Simple Guidelines to Help You Choose the Best HVAC Contractor
When your property’s heating or cooling system breaks down, you’ll need a reliable HVAC contractor to fix the issue immediately. HVAC failures and inefficiencies can be detrimental to your commercial property. For example, an AC breakdown during a hot summer day mean occupants face uncomfortable temperatures. Furthermore, energy inefficiencies in your HVAC system mean that your monthly utility bills will be higher than usual.
Fortunately, many trustworthy HVAC contractors are available around the clock to find the source problem in your HVAC system and offer the best solution. However, not every local HVAC team will provide quality services. Given this concern, let’s discuss how to find the best HVAC experts for your commercial property.
Conduct HVAC Contractor Research
It’s 2022, and that means most people start their research online. That is no different when it comes to finding a qualified HVAC contractor. This research could include looking up local HVAC contractors in your area. Depending on your location, you’ll likely find a couple of dozen different HVAC contractors. So how do you tell them apart? Our best advice is to qualify the contractors first. To do this, visit their website and ask yourself three questions:
- Does the website seem professional and legitimate?
- Does the company have a physical address?
- How can you contact the HVAC contractor?
While these aren’t going to particularly determine if the HVAC contractor is right for you, it will allow you to potentially drop some from your list. Investing in a website is pretty standard for all companies across all industries. Having a physical address and contact information makes it, so you know it’s a real company. If they don’t have either, this is a red flag for spam sites or lead-generating websites that sell your information to large corporations. Most of this information can be found on a contact page or lower on the home page.
Read Customer Reviews and Referrals
Next, you can check the HVAC contractor’s reviews, referrals, and references. However, we will caveat this with, don’t be alarmed if commercial HVAC companies don’t have many online reviews. This isn’t like residential HVAC, where you are dealing with individuals. For example, you have to have a Gmail account for a Google review, and many people do have personal ones they leave reviews. This isn’t always the case professionally.
So, while you can definitely look for reviews on Google and other social media platforms, you might need to ask. Another option is to check their website. While these aren’t easy to verify, they might give more insight into what they have worked on.
Ultimately, the best way is to contact the contractor and ask them for a list of references instead. This way, you’ll be able to call each reference and ask a few critical questions about the contractor. Questions like:
- How was your experience with the contractor?
- What service work did you have completed?
- Any essential information I should know?
- How was their communication throughout the process?
Lastly, you can look for referrals from people in your own network. Ask other companies who they have used and are happy with. Ultimately you should be asking for references at some point in the process.
Ask About Services Offered
Although HVAC stands for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, some HVAC contractors specialize in one service. For this reason, it’s important to contact the contractor and ask them what services they provide. In addition, you can ask the contractor for an estimate of how much service work is needed. You can also ask them if they offer any guarantees or warranties for their services, along with an estimate.
Finally, you can ask the contractor for a quote on the service work they estimate you need done on your commercial property. This way, you can compare quotes across the different HVAC contractors you contact.
Partner with the Commercial Property Experts at The Severn Group
If you need HVAC service work for your commercial property, we’ve got you covered at the Severn Group. We are the leading HVAC contractor throughout Maryland and the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, so don’t hesitate to contact us today!
Thanks for the reminder that it’s important to also consider the communication skills of an HVAC contractor when planning to hire one. I’m interested in looking for one because I’ve been having problems with my home’s energy consumption.