We measure the ceiling space first
At the tightest point, not at the hatch, and it goes on the paperwork. It is the number every other decision on these houses depends on, and it is the one most often skipped.
- Home
- About
A shop on Pacific Coast Highway.
How we survey and quote, what you can hold us to, and where our scope stops — which on a house with a machine on the roof matters more than usual.
How we work
Measure from the roof down, then quote.
We are a small licensed HVAC contractor on Pacific Coast Highway in Torrance, working on single-family houses across the flat side of the South Bay and up onto the peninsula.
Nearly all of that housing has one thing in common: a low-slope roof and almost no attic. So our survey runs in a fixed order — roof, deck, the space above the ceiling, the route, the insulation, the rooms — because each of those constrains the next and starting at the equipment produces the wrong answer neatly installed.
Then the quote, in writing, with the equipment, the duct route and any roof work on separate lines. You are welcome to take it to somebody else. A price that only makes sense while we are standing in your kitchen is not a price.
What you can hold us to
Four commitments.
Short, because a long list is not a commitment.
Roof work is a named line, never an assumption
The lift, the curb inspection, the adapter if one is needed. Where we cannot know in advance — and with a curb under an old unit, nobody can — we say so and say who decides.
We stop rather than cover something up
If what is under the old unit is roofing at the end of its life, we photograph it, tell you, and stop. Setting a new machine on top of it just hides the problem for five years.
We find the leak
A system low on refrigerant is a system that is leaking. We locate it or we tell you the coil is finished. No annual top-up sold as a service.
Limits
What we do not do.
On this housing stock the boundary between our work and a roofer's is the one that matters, so it is stated plainly rather than discovered.
- No roofing and no re-roofing. We seal and gasket to a curb and we flash our own penetrations. The roof surface around them is a roofer's warranty, not ours, and we will not pretend otherwise to keep a job.
- No insulation contracting. We will tell you what depth you have and where it is thin, because we are the ones up there looking at it. Fitting it is somebody else's trade.
- No electrical panel upgrades, no solar, no windows or shading. We flag what a job needs and name the trade that holds the licence.
- No 24-hour emergency cover. A small shop cannot staff it honestly. The phone is answered from half past seven, and during a heat run we sort the day by who has no cooling at all in an occupied house.
- No savings percentages or payback periods. Not for equipment, not for insulation, not for anything. It depends on your roof, your rate plan and the summer you get.
- No going onto a roof we judge unsafe to walk. It has happened. We said so, and it was the cheaper conversation.
Credentials
Insurance, permits and warranty.
- Insurance
- General liability and workers' compensationCertificates on request, and sent automatically with any quote that involves roof work — which here is most of them.
- 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 metChangeouts are permitted work. An unpermitted rooftop install is a problem that surfaces years later, usually during a sale, and on a roof it is not a problem you can hide.
- Warranty
- Manufacturer's on the equipment, ours on the labourThe terms are written on the quote in plain sentences. What our labour warranty does not cover is the roof surface, and the quote says so in the same plain sentences.
Start with the survey.
An hour, including time on the roof, and the options in writing afterwards — whether or not you use us.