AC repair
Furnace & heating
Heat pumps
Ductless mini splits
Carrier
Trane
GoodmanSeasonal tune-up and full diagnostic on your Carrier, Trane, or Goodman system - readings shown to you before any repair is proposed
Diagnosis first, numbers second - you approve the repair price before a single part goes in.
Get your free estimateHVAC Company in San Rafael, CA
San Rafael sits in a strange pocket of the Bay Area: close enough to the coast for morning fog, far enough inland for summer days that climb into the 90s. That means heating and cooling systems here work harder and more unpredictably than in most of Marin. Add a housing stock that runs from 1920s bungalows with no ductwork to 1990s hillside builds with sealed attics, and you get HVAC jobs that rarely look alike. We’re the HVAC company San Rafael homeowners call when they want a written price before work starts and a technician they know by name and face before the door opens. Call (559) 245-8807 any hour, any day.
Why San Rafael Homes Are Different
The short answer is that San Rafael was built in waves, and each wave has its own set of HVAC quirks. The older core around Mission and Gerstle Park dates to the 1920s through 1950s – pier-and-beam foundations, minimal insulation, and often no central ducting at all. Many of those homes still run on wall heaters or window units, and adding central air means designing ductwork around framing that was never meant to carry it.
Then you have Sun Valley and Rafael Meadows, built out in the 1950s and 60s with gravity furnaces tucked into crawlspaces. Those systems heat by letting warm air rise through floor grates – quiet, but wildly inefficient. When homeowners in those neighborhoods ask about air conditioning, the conversation almost always turns to full duct replacement, because a gravity furnace has no blower and no ductwork sized for cooling. That’s a bigger job than most people expect, and it’s exactly the kind of work where a written, upfront price matters.
Meanwhile, the newer hillside construction from the 1980s through 2000s tends to be tightly sealed and well insulated – which is good for efficiency but bad for ventilation. Those homes often need heat pumps or high-efficiency furnaces paired with mechanical ventilation to keep indoor air from going stale. The diurnal temperature swings in San Rafael, especially on exposed hillsides, can move 30 degrees between afternoon and night. Systems sized for the coast fail up in the hills, and systems sized for the hills short-cycle down in the flats.
Styles & brands we work with
Our Main San Rafael Services
Most San Rafael calls we take fall into three buckets: an AC unit that quit during a heat spike, a furnace that won’t fire on a cold morning, or a homeowner who wants to avoid both problems with a seasonal tune-up. Each service has its own San Rafael page with local pricing and details.
AC Repair in San Rafael
When an air conditioner dies in San Rafael, it’s usually on the third day of a heat wave, in a house with no cross-breeze and full afternoon sun. The most common failures we see here are capacitor and contactor failures from units cycling hard against the heat, followed by refrigerant leaks in systems installed before 2010. Older homes in the flats often have units that were undersized from the start. We diagnose first, then hand you a written price. Full details on AC Repair in San Rafael.
Furnace Repair in San Rafael
Winter nights in San Rafael don’t get brutally cold, but they drop near freezing often enough that a dead furnace is a real problem. We see a lot of failed igniters and dirty flame sensors in furnaces that sat idle all summer, plus cracked heat exchangers in the older Sun Valley and Rafael Meadows units that have been running since the 1970s. Before we touch anything, you’ll know the fix and the price in writing. Find specifics on Furnace Repair in San Rafael.
AC Maintenance in San Rafael
The coastal fog that rolls through San Rafael in the mornings leaves a fine layer of salt and moisture on condenser coils, and that builds up faster than most homeowners realize. A tune-up here means cleaning coils, checking refrigerant pressure, testing capacitors, and clearing drain lines before a small problem becomes a mid-summer breakdown. We recommend it every spring, before the first real heat spike. What’s included and what it costs is on AC Maintenance in San Rafael.
AC Installation
New installations in San Rafael often mean working around the home’s history: no ductwork in a 1920s bungalow, a gravity furnace in a 1955 rancher, or a tight 1990s attic that needs careful load calculations. We size the system to the house, not to a rule of thumb. Every installation starts with a written, fixed price and a set install date – and if it’s not done right, our 365-Day Done Right Promise means we come back and make it right. This is work we schedule properly, never a same-day rush job.
What happens when you call
- 1
A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
- 2
You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
- 3
A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
- 4
You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
Brands We Service in San Rafael
We work on all major residential equipment – Carrier, Trane, Lennox, Goodman, Rheem, and York among them, plus Daikin and Bryant. Most common repair parts for those brands are stocked on our trucks serving San Rafael, which keeps turnaround to a single visit on a typical repair. See our brands for the full list.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterPricing for HVAC Company in San Rafael, CA
| Service | Typical range in San Rafael |
|---|---|
| AC Repair | $150 – $650 |
| Furnace Repair | $150 – $700 |
| AC Installation | $3,500 – $7,500 |
| Tune-Up | $80 – $200 |
| Capacitor or contactor replacement | $150 – $350 |
| Igniter replacement | $150 – $300 |
| Refrigerant recharge | $200 – $500 |
| Condensate drain clearing | $100 – $250 |
| Thermostat replacement | $150 – $400 |
What pushes a San Rafael job toward the higher end of these ranges is usually access: crawlspace furnaces in Sun Valley are hard to reach, and rooftop condensers on hillside homes need extra safety rigging. None of that changes our pricing model though. You get a written price before any work starts, and no work begins until you agree to that number in writing.
Neighborhoods We Serve in San Rafael
We run calls across all of San Rafael, from the shaded streets of Gerstle Park to the hills above China Camp. Response time across the city is typically same-day for emergency repairs, and we schedule maintenance and installation visits within a few days.
- Mission
- Gerstle Park
- Sun Valley
- Rafael Meadows
- Lucas Valley
Service Area – Cities Near San Rafael
San Rafael is our home base for Marin work, but we also run crews into nearby communities when schedules allow. That includes Novato, CA, Richmond, CA, San Francisco, CA, and Berkeley, CA. Dispatch is coordinated from our San Francisco Bay Area office, so scheduling is the same live-person line whether you’re calling from San Rafael or just across the county line.
Serving San Rafael, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the San Rafael area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About HVAC Company in San Rafael
In most cases, same-day. San Rafael is centrally located in Marin, and our trucks are staged across the county during heat waves. Call (559) 245-8807 and a live person answers 24/7 – no voicemail, no callback queue. We’ll tell you who’s coming, send their name and photo, and give you a realistic arrival window.
Often yes. San Rafael and Marin County require permits for most equipment replacements and ductwork changes, and the rules vary by whether you’re in an incorporated neighborhood or an unincorporated hillside area. We handle the permit paperwork as part of the installation, and the written quote includes any permit fees. You’ll know the total before you sign anything.
Before every visit, we send you the technician’s name and photo. At the door, they show a photo ID badge. It’s part of the Threshold Verified standard: every technician is background-checked and identity-verified. If anyone arrives who you were not told to expect, that visit is on us and we make it right. That’s the whole point of how we work.
Yes, and San Rafael has a lot of them – especially in Mission and Gerstle Park. The right answer is usually a ductless mini-split system or a full duct retrofit, depending on the house. We’ll run a load calculation and show you the numbers for each option before you commit to anything.
Every repair comes with a written guarantee that states exactly what’s covered and for how long, typically 365 days. If the repair fails inside that window, we return at no charge under the 365-Day Done Right Promise – no argument, no additional bill, no fine print.
If your AC or furnace is acting up in San Rafael, get the price and the plan before anyone touches your system. Call (559) 245-8807 for a free estimate and a written quote with no surprises.
What happens when you call
- 1A real person answersNo phone trees - talk to a local hvac pro.
- 2You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched. No surprises.
- 3We come out and measureLicensed & insured, at a time that suits you - the visit and the quote are both free.
- 4You get the price in writingLine-itemed, yours to keep, and nothing starts until you say go.
What San Rafael Customers Say
"Frozen evaporator coil in July. Cleaned it, replaced a clogged filter, and checked the airflow. Gave me a simple schedule for filters."
- Hannah L."Furnace short cycled all winter. He found a dirty flame sensor and cleaned it. Twenty minutes and a small bill."
- George Q."Replaced our 18-year-old AC with a new high efficiency one. Gave three options with real numbers and did not push the priciest."
- Elena V.