Questions Commercial Building Owners Should Ask

The comfort of your employees and customers plays an important role in the success of your business. That's why we recommend establishing a relationship with a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), or mechanical, contractor before you need service. If your business includes refrigeration, a mechanical contractor who specializes in refrigeration should be part of your team, too.

Whether you need new equipment, upgrades to your present equipment or service, it is important that you hire a quality contractor who is knowledgeable, skilled and qualified in commercial HVAC. And it's equally important that you know about the product you are buying or having serviced.

Understanding what is required of the contractor by the local jurisdiction, state and industry is the first step to ensuring satisfaction. The following questions should be asked of a prospective HVACR contractor to make sure they meet the requirements:

• Do you specialize in commercial service?
• If you also do residential service, what percentage of your work is commercial?
• What types of commercial service do you do? Light commercial, heavy commercial (large, multi-story buildings),
   industrial?
• Do you do both installations and service?
• Do you do design/build, conventional construction or both?
• Do you negotiate costs or work on a bid basis?
• Are your technicians CFC certified? Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) certification is required of any technician working with refrigerant. This certification indicates that the technician is trained in the proper techniques for recovering, recycling, reclaiming and disposing of used refrigerant. Be sure to ask to see a copy of the certification card. It should state that it was issued through an EPA approved program).
• Are your Technicians NATE certified? NATE is an independent third party organization that evaluates technical
  competence. A NATE certified technician knows their stuff.

You should also ask for the following documents:

• Certificates of insurance for business liability and workers compensation insurance.
• Written proposal with price quotes.
• References and a list or previous commercial projects, and check them out.
• And one of the most important questions to ask is whether the contractor is an ACCA member in good standing. The ACCA code of conduct will help you feel comfortable that the answers you received to the above questions are credible.

Following these guidelines before the work is done can make the difference between major problems and satisfaction.