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Repairs, service, ductwork, filtration and ventilation. Frisco houses are big and tight, and both of those change what the right answer is.
Cheapest cause first, and you see the reading
A no-cooling call in July is not the moment to be sold a system. The first things we check are the ones that cost very little to put right — a run capacitor, a contactor with burnt points, a float switch that has done its job because the drain is blocked, a filter nobody has changed, a thermostat that lost its programme, a breaker.
If it does turn out to be the compressor, you get the measurement that says so rather than an assertion, and you get the repair-or-replace conversation laid out with the numbers on both sides — including the ones that make repair look better.
A tight house is a filtration question
Why tight houses change the answer
Newer Frisco houses are built to be airtight, and that is a genuine improvement: less dust drawn in from outside, fewer draughts, lower bills. It also means that more of the air you breathe has been through the system, which makes what is in the filter rack matter more than it used to.
The other half is that a tight house holds on to what is generated inside it — cooking, cleaning, a new carpet, a hobby with solvents in it. That is a ventilation question rather than a filter question, and the two get confused constantly.
Why the filter cannot simply be upgraded
Every filter is a restriction. The denser it is, the more the blower has to pull through it, and a residential system has a fixed amount of pull. Fit a filter the system cannot carry and the airflow drops, which reduces capacity, makes the house less comfortable and puts the blower and the compressor under strain.
The way round it is area rather than density: a deep media cabinet has many times the surface of a one-inch filter, so it can be finer without costing you airflow. That is a real upgrade and it is the one we recommend. It also needs somewhere to go, which is why we look first.
Six other things
Duct testing
Leakage and static pressure measured, then repaired where the measurement says to. Sealing duct that was not leaking is spending money to change nothing.
The upstairs problem
Two-storey houses lose the upstairs first. Sometimes a damper, sometimes a return path, sometimes a duct run that was always going to struggle. We measure before proposing.
Bathroom and kitchen extract
The commonest fault we find is extract that terminates in the attic rather than outside. It is cheap to put right and it is putting moisture into your roof every day.
Condensate
Primary drain, secondary pan and float switch, tested. With the air handler above a ceiling this is the cheapest insurance in the house.
Gas heat
Combustion tested and recorded, heat exchanger inspected, flue and combustion air checked as installed rather than as drawn.
Replacement
Sized from the house in writing, with the ductwork assessed first. A correct system on poor duct disappoints you exactly as reliably as the old one did.
If the house is dusty, start with the path
Not the filter grade — the filter path. If the cabinet does not seal around the filter, or the return is drawing from the attic through a gap at the plenum, then most of the air is going around whatever you have fitted. A better filter in a leaking rack changes very little and costs you every month. Sealing the rack costs once.