repair if you go ahead the same visit.
A twelve-year-old furnace with a dead igniter is a $260 fix, not a $6,000 decision. We will not use a cold house as leverage.
It happens more than any of us admit. If we drive out and it is a blocked filter, you pay the call-out and nothing else, and we will show you how to change it.
They are excellent in the right house. In a 1950s bungalow with original windows they disappoint, and we would rather lose the sale than fit one.
Six call-outs from one winter and the summer either side, with what each turned out to be and what it came to. Halton Air is a demo — not a real firm — but every price here is the one in the rate book above.
Burlington · December
The call. No heat overnight with a baby in the house. The board was locking out after three ignition attempts.
What we did. Metered the inducer and the pressure switch before touching a part. It was the flame sensor reading dirty, not the board. Cleaned, tested through three full cycles, heat back before school.
Waterdown · 22-year-old unit
The call. A mid-efficiency unit from 2004 with a cracked heat exchanger found on a service call. That is a replace, not a repair, and we said so on the spot.
What we did. Two-stage unit sized off a heat-loss calculation rather than the badge on the old one. Permit pulled, old unit out the same day, lines brazed and pressure-tested.
Aldershot · shoulder season
The call. The pump ran but never dropped to second stage, so the backup electric was carrying the house. The bill was the first symptom, not the noise.
What we did. Read the board fault history and found a failed outdoor sensor feeding it a wrong temperature. Sensor replaced and staging confirmed across a full cycle.
Oakville · R-22 system
The call. A 2003 condenser still running R-22. Refrigerant for it is effectively unobtainable, so a leak on that system is the end of it.
What we did. New condenser matched to the existing coil, a new line set rather than reusing the old one, and the disconnect brought up to current code. Old unit taken away.
Millcroft · airflow
The call. The back bedrooms never got warm. Three companies had offered a bigger furnace; the furnace was already oversized.
What we did. Measured static pressure and found the return badly undersized. Opened the return, resized the plenum and rebalanced. No new equipment sold.
Bronte · before the first hot week
The call. Nothing wrong. Booked in May because the unit had run four summers without a clean.
What we did. Coil washed and combed, condensate line cleared, charge and temperature split checked against spec. Everything within range, so nothing else was sold.
Replacing a furnace is the biggest single sale in this trade, which is exactly why you should know the rule we use before anyone quotes you one. It is not a feeling, it is four questions.
Two of the six jobs above were people who had already been quoted a whole new system. One needed a $310 sensor and the other needed the ductwork opening up. We would rather do the small job and be the ones you call next time.
Tell us when suits and we will come and look. The diagnostic fee comes off the repair if you go ahead on the same visit.
A symptom checker that tells a homeowner what is probably wrong and what it costs, then books the call-out on the same page.
This is The Booking Block by Glass Floor Studio · $5,400 flat.
No-heat calls at 6am book themselves while you are still under a furnace, and the rate book answers the price question for you.