The cleaning of HVAC system components in your building will require regular cleaning. Because of health, safety, and regulatory issues, many buildings now have in place an HVAC system component cleaning schedule. If you do not have such a preventive maintenance cleaning schedule for HVAC system components, create one. Consult your inspection, repair, and cleaning records and use these to estimate appropriate intervals between scheduled cleanings. Your inspection procedures should be sufficiently thorough to reveal special cleaning needs that may arise for various reasons between regularly scheduled cleaning of HVAC system components.
The cleaning can be carried out by your staff or an outside contractor. Typically, an organization will not have in-house the specialized vacuum equipment and other gear required to do the job thoroughly and will need to bring in a professional to do the work. One word of caution: be sure the contractor you have has the insurance and licenses your state requires. Discovering such a lack after an expensive service failure or a lawsuit is too late.
If you must change contractors for some reason or have no service history to guide you, you may have to hire a contractor with whom you have had no experience. Interview the prospective contractor in person or by telephone before you contract. Here are several suggestions to guide the interview.
Ask to see the contractor’s insurance certificates, licenses (be sure you know your state’s licensing requirements), and references. Tell the contractor you will call at least one of the listed references and ask a fellow building engineering professional whether he or she would hire this contractor to do the kind of work you need done. Check references and the Better Business Bureau after the interview.