The short answer
We repair furnaces, air conditioners, heat pumps and mini-splits in East Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, Redwood City, San Carlos, Foster City, Woodside, Portola Valley, La Honda and nearby communities. The technician finds the cause, explains it and waits for your go-ahead.
Head up the Peninsula about 23 miles from San Jose and you reach the San Mateo County towns we serve, from East Palo Alto and Menlo Park on the flats to Woodside, Portola Valley and La Honda in the hills. The mix of housing is wide: compact postwar homes, large estates with several zones, hillside houses with long duct runs and coastal-side cabins that lean on heat far more than cooling. A repair visit here starts by understanding which kind of home we are in.
Three kinds of Peninsula homes, three kinds of problems
On the flat side of Redwood City, North Fair Oaks, East Palo Alto and Foster City, the most frequent calls involve furnaces that have run for many winters and air conditioners added years after the house was built. Those add-on systems often have undersized returns or ducts that were never sealed, and the strain shows up as frozen coils and noisy blowers.
Atherton and parts of Menlo Park have bigger homes with multiple systems or zoning panels. A single failed damper motor or confused zone board can make one wing too hot while another freezes, and tracking that down takes patient testing rather than swapping parts.
Up in Woodside, Portola Valley, Emerald Lake Hills and La Honda, cool and damp air under the trees means heating carries most of the load. Furnaces and heat pumps there work through long seasons, and moisture can corrode outdoor components faster than in drier spots.
What a technician checks on arrival
Readings are shared with you as they come in, so the explanation at the end is no surprise.
- Thermostat signals and wiring to the indoor and outdoor units
- Electrical parts such as capacitors, contactors and relays
- Ignition, flame sensing and venting on gas furnaces
- Refrigerant pressures and temperature split on cooling and heat pumps
- Filter, blower and duct condition where airflow is in question
- Zone dampers and control boards in multi-zone homes
Before you call, a few things to try
Some problems have simple causes that a homeowner can rule out in minutes, and doing so can save a trip up the Peninsula.
- Replace a filter that looks gray or clogged
- Check that the thermostat is set to heat or cool and has fresh batteries
- Look for a tripped breaker or a switch near the furnace that was turned off
- Clear leaves and debris from around the outdoor unit
- Note any error code or blinking light so you can tell us about it
Planning ahead for an older furnace
Bay Area Air District rules do not make you remove a working furnace. They apply when a furnace fails or is replaced, and gas furnaces made from 2029 must meet a zero-NOx standard, which effectively favors heat pumps. For San Carlos or Menlo Park owners with an aging furnace, we can sketch out what a heat pump would need in your home, including electrical capacity and duct condition, while the current unit still runs. BayREN and your local clean energy provider list current incentives; we verify any offer before including it.
Scheduling from San Jose
Let us know your town, the kind of system and what it is doing. We confirm an arrival window, the technician diagnoses and explains, and you receive a written summary when the work is done.