I'm Nick. I quote your job, fit it and come back to service it, and I'll do the work when your doors are shut so you're not losing a day's trade over an air conditioner.
A split system in a shop, office or clinic works on the same principle as the one in a house. There's an indoor unit that moves the air and an outdoor unit that does the heavy lifting, joined by refrigerant pipes. What changes is the duty. Your system runs most of the day, in a room full of people, often with the front door opening every couple of minutes. That's a harder life than a bedroom unit ever has, and it needs to be sized and fitted for it.
The other thing that changes is what goes on the wall, or rather what doesn't. Most commercial spaces use a ceiling cassette instead. It sits flush in the ceiling, pushes air out in four directions, and leaves your walls free for shelving, signage and stock. Where there's no ceiling void, or the room is small enough not to need it, a wall unit still does the job well.
Ducted and VRV have their place, and I'll tell you when you're better off with one. For most single tenancies and small floors, a split does the job for less money and less disruption.
There's no single right answer, and the honest one depends on your ceiling, your layout and how you use the room.
The usual choice for shops, cafes, open office floors and waiting rooms. Sits flush in the ceiling, throws air four ways so nobody gets stuck in a cold draught while someone else cooks, and keeps your wall space clear for fitout.
Still the right call for back offices, consult rooms, staff rooms and comms cupboards. Cheaper, quicker to fit, and it doesn't need a ceiling void to hide in.
Cover several rooms off a single outdoor unit with a multi-head setup, or run the whole floor on ducted or VRV. Bigger job, bigger spend, and worth it when the layout calls for it.
Book a site visit and I'll walk the space with you before I quote anything. Sometimes the answer is two cassettes, sometimes it's one wall unit and a bit of common sense. You'll get a recommendation that fits the building, not the biggest number I can write down.
Downtime is the real cost of an air conditioning job in a business. The unit is a few thousand dollars. A Saturday with the doors shut in a retail tenancy can be worse than that, and nobody tells you about it when they quote.
So I schedule commercial work around your trading hours. Evenings, weekends, before opening, whatever fits, and there's no premium on scheduled out-of-hours work. You tell me when you trade, I'll tell you when I can be in and out.
Where a job can't be done in one hit, I'll stage it so you stay open through the middle of it, and I'll tell you up front which parts of the space are out of action and for how long. Everything gets cleaned up before I leave, because you're opening in the morning and your customers shouldn't be able to tell I was there.
If something breaks down mid-trade, after-hours call-outs are available. That one does carry a higher fee, and I'll quote it to you on the phone before I get in the van.
Ring most air conditioning companies about a commercial job and you'll get a salesperson, then an installer you've never met, then a different tech again when it needs a service. Three people, three versions of your site, and nobody who remembers what was done last time.
I quote it, I fit it, I come back and service it. When you call about a fault, you're not explaining your building to a stranger or waiting on a ticket to be assigned.
I plan the job properly before I put a number on it, so what you sign off is what you pay. If I hit something genuinely unforeseeable behind a wall or above a ceiling, I stop and talk to you before I spend your money.
If your existing unit has another few years in it, or a smaller system would run your space fine, that's what I'll say. You're paying for seventeen years of getting this right, and most of that value sits in the diagnosis.
Brielle runs the office, I'm on the tools, and nearly all our work comes from referrals and customers who call us back. We know what a bad day of trading costs, because we have them too.
For commercial duty I lean towards Mitsubishi Electric and Daikin. They hold up under long run hours, parts are easy to get when something does go wrong, and that matters more in a business than it does in a house. Where the budget is tighter, Midea, Gree and TCL all make solid commercial-range units and I'm happy to fit them. What I won't do is push you to the dearest box on the shelf. Tell me your budget and how hard the space works, and I'll lay out the trade-offs so you can make the call.
Six steps from the first phone call to a system that's still running properly in five years.
I come to you, look at the space, check the ceiling, the power and where the outdoor unit can live, and ask how you trade. No charge and no obligation.
You get one number, in plain English, covering the unit, the materials and the labour. If there's more than one sensible option I'll price both.
A deposit secures the job and I order your gear. Once the supplier confirms it's ready, we lock in a date and time that suits your trading, not mine.
I cut in the cassette or mount the head, set the outdoor unit, seal and pressure test the pipework, then run the system under load before I sign it off.
I'll show whoever runs the space how to drive it, set it up sensibly for your hours, and leave the place ready to open.
A complimentary service around six months in, then a schedule that suits how hard the system works. A reminder lands before each one is due, and you just tell me when suits.
A commercial system works several times harder than a domestic one, and it fails in the same way every time. Filters clog, airflow drops, the unit works harder for less cooling, and eventually it gives up on the hottest afternoon of the year with a full shop.
A maintenance agreement takes that off your plate. I'll set a quarterly or six-monthly schedule depending on how hard your system runs and how dirty the environment is, then handle the reminders so you're not tracking it. Kitchens and workshops need looking at more often than an office does.
Winter is the smart time to book it. The system isn't working hard, I've got more room in the diary, and it means you go into summer knowing the thing will start.
You're letting me into your business, so here's what stands behind the work:
I'm based on the Gold Coast and cover the coast right down through Tweed Heads. For the right commercial job I'll go further, up to Brisbane, out to Toowoomba and Warwick, and south into the Northern Rivers. If you're not sure whether you're in range, ring me and I'll tell you straight.
Still weighing something up? Ring me and I'll give you a straight answer, quote or no quote.
It depends on the capacity you need, the unit type and how straightforward the install is. A wall unit in a back office is a very different job to a cassette cut into a shopfront ceiling with the outdoor unit on the roof. I'll give you a fixed written quote once I've seen the space, so you're deciding on a real number rather than a range.
Yes, and there's no premium on scheduled out-of-hours work. Evenings, weekends or before you open, whatever keeps your doors open. Emergency call-outs during a breakdown are the exception and do carry a higher fee, which I'll quote you before I head out.
Cassettes suit open floors, shopfronts and waiting rooms, and they need a ceiling void to sit in. Wall units suit smaller enclosed rooms, cost less and go in quicker. If your ceiling can take a cassette and the room is open, that's usually the better result. I'll tell you which way I'd go when I look at the space.
More often than a home system. Quarterly or six-monthly is the usual range, depending on run hours and how much dust, grease or salt air the unit deals with. A quiet office might get away with less. A cafe kitchen won't.
Most single-system installs are a day, and I can usually get a straightforward cassette in during one after-hours block. Multiple systems, a long pipe run or a roof-mounted outdoor unit will stretch it out, and I'll tell you how long to allow before you commit.
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