[Chat] air conditioning

[Kathleen Hruska]

I only have a two-story-with-basement house (Abell), but I just installed central air with vents only on the second floor.  As mentioned by other chat members, the cold air travels downstairs quite nicely.  Both my condenser and air handler are on the roof; it's a combined unit and high-efficiency.

One code issue is that if you want to have the unit on the roof, you have to have permanent access to the roof from the interior.  I have a trap door in my back bedroom, but if you don't have this, you will have to calculate that into your final costs.

I've done some other renovation work at the same time (as Josh can attest, hearing jackhammers!), so I'd have to check my line items in my contract to remember the cost.  I''m happy to do so, if it would be helpful.

Kathleen Hruska


On Thursday, June 11, 2009, at 09:35PM, "Joshua Fruhlinger" <jfruh at jfruh.com> wrote:
>
>> Emil and I had central air installed in 2000 by Mann's Mechanical.
>> I think it was around $10,000 including the drywalling to cover
>> the duct work.
>
>For what it's worth, I've seen an Abell house with central air that  
>did not cover up the ductwork; the pipes were for the most part placed  
>in corners, and were painted the same color as the walls.  They were  
>significantly less obtrusive than you might imagine; they're obvious  
>once you realize they're there, but it certaintly doesn't jump out at  
>you when you're in the house that there's duct work everywhere.
>
>Not sure how much of your cost was for the drywalling, Kathleen, but  
>it's something to think about if you're looking to trim costs.
>
>jf
>
>
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