August in the Triangle is the part of summer that does not let up. By the time the month started, most equipment around here had already been running flat out for weeks, and a worn part almost never picks a mild morning to quit. It waits for a 100 degree afternoon in the back half of the season, and a lot of August's calls were exactly that.
So, same as last month, we pulled the actual record of what our team did instead of writing another general late summer article. Here's the month, the jobs, and the handful of things worth checking at your own house because of what we kept finding at everyone else's.
The month by the numbers
Across August 2026, our HVAC and plumbing crews completed 603 jobs in more than 15 cities and towns: Raleigh, Cary, Durham, Chapel Hill, Apex, Wake Forest, Garner, Fuquay-Varina, Morrisville, Clayton, Carrboro, Hillsborough, Holly Springs, and points in between. Raleigh alone accounted for 105 of them. That is down from 703 jobs in July, about 14 percent, which is roughly what the back end of cooling season looks like. Busy, just not quite July busy.
Broken out by what those visits actually were:
- 227 diagnostic visits, again the biggest category by a wide margin, which is what a hot month looks like on a schedule board
- 79 multifamily install jobs, our apartment community and property management work
- 78 repairs and 46 cooling maintenance visits
- 39 follow-up visits, plus 6 secondary ones, the trips back out to recheck or finish what a first visit started
- 32 warranty jobs and 30 estimates
- 33 plumbing inspections, 29 of them for plan members
- 8 water heater service and repair calls, plus 7 leak and pipe calls, 5 drain and sewer jobs, and 5 fixture jobs
- 3 residential installs and the first 2 heating maintenance visits of the season, which tells you where the calendar is pointed
Our phones took 338 calls in August. 42 were after-hours emergencies, 20 became after-hours bookings, and 29 more were people trying to get on the schedule. The themes stayed steady all month: AC not cooling, property managers coordinating apartment units, water heaters, and homeowners asking what a replacement would run. We also picked up 17 new Google reviews, all five stars, and a good number of them named the technician who showed up. That is the part we are proudest of.
Behind each of those numbers is a house, a problem, and a fix. Three of August's calls are worth retelling.
Three August calls worth retelling
A Raleigh AC that froze solid because of one small valve
A Raleigh homeowner called in with the house getting warmer and ice built up on the equipment. Ice in August looks backwards, and it is one of the more common ways a real problem announces itself.
The technician traced it to a stuck expansion valve. That valve's whole job is metering the right amount of refrigerant into the indoor coil. When it sticks, the coil runs far colder than it should, moisture in the air freezes onto it, airflow chokes off, and the system stops moving cool air while still running hard and pulling power.
Replacing the valve fixed it. Nothing was wrong with the thermostat or the compressor, which is what the symptoms looked like from the hallway. One small metering part failed and everything else followed from it.
A Durham system where the leak had gotten ahead of the repair
A Durham home was not cooling, and the diagnosis was a refrigerant leak. Not a slow seasonal seep, either. This one was severe enough that both the outdoor condensing coil and the indoor evaporator coil needed replacing, not patching.
Our technician shut the system off rather than leave it running in the meantime. That is a deliberate call. A system running badly low on charge can cook its own compressor, the most expensive single part in the box, and turning a coil job into a compressor job helps nobody.
When to call a pro: If your AC has needed refrigerant added more than once, you do not have a refrigerant problem, you have a leak. Refrigerant is a sealed charge, not a fluid that gets used up. Every top off without a leak search is money spent on the symptom.
An apartment unit down on a part the size of a deck of cards
A property manager reported one unit at an apartment community with no cooling. The cause was a shorted transformer, the part that steps line voltage down to the low voltage side running the controls. When it fails, nothing downstream can call for cooling: the thermostat goes quiet, the outdoor unit never starts, and the system looks dead from the resident's side of the wall.
We replaced the transformer and the unit came back up. That call was typical of our August multifamily work, which ran heavily to capacitors, blower motors, and transformers. The repair is usually the easy half. Coordinating access and giving the property manager a straight answer on timing is what decides whether it goes well.
What August's calls kept pointing at
Condensate drains, still the quiet culprit
Two of August's no-cooling calls came back to drain lines. An Apex system quit on a 100 degree day with a clogged drain line and P trap, took two visits to sort out, and ended with the homeowner joining a maintenance plan so the next one gets caught early. A Raleigh call started the same way and needed a second visit to correct the refrigerant charge on top of it.
Prevention tip: Find where your drain line exits outside, usually a small PVC stub near the foundation, and keep it clear of dirt, mulch, and pine straw. It takes two minutes and it is the cheapest maintenance in the house.
Anything wet in an attic
A Wake Forest homeowner had a leak coming off the furnace in the attic. We fixed it with a new drain pan and a secondary float switch, and the second part matters more than it sounds. Attic equipment sits directly above finished ceilings, so a leak up there does not stay small for long. A float switch shuts the system down when water starts collecting, which means you get a warm house and a phone call instead of a stained ceiling and drywall work.
Pro tip: If your air handler or furnace lives in the attic and you have never seen a float switch on it, ask your technician on the next visit. It is an inexpensive part standing between you and a much larger repair.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why would my air conditioner freeze up when it is 95 degrees outside?
Because ice means restricted airflow or a refrigerant problem, not that the system is too cold. In one Raleigh call last month the cause was a stuck expansion valve letting the indoor coil run far colder than it should. A dirty filter, a blocked return, or a leak can all do the same thing. Shut the system off so it can thaw and have someone look at it before running it again.
My AC is low on refrigerant. Can you just add more?
We can, but if it is low, it leaked. Refrigerant is a sealed charge that does not get consumed, so a system that needs it added is a system with a leak somewhere. One Durham home in August had a leak severe enough that both coils needed replacing. Finding the leak is what actually fixes the problem.
Why do systems fail on the hottest day of the year instead of before?
Because heat is what finds the weak part. A capacitor, a motor, or a partly clogged drain line can run fine at 85 degrees and fail at 100, when the system runs for hours with no break to recover. A maintenance visit in a mild month catches the same things a heat wave would, at a much better time.
What happens when we report a unit down at our apartment community?
We take the report from the property manager or maintenance lead, coordinate access, and give you a straight update on what the unit needs and when it will be back up. A lot of August's multifamily service calls came down to small parts, capacitors, blower motors, and one shorted transformer, so the work is often quick once we are inside. The scheduling and the follow up matter as much as the wrench work, and we treat them that way.
Do you handle both HVAC and plumbing?
We do. Last month that meant 46 cooling maintenance visits and 33 plumbing inspections in the same few weeks. If you have a cooling problem and a slow drip you have been ignoring, you can hand us both on one call.
Whether it is HVAC or plumbing, you can count on us
Only two of August's 603 jobs were heating maintenance, which is exactly what you would expect in the hottest stretch of the year. That is the number that climbs from here. September usually gives everybody a break in the Triangle, and it is a good window to handle the thing you have been putting off: the system that struggled in August, the water heater you keep eyeing, the drain that is getting slower, the heat you have not thought about since spring. Give our team a call and we will tell you straight what we find. We serve Raleigh, Cary, Durham, Chapel Hill, Apex, and the surrounding communities.
