HVAC & Plumbing Services in Imperial, PA
Imperial is not a borough. It is a census designated place split between Findlay Township and North Fayette Township, so one Imperial address can sit in one township and the neighbor's in the other. The mail will not settle it either, since the Findlay Township offices themselves take their mail at a Clinton address. We confirm the municipality before we file anything.
Heating services in Imperial, PA
Imperial was a coal town before it was Imperial. The village went up in the late 1800s as Montour City and took its name from the Imperial Coal Company.
Heat here has moved a long way from coal. On the furnaces our heating techs see most, the ones in the fifteen to twenty five year range, a no-heat call is usually not the blower or the burners, it is something on the gas side.
That kind of furnace lights in a set order. The thermostat calls, the inducer spins up, the pressure switch proves draft, the ignitor glows, the gas valve opens, and the flame sensor confirms there is a flame worth feeding, and any one of those links can be the whole call.
So we put a manometer on it. Our owner measured about four and a half inches of water column at his own meter during the deep freeze of 2023, when burners want roughly three and a half, which is not something anybody finds by looking at a flame.
- We follow the ignition sequence in order, inducer to pressure switch to ignitor to gas valve to flame sensor, before anything gets condemned
- Manifold pressure is measured and set to the manufacturer's spec with a manometer, never judged by the color of the flame, because an underfired furnace runs and runs and never quite gets the house there
- Heating Repair & Service
- Heating Installation & Replacement
- Heating Maintenance & Tune-Up
- Furnace Repair & Service
- Furnace Installation & Replacement
- Furnace Maintenance & Tune-Up
Air conditioning services in Imperial, PA
An air conditioner pulls moisture out of a house only while it is actually running. In May and September it barely runs at all, so the moisture load sits there untouched even when the temperature is exactly where you want it.
A separate appliance is what handles that. A whole-home dehumidifier gets ducted into the system and runs off its own humidistat, so it can work at ten in the morning on a mild day when the cooling has no reason to start.
It drains to a floor drain or a condensate pump rather than a tray somebody has to remember to empty, and it dries the whole house instead of the twelve feet around it. Set the humidistat once and leave it alone.
That matters in finished basements, and in older Western Pennsylvania houses where block and stone basement walls give up moisture all summer. Our air conditioning crews will say plainly when the real fix is a vapor barrier or a leak rather than an appliance.
- A whole-home dehumidifier carries its own control, so it runs in the wet shoulder weeks when the air conditioner is idle
- It gets ducted into the system properly, not parked at the bottom of the basement steps as a portable with a tray
- The condensate goes somewhere real, a gravity drain or a pump, piped so it is not sitting in a sagging hose loop on the floor
- Sized to the house and its actual moisture load rather than to whatever unit is on the shelf
- With the moisture handled, most families end up comfortable at a slightly higher thermostat setting instead of a lower one
- Air Conditioning Repair & Service
- Air Conditioning Installation & Replacement
- Air Conditioning Maintenance & Tune-Up
Plumbing services in Imperial, PA
Over a normal Christmas weekend we take about six emergency calls. In the deep freeze of 2023 we took more than nine hundred, and we were digging out from it for months.
A cold snap like that does not just chill the air, it cold soaks a house for days and finds every weak spot. Plenty of homes whose heat never missed a beat still called our plumbing team that winter with a split line.
The weak spots are predictable once you have seen enough of them. A bathroom or laundry sitting over an unheated garage, a kitchen line run in an exterior wall, a crawlspace under an addition where the insulation stops short, and the hose bib that still had a hose screwed to it in November.
On the older farm properties out here, add the line running to a barn or a detached garage, which is the one nobody thinks about until spring. When a line lets go and we have to open a wall, our own crews close it back up and finish it, which is why we built a construction team in the first place.
- Prevention is not complicated, and it works: drain and shut the outdoor spigots in the fall, prove to yourself the main shutoff still turns, insulate the crawlspace runs properly instead of draping a blanket over them, put the barn and detached garage lines to bed, and leave the heat up rather than down if the house sits empty
- Drain Cleaning
- Leak Detection & Repair
- Faucet & Fixture Repair and Installation
- Gas Line Services
- Toilet Repair & Installation
- Sewer Line Repair & Replacement
- Water Line Services
Water heater services in Imperial, PA
The temperature and pressure relief valve is the one part on a water heater whose entire job is to prevent something catastrophic, and it is the part most often installed wrong or ignored for a decade. If yours drips, that is information, not a quirk.
The discharge tube should run down to within a few inches of the floor, full size, in an approved material, with no valve in the way and no threads on the end. A weeping valve is either failing or telling you pressure is building in a closed system with nowhere to go.
The other valve worth knowing about is the thermostatic mixing valve, and it settles a real tension. Storing water hotter gives a family more usable hot water out of the same tank, but water at that temperature will scald a small child or an older adult faster than they can move.
A mixing valve at the tank lets you store hot and deliver safe, blending it down before it ever reaches a faucet. Downstream of that, a pressure balancing shower valve is what keeps the water from spiking when somebody flushes a toilet, and our water heater techs check both.
- The relief valve gets tested and the discharge tube checked for the things that quietly make it useless, a valve in the line, a reduced size, or a run that stops halfway to the floor
- A weeping relief valve gets diagnosed rather than just swapped, since a new valve does nothing about pressure that has nowhere to go
- A thermostatic mixing valve at the tank lets you store hotter for capacity and still deliver safe water to the fixtures
- The shower valve gets looked at too, because an older two handle valve has nothing in it protecting anybody from a scald
- Water Heater Repair & Service
- Water Heater Installation & Replacement
- Tankless Water Heater Installation & Replacement
- Tankless Water Heater Repair & Service
Why Imperial homeowners choose Wahl
The two township split stops being trivia the moment a permit is involved. Sewer replacement, a new water service, and gas line work all answer to the municipality that actually holds the address, either Findlay Township or North Fayette Township.
We confirm which one before anything gets filed, rather than trusting the envelope. We already look after more than 300 homes in the Imperial area, on both sides of that line, and we cover Enlow and Clinton the same way.
Wahl has been family owned since 1980, three generations of it, working out of one place at 1 Willow Avenue in Oakdale. There is a master plumber on staff, everyone on a truck is licensed and insured, and the price is in writing before the work starts.
If you are weighing us against somebody else, our owner wrote up the five red flags he tells his own family to watch for. The first one is the one that matters most, nothing in writing, and it is worth walking away over no matter whose name is on the truck.
- Family owned since 1980, three generations, headquartered at 1 Willow Avenue in Oakdale
- Licensed and insured, master plumber on staff, PA HIC #PA022302
- A+ with the BBB, and 1,522 five-star Google reviews
- Flat-rate upfront pricing, so the number is in writing before anybody picks up a tool
- Rheem Pro Partner, Mitsubishi Diamond Elite dealer, and Bosch cold-climate heat pump dealer
- We cover Imperial on both its Findlay Township and North Fayette Township sides, plus Enlow, Clinton, and the rest of the West Allegheny School District area
- 24/7 emergency service, and Wahl Club members get seasonal tune-ups, priority service, and member pricing
- Call us at (412) 276-9245
Let us reach out to you
Fill out the quick form and we will call you back. For an emergency, call any time at (412) 276-9245.
Questions, answered
My mail says Imperial, so is my permit a Findlay Township permit or a North Fayette Township one?
It depends on which side of the line your house actually sits on, because Imperial is a census designated place split between the two townships rather than a borough of its own. The mailing address will not tell you, and that is not a small point here, since the Findlay Township offices themselves use a Clinton mailing address. We confirm the municipality for your specific address before we file anything for sewer, water service, or gas work.
Our furnace is about twenty years old, it lights and then shuts back down after a minute or so. Is that the gas valve?
It might be, but that pattern more often points at the flame sensor, which reads whether a flame is actually present and shuts the gas off within seconds if it cannot see one. A light coating on the sensor is enough to cause it. A gas valve drifted off spec or low manifold pressure can produce the same symptom, which is why we put a manometer on it instead of guessing between the two.
Why does our basement feel wet in May and September when the air conditioner barely runs at all?
Because an air conditioner only removes moisture while it is running, and in those shoulder weeks it hardly runs. The temperature is fine, so nothing calls for cooling, and the moisture just sits. A whole-home dehumidifier ducted into the system solves it, because it works off its own humidistat and does not care what the thermostat is doing.
We have one of the older farm properties around Imperial, with a water line running out to the barn. What should we be doing with it before winter?
Shut it off at its own valve inside the heated part of the house, then open the far end and let it drain completely, since water left standing in that run is what splits it. Outbuilding lines are the ones people forget, right alongside a hose bib that still had a hose on it in November. If the line has already gone once, it is usually worth rerouting or properly insulating it rather than hoping for a mild January.
We have young kids. Is there a way to keep enough hot water without the tap running hot enough to burn them?
Yes, and it is a common request. A thermostatic mixing valve installed at the water heater lets the tank store water hotter, which gives you more usable hot water from the same size tank, while the water leaving for your fixtures is blended down to a safe temperature. We also look at what kind of valve is in the shower, since a pressure balancing valve is what keeps the water from spiking when a toilet flushes elsewhere in the house.
Ready when you are
Call us and get a straight answer. You get the price in writing before the work starts.
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