Furnace repair inVancouver

In Vancouver, a lot of "furnace" calls are boilers

This is the thing that makes Vancouver different from most of Metro Vancouver on this service.

A large share of the city's pre-1960 housing — much of the east side, Kitsilano, Kerrisdale, Shaughnessy, and most of the converted heritage stock — is heated by a boiler with radiators or in-floor loops, not by forced air. There's no furnace to repair.

People still search for "furnace repair," because that's the word for the thing in the basement that makes heat. So if what you have is a boiler, you're in the right place: we repair, service and replace those too, and it's a different discipline rather than a different company.

How to tell: if you have vents in the floors or ceilings blowing air, it's forced air. If you have radiators on the walls, or the floors themselves get warm, it's hydronic.

And in a condo, there may be neither

Downtown, Yaletown, Coal Harbour and the West End suites are usually heated by electric baseboards, a heat pump, or a building-wide system with fan coils in each suite.

If your heat has failed in a condo, the first question is whether it's your equipment or the building's. A fan coil in your suite is generally yours; the boiler plant feeding it is the strata's. Several suites cold at once points to the building.

What we repair on a forced-air furnace

Blowing cold air — usually ignition or a dirty flame sensor. Occasionally just the fan setting left on "on" instead of "auto," which blows unheated air between cycles.

Not starting — thermostat, power, a tripped safety limit, or a failed control board.

Short-cycling — restricted airflow, an oversized furnace, or a failing limit switch.

Noise — squealing is usually the blower motor; banging on startup can be delayed ignition, which is worth attending to promptly.

⚠️ A persistent burning, electrical or acrid smell means turn it off and call. A faint dusty smell on the first run of the season is normal; a persistent one isn't.

⚠️ If your CO alarm sounds, leave the building and call 911 from outside. Don't investigate. A cracked heat exchanger is the usual cause, and the unit must not run again until it's inspected.

All new natural gas installations and alterations require a gas permit. City of Vancouver: Get a gas permit

Vancouver's Gas Fitting By-law fee schedule includes a gas permit charge for each replacement water heater, gas range, furnace or boiler. City of Vancouver: Gas Fitting By-law No. 3507

The gas permit holder must ask for an inspection immediately after completing each phase of the gas system. City of Vancouver: Get a gas permit