Can you install Central Air on an old house(1950's)? If so, how much?

[cjchaps]

My parents house is from the 1950's or so I think. It has radiator heat which works by having a furnace heat up water, which is then pumped through pipes around the houes to get it warm. They live in Chicago, and in the summer it gets pretty hot, and they have no air conditioners except for the window-units. The house is a 2 story with a full basement. Can you get central air installed in a house like this? If so, how much are they looking at?

 

[rudder]

probably yes, the cost depends of square footage so you can determine the size of air conditioner unit, and how much labor to install ducts and such. There may need to be electrical work done to replace fuses with curcuit breakers. Best to call a pro and have them come out and give an estimate.

Edit: I am working on pruchasing a unit for my in-laws house. Its about 1700sq feet and will cost around $3500-$4000. That is for a 2.5 ton unit and all the duct work since the house does not have anything like that at all now. Labor rates would also vary greatly which is something else to consider.

 

[Tauren]

They would have to have a forced air furnace installed, then have the walls ripped out to install duct work. It would be extremely, extremely expensive and it would take a very long time.

 

[Cerebus451]

My parents house is the same way (hot water heat), but they now have central air (and they still have the old furnace). They did it by putting the blower for the A/C into the attic, then running ducts to the upstairs rooms through the attic. For the downstairs rooms then ran the ducts through closets. They lost closet space, but it works.

Edit: Forgot to answer second part of question about cost. It will cost more than just adding A/C to a home with an existing forced-air furnace because of the additional labor of installing the duct work. However, that cost will vary greatly depending on how difficult it is to do. If they have a very small attic that is difficult to work in, it will drive up the cost. If the closest are all on outside walls requiring more duct work to reach them, it will drive up the costs. It is difficult to come up with even a rough estimate, they will just have to contact local contractors and have them come out to give an estimate (as an aside, it is probably too late to do it before the summer - the contractors will drive the price up even more if they have to work in a hot attic. It might be better to wait until the fall to have it done).

 

[amdskip]

It's definately going to be costly and labor intensive but it will raise the resale value of the house greatly and have much better efficiency which will help save energy costs, possibly enough savings to pay for it.

 

[TomC25]

If you get just air conditioning and keep the hot water heat it can be done for under $5000 maybe even $3000.

If you want to replace the heat as well and add in a furnace it will most likely be close 10000.

 

[cjchaps]

Thanks for all the responses... There is a place that does those kinda installations close to where my folks live. I'll have to stop by and ask them for an estimate sometime.