Half the complaints in a commercial building are a pressure problem wearing a comfort costume
Mechanical services for buildings across Onondaga County — maintenance, plant, ventilation and the measurements that tell you what is actually wrong. Houses too, and we say which is which.
A record per unit
A site sheet that says “serviced” is worth nothing on the day something fails. Every unit gets its own record, carrying numbers that can be compared with the previous visit.
- Filters changed, sizes recorded on the unit and on the sheet
- Coils inspected both faces, condition graded, pressure drop noted
- Belts, sheaves and bearings set; part numbers listed
- Contactors, capacitors and terminals checked for pitting
- Economiser travel driven and minimum position recorded as a number
- Combustion tested with instruments before the heating season
Numbers, not opinions
Nearly every argument in a commercial building — the zone that is always cold, the doors that will not shut, the smell that travels — resolves into a measurement somebody has not taken.
- Static pressure against the equipment’s own rating
- Airflow at the terminal, not at the plant
- Temperature split and rise against the data plate
- Outside air rates, measured rather than assumed from a schedule
- Extract against make-up air, which is where the doors come in
Tick what the building is doing
Eight symptoms, and a diagnosis of whether the building is running positive, negative or roughly balanced. It is the first thing we work out on a survey and it explains a remarkable number of complaints that get blamed on the cooling.
No price, no email field, and one of the eight answers tells you to stop and call the gas utility rather than us.
A negative building costs money in four places at once
When extract runs harder than make-up air can supply, the building pulls outside air through every gap it has. In a Syracuse winter that is cold, wet, unconditioned air arriving at the perimeter for free — and you pay to heat all of it.
Then the doors get heavy, the lobby gets draughty, smells travel from where they are made to where they are not wanted, and in the worst case a naturally drafted flue stops drawing properly.
None of that reads as a ventilation problem from the inside. It reads as “the heating is not keeping up”, and that is what gets quoted.
What we look after
- Downtown retail, offices and professional suites
- Restaurants and bars — extract, make-up air and the balance between them
- Clinics and practices, with outside-air rates written down
- Small industrial and warehousing — unit heaters, extract, destratification
- Multi-tenant buildings where nobody holds the controls password
We do residential work too, and we will say so plainly
The name says facility, and commercial is most of what we do. But we service and repair houses across the same county, with the same method and the same written numbers. If a domestic job would be better served by somebody who only does houses, we will tell you that as well.
Three things we will not put in a contract
- A guaranteed response time in hoursWe will tell you where you are in the queue and call back. A printed number gets broken in a lake-effect event, which is exactly when you would be relying on it.
- A percentage off your energy billA negative building and a seized economiser both cost real money and fixing them helps. What that is worth depends on your tariff, your hours and your building, so the figure comes after the survey.
- Work that belongs to another tradeRoofing, structure, snow clearance, hood cleaning, fire suppression and electrical distribution beyond our isolators. We photograph what we find and name who should do it.
Common questions
Why are the doors in my building hard to open?
Because the building is probably running negative: more air is leaving than is being deliberately brought in, so it makes up the difference by pulling outside air through every gap it has. The door is the biggest deliberate hole in the envelope, which is why it shows up there first. There is a page on this site that works through the symptoms.
Smells travel from the kitchen into the dining room. Is that a cooling problem?
No, and it very often gets quoted as one. Air moves from where it is made towards wherever the building is pulling from. Fixing it means measuring extract against make-up air, not adding capacity to the air conditioning.
What does a first survey include?
Panels off, condition and serial numbers, access and electrical supply, what the controls are actually programmed to, the hours you can give us, and the differential pressure readings. The last of those is the one almost nobody has and the one that explains the most.
Do you work on houses?
Yes, with the same instruments and the same written numbers. We are a facility contractor that also does houses, and we will say plainly when a domestic company would serve you better — particularly for evening availability through the winter.
Why are there no prices on the site?
Because a rooftop unit replacement can differ by a multiple depending on access, curb, crane time, electrical supply, controls, the hours available and, in this city, the month. The survey is quoted as a fixed number before we come out.
Which areas do you cover?
Syracuse, DeWitt, Liverpool, Camillus, Manlius, Cicero and Baldwinsville.
Syracuse and Onondaga County
132 E Genesee St, Syracuse, NY 13202. We cover Syracuse, DeWitt, Liverpool, Camillus, Manlius, Cicero and Baldwinsville.
Monday to Friday, 7am to 4pm, with planned work out of hours by arrangement.