Straight talk for Griffith homeowners
We’ll keep this plain. If your furnace in Griffith stopped working, the odds are good that one part failed. Not the whole furnace. One part. Our job is to find that part, tell you what it costs to fix, write the number down, and let you decide. No commission, no sales pitch.
Griffith grew up as a railroad town, and a lot of its houses are modest brick and frame homes that have been kept up for decades. Many of them are on their second or third furnace, sometimes with ductwork older than the owners. We work in those basements all winter.
That blinking light on the control board
Take the lower door off most gas furnaces and you’ll see a small circuit board with an LED. When something goes wrong, that light blinks a pattern. The key is usually printed on a sticker inside the door. Two blinks might mean a pressure switch problem. Three might mean the limit tripped. It varies by maker.
It’s worth writing down the pattern before you call. It helps. But the code only points to where the furnace noticed the trouble, not always the cause. A pressure switch code might mean a bad switch, a blocked vent, a clogged drain, or a weak inducer motor. That’s why we test instead of swapping the part the code names.
When the board itself is the problem
Sometimes the control board really is the failed part. A relay burns out, a fuse blows, or the board just stops sending the signal to light the burners. You might get a furnace that’s completely silent, or a blower that runs nonstop and never shuts off.
A control board is one of the more expensive common repairs, and it’s still a repair, typically in the hundreds, not thousands. We also look for what took it out. A shorted thermostat wire or a failing motor can kill a new board just as fast, so we check before we install one.
Price on paper before we start
A real person answers when you call, day or night. You hear the diagnostic fee before a tech comes out. Once we know what’s wrong, the repair price goes on paper. You approve it first, and the bill matches.
“It’s old” isn’t a reason
An older furnace in an older Griffith house can still have plenty of good years in it. “15 years old” is not a diagnosis. We check the heat exchanger, burners, venting and safeties. If those are sound, fixing the failed part is the sensible move. If a repair would cost more than the furnace has left, you’ll see both prices on one sheet. Our guide on how long a furnace lasts in Northwest Indiana gives you some context.
A few other Griffith calls
Not every no-heat call is a board. We also see thermostats that lost their wiring connection, igniters that cracked after years of heating and cooling, inducer motors with worn bearings, and gas valves that stick. Some of those set a code and some don’t. The approach is the same every time: test, find the failed part, show it to you, and write the price down. If the fix is a loose wire at the thermostat, that’s what you pay for.
Before you call
- Thermostat on HEAT, set above room temperature, batteries fresh
- Furnace power switch on, breaker not tripped
- Filter not packed with dust
- Blink pattern written down, if there is one
If you smell gas, leave the house and call NIPSCO or 911 from outside. If a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, get everyone out and call 911.
Heat out now? Call (219) 555-0142. Not urgent? Use the form below. We also cover furnace repair in Highland and furnace repair in Hobart, and the full list is on our service area page. For how we work across the region, see furnace repair.
