Real jobs, not stock photos.

American Mechanical Works (AMW) is a fully licensed and insured heating, cooling, and electrical contractor based at 3601 Linneman Street in Glenview, Illinois. For more than 10 years we have designed, installed, repaired, and maintained the comfort systems in homes and businesses across Glenview, Northbrook, Wilmette, Winnetka, Glencoe, Deerfield, Highland Park, Evanston, Skokie, Morton Grove, Niles, Park Ridge, Des Plaines, Mount Prospect, and the rest of Chicago’s North Shore and northwest suburbs. As a Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Contractor and a one-stop HVAC and electrical company, we cover the whole system — the furnace or heat pump, the air conditioner, the ductwork that moves the air, and the wiring and panel that power all of it. The guide below walks through every service we offer so you can see exactly what we do and how we do it right.

Furnace and heating installation & repair

When a furnace fails on a sub-zero North Shore night, a fast, safe repair is everything. Our technicians diagnose and repair gas and electric furnaces, air handlers, and heat-pump heating of every major brand — ignition and flame-sensor failures, cracked or failing igniters, gas-valve and control-board faults, blower-motor problems, and the short-cycling that quietly wears a system out. Every no-heat call includes a combustion and carbon-monoxide safety check, because a furnace that burns fuel should never be left running with a cracked heat exchanger. When a system is past its service life, we install high-efficiency furnaces sized with a proper Manual J load calculation, so the equipment matches the house instead of being upsized to whatever is on the truck. Right-sizing is the single biggest factor in comfort, efficiency, and how long the new system lasts.

Air conditioning installation, replacement & repair

Chicago summers swing from humid to brutal, and a reliable air conditioner is not a luxury. AMW provides fast, accurate AC repair across the North Shore — diagnosing low refrigerant and leaks, failed capacitors and contactors, seized compressors and fan motors, frozen evaporator coils, clogged condensate drains, and thermostat faults. Many “dead” systems come back to life with a single inexpensive part, so we test before we replace and give you an honest repair-or-replace recommendation in writing. For new installations and changeouts we set high-efficiency condensers and coils, pull the proper permit, verify the refrigerant charge, and confirm the system cools to spec before we leave. We service and install central air and heat pumps from Carrier, Trane, Lennox, Goodman, Mitsubishi, and more.

Mitsubishi ductless mini splits — Diamond Contractor

As a factory-trained Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Contractor, AMW designs and installs ductless and ducted mini split systems that heat and cool room by room with remarkable efficiency. A mini split pairs a quiet outdoor inverter unit with one or more indoor heads — wall-mounted, ceiling-cassette, or ceiling-suspended — so you can finally make a hot upstairs bedroom, a finished attic or basement, a sunroom, or an addition comfortable without tearing open walls for ductwork. Mitsubishi Hyper-Heat (H2i) systems are engineered for cold climates and keep producing efficient heat deep into a Chicago winter, which makes them a genuine year-round solution and a clean electric alternative to aging gas equipment. Because we are a Diamond Contractor, every system we install can be registered for Mitsubishi’s best available extended warranty, and heat-pump projects often qualify for utility rebates and federal energy tax credits we will help you identify.

Boilers and hydronic heating

Many older North Shore homes are heated by hot-water boilers and radiators rather than forced air, and that craft is becoming rare. We install, repair, and maintain gas boilers and the hydronic systems around them — circulators, zone valves and zone controls, expansion tanks, and the copper near-boiler piping that has to be done correctly for the system to run quietly and efficiently. Whether you need a failed circulator replaced before winter or a complete high-efficiency boiler upgrade with new zoning, we keep the work clean and clearly labeled so the next person to open the mechanical room can actually understand it.

Ductwork, zoning & airflow

Even the best furnace or air conditioner can only perform as well as the ductwork behind it. Undersized, leaky, or poorly laid-out ducts cause hot-and-cold rooms, noisy registers, high bills, and equipment that wears out early. AMW fabricates and installs custom sheet-metal ductwork, repairs and seals existing runs, adds returns where airflow is starved, and designs zoning so different parts of the house can hold different temperatures. When we install a new system we evaluate the duct system as part of the job rather than bolting new equipment onto old problems — because correct airflow is what turns a good furnace into an even, comfortable, efficient home.

Indoor air quality

The air inside a tightly built modern home can be several times more polluted than the air outside, and Chicago’s long heating season means families spend months breathing it. We improve indoor air quality with whole-home media and HEPA-grade filtration, UV germicidal lamps, humidifiers to fight the dry winter air that cracks woodwork and irritates sinuses, and ventilation improvements that bring in fresh air without wasting energy. These upgrades integrate directly with your existing heating and cooling system, so cleaner, healthier, better-balanced air is delivered to every room the system already serves.

Water heaters and gas piping

Because we are a full mechanical contractor, we also install and service water heaters and the gas piping that feeds them and your other appliances. From a straightforward tank water-heater replacement to professional copper and black-iron gas work, we do the job to code with clean, properly supported piping and the safety checks that protect your home. Doing this in-house means you are not chasing a separate plumber to finish what an HVAC job started.

Electrical services

A rare advantage of hiring AMW is that one licensed, insured crew handles both the mechanical and the electrical side of a project. Older Glenview and North Shore homes often run on 100-amp panels and aging wiring that were never designed for today’s load — heat pumps, EV chargers, induction ranges, and home offices. We perform panel and service upgrades to 200 amps, install dedicated circuits, wire EV chargers, add recessed and outdoor lighting, install ceiling fans, and provide GFCI, AFCI, and surge protection plus electrical safety inspections. When a new heat pump or mini split needs a circuit and a disconnect, the same team that sets the equipment also does the wiring — no coordinating two contractors who point fingers at each other.

Commercial & industrial HVAC

Beyond homes, AMW services and installs commercial and industrial equipment across the region: rooftop units (RTUs) for offices and retail, gas-fired unit heaters for warehouses and shops, walk-in coolers and refrigeration for restaurants, and the controls that keep them running. We understand that for a business, downtime is lost revenue, so we prioritize getting critical systems back online quickly and offer preventive maintenance that catches small failures before they become emergencies.

Preventive maintenance & agreements

The cheapest repair is the one you never need. Seasonal maintenance — the AC in spring, the furnace in fall — catches the weak capacitor, the dirty flame sensor, the low refrigerant charge, and the loose connection before they strand you on the hottest or coldest day of the year. Regular tune-ups keep efficiency high, extend equipment life, and are usually required to keep manufacturer warranties valid. Our maintenance agreements bundle those visits with priority scheduling so members come first when the weather turns and the phones light up.

Repair or replace, and why right-sizing matters

One of the most common questions we hear is whether to repair an aging system or replace it. Our rule of thumb is simple and honest: if a system is past 12–15 years and a repair would cost more than about a third of a new one, replacement usually wins on total cost over time — especially for equipment still using phased-out R-22 refrigerant. But a new system only delivers its promised efficiency and comfort if it is sized and installed correctly. An oversized furnace or air conditioner short-cycles: it blasts on, satisfies the thermostat fast, and shuts off before it evens out the house or pulls humidity from the air, leaving you with hot-and-cold rooms, more wear, and higher bills. That is why we run a Manual J load calculation on every installation rather than guessing from square footage.

Proudly serving Glenview & the North Shore

AMW is a local company in the truest sense — our shop is in Glenview and we live in the same towns we serve. That means when you call, you reach a nearby team that knows the area’s housing stock, from the mid-century homes near downtown Glenview and the newer builds around The Glen to the historic houses of Wilmette, Winnetka, Glencoe, and Evanston and the larger properties in Northbrook, Deerfield, and Highland Park. Local also means accountable: we pull permits, do code-compliant work, give honest written pricing with options before we start, and stand behind what we install. After more than a decade, the way we treat these homes and businesses is the only marketing that has ever really mattered. If you need heating, cooling, ductless, electrical, or any of the services above, call American Mechanical Works at (847) 497-8149.