A father-and-son shop on Summer City Boulevard. Forty-two years of ductwork and custom metal, now pointed at ductless mini splits and compact side-discharge inverter systems — the quiet, efficient way to heat and cool a house on the Bay — installed by the people who still fabricate the fittings.
The second generation is pointing the shop at the two systems that suit Bay-side houses best: ductless mini splits for the rooms and houses that never had ducts, and compact side-discharge inverter heat pumps for the ones that do. Both heat and cool. Both run on variable-speed inverters. Both get installed by people who fabricate the pieces that make the job look like it belongs on the house.
Galvanized, stainless, aluminum and copper — laid out, cut, formed and seamed in our own shop. Most pieces are one of a kind. That's the point of a custom shop.
Charles F. Sens Sheet Metal has been a father-and-son shop for as long as there's been a son old enough to hold a seamer. Both hold Maryland HVACR licenses; both answer the phone.
Opened the shop in 1984 and has been laying out patterns on Summer City Boulevard ever since. Master-restricted heating license, reg. 7863 — a number from a much earlier page of the state's book. If a piece can be developed on a bench with a scratch awl and a straightedge, he has made it.
Grew up around the shear and the brake and now runs the floor alongside his father — layout, fabrication, installs and the site visits where the measurements actually get taken. He is the one steering the shop toward mini splits and side-discharge inverter systems: the equipment changed, the standard didn't. Licensed journeyman under the shop's master license.
Use them freely. They're the same numbers taped above our bench.
| Gauge | Inches | mm | Relative |
|---|
Common duct gauges are highlighted: 26 ga for most residential rectangular duct, 24 and 22 ga as the duct gets bigger or the pressure goes up. Values are nominal; mill tolerance applies.
De = 1.30 · (a·b)0.625 / (a+b)0.25. A sanity check, not a design — we'll size the real thing from the load and the static pressure.
Four steps. The second one is the one most shops skip.
A drawing, a photo, a sample or the old part — or the room you can never keep comfortable. Walk in weekdays, call, or email it; dimensions in inches, please.
The piece is developed flat — stretch-outs, seam allowances, bend lines — before anything is cut. Mistakes are cheap on paper.
Shear, brake, roll, notch. Pittsburgh or snap-lock seams, spot or rivet, soldered copper when it should be.
Pick it up at the counter, or we install it — mini splits and heat pumps included. Installs are permitted and inspected.
Charles F. Sens Sheet Metal, Inc. was incorporated in Maryland in 1984 and has worked out of Chesapeake Beach — the Calvert County bay town at the end of Route 260 — ever since. It is a small shop by design: a master, a journeyman and the brake between them.
The work splits two ways. Contractors and builders bring plans and get ductwork, fittings and custom pieces fabricated to spec; homeowners from the Twin Beaches to Prince Frederick bring a problem — a rusted chimney cap, a furnace that has quit, a duct run that never worked — and get it solved by the people who will build the parts.
Everything is made within a few miles of the Bay, which is why so much of it is stainless and copper: salt air is hard on cheap metal.
The next chapter is already underway. The second generation is pointing the shop at ductless mini splits and compact side-discharge heat pumps — the systems that suit the houses here: older, close together, often without ducts, always within reach of salt air. The fabrication side is what makes those installs look right. The covers, stands, sleeves and flashing come out of the same shop, cut to fit the same house.
Home is Calvert County. Fabrication ships anywhere; installs and site visits cover the counties below. Hover a county to find its towns.
Dimensions, a photo of the old piece, or just the room that's never comfortable. We'll tell you what it takes and what it costs. Walk-ins welcome weekdays, 8 to 5.