Furnace and AC service in Cornersburg, Youngstown

Furnace and air conditioner service in Cornersburg

Cornersburg sits on the southwest side of Youngstown, centered on the junction of Canfield Road, Meridian Road, and Tippecanoe Road that gave the area its name. It began as a small crossroads village in the 1800s, but nearly all of its housing came after World War II, when returning veterans bought new homes on streets laid out through the 1950s and 1960s. A few later pockets, such as Castle Court, date from the 1990s.

These houses were built with gas furnaces and sheet metal ducts from the start, which makes this forced-air country. Our calls here are for furnace repair, air conditioner repair, and replacement of equipment that has reached the end of its life.

Heating and cooling services we provide in Cornersburg

Cornersburg homes are mostly forced-air, so furnace and air conditioner work leads the list, but every service below is available.

• Furnace repair

  Furnaces that won't light, short cycle, or blow cold air.

• AC repair

  Air conditioners that run without cooling, freeze up, or leak water.

• Boiler repair

  Cold radiators, banging pipes, low pressure, and leaking valves.

• Furnace installation

  Replacement furnaces sized to the house, with venting and permit.

• AC installation

  New central air or a replacement for a worn-out system.

• Boiler installation

  New hot water and steam boilers matched to your radiators.

• Heat pump service

  Defrost faults, weak heating, and dual fuel setups.

• Ductless mini-splits

  Heating and cooling for homes and rooms without ductwork.

• Ductwork repair

  Leaky, disconnected, or undersized ducts and missing return air.

• Furnace and AC maintenance

  Fall heating checks and spring cooling checks.

• Emergency HVAC repair

  No heat, a leaking boiler, or a carbon monoxide alarm, 24/7.

Cold added rooms and damp finished basements: Ductwork problems

A house that has been lived in for sixty or seventy years has usually grown. A breezeway was closed in, a porch became a family room, a garage became a bedroom, the basement got paneling and a bar.

In most cases the heating system wasn't redesigned for it. Someone cut a new register into the nearest duct, or ran one small flexible duct to the new space, and called it done.

That's behind many of the complaints we see in Cornersburg:

• The added room is cold in winter and hot in summer. It has more outside wall and window than any original room, often sits on a slab, and is fed by a single undersized run with no return.
• The rest of the house got worse after the addition. Every new register takes air from the rooms that had it before.
• The finished basement is chilly and damp. Basement registers were added without a return, so air goes in and has nowhere to go. In summer the space needs dehumidifying more than cooling.
• The furnace is the wrong size for the house as it's now. It was chosen for the original floor plan, or copied from the unit before it.

The first step is to measure what the ducts are delivering to each room. Some added rooms can be fixed with a properly sized supply and a return, which is ductwork repair. Others are simply too far from the furnace, and a small ductless unit for that room costs less than rebuilding the duct system and works better.

Furnace and AC replacement in a postwar home

Most Cornersburg homes are on their second or third furnace, and many are due again. 3 things are worth getting right when that happens:

• Size. We calculate the load for the house as it stands, with its additions, newer windows, and added insulation. The answer is often a smaller furnace and air conditioner than the ones being removed.
• Venting. Moving from an older furnace that used the chimney to a high-efficiency model that vents through the wall changes how the water heater vents. The chimney may need a liner.
• Timing. If the air conditioner is the same age as the furnace, replacing both together saves labor, since the cooling coil sits on top of the furnace. See furnace installation and AC installation for what each involves.

HVAC permits in Cornersburg: City of Youngstown or township?

The city limit runs right through the Cornersburg area. Homes east of Meridian Road are generally inside Youngstown, while some properties to the west and south that people still call Cornersburg are in neighboring townships. That matters for one thing: permits.

Inside the city, a furnace replacement permit comes from the City of Youngstown. Outside it, the permit comes from the Mahoning County Building Inspection Department. Your property tax bill shows which jurisdiction you're in, and we confirm it before scheduling an installation.

Nearby west side areas we serve

Our shop on Mahoning Avenue, by Austintown, is just north of here. We also serve Kirkmere and Schenley on the west side and Idora across Mill Creek Park. HVAC Guy offers heating and air conditioning service in Youngstown and the surrounding townships.

Furnace and AC questions from Cornersburg homeowners

Why is my converted breezeway or family room always cold?

Added rooms usually have more exterior wall and glass than the original rooms and are fed by one small duct with no return air. The room loses heat faster than the duct can supply it. A larger supply and a return, or a ductless unit for that room, corrects it.

How do I know if my Cornersburg home is in Youngstown or a township?

Check your property tax bill or the Mahoning County Auditor's website, which lists the taxing district for each parcel. The mailing address says Youngstown either way.

My finished basement feels damp in summer even with the AC on. Why?

Basements stay cool on their own, so the thermostat upstairs is satisfied before the system runs long enough to dry the basement air. A dehumidifier, and a return air path from the basement, handle it better than more cooling.

Should the new furnace be the same size as the old one?

Not automatically. The old one may have been oversized, and the house has likely changed since it was installed. A load calculation on the house as it's today gives the correct size.