Bear Creek Heating and Cooling

Finally got my house job done in Beausejour. Did it all myself, with no helpers. I’m like the old rock musicians, the voice and vocals are not the same as when I was younger. But I still can play my instruments, to the top shelf. Still busy, going hard, lots on my agenda. Pays for my fishing adventures.

Been super busy, no time for retirement yet. AC’s, heat pumps and a new house. Worked the last 9 days straight, so that I could finally take next week off, and have some relaxing times. Hitting the age of 70 soon, don’t see many guys my age doing install work, especially a lot overhead work. Just have to pick work that is easier on my body, though easier said than done. My new friend arthritis may have some input too.

My new business card. Going to start doing some work in April, just not on the pace of former years.
Focus on the following:
Installation of electric furnaces
Installation of HRV and service of them
Quality air testing, voc’s, radon, co2, etc., ways to improve your air quality.
Combustion analysis on gas furnaces
Thermal imaging, hot spots, hot breakers, sequencers etc.
Smaller projects,
Guidance on what is troubling your hvac system.
Going to put some how to info starting in April on my you tube channel.

Over the years, some of my happy customers. Wish I would have taken pictures of them all.

Hey everyone, Gary from Bear Creek reaching out to new and existing customers. Starting to get my mojo back, and considering my options as I get in the later part of my career. This January marked my 51st year in the HVAC trade, was thinking about not retiring, but still adding value to my community. I have made a huge investment in new tools and equipment. Decided to do a reboot in new services, with my vast knowledge that I have attained over my career. I’m a Red Seal journeyman in the sheet metal, ac, and gas trades, also vast knowledge in anything relating to the mechanical systems in your home. So are you in the process, of buying or selling your home? Are you worried about the air quality in your home, headaches, flu symptoms , feeling unwell. You bought a new home, and have no idea on how anything works, how to maintain. Wonder why your heating costs are so high, poor airflow, mold, high humidity? Wondering how good is my heating system, by combustion analysis. Let me answer those questions, not just by guesswork, but by experience and new technical equipment. Also figuring a way to answer your questions on line and providing instructional info through a link to a You Tube channel I’m developing.

Sent to us from📍 Red Lake, MN

First I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. Also I will be taking the next few weeks off to deal with some personal issues. I want to be up and ready for the upcoming spring. Here are some pictures from my past jobs just completed. First one is a special fume hood I built for testing fuel nozzles. Last 3 pictures of a custom new home, that had some challenging duct installs. Beautiful big home on a concrete floor, no basement. No room for large ducting. So installed a high velocity furnace and duct system. The main duct is only 8” round spiral pipe, supplies to registers are 2” and 3” flex pipe. Game saver, when you just don’t have the room. Take care Gary.

The Staff from Bear Creek Heating and Cooling want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Picking up supplies in Winnipeg today, since I was driving by checked out the field, picked up my signs.
Go Bombers Go.

What is it about the homes on Evergreen Drive off James in Beausejour. Whoever the mechanical crews working these jobs, some of the worst installs I’ve seen in my 50 years. Stupid duct design that made no sense. Miles of pipes and elbows. Wonder why airflow is poor. This particular home had no returns, and basically no heat supplies in the basement. No screws in most of the pipe joints, pipes falling apart. Flex pipe , where they pulled over nails, ripped to shreds. HRV, hung dead center of the furnace room, perfect head banger at 5’ of height. These were not local crews, but out of towners, very sad for my customers, that have to pay out of pocket again to rectify all the problems. Enough ranting for tonite.

Haven’t posted for a long time, September and October we’re basically nonstop work. I had so many jobs where the business and homes had no heat, and had to be completed before the cold was going to really settle in. Finished my last no heat place last week. So I’m tired and sore, and will be taking a bit of a step back the next while. Still have service calls, HRV’s and electric furnace installs, but nothing is a huge panic now. Going back to pysio, also the gym, to see if I can beat some of this arthritis back that has been plaguing me. Thank you to all my people who have waited for me, and for the ones still waiting, I will be there soon.💫😀👍🌟

Just finished my own home install of the Samsung Hylex cold weather heat pump. Also changed out my old electric furnace and installed a matching ADP 3 ton ecm fan coil. Really new system for our area, and working out some fine details still. Thank you Joel and Rob from RSL for helping out on commissioning the new system. So quiet, inside and out, hard to tell if it running.

Working on a huge job in Lac du Bonnet. Removed all the old ducting and furnace, all had to go, old furnace, ducting done really poorly. Wrong size, too small, plus areas, where you could bang your head into. So new hi-eff. Stelpro electric furnace, Air Ease AC on custom wall bracket, new Venmar self balancing HRV, plus all new ducting and pipe. Which is all sized properly for your home. Which means lower heating costs and comfort. I’m really fussy on all my installs, all level and neatly done. Maybe why people will wait for my services.

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Here is a letter I wrote I 2022 in reguards to the terrible phone service, east of Beausejour. Year later nothing has changed. Yesterday the s**t kind of hit the fan. In the storm yesterday, when the power went out, I lost my phone booster, so no cell phone, no warning about the potential tornado. Today I’m on the phone with Telus, they agree there is a problem with the tower, but don’t have a date when it will be fixed. So if you want a bit of a discount, phone *611, they offered me $20 a month till the problem is solved. The more people that complain, maybe the problem will be solved.
Here is the letter I wrote last year. To our member of legislator, etc, not much from their end.
At present I am a Telus customer and have been for a number of years. The service was good in the past and I was able to use my phone in my home, shops and in our general area. I also do emergency service calls in the dead of winter, and good cell coverage is very pertinent at all times. Starting the last 1.5 years service has totally, gone downhill. No longer will a cell work in my office, shops, yard, and the whole general area. Once I’m in my service truck, I basically have no cell service east of the St. Ouens road on highway 44, especially bad driving towards Seddons corner, and no coverage past our jail on Milner ridge. I have phoned Telus numerous times to complain, but I get the usual run around, that I need a new phone, have the wrong settings etc, or they will write a ticket and get back to me, which never happens. It finally came down to last week, where Telus finally admitted to me that there are problems with the Beausejour tower, but the costs to fix and upgrade would be too much to justify for my area. Also if wasn’t happy to go to a different provider. Please give me your business plan, where I can charge full price and give subpar service. My company won’t survive a month. I put a small post on Facebook and within one hour had close to 100 complaints, of people dissatisfied with the poor performance of our cell companies. Here are a few points.
1) highway 44 east, gateway to the Whiteshell, has thousands of vehicles moving east every week. Pray tell if there was ever a bad accident.
2) we are a bedroom community to Winnipeg, lots of people moving out, but remember you will have poor service.
3) Covid was a good test of people having to work from home or educate their children, how would this be possible
4) Huge farming area, what if we had a ammonia leak, on the field, on some other emergencies, how do we handle that. I could go on and on.
In closing the area that I live in is not sparsely populated as some would contend, numerous residents and businesses in our area. All we want is service that we paid for.
Media has got wind of this, and would like to run a story, but I would like to hold back, till I perhaps hear some response back. Other options I’m considering is a online petition and formal complaint to the CRTC.
Let’s all work together to make things happen, it is 2022.
Thank you for your time
Gary Schewe.

Sent from my iPad

Hey everyone, still going strong, just started a new home job in Pinawa. Definitely a bit slower, but I’m steady. Though after about 6 hours, of climbing ladders all day, I’m done, ready for home. Enjoy being an fussy installer, everything level and straight. To me it’s like an art, that I’ve over the years have become very good at. 🌟🌟😀

Well I accomplished what I set out to do, finished my last 2 AC’s this week. Few more service calls, then taking next week off to go fishing. Most of my work was new installs, that people had booked already last year. I promised to have them completed by this week. At my age, and especially in this heat, by myself, did pretty damn good. Some days I felt like my head would blow off, as you can see by my reading on my temp scanner. Still have a ton of work to do, AC’s still, new homes, but that will be my next goal. Couldn’t help everyone, but answered all my messages. Joys of being self employed.

Boy there are some really ugly installs out there. Big job I’m just starting, no recourse but to remove all existing ducting and starting over. All the dust and debris, and 100 times up and down the stairs cleaning everything out. Actually some days I do feel old. New ac is in place, Monday start furnace and duck work.

Been crazy busy, since back from Cuba. Worked the last 23 days straight through. Installing furnaces, doing kitchen redo’s, service work and a ton of estimateing. Things will settle down now as I can start focusing on my jobs ahead. This is a picture of a tight furnace install, which I have removed, for a new Airease. Couple pics of my satisfied customers below. Thank you to all my loyal clients, booked now with work, for May, and June, first week of July.

Beautiful cabin.

Had a ugly one on Friday, young lady asked if I could inspect her furnace for insurance reasons. I said I would try, but still extremely busy. My day went good, and I’m glad I made it down that day, because in all likelihood probably saved her. I did combustion analysis on the system, and in that regard the furnace was performing good. But it is when I checked her chimney things went downhill fast. As the metal chimney entered the cement wall, and the pipe proceeded up to the outside. I noticed that on the side, a huge hole had rotted out, spewing carbon monoxide into the house. (Picture 1) Further inspection showed that the chimney pipe in the wall had completely corroded, rusted out and collapsed. What a job now, I was able to install a complete new vent from the furnace, through the wall, new 5” elbow up and tie back into the existing chimney vent. Make sure if you do have a gas appliance in your home, the necessity of CO testers. Maybe one in mechanical areas and preferably also in your bedroom. Whoever you get for service work, check out your venting. Dangerous stuff.

Forgot to add this chart. Remember the furnace this week was at around 1200ppm.

Wow, this crazy weather, has really taken a toll on me. Tomorrow marks my 21 straight days of dealing with furnace problems, and HRV’s. Had furnaces catch on fire, that had to replaced, not tomorrow but now. The last couple of days dealing with a gas furnace that blew the carbon monoxide gauge right out the window at 1250 ppm. Gas company turned the gas off, so I needed to haul ass, and wire large electric heaters in basement and upstairs, to keep the house from freezing. Lucky I got Tom from Sunrise on board, and the furnace was being changed today. Sometimes even your competitors, become team mates. Warming up tomorrow, so that will make a difference. So time for me to take a break. Thank you Tom, Eldon, Jessie and Manitoba Hydro guys for helping out , during this cold period. Make sure you keep your vents and chimneys outside clean, CO, is scary stuff. Change your air filters. Make sure your carbon monoxide detectors are working. I left a picture showing the dangers of CO, plugged vents and meters, bad filters.

Some of my customers are so appreciative when I fix some of their problems. Working on HRV and furnace repairs this week. Feeling good.

Just a check in from Gary, feels kinda different taking some time for myself. Need a bit of body and mind healing the next while, so I can be 100% come this spring. Still doing projects, but at a slower different pace. Already have work lining up for spring, AC’s furnaces etc. Apologize for some of the calls, that I couldn’t help, but for now taking a break from weekend and nite time service work. Not long ago remember a cold winter where I worked 8 weeks straight without a day off, all hours, 7 days a week. But if you are looking for a super Gary install, this winter on HRV’s and furnaces give me a call. Pictures below of a fan box I built to clean the air in a shop, and a new Venmar HRV. Happy New Year Everyone.

Just want to wish all my customers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Taking a break for the next few days, to unwind a bit. Then back to work soon after.