Milford, Michigan
Furnace Repair in Milford, Michigan
Our shop is on Holden Avenue. If your furnace quits on a January night in Milford, you are not waiting on a truck from the other side of the county.
Quick answer
Kern Mechanical is based in Milford — 1280 Holden Ave, Suite 127 — and we repair furnaces across the village and Milford Township. Call 248-714-6563. No-heat calls go to the front of the queue during business hours, Monday through Saturday, 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM. We service every major furnace brand, and you will have the diagnosis and the price before any work starts.
We are not driving in from somewhere else
Kern Mechanical LLC works out of 1280 Holden Ave, Suite 127, in Milford. That matters more in February than it does in June. When the temperature drops and every HVAC company in Oakland County is booked out for days, being ten minutes away is the difference between a cold night and a warm one.
We are family owned, licensed and insured, with more than sixty years of combined experience between us.
The furnaces we see in Milford
Milford is not one housing stock. It is four or five, and the furnace problems change with each one.
The historic district and the streets off North Main
The north end of the village was largely built between the 1870s and the turn of the century — Greek Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, and a good number of homes that predate central heating entirely. These houses have been heated four or five different ways over their lives. What we usually find is a furnace sized for a floor plan that has since been added onto, return air that was never really solved, and duct runs threaded through a basement that was never designed to carry them. The fix is often less about the furnace than about what happens to the air after it leaves it.
Bonnie Highlands, Fairview Heights, Peach Hill and Needles Oak Park
Post-war Milford — ranches and raised ranches built roughly between 1940 and 1960, most with wet plaster walls and hardwood underneath. Solid houses. The heating problem is usually age: original duct sizing built for a furnace two generations older than the one in the basement now, and supply runs to bedroom additions that never quite keep up. Plaster also makes retrofits fussier than drywall, which is worth knowing before anyone starts cutting.
Oakland Orchards, Kensington Hills and Castle Heights
The sixties through the eighties brought tri-levels and colonials on bigger lots. If you live in a tri-level and you have spent years arguing with somebody about the thermostat, it is probably not the thermostat. Tri-levels are genuinely difficult to balance — three floor levels, one system, and returns that are almost always short on the lowest level. That is a fixable problem, and it is usually not solved by buying a bigger furnace.
Milford Bluffs, Heritage Hills, Milford Glen and Stonewood Estates
Newer construction, larger homes, and mostly high-efficiency condensing furnaces. A different failure list entirely: PVC intake and exhaust that ices over in a hard freeze, condensate lines that freeze or clog and shut the furnace down on a safety, and pressure switches that trip for reasons that have nothing to do with the burner. A high-efficiency furnace that quits in a cold snap is very often a venting or drainage problem, not a dead furnace.
Village or township — and what runs on propane
We cover both the Village of Milford and Milford Township, out toward Kensington, Proud Lake and the GM Proving Ground.
If your home sits outside the natural gas mains, you are on propane. A propane furnace is not a different animal, but it is not identical either — the burner orifices and the gas pressure are different, and a furnace converted from one fuel to the other has to be set up correctly or it will run badly and waste money doing it. We work on both.
Common furnace faults
Whatever the age of the house, the fault list is short and familiar. Our main furnace repair page walks through the eight problems we see most, and what each one usually turns out to be.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are you actually based in Milford?
Yes. Our shop is at 1280 Holden Ave, Suite 127, in Milford. We are not listing the town and driving in from another county.
How fast can you get to a no-heat call in Milford?
No-heat calls go to the front of the queue. Call 248-714-6563 during business hours — Monday through Saturday, 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM. Being in town helps on the days everyone else is booked out.
Do you work on propane furnaces?
Yes. Plenty of homes outside the village run on propane rather than natural gas, and we service both.
My tri-level has always had a cold lower level. Can that actually be fixed?
Usually, yes — and usually not by buying a bigger furnace. It is normally a return air and balance problem. We will measure before we recommend anything.
My high-efficiency furnace shut itself off during the cold snap. What was that?
Most often the intake or exhaust icing over, or a condensate line freezing and tripping a safety. The furnace is doing what it is designed to do. It still needs looking at before it happens again.
Do you work on the older homes in the historic district?
Yes. Older village homes usually need someone who will look at the ductwork and the returns, not just the furnace. That is the work.
Do you charge for a quote?
No. Quotes are always free, and you will have the price before anything starts.
Emergency service available
Heat out? Cooling down? Call us now.
Whether it is a planned replacement or an emergency HVAC repair, Kern Mechanical is available to handle all of your heating, cooling, and ventilation needs.