Hello, We are buying an old house to use for our business and will need to replace all of the mechanicals. I can't get someone in to give me an estimate right now, but would like to have some rough estimate of the costs so I can try to budget for it. The building was previously used as a restaurant, is approximately 5500 sq ft, and will now be used for office space.
We will need to replace the current furnace and heat pumps (~17 years old). As the building is in the upper Midwest, I am thinking that a heat pump is not the best solution, so we will likely go with a separate furnace and A/C unit (unless someone convinces me that a heat pump is good in Chicago-type climate). I would like to have the system divided in to at least two zones (approximately 1500 sq ft will be leased to another tenant) so perhaps two cooling units, maybe even two heating units? there are some baseboard heaters that I am hopeful are still in good working order however I will budget for the "worst case".
The water heater is an old commercial unit that has rusted through the outer core. I'll have to check with the commercial code about what has to be used for replacement but let's assume that a ~100 gallon commercial unit or tankless equivalent (for renter) will be needed.
Many thanks for any help.
-Randy Hoping to avoid a money pit!