Residential only
Puget Sound weather — long mild damp stretches, a handful of hard cold snaps, a few genuinely hot weeks — is close to ideal heat pump territory. That's why so many houses around Tacoma, Lakewood, Puyallup, Parkland, Spanaway and University Place now heat and cool with one. The owner does the diagnosis himself, and the recommendation comes from what the system is actually doing, not from a replacement target.
Most no-cool and weak-heat calls trace back to a short list: refrigerant charge that has drifted or leaked, a defrost control or sensor that isn't clearing frost off the outdoor coil, a failed capacitor or contactor, a coil packed with fir needles and moss, or airflow that was never set up correctly. Damp shaded yards are hard on outdoor units, and a restricted coil looks a lot like a failing compressor until someone measures.
A capacitor, a contactor, a sensor or a control board is usually worth fixing. A compressor failure on an aging system with a discontinued refrigerant usually is not. You'll get the findings, the root cause and the practical options — including the cost of doing nothing for a season — and then you decide. There is no commissioned salesperson in the middle of that conversation.
Sizing matters more than the badge on the cabinet. An oversized heat pump short-cycles, never dehumidifies properly and leaves the far bedrooms uneven. We look at the envelope, the existing ductwork and static pressure, the electrical service, outdoor unit placement and how you actually use the house before specifying anything.
Cold-climate heat pumps hold useful capacity well below the temperatures Pierce County typically sees, which makes all-electric heat realistic for many homes here. Where a gas furnace is already in good shape, a dual-fuel arrangement can be the more sensible build. We're not locked into one manufacturer, so the equipment gets matched to the house and the budget.
Replacement and retrofit pricing follows an on-site evaluation — every home is different, so we don't publish flat prices. Projects needing substantial measurement, calculations and system design may carry a paid design or assessment fee; eligible design fees may be credited toward the project if Dreadnought performs the installation, subject to the proposal.