Heat out in a rental or your own home
In East Chicago we hear from homeowners, and we hear from landlords whose tenant just called about a cold unit. Either way the fix is the same. Find the part that failed, put the price on paper, and get the heat back on. If you own a double and the tenant can let us in, we talk with you by phone, send you the written price, and wait for your okay before we start.
The price, before the wrench
You hear the diagnostic fee when you call. After the tech finds the problem, you get a flat-rate repair price in writing. Nothing gets done until you agree to it, and the bill matches the paper. For landlords, that means no mystery invoice showing up a week later.
A common one: the flame sensor
A lot of winter no-heat calls come down to a small metal rod called the flame sensor. It sits in the burner flame and tells the control board the gas actually lit. Over time it gets a coating on it, the board stops trusting it, and the furnace shuts off a few seconds after lighting. It tries again, fails again, and eventually locks out.
The fix is usually a cleaning or a new sensor, one of the smaller bills in furnace repair. We check the burners and the venting while we’re there, since the grime on the sensor had to come from somewhere. If the sensor is cracked or worn thin, a cleaning won’t hold, and we tell you that and price a new one instead. For more on this one, see why a furnace won’t light.
East Chicago housing
East Chicago sits on the Lake Michigan shore next to Hammond and Whiting, with the Indiana Harbor and the mills along the water. The homes are older on the whole: frame houses built close together, two-flats, doubles, and brick homes with basement furnaces that have been swapped out once or twice over the decades. Wind off the lake finds the gaps in older houses, so a furnace that’s a little weak in November can fall behind in January.
In a double, it’s common to find two furnaces side by side in a shared basement. We label what we work on and tell you which unit had the problem.
What to tell us when you call
- What the furnace is doing: no flame, lights then quits, blowing cold, or making noise.
- Any blinking light code on the control board, if you can see it.
- Whether it’s a single-family home or a unit in a double or two-flat.
- Who can let the tech in, and who approves the price.
If you manage more than one unit, tell us when you call. We write up each furnace separately so you can see which one needed what, and you can approve them one at a time. Tenants don’t have to sign or decide anything. The approval stays with you, and the written price goes to you.
Repair first. Replacement only if the math says so.
Our techs don’t earn commission, so nobody is pushing a new furnace on your house or your rental. If a repair makes sense, we do the repair. If the furnace has a serious problem and the numbers don’t work, we show you both prices on one sheet and you decide. A furnace being old isn’t, by itself, a reason to replace it.
Gas smell or CO alarm
If you or a tenant smells gas, everyone leaves the building and calls NIPSCO or 911 from outside. If a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, get out and call 911. Nobody should go back inside to shut anything off once they smell gas. We can find the cause after the building is safe.
Call (219) 555-0142 any time and a real person answers. We come over from Munster and also cover Hammond and Whiting. See the full furnace repair page for how every visit works, and the service area page for every town we cover.
