multi trade business

Status
Not open for further replies.
Rewire

Rewire

Senior Member
Location
Lake of the Ozarks
We are considering adding HVAC to our business. We think this would be a better option than trying to expand our electrical business into a new territory. We could market to our exsisting client base and utilize our exsiting systems. The statup costs would be one consideration as well as hiring the right tech. Has anyone ventured into this and what were the obstacles you incountered?
 
F

fmtjfw

Senior Member
Location
Fairmont, WV, USA
Our business HVAC is the primary and Electrical is secondary. There are federal requirements for licensing when handling refrigeration gases. There is a bunch of stuff that I consider first water mysteries: heat and cooling balancing a system for even temperatures in a structure, pipe sizes for proper flow, ... I'm pretty good in diagnosing control system problems, and have designed and built boiler control systems. I know more about gas controls on furnaces, boilers, water heaters than I will admit.

There is definitely money in it. You have people's attention when they are too hot or too cold. More so than when the outlets are flaky.

It requires plumbing skills, moving bulky and sometimes heavy objects, diagnostic skills concerning the actions of gases when they condense into liquids .... You also need the ability to convince someone that the furnace needs replacing when you can put your finger through the wall of the fire box. And a zillion manuals or 800 numbers.

There are lots of quirks, for instance all thermostats are not created equal. You would think that thermostats were just a collection of switches, but they are more complicated. For instance some will not properly select the cooling/heating cycle of a heat pump because the switch circuit for that includes a resistor called an anticipator. That was fun to figure out.

Some other problems is that manufacturers sometimes limit what wholesalers can sell to whom. Having a good relationship with several wholesalers can be a great advantage.
 
Fulthrotl

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
Location
HB, CA (19 Hrs. 22 Min. from Winged Horses)
Occupation
E
fmtjfw said:
http://www.epa.ie/downloads/advice/air/ods/RAC_Contractors.pdf

I would want to have a Master Plumber's License as well to deal with gas line hookups.
Depending on the state you may have specific HVAC licenses.
For places of assembly and commercial NFPA 1 and 101 Fire and Life Safety.
Building codes.
Energy Efficiency Codes.
High end stuff could include LEEDS training.
Click to expand...

for service truck work, the leed AP won't do much for you,
but for anything above that, it's becoming a requirement,
much more so than for electrical.

i pulled the LEED cert right before you lost the lifetime cert.
if you pull it now, you have to have inservice credits to keep
it valid.
 
renosteinke

renosteinke

Senior Member
Location
NE Arkansas
I have not 'expanded' into HVAC work, but I do partner with some mechanical contractors to run their power. It has worked well, and I often get other jobs from the customers. I have a similar arrangement with a plumber.

Oddly enough, the area that seems most desperate is refrigeration. (HVAC and refrigeration are often different licenses, different markets ... much as alarm and CATV are in our trade).

I've seen two shops that had both HVAC and EC licenses, and the merger wasn't as seamless as one would hope. You dealt with different folks in the business, and the difference in responses was such that you might as well have called two different firms.

I should have spoken in the 'past' tense; I've relocated, and no longer partnered with those guys. This new area is, well, simply screaming for HVAC - the existing guys don't respond, and if you do get one out, they're not the least bit interested in work.
 
mtfallsmikey

mtfallsmikey

Senior Member
That's how I wound up getting licensed in multiple trades, for example, to change out a boiler, we would have to get mechanical,electrical, plumbing permits, sometimes for commercial work installed/tested backflow preventers
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top