Brendon
New Member
Greetings professionals!
I'm on South Shore in Massachusetts and have just purchased a 1980s colonial with no central air.
To paint a picture, it is 3400 sf, attached 2-car garage with a "great room" above the garage. The first floor has 4 rooms: a kitchen, dining room, living room, and 4-season room. To access the great room, one must walk up about 5 steps (and walk down 5 steps to access the garage).
The second floor has 3 bedrooms: a master bedroom which is 12x27, along with two kids bedrooms (plus 2 full bath).
The challenge....there is a walk-up to a third floor, which has two more bedrooms (plus a full bath). There are knee walls on the outsides of the 3rd floor bedrooms, but there is limited rough attic space. There is a small ovehead attic, but very limited elevation (most likely one would have to crawl).
The previous owner used about 7-8 window unit air conditioners. After retrofitting ac in my current 2k sf split level ranch (which was relatively easy given the unused attic space to drop-down the air handler and vents), this new home represents a challenge for the following reasons:
1. The great room has no basement or attic below or above, as below is the garage and it's vaulted...one option I've considered is installing ductwork in the garage (later to be soffited).
2. The first floor should be achievable as the basement has high ceilings and can bring in ducts into the floor of the first floor.
3. The second floor will be a challenge, because there are 3rd floor bedrooms, so I'm not sure how to best handle this....perhaps we can utilize the limited attic above and/or knee walls?
I can't wait to hear your recommendations! We move in this week and getting the hvac squared away before summer is priority 1. We're open to options, but I'm considering traditional hvac, or unico high velocitiy, ductless, or a combination of the 3, perhaps ductless in the great room and ducts throughout first floor.
Also, please provide suggestions on installers who can handle this, I'm leery of the complexity of this job, probably not best for beginners!
Thanks!
Brendon
I'm on South Shore in Massachusetts and have just purchased a 1980s colonial with no central air.
To paint a picture, it is 3400 sf, attached 2-car garage with a "great room" above the garage. The first floor has 4 rooms: a kitchen, dining room, living room, and 4-season room. To access the great room, one must walk up about 5 steps (and walk down 5 steps to access the garage).
The second floor has 3 bedrooms: a master bedroom which is 12x27, along with two kids bedrooms (plus 2 full bath).
The challenge....there is a walk-up to a third floor, which has two more bedrooms (plus a full bath). There are knee walls on the outsides of the 3rd floor bedrooms, but there is limited rough attic space. There is a small ovehead attic, but very limited elevation (most likely one would have to crawl).
The previous owner used about 7-8 window unit air conditioners. After retrofitting ac in my current 2k sf split level ranch (which was relatively easy given the unused attic space to drop-down the air handler and vents), this new home represents a challenge for the following reasons:
1. The great room has no basement or attic below or above, as below is the garage and it's vaulted...one option I've considered is installing ductwork in the garage (later to be soffited).
2. The first floor should be achievable as the basement has high ceilings and can bring in ducts into the floor of the first floor.
3. The second floor will be a challenge, because there are 3rd floor bedrooms, so I'm not sure how to best handle this....perhaps we can utilize the limited attic above and/or knee walls?
I can't wait to hear your recommendations! We move in this week and getting the hvac squared away before summer is priority 1. We're open to options, but I'm considering traditional hvac, or unico high velocitiy, ductless, or a combination of the 3, perhaps ductless in the great room and ducts throughout first floor.
Also, please provide suggestions on installers who can handle this, I'm leery of the complexity of this job, probably not best for beginners!
Thanks!
Brendon