Do you need to hire a commercial HVAC contractor to help you with a project? You’ll be thrilled to hear that there are almost 150,000 HVAC contractors throughout the U.S. today.
Not all of them will be able to assist you with commercial jobs. But there are tens of thousands of contractors for commercial projects, including at least a few in your general area.
Initially, you might think that simply Googling “commercial HVAC contractor near me” and picking out the first one you can find might be the best way to approach tracking one down. But since there are so many HVAC choices for businesses, you should take full advantage of this. It’ll enable you to enjoy all the benefits of an HVAC contractor from the beginning.
Want to know how to choose an HVAC contractor you can trust for a commercial HVAC installation or another commercial HVAC project? Asking the right questions to a handful of commercial HVAC contractors should help you land on the best one in your city.
Here are 11 questions to ask a commercial HVAC contractor.
1. Which Areas Do You Serve?
One of the very first questions you should ask a commercial HVAC contractor should be about their service areas. The last thing you want to do is find an HVAC contractor that you absolutely love and then discover they don’t actually work in your area. This might happen even if you found this particular HVAC contractor by Googling “commercial HVAC contractor near me.”
If you’re looking for an option in, say, Kansas City or one of the surrounding areas, this HVAC contractor would be your best bet. It’ll be very important for you to select a commercial HVAC contractor that knows your area well.
2. How Much Experience Do You Have?
After you ask a commercial HVAC contractor about their service areas and find out that they specialize in serving those in your specific area, the next thing you’ll want to talk to them about is their experience. You don’t want to get stuck working with an inexperienced HVAC contractor who doesn’t know enough about the HVAC industry yet.
This will be especially true when you need help with a commercial HVAC contractor project. A project like this could get to be very complicated, so you won’t want to have someone on your side who doesn’t know exactly what they’re doing.
Don’t be afraid to ask how much experience a commercial HVAC contractor has from the start. It’ll ensure you don’t end up with an HVAC contractor in your corner who isn’t familiar enough with commercial HVAC at the moment. You might even want to go as far as to ask an HVAC company how much experience certain employees have.
3. What Services Can You Offer?
Prior to contacting any commercial HVAC contractors, it would be worth trying to decide which HVAC services you’ll need from the option you hire. It’ll make it so much easier for you to narrow all your options down to just one since not all commercial HVAC contractors will offer the same services.
When you start having discussions with different commercial HVAC contractors, you’ll then be able to let them know what you need to have done so they can tell you if they’re cut out for the job. It’ll be a real shame if you get hooked up with a great commercial HVAC contractor only to find out that they can’t extend the services you need.
So, which services do you need? From HVAC installation services to HVAC maintenance services to HVAC repair services, you should settle on the specific services you’re looking for. It’ll make your search for a commercial HVAC contractor easier than you thought it might be.
4. Can You Provide References?
Many commercial HVAC contractors are going to claim to be the best commercial HVAC contractors in the business. It would be foolish for these contractors not to tell you this. Some businesses might overlook them for other companies that’ll tell them that they’re the “best.”
But the commercial HVAC contractors that are truly the best of the bunch will be able to take it a step further. They can send references in your direction so that you can hear a third-party talk about what it was like to work with this contractor. You’ll appreciate the unique insight that references will be able to bring to the table.
If a commercial HVAC contractor is apprehensive about sending references to you for any reason, this won’t usually be a good sign. You’ll want to have an HVAC contractor helping you who would be more than happy to refer others who can sing their praises.
You’ll also want to have an HVAC contractor who has racked up their fair share of positive reviews online. Don’t be afraid to sift through reviews for different commercial HVAC contractors to see who seems to have the best reputation in your area.
5. How Much Do Your Services Cost?
Far too often, businesses will only consider the costs associated with commercial HVAC contractors when deciding which one to hire. This typically ends up being a big mistake. You might want to save any questions about how much commercial HVAC services cost until somewhere in the middle of your conversation with a contractor.
You should, of course, have the cost of commercial HVAC services on your radar when you’re comparing different commercial HVAC contractors. But you shouldn’t get so caught up with cost that you overlook all the other important factors we’re talking about here.
Still, you should get around to speaking with commercial HVAC contractors about their respective costs at some point. It’ll enable you to choose an HVAC contractor that is going to fit into your budget.
6. Do You Extend Warranties on Your Work?
Let’s say that you have a commercial HVAC contractor do work for you and their work doesn’t stand the test of time. It could put you in a position where you’ll have to pay for costly HVAC repairs that may have been caused by this HVAC contractor.
It’s why you should always work with a commercial HVAC contractor who takes it upon themselves to extend warranties on both their products and their work. It’ll show you that they’re more than willing to stand behind the products they provide and the work that they do.
Even if it means spending a little extra on commercial HVAC services, you’ll want to pick out an HVAC contractor who isn’t scared to give warranties to customers. You’ll feel so much more confident when you have contractors for commercial projects that operate like this.
7. What Is Your Availability Like?
If you just started a large commercial project and you won’t need commercial HVAC services for a few months at the very least, you might not need to worry about a commercial HVAC contractor’s availability. You should be able to get a spot on an HVAC contractor’s calendar without any issues.
But if you need to have commercial HVAC services performed as soon as possible, it’ll be another story. In this case, you’ll have to locate an HVAC contractor who is available to carry out these services, like, tomorrow. If an HVAC contractor is all booked up for the next couple of weeks or even months, it’ll mean you should cross this option off your list and keep exploring other options.
8. When Can You Start?
Again, you might be able to get away with not asking a question like this if your company isn’t going to need a commercial HVAC contractor to come in to work on a project anytime soon. But if time is of the essence, it’ll be a different story.
In this instance, you’ll want to have an HVAC contractor tell you the earliest they can come to start working on this project. You aren’t going to want to play too many games with commercial HVAC contractors who are going to force you to delay your project as a whole.
9. How Long Will My Project Take?
If you need a commercial HVAC contractor to complete a relatively simple task for you, you might not need to be concerned about how long it’s going to take them. As long as they can be in and out in a day or two, that should work just fine for you.
But if you’re tackling a bigger commercial project and commercial HVAC services are just one of the things that you need to secure, you’ll need to take a closer look at how long an HVAC company thinks a project will take. Ideally, you’ll want to choose the one that’s going to offer the quickest possible timeline to you.
At the same time, you might want to be wary about any commercial HVAC contractor who says they can complete a project in a ridiculously short amount of time. There might not be any way that they can possibly do this while also doing a great job. You might want to shy away from the idea of giving a company like this your business since you might not always be able to trust them.
10. What Is Your Process Like?
Every commercial HVAC contractor has a slightly different process that they’ll use when they’re working their way through a project. It would be worth asking every HVAC contractor you talk to about which process they’ll employ if you decide to go with their company.
A commercial HVAC contractor’s process might look like this:
- Initial consultation
- Site evaluation
- HVAC installation
- Post-HVAC installation inspection
- Final conversation
In a perfect world, the commercial HVAC contractor you hire to help you should have a very clearly-defined process that plays out like this. It’ll show you that they know what they’re doing and put in the necessary time and effort while working with clients.
The best commercial HVAC contractors will also be the ones that’ll communicate with you during this process to tell you about any changes that might need to be made. It’ll make you feel like you know what’s going on at every step during your commercial HVAC job. It’ll also fill you in if there are any delays that your project might encounter.
11. Are You Fully Licensed and Insured?
Every single question that we’ve included on this list is important to some degree. You should make it your mission to ask every last one of them to a commercial HVAC contractor.
But if you have to skip over any of the questions on this list, do not let it be this one. We would argue that this might just be the most important question on this entire list.
Checking a commercial HVAC contractor’s license and business insurance is of the utmost importance. If you ever get stuck working with an unlicensed and/or uninsured commercial HVAC contractor, it could turn into a nightmare scenario for you.
For starters, you’ll need to bring your commercial HVAC project to a grinding halt if you’re caught working with an unlicensed and/or uninsured commercial HVAC contractor. You might also face gigantic construction costs and medical bills tied to any accidents that occur while you work with an unlicensed and/or uninsured commercial HVAC contractor.
It wouldn’t be a good idea to hire a commercial HVAC contractor like this because of all the trouble it could cause. You’ll wish you had been more diligent about checking a commercial HVAC contractor’s license and insurance.
Choose the Right Commercial HVAC Contractor for Your Job
At this point, you should be fully prepared to sit down with commercial HVAC contractors and have great conversations with them. They’ll be able to provide answers to each of the questions listed here.
They’ll also be able to tell you more about their companies and what sets them apart from the competition. It should make it very easy for you to pick one commercial HVAC contractor over all the other HVAC services.
Would you like to get more tips on choosing which companies your business should work with? Look for them in the other articles published on our blog.
