No work without written approval
In an HOA property we do not order equipment, book a lift or start until the association has said yes in writing. Not "it will probably be fine". Written.
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- About
A shop on Augustine Drive.
How we survey and quote, what you can hold us to, and where our scope stops — which in a shared building is the part worth reading.
01 — How we work
Document, design, submit, then install.
We are a small licensed HVAC contractor in north Santa Clara, working almost entirely on attached housing — townhomes, condominiums, stacked flats and the associations that govern them.
That is an unusual speciality and it exists because the work genuinely is different. In a detached house the contractor and the homeowner can settle everything between them. Here there is a board, a managing agent, a neighbour on the other side of a wall, a corridor somebody else maintains and a document that outranks all of you.
So we front-load the paperwork. The governing documents are the first thing we ask for, the submittal package goes out with the quote, and we do not order equipment until there is a written approval. It makes us slower to start and much less likely to stop.
02 — What you can hold us to
Four commitments.
Short, because a long list is not a commitment.
The submittal is free and it is yours
Prepared with every quote, at no charge, and you may take it to another contractor. We would rather that than have prepared nothing.
Nothing stays in common area overnight
Not a compressor, not a ladder, not a pallet. It goes into the unit or back in the van, and corridors are protected before anything heavy moves.
We chase the noise path before selling equipment
A complaint from next door gets isolation investigated first. It is usually cheaper than the replacement somebody was expecting to buy, and we say so.
03 — Limits
What we do not do.
In a building with several trades and a governing document, a contractor who is vague about scope is a contractor who is going to surprise somebody.
- No interpreting your CC&Rs. We read what you give us, design to the clearest reading, and name the sentence we are unsure about. We are not lawyers and we will not pretend otherwise.
- No electrical panel work. We state the requirement; your electrician delivers it.
- No roofing, waterproofing or structural work. We flash our own penetrations to specification. Anything beyond that belongs to the trade that warranties the assembly.
- No decibel claims. The number that matters is in the neighbour's bedroom. We describe what we are changing and why; they tell us whether it worked.
- No savings percentages or payback periods. Not for equipment, not for anything.
- No 24-hour emergency cover. A small shop cannot staff it honestly. The phone is answered from eight, and a unit with nothing at all with somebody living in it goes to the front of the day.
04 — Credentials
Insurance, permits and warranty.
On a managed property these get asked for as a matter of course, so we send them up front.
- Insurance
- General liability and workers' compensationCertificates sent with the submittal package rather than on request, because most vendor requirements ask for them and a missing certificate is a pointless week.
- Refrigerant
- EPA Section 608 certifiedRequired to handle refrigerant legally. Recovery is done properly on every changeout, including on equipment going to scrap.
- Permits
- Pulled, and the inspector metMechanical permit for our scope. An unpermitted install in a condominium becomes a problem at resale, when the disclosure package is assembled and somebody asks.
- Warranty
- Manufacturer's on the equipment, ours on the labourThe terms are written on the quote in plain sentences. Where an association's approval carries conditions, those are restated on the quote too, so nobody has to go back to the letter.
Start with a site visit.
An hour in the building, and the quote and the submittal package in writing afterwards — whether or not you use us.