Bad air in a New Jersey house is usually a humidity problem first: a damp basement in July, a furnace that dries you out in January, a bathroom fan that dumps into the attic. Then it's a filter problem — a one-inch fiberglass filter that catches nothing. We fix it in that order: humidity, then filtration, then ventilation. Whole-home dehumidifiers that drain themselves, media filter cabinets, fresh-air ventilators for tight houses, and fans that actually reach the outside. Our HVAC techs and electricians, one visit, one price.
Free in-home assessment · itemized price on the spot · no deposit
Licensed & insured · 2,000+ NJ projects · 7 years · a real person answers 24/7
Bad air in a New Jersey house is usually a humidity problem first: a damp basement in July, a furnace that dries you out in January, a bathroom fan that dumps into the attic. Typical price: $450 – $6.5K. Licensed & insured, written itemized price before work starts, no deposit, one dedicated crew. Serving all 21 New Jersey counties from Paramus. Call (201) 676-3099 or book a free estimate.
The target is 30 to 50 percent relative humidity, year round. Above 60 in summer and you get mold on the basement walls, dust mites in the bedding and a sticky house even with the AC on. Below 30 in winter and you get nosebleeds, static, cracked trim and a cough.
A whole-home dehumidifier ties into your ductwork, pulls water out of the whole house, and drains to a condensate line — no bucket to empty, no portable unit humming in the corner. For a basement or crawl that's the wet source, a dedicated unit with a pump does the job. In winter, a bypass or steam humidifier on the furnace puts moisture back. One humidistat, set once.
The one-inch filter in most furnaces is there to protect the blower, not your lungs. MERV is the rating: 8 catches dust and pollen, 11 catches mold spores and pet dander, 13 catches smoke and most of what makes allergies flare. A four- or five-inch media cabinet lets you run MERV 11 to 13 without choking the airflow — a one-inch MERV 13 filter will strain your blower and ice the coil. We install the cabinet, set the filter, and tell you how often to change it. UV lamps at the coil keep mold off the coil and drain pan; they don't clean the air in the rooms, and we say so.
A newer or newly insulated house is tight — good for the bills, bad for the air, because the cooking, showering, breathing and off-gassing has nowhere to go. An energy-recovery ventilator brings in outside air and exhausts stale air, trading heat between the two streams so you don't pay to heat the fresh air. It's the right piece for a house that's been air-sealed, spray-foamed, or had all the windows replaced.
Simpler and more common: bath fans that vent into the attic instead of outside, and kitchen hoods that recirculate. We duct them to a real roof or wall cap, put them on a timer or a humidity sensor, and the attic stops growing mold.
We don't do air-quality testing for mold, and we won't sell you a purifier based on a scary number from a handheld meter. If you have visible mold or a leak, that's a water problem — our water-damage crew fixes the source and removes what's ruined, and then the air fixes itself. We don't do radon; a certified New Jersey radon professional does that. And we won't put an ozone generator or an ionizer in your house. Dehumidify, filter, ventilate — that's what moves the numbers.
We take humidity and temperature readings on every floor and in the basement, look at your furnace or air handler and its filter slot, check where every fan and the dryer actually vent, and look for the damp source. You get an honest read on which of the three — humidity, filtration, ventilation — is your problem.
Itemized: the dehumidifier by model and capacity, the filter cabinet, the ventilator, each fan and duct run, the electrical circuit, condensate pump, permits.
Most jobs are a day. A whole-home dehumidifier or ERV takes a day to duct and wire; a media cabinet an hour or two; fan re-ducting a few hours.
We run everything, show you the humidistat and the filter change, and leave a monitor if you want to watch the numbers.
Paramus-based HVAC techs and electricians, across all 21 New Jersey counties. Doing an attic, a crawl space or a basement? The air side goes on the same contract.
typical fixed-price range — your exact number goes in writing after a free visit
How we beat the big chains: Air-quality gadgets are the HVAC industry's favorite upsell — a commissioned tech leaves with a signed contract for a purifier before anyone measured the humidity. No franchise fees, no commissioned salesmen, no rented subcontractors — that's typically 15–30% under national-brand quotes for the same or better spec. Bring us any written quote and we'll match the scope line by line.
“The HVAC company sold me a $2,000 'air purifier' and my basement still smells like a locker room.”
“The bath fan 'vents' into the attic. I found out when the ceiling stained.”
“They put a MERV 13 filter in my one-inch slot and now the AC freezes up.”
You found a crew that is actually near you. First Call Contracting is based in Paramus, in Bergen County, and our own licensed techs handle indoor air quality in all 21 New Jersey counties — no call center, no subcontractor sent from two states away. Most of Bergen, Passaic, Hudson and Essex is 15 to 30 minutes from our shop, and emergencies go to the nearest crew, 24/7.
Closest to us: Bergen CountyPassaic CountyHudson CountyEssex CountyMorris CountyUnion CountyAll 21 counties & 219+ towns →
Call (201) 676-3099, text us a photo, or book a free in-home estimate — you get a written price before any work starts.
A whole-home ducted dehumidifier runs about $2,500 to $4,500 installed; a basement unit with a condensate pump $1,200 to $2,500. A media filter cabinet is $600 to $1,200; a UV lamp $500 to $1,000; an ERV or HRV $3,000 to $6,500. Re-ducting a bath fan to the outside is $450 to $1,200 per fan. Fixed and itemized after a free assessment.
If the whole house is sticky with the AC running, or the basement is the source and it's finished, a whole-home or dedicated ducted unit. If it's one small unfinished basement, a good portable with a drain hose can be enough — and we'll tell you that.
MERV 11 for most houses, MERV 13 if someone has asthma or allergies or you're near a highway — in a four- or five-inch cabinet, changed every six months to a year. A one-inch filter should stay at MERV 8 or below.
It will stop new mold from growing, because mold needs humidity above 60 percent. It won't remove mold that's already on walls or wood. That's a water-damage job — we find the leak, remove what's ruined, and treat the framing — and we do that too.
UV at the coil keeps the coil and drain pan clean, which matters. As a room air cleaner, a good MERV 13 filter on the furnace does more. We don't install ozone or ion generators — the evidence isn't there and some of them add pollutants.
Carbon monoxide is. If a detector goes off or you smell gas, get out and call — our emergency line answers 24/7 and we dispatch a licensed tech. Everything else on this page is a scheduled job.
If you're anywhere in New Jersey, yes. First Call Contracting is based in Paramus and handles indoor air quality across all 21 counties with our own licensed crew. Most of Bergen, Passaic, Hudson and Essex is 15 to 30 minutes from our shop, and emergencies are dispatched to the nearest crew 24/7. Call (201) 676-3099 or book a free in-home estimate.
Humidity first · real filtration · fresh air on purpose · one visit
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A real person picks up every hour of every day. We tell you what to shut off first, then send the nearest crew.