I'm Nick. If you've got a room that stays stuffy no matter how hard the air conditioner works, the problem probably isn't the air conditioner. I fit exhaust, extraction and fresh air systems for Gold Coast businesses, and I look after the cooling too, so the two end up working together.
This trips up more business owners than anything else I get called about. An air conditioner takes the air already inside your building, cools it, and pushes it back out. Ventilation swaps that air for outside air and gets rid of what you don't want: moisture, smells, fumes, heat, the carbon dioxide from a room full of people.
Which is why a space can be perfectly cold and still feel awful. If nothing is moving air in and out, you're recycling the same stale lot all day and wondering why everyone is yawning at two in the afternoon.
Mechanical ventilation just means doing that with fans and ductwork instead of an open window. It's simple gear, it's cheap to run compared with cooling, and in a lot of buildings it's the fix people spend thousands avoiding by buying a bigger air conditioner.
Most people ring me about a symptom rather than a system. If a few of these sound like your place, ventilation is worth a look before you spend money on anything else.
Ventilation covers a lot of ground and nobody does all of it well. This is my end of it, aimed at single tenancies, small floors and workshops rather than towers and base-build projects.
Bathrooms and amenities, storerooms, bin rooms, plant rooms, workshops and anywhere heat or fumes build up. Supply, install, replace and upgrade, from a single in-line fan through to a ducted extraction run.
Every bit of air you pull out of a building has to be replaced from somewhere. Get that wrong and the tenancy runs at negative pressure, doors get heavy, extraction slows down and outside air finds its own way in through every gap. Balanced properly, your other systems stop fighting it.
The plumbing of the whole thing. Sized and run so the air gets where it's meant to go without whistling or shaking the ceiling.
Sheds, workshops and small industrial spaces where the heat sits up in the roof all afternoon. Roof ventilators, extraction and air movement to get it out.
Fit-outs often need both, and it's cheaper and tidier to do them at once while the ceiling is open.
Commercial kitchen canopies and grease exhaust, and duct or canopy cleaning. Both are specialist trades with specialist gear, and you're better off with someone who does them every day. Ask me and I'll point you at the right people.
If you're fitting out a tenancy, ventilation is one of the things that gets looked at before you open the doors.
Enclosed spaces need a certain amount of outside air, wet areas and some storerooms need extraction, and the requirements sit in AS 1668.2 rather than in anyone's opinion.
How I handle it depends on the job. On smaller tenancies I'll work out what the space needs and specify the fans and ductwork myself. On anything with a mechanical consultant involved, I build to their drawings and their airflow figures, which is often what a landlord or a certifier wants to see anyway.
What you'll get from me either way is a straight answer early. If your job needs formal certification, I'll tell you at the site visit whose desk that sits on and what it involves, rather than letting you find out at the wrong end of the build. Compliance work is a bad place for surprises.
Nearly everyone in this trade does one side of this properly. The mechanical companies know ventilation and treat air conditioning as somebody else's problem. The electricians will happily hang an exhaust fan and never ask what it does to the rest of the building.
That gap costs you money. An oversized exhaust fan pulls the air you just paid to cool straight out through the roof. A tenancy running at negative pressure drags hot outside air in around the door frames all summer, and the air conditioner spends the season chasing it. Nobody notices, because the fan works and the aircon works, and the power bill is just quietly higher than it should be.
I do both, on the same site, at the same time. So the exhaust gets sized against the cooling load, the fresh air comes in where it won't dump humidity on a return grille, and the two systems get set up to help each other. That's an easy thing to say and a hard thing to arrange when it's two companies and two invoices.
Ventilation work is noisy, dusty and usually happens above your head. None of that goes well over a lunch rush.
So the messy parts get booked for when you're closed, and scheduled out-of-hours work doesn't cost you extra. Evenings, weekends, early mornings, whatever suits the way you trade. Where a job runs across more than one visit I'll tell you which areas are out of action and when you get them back, and the place gets cleaned up properly before I leave.
Running the fit-out rather than the business? I'll work off your drawings, book rough-in and commissioning against your program, and flag anything that's going to be a problem while the ceiling is still open and it's cheap to fix.
The same bloke prices it, installs it and answers the phone about it, so nothing needs re-explaining halfway through. Single tenancies and small floors are my range. Base-build and multi-storey wants a company with crews, and I'll say so on day one rather than hold up your program.
You can tell within a minute whether an air conditioner is doing its job. Ventilation is harder to judge. A fan can spin away all day and shift almost nothing, and unless someone sizes it properly and checks it at the end, you'd have no way of knowing. That's why it matters who fits it.
I do the site visit, I price it, I install it and I'm the one who picks up when you ring about it later. There's nobody to hand you over to.
I work the job out before I quote it, so what you sign is what you pay. If something genuinely unexpected turns up above a ceiling, I stop and talk to you before I spend a dollar of your money on it.
Sometimes the fix is a fan and a bit of duct, not a system. Sometimes it's clearing a blocked outlet nobody has looked at in six years. Seventeen years in the trade is mostly worth having for the diagnosis.
Brielle runs the office and I'm on the tools. Most of what comes in is referral work and customers ringing back, which is the only way a two-person outfit stays busy.
Most ventilation work is a smaller job than an air conditioning install, so this usually moves quicker than people expect. Six steps either way.
I come out and look at what the air is actually doing: where it gets in, where it gets out, what's already fitted and whether it still works. No charge, no obligation.
One number in plain English for the gear, the ductwork and the labour. If there's a cheaper way to get you the same result, it'll be on there.
A deposit holds the job and the order goes in. Once the gear lands we pick a time that suits your trading.
Fans, ducting and outlets go in, then everything runs and gets checked properly before I call it done. Fans that are quiet, ducting that's sealed, air going where it's meant to.
I'll show whoever runs the place how the controls and timers work and set them up sensibly for your hours.
I'll let you know when the system is due for a look, and you tell me when suits.
Ventilation gear is simple, and that's exactly why it gets ignored until it stops. Filters block, belts wear, outlets get painted over and airflow drops off so gradually that nobody notices until the room smells again.
Ventilation servicing and commercial filter supply sit inside the same maintenance offer as the air conditioning, so it's one visit and one schedule rather than two.
Fans and ductwork look simple enough that plenty of people have a go at them. It's still electrical work, usually at height and often through a roof, so here's what sits behind mine:
Home base is the Gold Coast, and I cover the whole coast down through Tweed Heads. Bigger commercial jobs are worth a drive, so Brisbane, Toowoomba, Warwick and the Northern Rivers are all on the table. Ring me if you're not sure and I'll tell you either way.
Still working out what you've got on your hands? Ring me. You'll get a straight answer whether or not there's a job in it.
Air conditioning cools the air already inside your building and puts it back. Ventilation replaces that air with outside air and takes the stale stuff away. A room can be cold and still feel stuffy, and that's the difference showing up. Most commercial spaces want both, sized so they aren't working against each other.
The usual signs are condensation, mould that returns after cleaning, smells that don't clear, and a room that feels heavy even when the aircon is running hard. If your air conditioner is doing its job on temperature and the room still isn't right, it's usually air movement. A site visit sorts it out in twenty minutes and costs nothing.
Often, yes. Enclosed tenancies need a set amount of outside air and wet areas need extraction, with the numbers set out in AS 1668.2. Whether it applies to your space depends on the layout, the use and what the building already has. I'll tell you what I think you need at the site visit, and whether the job needs a consultant and a certifier involved.
No. Kitchen canopy and grease exhaust work is a specialist trade and so is cleaning it, and you're better served by someone doing it daily. I'll happily point you to someone good. Everything else on the ventilation side I do.
Almost always. The loud and dusty parts get done outside trading hours and there's no premium on scheduled out-of-hours work. Bigger jobs get split across visits so you keep using the space.
It can, if it's fitted without any thought. An exhaust fan that's too big for the space will pull conditioned air out and your cooling costs go up. Sized and balanced properly, the two work together and the building is more comfortable for less. This is the main reason I'd rather do both.
Usually. Mould needs moisture sitting still, so getting the damp air out is most of the answer. Where mould has taken hold you may need it treated as well, but without fixing the airflow it comes straight back.
Six to twelve months for most spaces, more often anywhere dusty or greasy. Filters and airflow are the two things worth checking. It rides along with the air conditioning maintenance visit, so it doesn't need its own appointment.
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