HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Services in St. Francis, WI

St. Francis, WI HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Services

St. Francis sits on a narrow stretch of land between Lake Michigan and the southern edge of Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood — just over two and a half square miles, the smallest city in Milwaukee County. The community runs from the bluff-top homes along S. Lake Drive and the St. Francis de Sales Seminary campus down through the working-class blocks west of Kinnickinnic Avenue. Most of the housing went up in the 1940s and 1950s: brick ranches, cape cods, and frame bungalows that have now carried 70 to 80 Wisconsin winters of service from their original mechanical systems. Seminary Woods anchors the east side of the city, and the Archdiocese's Cousins Center sits a block off the lake.

Burkhardt Heating, Cooling, Plumbing & Electric has worked St. Francis homes out of our Brown Deer shop on N. Teutonia Avenue since 1958. The drive south down I-43 or Kinnickinnic puts a service technician at most St. Francis addresses inside 30 minutes, and our family-owned crew knows the quirks of this part of the lakeshore — the salt-air corrosion that eats condenser coils along E. Howard Avenue, the galvanized supply lines that still feed half the kitchens in the blocks west of Whitnall Avenue, and the undersized panels behind the basement stairs in homes that were wired before central air was a thing. We work alongside St. Francis School District families, the seminary grounds, and the small-commercial spine along Kinnickinnic and S. Howell Avenue.

Call (414) 355-5520 for furnace, boiler, AC, water heater, drain, panel, or generator service in St. Francis. Weekday appointments are typically same-day or next-day, and emergency HVAC is available 24/7.

Services Available in St. Francis

St. Francis homes are compact, lake-adjacent, and old enough that most of them have had at least one round of mechanical replacement — but rarely all three trades at once. Burkhardt handles HVAC, plumbing, and electrical from the same shop, which matters when a single project (say, a furnace and AC swap that also needs a panel upgrade to support a new condenser) would otherwise require three separate contractors.

Heating & Cooling

Forced-air gas furnaces are the dominant heating system in St. Francis, though we still see plenty of older boilers tied to cast-iron radiators in the pre-war frame homes near the seminary. Every boiler tune-up we perform includes checking water pH and hardness, then treating with inhibitor as needed — Wisconsin's well water and older municipal lines can corrode heat exchangers and cake up boiler internals, shortening system life by years if left unchecked. Lake Michigan keeps the city a few degrees cooler than inland Milwaukee in summer, but the humidity off the lake makes AC and dehumidification real comfort issues from June through September.

• Furnace repair and replacement
• AC repair, installation, and tune-ups
• Boiler repair and replacement
• Heat pumps and ductless mini-split systems for additions or finished attics
• Duct cleaning and sealing

Common HVAC issues we see in St. Francis:

• Condenser coil corrosion on units within a few blocks of the lake
• Oversized furnaces installed by previous contractors in small ranch homes — short-cycling, uneven heat, premature failure
• Original 1950s boilers running on the same circulator pump for 60-plus years

Plumbing

Milwaukee Water Works supplies St. Francis through municipal lines, but the lateral and in-home plumbing in older houses tells a different story. Galvanized supply pipe is still common and corrodes from the inside out — discolored water, dropping pressure, and pinhole leaks are the usual symptoms. Drain laterals are often clay or early cast iron, vulnerable to root intrusion from the mature trees lining E. Bolivar and E. Norwich Avenues.

• Water heater repair and replacement
• Drain cleaning and hydro jetting — see our drain cleaning pillar for what to expect
• Emergency plumbing (weekdays)
• Sump pump install and battery backup
• Gas line work and shutoff replacement

Common plumbing issues we see in St. Francis:

• Galvanized supply lines causing low pressure and rust-colored water
• Recurring main-line backups from root intrusion on south-side clay laterals
• Original 1950s water heaters still in service — well past replacement

Electrical

A 60- or 100-amp Federal Pacific or Zinsco panel is a regular find in St. Francis basements. These panels weren't sized for modern loads — electric ranges, central AC, EV chargers — and some of the breaker designs have known safety histories. Burkhardt Electric handles full service upgrades to 200 amps and coordinates with We Energies on the meter swap.

• Electrical repair and troubleshooting
• Panel upgrades and service entrance replacement
• Generator installation (standby and portable interlock)
• Outlet, lighting, and surge protection

Common electrical issues we see in St. Francis:

• Undersized 60- and 100-amp panels that trip under AC startup loads
• Knob-and-tube remnants in attics and second-floor walls
• Ungrounded two-prong outlets throughout original wiring runs

Why St. Francis Homeowners Choose Burkhardt

• Family-owned and operating in the Milwaukee metro since 1958, with crews who have worked St. Francis housing through multiple replacement cycles
• Google Guaranteed, BBB-accredited, and NATE-certified technicians on every call
• Dispatched from our Brown Deer location on N. Teutonia Avenue — roughly 25 minutes from most St. Francis addresses via I-43 and Kinnickinnic Avenue
• HVAC, plumbing, and electrical under one roof, so multi-trade projects don't get handed off between three separate contractors
• Honest mechanical assessments on older homes — we tell you what needs replacement and what has another decade of service left
• Financing available through approved lenders so major repairs and replacements can be spread across the equipment's service life

Non-emergency calls are taken Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central. Emergency HVAC service is dispatched 24/7 including weekends and holidays. Most St. Francis service calls are scheduled within 24 to 48 hours during normal demand; the spring AC tune-up rush and the October-through-January furnace replacement window run longer, so booking ahead during the shoulder months keeps you out of the busy queue. Burkhardt also handles permitting, We Energies coordination, and the post-install inspection scheduling — the homeowner doesn't have to chase paperwork.

Call (414) 355-5520 or book online to schedule service in St. Francis.