Heating Repair in Boston, MA

How does a heating repair visit go?

A heating repair visit starts at the thermostat and works toward the boiler or furnace, because a surprising share of no-heat calls end at a dead thermostat battery, a tripped emergency switch or a closed gas valve. Once those are ruled out, the plumber watches the system try to start: whether it calls for heat, whether the ignition proves, whether the burner stays lit, and whether the pump or blower moves anything.

On a hot-water system that means checking pressure, the expansion tank, air in the loop and the circulator; on steam it means the low-water cutoff, the water level and the vents; on a forced-air system the igniter, flame sensor and blower. If some rooms heat and others do not, the fault is in distribution, not the boiler. You are told what failed and what it costs before the repair starts, and the system is run through a full cycle before the plumber leaves.

Boston calls for heating work are scheduled from our Quincy office, and whichever office sends the crew, the work is done under the same Massachusetts plumbing license.

What decides the cost of a heating repair?

The cost of a heating repair is decided by which part failed and how old the system it failed on is. An igniter, thermocouple, flame sensor, circulator or zone valve is a part-and-labor repair. A gas valve, a control board or a heat exchanger is a larger part, and on an older system the question of whether that part is still available comes before its price.

Access and configuration move it next: a boiler in a tight closet with piping to move, a system with several zones that each need bleeding, or a steam system whose near-boiler piping has to be corrected for the repair to hold. Gas work, where the repair involves the gas train, is done under the same Massachusetts plumbing license and may need a permit filed with the town. A system that has never been serviced usually needs a cleaning before any repair can be trusted.

Where the job needs a permit, it is filed with Boston's plumbing and gas inspector before the work, and the permit fee is set by the town rather than by us.

The $99 service fee sends a licensed technician out to diagnose the problem. Approve the repair on the spot and the fee is not charged at all; decline it and the $99 covers the visit.

Should I repair my heating system or replace it?

Repair it if the failed part is available and the heat exchanger and the rest of the system are sound; replace it when the part is no longer made, the heat exchanger is cracked or leaking, or the repairs have started arriving every season. A single failed igniter on a boiler of any age is a repair. A control board for a system whose manufacturer no longer supports it is a different decision.

The second half of the answer is what the system costs to run. A cast-iron boiler from the previous century may be perfectly repairable and still be worth replacing on fuel use alone, while a well-kept system a decade old is almost never worth replacing for a single part. We will give you both numbers to think about, the repair and the replacement, before you choose, and we will tell you plainly if the repair is one we would not make on our own house.

We have worked in hundreds of Boston homes, and the answer in one house is not always the answer next door: the recommendation follows what the system in front of us is doing, not a rule of thumb.

What should I do before we arrive for a heating repair?

Check the obvious things once: the thermostat is set to heat and above room temperature, its batteries are fresh, the emergency switch at the top of the basement stairs is on, and the gas valve at the boiler is open. If any of those were the problem you have just saved yourself a visit; if not, leave the system as it is so the plumber sees the fault rather than a reset.

Clear a working space around the boiler or furnace and along the path to it, and note which rooms are cold and which are warm, since that pattern points at the zone or the radiator rather than the boiler. If you smell gas, leave the house, call the gas utility from outside, and then call us; do not run the system. Have the make and model of the boiler and the date it was last serviced if you know them.

If anything about your Boston address is hard to find, such as a shared driveway or a basement door around the back, tell the Quincy office when you book so the crew is not hunting for it.

Heating Repair in the towns around Boston

The same heating work page exists for Quincy and Milton, each written against the work we have completed there: Heating Repair in Quincy, Heating Repair in Milton. A job that turns out to sit just over the Boston line is handled the same way.