Gardenside, Cardinal Valley, Garden Springs, Holiday Hills and Pine Meadow

Heating and Cooling Help in Gardenside, Cardinal Valley and Garden Springs

West Lexington, between Versailles Road and Harrodsburg Road inside New Circle, is full of homes from the 1950s through the 1970s. Gardenside has its raised ranches and brick one-story houses, Cardinal Valley mixes small homes with apartment complexes, and Garden Springs and Holiday Hills add split-levels and two-story houses from a little later.

It is a busy, mixed part of town with a lot of renters, a lot of long-time owners, and a lot of furnaces and air conditioners that have been kept going for years.

• Raised ranches and split-levels with an uneven lower floor
• Older gas furnaces and carbon monoxide safety
• What renters and owners should know before a repair

Call (859) 517-8017Calls connect you with an independent local HVAC provider.

West Side Housing in Numbers

Census survey data for the postal area that covers Gardenside, Cardinal Valley and Garden Springs puts the median home at 1969. Only about a third of homes are owner-occupied, one of the smallest shares in the city, because the area holds many apartments and rental houses close to the University of Kentucky and major employers on the west side.

Raised Ranches and Split-Levels

Gardenside and Garden Springs have plenty of raised ranches and split-level homes, where the main floor sits half a flight above a partly below-grade lower level. They are hard to keep even. The lower level stays cool and a little damp in summer and chilly in winter, while the upper floor runs warm.

A few things help:

• Make sure the lower level has both supply registers and a return, so air actually circulates there.
• Keep lower-level registers open in winter and partly closed in summer, adjusting with the seasons.
• Run the furnace fan on a low continuous setting if your system allows it, to mix air between floors.
• Use a dehumidifier in the lower level during humid months.

If one floor is far off even with those steps, an airflow check during a furnace and AC cleaning visit will show whether the ducts are the bottleneck.

Older Gas Furnaces and Carbon Monoxide

Many homes here still run gas furnaces that are 20 years old or more, sometimes vented through an older chimney or flue shared with the water heater. Furnaces that age can develop cracked heat exchangers or blocked vents, either of which can let carbon monoxide into the house.

Every home with gas appliances should have working carbon monoxide alarms near the bedrooms and on each level, as the CDC recommends. If an alarm sounds, or anyone feels dizzy, headachy or nauseated when the heat is running, get everyone outside and call 911 from there. Do not go back in to check the furnace. Once the home is safe, a technician should inspect the furnace before it runs again. The furnace repair guide explains what that inspection involves.

Common Cooling Problems on the West Side

Summer calls here usually come down to a few causes: outdoor units choked with grass clippings and cottonwood, failed capacitors on older condensers, and indoor coils that freeze because filters were not changed. A system that cooled fine last year and now struggles usually needs a repair, not a replacement. AC repair in Lexington walks through what to check before calling.

Renters, Owners and Landlords

With two of every three homes rented, the first question on many calls is who pays. Tenants should check their lease and report problems in writing. Owners of rental houses near UK can avoid repeat visits by scheduling filter changes between tenants and having the equipment cleaned once a year. When a 20-year-old furnace or air conditioner needs a major part, pricing a furnace replacement or new air conditioner before the next lease starts usually costs less than repeated midseason repairs.

Services Available in West Lexington

• Furnace repair for older gas and electric furnaces
• AC repair for frozen coils, failed capacitors and weak cooling
• Furnace and AC cleaning for homes and rental properties
• Furnace replacement including venting changes for older flues
• AC replacement for aging outdoor units

Nearby Areas

Toward downtown and the university, the downtown neighborhoods have older two-story homes. Outside New Circle, Beaumont, Harrods Hill and Palomar are newer and larger, and to the north Masterson Station and Meadowthorpe cover the northwest side. Browse every Lexington neighborhood we serve.

West Lexington HVAC Questions