February 05, 2010
In the highly competitive arena of Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning (HVAC), there is absolutely no reason to have to compromise when selecting a contractor to build your project. When making the selection of an Atlanta HVAC contractor, there are several requirements they should be able to fill without question.
Given today’s litigious environment, one of the first items on the table should be licensing, bonding, and insurance. Your contractor should be licensed to do business in the State of Georgia, and they should be bonded and insured to $2,000,000 for general liability. But even if there is adequate insurance, you don’t want a project delayed or to have the overhead of accidents or injury, so you will want to check the safety record of your contractor. The Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) of Georgia does a good job of monitoring the safety record of contractors in Georgia. Your contractor will be a member of ABC and they will have information on their record for safety. Your HVAC contractor should also operate as a certified drug-free workplace.
You will want some assurance of competency. This can be accomplished by checking to see if all the HVAC contractor’s technicians are certified by North American Technician Excellence (NATE). The NATE is an independent body providing certification for HVAC technicians. Your contractor should also be able to provide in-house engineering and construction design services so you are not having to deal with yet another party to perform these functions. The selected contractor should be able to provide a lifetime guarantee for workmanship and should provide a 100% satisfaction guarantee in writing for the completed work.
It is hard enough to get a building project off the ground without being nickeled and dimed to death for engineering and design just to get some cost estimates. This is another reason your contractor should have in-house engineering and design capability. They should earn your business by submitting a project estimate free of charge, but unless they have this capability in-house, such a proposal is not going to be very meaningful.
Also, remember that there is no reason why the buyer or tenant should ever have to look outside for ongoing service. If your contractor will also be providing a competitive service package for continued, regular maintenance of the HVAC and mechanical systems, you can be further assured that the design, installation, and workmanship are of high quality. Whether this is for residential or commercial property and the contractor will be providing ongoing service, you want them to be flexible as well, offering flexible maintenance agreements and having the capacity to provide service calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
By checking to make sure that your HVAC contractor can meet all these criteria, you will ensure that your building project can go smoothly and the occupants of the building will be happy with the finished product long into the future. The HVAC and mechanical systems have a big impact on the satisfaction of the end-user, and success with this aspect of the project will have a lot to do with the HVAC contractor you select.
Bardi Heating, Cooling & Plumbing is an Atlanta area HVAC contractor specializing in the design and installation of air conditioning systems for residential and commercial projects of any size.
