Commercial mechanical service is a different business from residential HVAC. Your customer is a facility manager or building owner, not a homeowner. They buy reliability, documentation and predictable costs, and they pay on paperwork. The money is in planned maintenance, the repairs it uncovers and the replacements that follow.
How a mechanical service business makes money
Planned maintenance agreements. Scheduled visits to RTUs, split systems, chillers, boilers, cooling towers, pumps and controls. A good agreement includes an equipment inventory, a task list per unit and frequency, and defined response times.
Repairs from PM findings. Every PM visit should generate a list of deficiencies: worn belts, failing bearings, corroded coils, refrigerant leaks, failed economizers. Quoted promptly and prioritized clearly, these become steady repair revenue.
Demand service. Emergency and same-day calls from agreement customers and others. Agreement customers usually get priority and a better rate.
Replacements and retrofits. Aging RTUs, boilers and chillers, plus controls upgrades. These are project-sized jobs: crane lifts, curb adapters, electrical, permits and multi-day crews.
Refrigerant compliance. For larger systems, EPA leak repair rules apply to comfort cooling at a 10 percent annualized leak threshold and commercial refrigeration at 20 percent (EPA). EPA's 2024 ER&R rule extends leak repair to HFC appliances with 15 pounds or more of charge, with a narrow exemption for residential and light commercial air conditioning (EPA fact sheet). Good records are a service you can sell.
Running the day
Group PM visits by building and season. Spring is cooling PM, fall is heating PM, and filter changes may be monthly or quarterly. Plan routes so a tech finishes all units at a site in one trip.
Dispatch by skill. Controls problems, chiller work and boiler work each need different people. Keep service techs on calls and install crews on replacements, and plan crane days carefully: weather, permits and building access all have to line up.
On site, document per unit: readings, tasks completed, photos and deficiencies. Facility managers forward your service report to their bosses; make it something they can forward without editing. TradesWork keeps equipment history per site and unit, with data plate scanning and refrigerant logs tied to each unit.
Pricing your work
PM agreements, bottom-up. For each unit: list the tasks at each frequency, estimate minutes per task, and add setup and drive time per site.
agreement price = (total annual hours × loaded hourly cost + materials) ÷ (1 − target margin)
Use the labor rate calculator to build a loaded hourly cost per skill level. Build in an annual review or escalation clause.
Repair quotes. Price findings from your price book or as time and materials with a clear rate sheet. Group them by priority (safety, failure risk, efficiency) so the customer can approve some now and plan the rest.
Replacements. List every cost line: equipment, crane and rigging, curb adapters, ductwork transitions, controls, electrical, permits, crew hours and contingency. Use the markup and margin calculator so a 20 percent markup isn't mistaken for a 20 percent margin.
Marketing that works for mechanical contractors
Commercial mechanical work is won through relationships and reputation:
- Existing customers first. Ask for their other buildings and their peers.
- Property management firms that manage portfolios and want one reliable vendor.
- General contractors and engineers for replacement and retrofit work.
- Industry groups such as local BOMA chapters, IFMA chapters and contractor associations.
- Proof. Clean service reports, response times and refrigerant records are your sales materials.
Review every agreement before it renews
The most common way mechanical contractors lose money is an agreement priced years ago and renewed automatically. Before each renewal, pull the actual numbers for that agreement: hours on site, drive time, materials, emergency calls under the agreement, and repair revenue it generated.
If the agreement is losing money, you have three honest options: raise the price, reduce the scope, or change the visit frequency. Bring the facility manager the data, including the deficiencies you found and fixed. A customer who sees a clear service history and equipment condition report is far more likely to accept an increase than one who only sees a bigger number.
Also review the equipment list. Units get replaced, added or removed, and an agreement that still lists last year's equipment is either overcharging or undercharging.
Choosing mechanical service software
Look for:
- Equipment inventory by site and unit, with history and photos.
- Commercial agreements with per-unit scope and real profitability tracking.
- Deficiency quoting that turns PM findings into approvals quickly.
- Refrigerant compliance records and leak deadlines.
- Commercial billing: PO numbers, NTE, multi-site customers, progress billing for projects.
- A tech app that works in mechanical rooms with no signal.
TradesWork covers the service core today: equipment records, refrigerant compliance, dispatch, crews and the tech app. Commercial agreement profitability, deficiency boards and project billing are not built yet, so weigh commercial-first tools if those drive your business. The software buyer's guide has a scorecard.
