Looking for Very Rough Cost on Central air and heat retrofit in house.

Looking at a house next week and right now it only has a wood burning stove for heat and it was only built in 88, why I have no idea. But it is a 1 1/2 story house with finished basement. Looking for a very very rough idea on what it would run to install ductwork, central air and a standard furnace. 5k, 10k, 30k?

Haven't looked at it yet but can I assume there is ductwork in the house with a wood burning stove?

Thanks!

 

If there is ductwork... who knows if it's suitable for use with a modern HVAC system. So, even if there is ducting it might not be useful.

As for the cost I think you were in the neighborhood with the 10k guess. A smallish single story home with a crawl space to provide room to run ductwork might be 5k. Being bigger would add some to the cost. The gotcha for a finished 1 1/2 story is how do you run the ducts? That is the big wild card. If it turns out provision was made you might get away for $8-10k but if not walls might have to be cut open or chases built to hide the ducting... So without knowing it's anybody's guess. But at least I can probably cross the $30k estimate off the list.

 

A major portion of the total cost will be for labor, and labor costs are related to the local economy of the area. The ductwork in a modest house can easily run $10k or higher. Retrofitting a finished house could be double that cost or even higher.

As for the refrigeration machinery and air handler, depending on several variables anywhere from about $5k to $15k. So a total cost could be as low as $15k to a high of over $30k. I wish I could give you a closer spread but...