The Air Conditioning Season is Nearing. COVID-19 April 13th Update

AtlasCare was founded in 1932 during the depths of the Great Depression. It was not the best of times to start a business, but I suspect Harry Bach found himself out of work and decided to create his own job. Fast forward 88 years and we now find ourselves in the throes of another great upheaval in human history. AtlasCare was born in turbulent times and we are here for you as an essential service during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

We have now begun our transition from the heating part of our seasonal cycle to air conditioning. This is going to take on greater importance than in the past, not only because we are all going to be confined to our homes, but also because there are no alternatives. If your air conditioner breaks down, you can’t go to the theatre, shopping mall, hotel, relative’s home or take a walk in the park. We are all staying home for the greater good.

We have started performing essential maintenance services and I would like to review our key procedures:

We just received a supply of surgical masks and our staff now have them for added protection.
Please make a sink available for our technicians to wash their hands. They carry soap and towels to follow the recommended Health Canada procedures for handwashing.
Please ensure that you maintain 6’ – 10’ of physical distance at all times from our technician both inside and outside the home.
We need to make adjustments to your thermostat during the tune-up process. Let our technician know if you would prefer to adjust the thermostat yourself.
Upon completion, our technician will provide findings and make recommendations verbally from a safe distance or phone you from his/her truck to discuss.

Thank you to everyone in advance for helping us keep the AtlasCare community safe and healthy.

We are also starting to understand how being confined to home has affected mechanical systems.

As I mentioned in my last update, we are starting to get calls for backed-up drains due to wipes being flushed down the toilet. We even had one drain back up from cigarette butts. Nothing should go into a toilet but toilet paper.
A sewer back up can be prevented with a backflow preventer installed in the floor drain in your basement. This is now part of the building code and many municipalities have subsidies available to put one into an existing home. Again, like AC, if your sewer backs up, you have no place to go.
People seem to be doing more laundry and dryer vents are getting plugged. If your clothes don’t seem to be drying as well as they used to, you may have a plugged dryer vent. Call us to clean it out for you.

We have also seen our first round of price increases come through from our suppliers. At this stage, it is being driven by the reduced buying power of the Canadian dollar vs the American dollar. However, we do expect supply chain shortages to have an impact as well over time. We will continue to keep you updated. Stay healthy.

Roger Grochmal, P.Eng.

CEO