Cabbagetown is one of the few genuinely house-dominant pockets in the downtown core. Housing stock is Victorian and Edwardian — narrow lots, three stories, high ceilings, and a lot of original hydronic heating systems still in service. Boiler work is the single most common call we get from Cabbagetown, followed closely by mini-split installs for owners who want cooling without ripping ducts through a heritage house.

The typical Cabbagetown project pattern: an inherited or recently-purchased row house on Wellesley, Winchester, or Amelia with a decades-old cast-iron boiler that still heats but is oversized and inefficient, plus window ACs on the second floor. Owners want to decide between rebuilding the hydronic system, converting to forced air (usually a bad idea in these houses), or leaving heat alone and adding zoned mini-splits for cooling.

We'll walk through that decision honestly. In most Cabbagetown houses the right answer is to keep the hydronic system, replace the boiler with a properly-sized modulating condensing unit if it's near end of life, and add a two- or three-head mini-split for cooling. Ripping out cast-iron rads to install ductwork is expensive, disruptive, and rarely worth it.