As Danielle Westphal, office manager, puts it, “our family taking care of families.”

Westphal’s Inc. was started by brothers Erik and Phil Westphal in 1993, but the company can trace its roots back even before that.

Erik Westphal began in the heating and cooling business in 1988 by working with his father, Dave Westphal. They started small, working out of a car.

Phil Westphal became an electrician by taking after his uncle, who worked for Upper Peninsula Power Company, or UPPCO. Another brother, Wayne Westphal, also works for Westphal’s Inc. as an electrician.

WESTPHAL’S INC. does heating and cooling systems and services from its business office at 1010 W. Ice Lake Road in Iron River. (Jim Paul/Daily News photo)

The HVAC division installs most types of heating and cooling systems, including forced air, boilers, electrical baseboard and mini split systems.

Westphal’s Inc. also installs in-floor heating systems — Erik Westphal often recommends to those building a new home to run the in-floor tubing in the basement even if they are not going to start with in-floor heating so they have that option at a later date.

Westphal’s Inc. installs Bryant furnaces and air conditioners and Weil-Mclain and NTI boiler systems.

Licensed in Michigan and Wisconsin and performing residential and commercial projects, Westphal’s Inc. does work over a large territory even though they do not advertise outside of Iron County.

“We let other markets have their jobs. We are not going to go seek things in Dickinson County for instance,” Danielle Westphal said. “But there are some builders that we work with that say once they work with Westphal’s they are going to do all of their jobs … so we do not necessarily go out and look for it but if there is a new build with one of our contractors we are certainly going to work with them.”

When they incorporated in 1993, Westphal’s Inc. started with four employees between the heating and the electrical divisions. Through the years Westphal’s Inc. staff has grown to 20, many of them long-time employees, with HVAC technicians accounting for the largest number.

All employees, regardless of skill level, go through some sort of training to be a HVAC technician at Westphal’s Inc., including courses through the manufacturer that go from very basic for someone with no background to very high tech. Electricians new to the trade are put through a state-approved apprenticeship program.

“Even if a technician comes in and says they have been doing this for 20 years and it all checks out, we still send them to classes just to make sure we are all on the same page of doing things, because you can do things one way but are they doing it the Westphal way,” Westphal said.

Westphal said that Westphal’s Inc. always does the job 100% plus one — for example, a technician went on an after-hours service call and was able to take care of the problem in a few minutes. Seeing as how the customer was going to be billed for a full hour, the technician did a thorough inspection of the whole system to make sure there were not any other potential problems.

“It is making sure all the problems are taken care of and making sure that the homes are left in the same way as when the guys got there,” Westphal said.

A part of that extra effort, Westphal said, is sending out two technicians for the price of one. The technicians like it because they are not spread quite so thin and the customers enjoy it because the job is done more efficiently.

Westphal said if a job comes in under budget, they pass the savings onto the customer. In addition, they keep on top of any energy efficient rebates that may be available from DTE or UPPCO, she said.

Sometimes “doing extra” for customers is telling them they may not be the contractor they need and they will try to find the contractor that is, Westphal said.

“If they have a brand furnace that we do not have parts for right here, or maybe they did not understand they might be under warranty but not through us, to take that business would be silly and that has turned a lot of people back onto us when they decide to replace the furnace,” Westphal said.

Even though the furnaces they sell are covered by a manufacturer warranty, those warranties do not cover labor — but Westphal’s Inc. does cover labor for one year.

Westphal’s Inc. offers 24-hour emergency service and technicians keep up to date on the latest service bulletins for issues that may arise. Before sending a technician to a home on a more expensive emergency call, Erik Westphal — who takes many of the late phone calls himself — will try to talk the caller through some steps to see if an actual visit can be avoided.

Westphal said that even though they are booking work months in advance, they still return phone calls for estimates in a timely fashion and sometimes they are able to work jobs into the schedule.

Westphal’s Inc. office hours are 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The phone number is 906-265-2460 and they are at 1010 W. Ice Lake Road in Iron River.