Oil-to-gas and oil-to-propane changeovers handled start to finish by one licensed crew — fuel line, equipment and venting.
Serving Bowmanville, Oshawa, Whitby, Courtice, Newcastle, Orono, Port Perry, Uxbridge and rural Clarington.
If you’re still heating with oil, you’ve probably had at least one of these conversations recently — a letter from your insurer about the tank, a fuel bill that keeps climbing, or a furnace that’s getting harder to justify repairing.
Most companies split that job in two. An HVAC contractor handles the equipment, a separate fuel contractor handles the line, and you coordinate between them. Forward Mechanical is a TSSA-registered fuels contractor that also installs and services the equipment, so the oil removal, the new gas or propane line, the furnace and the venting are all one crew, one visit sequence, one company accountable for the whole thing.
Why homeowners are making the switch
- Insurance questions about the tank If you’ve had a letter from your insurer asking about the age or condition of your oil tank, you’re on someone else’s timeline now. Replacing the tank answers the question for a while. Converting off oil answers it permanently, and puts the money toward equipment instead of toward storage for a fuel you’re eventually going to leave anyway.
- Fuel supply and deliveries Oil means monitoring a tank, scheduling deliveries and running out on the wrong weekend if the timing slips. Natural gas comes off the main and never needs a delivery. Propane still needs a tank, but the tank sits outside and the supply arrangement is simpler than what you’re managing now.
- The furnace is already at the end If the oil furnace is past 20 years and needs a major component, you’re deciding between spending real money on old equipment or putting that money toward the changeover. We’ll quote both and tell you which one we’d pick in your house.
- Tank and line take up space you’d rather have back Converting means the tank comes out. For a lot of homeowners that’s a basement corner or a side yard returned to them.
What an oil-to-gas conversion involves
Every house is different, but the sequence is usually the same:
- Site assessment and quote We look at the existing system, where the gas service enters (or whether it reaches your street at all), the venting path, the ductwork, and the tank situation. You get a written quote covering the whole job — not equipment now and fuel work later.
- Gas or propane line New line run from the meter or tank to the appliance location, done in-house by our licensed technicians and inspected to code.
- Furnace installation The old oil furnace comes out, the new high-efficiency gas or propane furnace goes in, sized to your home rather than sized to whatever was there before.
- Venting High-efficiency equipment vents differently than an oil furnace. The old chimney or flue arrangement usually can’t be reused as-is, and we handle the new venting as part of the job.
- Tank removal and decommissioning We handle it. The old tank, the supply lines and the decommissioning are part of the job, not something you’re left to arrange with a third party after we’ve gone. That’s usually the first question homeowners ask us, and the answer is that you make one call and one company deals with all of it.
- Startup, commissioning and walkthrough System started, tested, and you get shown how it runs before we leave.
What does an oil-to-gas conversion cost in Durham?
No two of these jobs price the same, so we don’t publish a number we’d have to walk back once we see your basement. What we will do is tell you exactly what moves the price before we quote, so nothing in the number surprises you:
- How far the gas line has to run — from the meter to the furnace location, and whether the service already reaches your street
- Whether the venting path is workable — a straightforward sidewall vent costs less than reworking a difficult run
- Ductwork condition — existing ducts are usually fine, but if they were undersized for the original system it shows up here
- Equipment choice — efficiency level, staging, and whether you’re pairing with a heat pump
- Tank removal — included in our quotes, but the tank’s location and condition affect the work involved
- Rebates — availability changes; we’ll tell you what’s live when we quote rather than promising something that expired.
Every quote is written, itemized, and covers the whole changeover — fuel line, equipment, venting and tank removal — not equipment now with the fuel work priced later.
Still on oil? We service that too.
Converting isn’t the right call for everyone this year, and we’re not going to pretend otherwise to sell you a furnace. If your oil system is sound, we’ll keep it running safely:
- Oil furnace repair diagnostics and repairs on existing oil equipment.
- Annual service and tune-ups, keeping the system safe and efficient through a Durham winter.
- Replacement assessments, astraight answer on whether the system is worth another season and what conversion would cost if it isn’t. No pressure either way.
No gas service on your street? Oil-to-propane.
Plenty of Durham properties will never see a gas main; the country edges of Clarington, the concessions around Orono and Newcastle, and much of Port Perry and Uxbridge. Propane is the workhorse out there, and it takes the same licensed fuels work as natural gas.
We handle the full oil-to-propane changeover: tank connection, line, furnace and venting. If gas service does eventually reach you, converting propane to natural gas later is a much smaller job than what you’re doing now.
Why Forward Mechanical for an oil conversion
Licensed fuels contractor, in-house.
The gas or propane side of your HVAC job is never subcontracted — it’s the trade we built the company on.
One company, one quote, one warranty.
No coordinating between an HVAC installer and a separate gas fitter, and no finger-pointing if something needs revisiting.
Done Right.
The first time.
Award-winning and accredited Readers Choice Diamond winner for Best Plumbing in Whitby, BBB accredited, TSSA registered.
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Oil Heating — Frequently Asked Questions
Service Across Durham Region
Plumbing, gas, heating and cooling service across Durham Region and Northumberland County. We cover Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa, Courtice, Bowmanville, Newcastle, Port Perry, Uxbridge, Port Hope and Cobourg.
