Bring us the measurements, not the sales pitch.
Heating, cooling and ventilation in Santa Maria and the valley. We find every unit, read the serial number, take the readings and hand you the sheet. If you have already bought equipment yourself, say so on the phone — it changes what we can and cannot stand behind, and we would rather tell you that first.
Three things happen before anybody quotes anything
In this order, because each one changes what the next is worth. A price offered before step three is a guess with confidence attached.
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Find it and name it
Every unit located, rating plates photographed, model and serial numbers recorded, manufacture date read off the serial. On a house that has changed hands it is frequently the first time anybody has written it down, and it takes twenty minutes.
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Measure it
Static pressure across the filter and the coil, airflow, refrigerant charge against the manufacturer’s target for that model at that condition, temperature split, and a combustion analysis on anything that burns gas.
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Say what it means
What is wrong, what a repair costs, and what the repair does not fix. Replacement gets discussed after a repair has a number against it, never instead of one.
Houses
Single-storey stock across the flats with the ducts in an attic, older houses on the west side with a wall furnace and nothing else, newer tract housing north of Betteravia where everything is the same age and reaching the same point at the same time, and the ranch properties on the edges where the nearest neighbour is a field.
Santa Maria gets the marine layer most mornings and hot dry afternoons for months, which makes for a mild climate and a badly performing system that nobody notices for years.
Premises
Packing and cooling sheds, light industrial and storage off Blosser and Black, shops and restaurants along Broadway and Main, offices, and the buildings that run a heavy season and a quiet one and have to be maintained around both.
Commercial work here starts with a written survey of what is on the roof, what it serves, and which of it is still connected to anything at all.
You bought the unit yourself and now you need somebody to fit it
It is a completely reasonable thing to have done and almost nobody will give you a straight answer about it. Five kinds of equipment people buy, crossed with the four places they buy them from — what it costs you in warranty, what we will fit, what we will not fit, and the one source where the answer is simply no.
The work, plainly
Diagnosis and repair
Instruments rather than opinion, and the readings written down with the date and the conditions. Repair costed before replacement is mentioned.
Replacement and installation
Sized from a room-by-room load calculation on the building as it stands. Ducted, ductless or heat pump, chosen from the numbers rather than from the plate on the old unit.
Ductwork
Leakage measured, joints sealed, attic runs insulated, returns and transfer grilles added, registers balanced against a measured target.
Gas appliance safety
Combustion analysis, heat exchanger inspection, flue checked as installed. Carbon monoxide alarms fitted where there is a gas appliance and no working alarm.
Commercial surveys and maintenance
Every unit mapped to what it serves, the same readings every visit, written specifically enough to satisfy a landlord, a tenant or an inspector.
Customer-supplied equipment
We will fit equipment you bought, under conditions we state in writing first. Some of it we will decline, and we will tell you why rather than quote a price designed to make you go away.
What we will not do
Most of this exists because somebody has asked for it. Writing it down means nobody has to have the conversation twice.
| We will not | Why |
|---|---|
| Warrant equipment we did not supply | We will stand behind our own labour on anything we install. The equipment itself is between you and whoever sold it, and pretending otherwise would be a promise we cannot keep. |
| Fit second-hand refrigerant equipment | There is no way to establish what it has been through, no manufacturer warranty at all, and no honest basis for standing behind the result. This is the one place on the whole site where the answer is simply no. |
| Condemn a heat exchanger without showing you | It is a real reason to shut a furnace down and it is the most abused finding in this trade. You get the camera image or the combustion reading, and you are welcome to get a second opinion first. |
| Recommend replacement on age alone | Age changes the arithmetic on a repair. It is not a fault. |
| Quote a price before we have seen it | A figure given on the telephone is a guess dressed as a quote, and it is always a low one. |
| Publish reviews, ratings or a founding date | There are none on this site, because we are not going to invent any. |
Asked often enough to write down
I bought an air conditioner online. Will you install it?
Usually yes, under conditions we put in writing on the quote rather than mention in passing. Send us the full model numbers before you buy and we will check that the outdoor unit, the coil and the air handler are a matched, rated combination — that one check prevents most of what goes wrong. We warrant our own labour on anything we install. We do not warrant equipment we did not supply, because we cannot. The single exception, where the answer is simply no, is second-hand equipment containing refrigerant.
Why will you not fit a second-hand air conditioner?
Because there is no way to find out what it has been through and no way to stand behind the result. A compressor that has been run low on charge, run without oil, or left outside with its lines open looks exactly like one that has not, and no test afterwards tells you the difference. There is no manufacturer warranty of any kind, so a failure three weeks later is a total loss and the argument about whose fault it was has no good ending. A second-hand thermostat is a completely different matter and we will happily fit one.
Does buying my own equipment void the warranty?
Not automatically, and the detail matters. Manufacturers commonly require the equipment to be registered within a set period, commonly require installation by a licensed contractor, and commonly limit or void cover on units bought outside their authorised distribution. Those terms vary by manufacturer and they change, so read the actual warranty document for the actual model before you buy. If the seller will not show it to you before purchase, treat that as the answer.
Half the house cools and half of it does not. Is the unit too small?
Rarely, and that is worth knowing before anybody prices a bigger one. A room that never matches is almost always a room not receiving the air it was designed to receive, and a larger unit pushed through the same ductwork changes very little. We measure the airflow at that room’s registers and compare it with what the room needs. What we usually find is a flexible duct that has come off a boot in the attic, no route for air to get back out of the room, or registers balanced the wrong way by somebody years ago.
Our house only has a wall heater. Is that a problem?
Not in itself. Plenty of older houses on this side of the valley are heated that way and a wall or floor furnace in good order, correctly vented and combustion tested, is a working appliance. What we will do is test it properly rather than glance at it, and then have an honest conversation about cooling — which in a house with no ductwork usually means ductless heads for the rooms that matter rather than forcing ducts through a building that has no route for them.
Do you give a price over the telephone?
No. A figure given before the visit is a guess dressed as a quote and it is always a low one. What we will tell you on the phone is what we would measure, roughly how long the first visit takes and what the visit costs. And if you have model numbers for equipment you are thinking of buying, read them out — that check is free and it takes minutes.
Which areas do you cover?
Santa Maria, Orcutt, Nipomo, Guadalupe, Los Alamos, Arroyo Grande, Lompoc and Santa Ynez.
2423 S Broadway
Santa Maria, CA 93454. Monday to Friday, 7am to 4pm.
We cover Santa Maria, Orcutt, Nipomo, Guadalupe, Los Alamos, Arroyo Grande, Lompoc and Santa Ynez.