Why Hire an HVAC Expert?
Your problem will be solved faster – and without the need for “callbacks” – if it comes from trained experts. Can you make sure that the company you’ve called to solve your HVAC system problem – and the people it has sent over – know what they are doing?
CERTIFICATION: Guaranteeing Expertise
SAFETY: Expertise Without Regrets
STANDARDS: How Expertise Is Specified
TRAINING: Expanding Expertise
The contractors and craftspersons who have developed this Web site – the HVAC Expertise team – pride themselves on their dedication to training. Our industry’s formal apprenticeship program features four to five years of “on-the-job” learning by the apprentice, as well as hundreds of hours of classroom time.
Our commitment includes more than $50 million invested each year on training across the nation.
Applicants must meet certain requirements before they are accepted as apprentices. To advance, apprentices must demonstrate specific knowledge, skills, and abilities. Those who have mastered the techniques and know-how become journeymen and HVAC International Training Institute (ITI) certified mechanics. More information on ITI.
These are the people our companies will send to your building. They will have the savvy and experience to solve your problem – or, if you make use of our services for regular maintenance, to prevent the problems before they happen!
CERTIFICATION: Guaranteeing Expertise
Sheet metal mechanics and technicians working for SMACNA contractors earn various certifications – many of them the result of education obtained after their apprentice days are over.
While many industries have certification programs these days, ours are exacting and require a significant investment of time and resources by those seeking a certification.
An example:
To verify that an HVAC system is working properly, specially trained craftspersons and supervisors perform tests that come under the heading of “testing, adjusting, and balancing – or TAB. Our industry has a Testing, Adjusting and Balancing Bureau (TABB).”
In choosing TABB’s standards and people, a design engineer, whose company works across the country, recently told us that the difference between TABB’s certification and those offered by others mattered.
“With the others, the company is certified, but that does not mean the person they send to a building knows what he is doing,” the engineer said. “I’ve received incomplete reports from such people.”
“With TABB, the company is certified, the supervisor is certified, and the mechanic is certified. That means I’m more secure that I’m going to get from my client the information that I want and need.”
SAFETY: Expertise Without Regrets
Safety training is a “staple” of the HVAC Expertise approach. HVAC work can be dangerous in a number of ways.
Our safety training includes OSHA’s 10- and 30-hour courses, which are staples of craftspersons safety education. But there’s much more.
A special organization, the Sheet Metal Occupational Health Institute Trust, is funded by the HVAC Expertise team. The only focus: To create safety training programs. In just the past six years, the Institute has rolled out 30 specialized safety training programs.
Why should you care about safety? In today’s litigious society, liability has a habit of mushrooming. It’s an extra comfort for you to know that the people our contractors will send to your building know how to do the work – and solve your problem – while not at the same time creating a new problem for themselves, their employer, or you!
More information about SMOHIT.
STANDARDS: How Expertise Is Specified
Standards are important in every industry. Here’s the key: When you hire a SMACNA contractor with SMARTÂ craftspersons, you’re getting a company and people who live by the industry’s standards.
We have thousands of member contractors and 150,000 craftspersons on our team – how can we make such a claim?
Our claim is solid gold! The standards that are commonly accepted in the HVAC industry come from the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors National Association – SMACNA.
SMACNA standards and manuals address all facets of the sheet metal and HVAC industry, from duct construction and installation to indoor air quality, from energy recovery to roofing, from solar energy to welding, from commissioning to performance service maintenance.
We write them.
We revise and update them.
We create new HVAC standards.
And the contractors who choose to be members of SMACNA really do live by them!
For a look at SMACNA technical expertise, go to our free Publications site—items on this page are downloadable at no charge. You’ll also find standards available in our bookstore.