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Shops, offices, clinics and kitchens
Commercial ventilation carries an obligation residential work does not, and unlike most obligations this one can actually be measured. That is where we start.
Every unit found, and the outdoor air actually reaching the floor
First the plant: every unit located and identified by model and serial number, matched to the area it actually serves, its measured condition recorded, and dead or abandoned equipment marked as dead. On a building that has changed tenants twice, some of it will not be connected to anything.
Then the part most surveys skip. Outdoor air dampers get checked for whether they still move, economisers for whether they still modulate, and the actual outdoor air reaching the space gets measured rather than assumed from a drawing that may be thirty years old. In a tenanted building, a damper wired shut years ago to save energy is a completely ordinary finding.
The survey is written so a manager who has never been on the roof can use it, and so a landlord and a tenant can tell who is responsible for what.
Four kinds of building, four different problems
Shops and shopfronts
A door standing open all day is a trading decision and not ours to argue with, but it does mean the plant is conditioning the sidewalk. The honest options are an air curtain, a schedule change, or a figure on the bill, and we will put numbers against all three. Where a shop is genuinely sealed, the outdoor air rate becomes the question instead, and that is measurable.
Offices
Usually a zoning problem wearing a capacity problem’s clothes: one thermostat governing a floor with glass at one end and an interior corridor at the other. We measure the zones separately at the hour the complaints happen, which is nearly always mid-afternoon. Then we check whether the outdoor air damper has moved this decade.
Medical and dental suites
Stable temperature, documented filter changes, and ventilation that can be shown to be doing what the room requires. We keep the records in a form an inspector will accept. Where a space needs formal certification to a clinical standard, that is a specialist engagement and we will say so rather than take it on.
Restaurants and kitchens
Make-up air balanced against hood exhaust, measured rather than assumed. A kitchen out of balance pulls conditioned air from the dining room and the street and makes the front of house impossible to control. We work on the air. We do not clean hoods and we do not certify fire suppression.
What we do in premises
- Written plant survey
Every unit found, identified, measured and mapped to what it serves, with abandoned plant marked as dead.
- Outdoor air measurement
Dampers and economisers checked for whether they still move, and the air actually reaching the space measured, dated and written down with the method.
- Planned maintenance
Scheduled visits, the same readings each time, written specifically enough that a lease obligation can be shown to have been met.
- Repair and replacement
Repair diagnosed and costed first. Replacement sized from the load the building carries now.
- Make-up air and exhaust balance
Kitchen and workshop extraction measured against supply, with the figures written down.
- Zoning and controls
Sensors where the complaints are, schedules set to the hours the building is used.
Work we turn down
| We decline | Who it belongs to |
|---|---|
| Certifying ventilation compliance | We measure and document outdoor air rates with the method and the date. Whether the result satisfies an obligation is for a code official or an engineer to say, and we will not say it for them. |
| Mould testing and remediation | We find the moisture source, which is mechanical. Testing, identification and removal belong to an industrial hygienist and a remediation contractor. |
| Central chiller plant and cooling towers | A different discipline with different tickets, and we are not going to learn it on your building. |
| Proprietary building management systems | We will work with the controls in front of us and tell you what a schedule is doing. Programming a manufacturer-locked system belongs to whoever holds the licence. |
| Commercial refrigeration | Walk-ins, display cases and ice machines are adjacent and are not the same trade. |
| Hood cleaning and fire suppression | Separate licensed jobs. We do the air balance around the hood. |
| Clinical certification | Where a space must be certified to a clinical standard we hand it to a specialist rather than sign something we are not qualified to sign. |
Tell us the building
What it is used for, roughly how many units are on the roof, and whether the complaints are about temperature or about the air. 3213 W Imperial Hwy, Inglewood. Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm.