Whitepapers Archives

You can save with mass system replacements.

Many older, garden-style apartment complexes run on outdated heating and cooling systems. Inefficient and often expensive utility costs put you at a competitive disadvantage. To make things worse, the time and cost of repair and maintenance are burdensome. Trimark Mechanical offers a variety of cost-effective solutions that not only reduce operational headache, but make older complexes more competitive in the rental market.

Does your HVAC equipment require more than 3-4 service visits per year?

Do feel like every spare moment gets hijacked by unexpected maintenance issues? Many property managers lose productivity and precious budget dollars to needy HVAC equipment. Older HVAC systems face recurring issues that are due to both age and out-of-date technology. Service visits can suck hours, sometimes even days, out of your schedule.

Are you losing tenants because your heating and cooling systems are out of date?

One of the most common questions tenants ask before signing the dotted line is: how much do utilities average? If you avoid answering this question, it’s a sign your HVAC system is hurting your competitive edge. At the very least, it’s not doing you any favors. Aside from controlling monthly costs, tenants demand to have more control over their environment. Gone are the days when temperamental old units would be “good enough.”New technology gives tenants total control over their environment. Finally, the popularity of green and LEED-certified buildings shows property managers that sustainability is becoming key. If tenants can have it all they’ll take it: low utility costs, total control, and reduced environmental impact.

How much can you sacrifice the bottom line?

Increased costs and lost revenue make for a very bad mix. Since maintenance costs and large-scale replacements invariably come out of different budgets, it might be time to think strategically about replacement. Some utility companies even offer incentives for residential properties to switch to updated, energy-efficient systems. You may be surprised at the cost-savings associated with bulk replacement. Let our team perform a cost analysis on your property to determine the impact on your budget of replacement versus maintenance.

Here’s how mass replacements help save money for a typical air conditioning unit for a 2-bedroom apartment:

Was your current HVAC system built with redundancies? If you’re uncertain, contact us today at 703.891.4600. You may qualify for a no-cost site inspection.

A property manager’s worst nightmare is a mechanical problem that causes a major disruption to service, severe damage to the facility, and/or a decreased perception of value to current and prospective tenants. Commercial office buildings that close due to a mechanical failure cost the tenants revenue and can result in serious financial and reputation repercussions for the building owners and its managers.

Silent Building Killers May Not Be Obvious

Most of the time, building killers are NOT the obvious problems associated with mechanical failure. The true building killers are the underlying systemic causes—the silent killers—namely:

Lack of predictive maintenance
Lack of planning
Lack of communication

Following are case studies to help you understand how you can help prevent your buildings from
falling prey to the silent building killers.

Silent Killer 1: Lack of Predictive Maintenance

Many building managers believe that preventive maintenance is all they need. The reality is, predictive maintenance will be more cost effective.

Preventive maintenance means developing a schedule based on a quantifiable use or the passage of time, like changing a car’s oil every 3,000 miles or three months. It generally requires the equipment to be shut down.

Predictive maintenance, on the other hand, is designed to help determine the condition of in-service equipment in order to predict when maintenance or replacement should be performed. Tasks are performed only when warranted in order to allow convenient scheduling of corrective maintenance, and to prevent unexpected equipment failures.

When you know which equipment needs maintenance, work and costs can be better planned. In other words, unplanned stops are now planned ones. Advantages include increased equipment lifetime, increased safety, ability to plan for technicians and spare parts, and less negative impact.

“The industry as a whole has moved away from preventive maintenance as businesses try to trim budgets, but because you can’t prevent equipment from ever failing, a building manager is asking for trouble without regular predictive maintenance,” observes Russell Rowzie, CPM, principal at Trimark Mechanical, a leading plumbing and HVAC mechanical services company.

Case Study: Blocked Water Pipe Destroys Two Sump Pumps

The Old Town section of Alexandria, Virginia has a very high water table, requiring local businesses to maintain functioning sump pumps. In this instance the client was a large commercial underground parking garage. Their sump pump stopped working and the facilities manager contracted its immediate replacement.

When Trimark Mechanical replaced it, the new sump pump quickly burned out. Trimark investigated and discovered a sediment buildup so severe that the 6”-diameter ejection pipe was completely blocked due to years of buildup and neglect.

Trimark’s service technicians replaced more than 50 feet of blocked pipe and installed a new sump pump. The final cost came to more than $40,000. The parking garage now contracts with Trimark Mechanical to clean the drain pipes annually at a cost of about $1,000 per year.

In this case, the disaster was not a flooded garage; rather, it was the high cost of neglect. Predictive
maintenance could have averted the much larger mechanical failure at a considerable savings.

“We find that after property managers have hired Trimark to fix a disaster or a near disaster,
they become big believers in predictive maintenance, and wish they had put regular maintenance
in place to prevent the problem in the first place,” Rowzie says.

Silent Killer 2: Lack of Contingency or Proactive Planning

No piece of equipment lasts forever. It’s a fact of life. Eventually it will break down, possibly causing
damage to the property and facility, but certainly causing inconvenience for all parties.

You can’t control when equipment will fail, and it could happen at the worst possible moment. The HVAC system could shut down during a heat wave or polar vortex. A tenant’s office could flood just before a crucial meeting.

Expect that equipment will fail at some point, and plan accordingly, whether through contingency planning or proactive planning.

Case Study: D.C. High Rise Leaks Water and Money

In a Washington, D.C. high-rise building the copper piping has thinned over time, and periodically sprouts leaks. Repairing one of these leaks requires shutting off the water and draining the building from top to bottom—a process that can take 8-10 hours—meanwhile inconveniencing tenants and costing the building owner every time it occurs.

A proactive solution would be to replace the entire piping system rather than continue repairing pipes on a piece-by-piece basis, which is what Trimark Mechanical recommended. They are working with this client to plan the replacement and finance the capital expenditure.

Contingency Planning vs. Proactive Planning

Replacement helps in other ways as well. If an HVAC system is old, it may be difficult to locate replacement parts or have them fabricated, resulting in an emergency repair that takes even longer. Contingency planning allows you to keep replacement parts on hand; proactive planning means phasing in the replacement of outdated systems before they fail.

Building in Redundancy

In many buildings, if one system goes down, the entire building goes down. To prevent this, another
method for anticipating future equipment failure is to build redundancy into the system. If two pieces of equipment perform the same function, each will last longer and can provide a fail safe should one piece break down.

Ideally, when equipment fails, tenants should not notice a disruption in their daily routines and services. Redundancy makes that possible. While many newer buildings are constructed with inherent redundancy, older buildings tend to rely on one boiler or chiller for the entire building. If you plan ahead for equipment failure, you can build in redundancy.

Case Study: Angry Tenants, Thousands of Dollars Lost, and a Tarnished Reputation

A 40,000 square-foot office building was served by a single 30-year-old air handler via a giant blower. A main component had deteriorated to the point where it couldn’t run without damaging other parts of the HVAC system, and in the heat of summer, it failed. It took a week for a local fabrication company to create a replacement part, during which time the building’s tenants lived without air conditioning.

Sixty spot coolers were placed throughout the building—at a cost of several thousand dollars—but were still unable to cool the building to a comfortable temperature. Angry tenants who suffered through the miserably hot week broiled, and thought they should not have to pay rent for that week. In response, the rent was reduced, at an additional cost to the building owners.

At this time, the building owners are planning a replacement of the existing HVAC system with a two-piece system during a time of the year when the work will be minimally disruptive to tenants. The building’s management team is working with Trimark Mechanical to phase out antiquated equipment and infrastructure throughout the building, and addressing necessary upgrades in wiring and other issues.

Silent Killer 3: Lack of Communication

A property manager is an intermediary, working as a conduit between the mechanical company and the building owners and tenants. Therefore it is absolutely essential that the property manager remains informed throughout every step in the repair or replacement process.

Trimark Mechanical is adamant about communication, and uses iPads and other advanced technologies to keep clients informed about any and all developments. This is critical because it allows the property manager to communicate the state of the building and its issues to property owner and tenants, make informed decisions about the property, and plan for the future.

“It really makes no difference if WE know that repairs are going well and as planned if we don’t
communicate that to the property manager,” Rowzie says. “How will the property manager
know that he doesn’t have to worry, and how can he inform the owners and tenants likewise? On
the flip side, if we run into unexpected challenges, we must also keep the property manager
informed so he can communicate this to his stakeholders and manage their expectations. It is our
job to help the property manager do his job.”

Communication Isn’t Just Between the Contractor and the Client

Lack of communication doesn’t just happen between the contractor and the client. In can also occur
internally between your field staff and your office staff, which can delay routine maintenance or needed repairs. As an example, a building’s onsite field maintenance staff may note that something isn’t working at its peak efficiency, but because the office staff is incentivized not to budget or spend “unnecessary” money, there is a lack of urgency. Because urgency isn’t communicated to a higher management level, the needed replacement or maintenance is deferred, potentially causing bigger trouble down the line.

“We make it our commitment to open the communication channels so that everyone understands
the ramifications of either taking or not taking an action,” Rowzie says. “Everyone involved in
the decision-making process needs a complete understanding of the cost/benefit analysis and the
consequences of any and all decisions.”

“We make every effort to communicate with the responsible parties to help them understand the
whole picture. We’ve heard far too often that important decision makers ‘Didn’t know,’ or
‘Didn’t understand the seriousness of the issue.’ That complaint occurs when decision makers
are not fully briefed.”

Case Study: “What We’ve Got Here is a Failure to Communicate”

A commercial office building in Reston, VA did have redundancy in its HVAC system, so when one part of the HVAC system went down, the second system should have kicked in. However, the building’s management had not budgeted to maintain the second cooling tower for the back-up system, so it wasn’t functional. Clearly there was a miscommunication and misunderstanding about the importance of the backup system, resulting in inconvenience for both the tenants and management, and additional expense.

Trimark Mechanical was called in and replaced the two bad motors at a cost of $15,000 each. With both systems up and running, the building owner now understands and appreciates the value of redundancy and a mechanical services company that excels in effective communication.

Action Items

To avert silent building killers, keep tenants happy and protect your bottom line:

Contract for predictive maintenance
A building manager will never regret performing routine, regular maintenance that will keep small issues from turning into big ones. Tenants will always appreciate that a backup HVAC system kicked in on a frigid winter morning.
Plan today for equipment failure tomorrow
Partner with a professional mechanical services company that emphasizes the importance of predictive maintenance and helps you plan for future mechanical needs.
Demand clear, ongoing communication
Building owners and property managers will always be grateful for updates in the midst of a mechanical failure informing them of a problem’s magnitude and the steps being taken to resolve it.

Many property owners are aware of the “big” building killers such as mechanical failures, but unaware of these silent killers that can be even more deadly to any building’s safety and operations. To keep your property safe and functioning properly, partner with a mechanical services company that can help you develop a predictive maintenance schedule that works for your needs, help you plan for now and the future, and help you communicate with your staff and ours.

At Trimark Mechanical Services, we’re proud to bring you helpful information and professional service, and to be your mechanical services partner.

5 Qualities to Look for in Your Mechanical Services Firm

Your job as a property manager is to provide worry-free living for your tenants. Frozen pipes? Under-performing air conditioner? Broken thermostat? Your problem—not theirs.

And most seasoned property managers have plenty of stories to tell. Lower levels flooded by busted pipes, spaces that run too hot or too cold (in the same building, no less!) and midnight emergencies that can often make them wish they’d chosen a different line of work.

As a property manager, you understand the value of choosing the right mechanical services firm. For the comfort of your tenants and your own peace-of-mind, it’s critical that you choose a company that puts you and your property first. You want a team of experts on your side that will pro-actively support problem-free installation, maintenance and replacement of plumbing and HVAC equipment.

Unfortunately, too many mechanical services firms are not dedicated to providing this type of service. So how can you make sure you find one that does?

This whitepaper will guide you through the process of choosing the right mechanical services firm for you.

For starters, here’s what you’re looking for:

Excellent communicators who understand the needs of a property manager
Creative and cost-saving solutions with a big picture mind set
Superior responsiveness to service calls and emergencies
Thorough and proactive equipment maintenance policies
A mechanical service provider that cares about your professional success

In essence, you want a company that will help you minimize property maintenance hassles, keep your owners satisfied and provide a safe, comfortable place for tenants to reside.

All of which yields a nice income for the property and peace for you.

1. Excellent Communicators

One of the first things you’ll want to find out about a prospective firm is how they communicate with their clients.

A top-notch mechanical services company will have a system in place for communicating with you in the manner you want to be communicated to. Your service provider should stay in contact with you—from the time you make a call to the moment you receive a bill—to keep you apprised of equipment performance, the status of service calls and any upcoming maintenance required.

A mechanical services firm often deals directly with the building’s maintenance staff and may assume that as long as the maintenance engineer is informed, the job is done. Not so. A smart company will keep the property manager in the loop so that the person who is ultimately responsible for keeping the site running smoothly (that’s you!) can rest easy, knowing that problems are being handled.

A good mechanical services firm is aware that property managers are accountable to owners, tenants and other constituents. The firm should provide frequent timely updates that are accurate, well-written and complete so that you can forward them directly to all of the relevant stakeholders.

Setting High Standards for Clear Communications

“Right up front we ask the client how they like to be communicated with: phone, email, text,” says Kenny Thomas, client services manager at Trimark Mechanical. “We ask the client about his or her availability and sense of urgency. Does the client want us to call at midnight if necessary? We will set up a system tailored to communicate the way the client wants it.”

A company like Trimark Mechanical optimizes the latest technology to give property managers the information needed to make decisions. Even when a client is miles away, the client is “transported to the site” when a mechanical services firm employs mobile technology, putting photos, videos and written project updates directly into client hands in real time.

2. Saving You Money

Is the firm you are considering willing to devise creative solutions to help you save money?

In theory, the firm you choose will know more than you do about plumbing and HVAC systems. You need to count on them to help you make decisions about your systems that yield the best outcomes. A reputable firm will help you do a cost analysis on new solutions and help you decide what needs to be done now—and what can wait.

Only a service firm that is investing in a long-term relationship with you will be willing to forego self-interest to serve yours.

TIP:
A great mechanical services firm can proactively help you with strategic planning. For example, it would be cost prohibitive for an apartment complex with CPVC piping to replace all of the building’s plumbing infrastructure at once. But knowing the frailty of CPVC and that leaks over time are inevitable, the facilities engineer and property manager could work with a mechanical services firm to identify the areas of the property more sensitive to potential water damage or prone to broken CPVC pipes and create a plan to replace the mission critical pipes over time.

Being mindful of a client’s budget

One Trimark client had an 80,000 square foot office building, built in the late ‘70s. It was vacant and had antiquated systems. The building owners asked Trimark Mechanical to quote a whole new HVAC mechanical system.

Trimark came up with the solution to replace the system on a piecemeal basis—floor-by-floor—as each floor was leased. At no extra cost to the client, Trimark could eventually replace the mechanical system in the entire building without the client having to take on the financial burden all at once. That way, the client was able to finance the mechanical replacement as each floor was leased.

3. Quick Response Times

When you put out a call for help due to a mechanical failure in your building, wouldn’t you agree that your tenants expect (and deserve) a quick response?

Pay close attention to a prospective company’s stated emergency response times.

A solid plumbing and HVAC maintenance agreement should guarantee response times that meet or exceed the industry average. You can expect a high-quality service firm to send out an experienced technician the same day or the next morning (for late day calls). The firm should then deliver a quick diagnosis and a detailed proposal within 24 hours. Emergency call response times should hover between two to four hours, as opposed to the industry standard of four.

Critical Responses that Averted Disasters

The facilities manager for a local bank called Trimark Mechanical late one Saturday night to report one of the HVAC systems was down in the bank’s server room. Trimark’s emergency response team was on the site less than two hours later to make repairs. Because of Trimark’s responsiveness, the situation never escalated into an emergency.

When the property manager for a residential apartment complex called Trimark Mechanical to report a water leak that couldn’t be stopped, Trimark was onsite in under two hours to identify and shut off the water source and make the repair.

“We have built our reputation through serving clients in crisis situations where an immediate response is paramount,” said Russell Rowzie, president of Trimark. “In fact, many of our returning clients started out with emergency calls—and keep coming back because of our excellent service.”

4. Proactive About Equipment Maintenance

Low-cost maintenance service contracts may look like a good deal, but they might not save you money in the long run. A “low-cost” firm will (in theory) inspect your equipment and keep it running while helping you reduce on-going maintenance contract fees. The problem is that many of these low-cost firms only do a visual inspection of your equipment, which is seldom a viable way to detect all of the potential problems.

And that’s not the worst of it. Sometimes, property managers may think they have paid for a comprehensive maintenance service, only to find out later that there are multiple (and costly) exclusions.

For some property managers, it can be challenging to determine how thorough an inspection is and how much actual maintenance work the service contractor is performing. It’s a sad fact that there are unscrupulous firms that have been known to charge customers for work that was never done.

How can you protect yourself from getting “ripped off”? This is where your upfront research pays off. Ask each company for references—and be sure to check them! And of course, a legal review of the contract is a good idea, too.

Additionally, set the expectation that cutting-edge technology will be employed to keep your systems running at optimal performance. Demand that your service firm inspects vital equipment with cameras, combustion tests and other techniques that provide a more accurate assessment of how the machinery is performing. Deploying sophisticated monitoring tools is the only way a service technician can inspect areas that require serious maneuvering to reach.

Ask your mechanical services firm to take and provide before and after photos of the equipment that is serviced – clean filters, clean coils, new belts, new contractors, etc. Seeing is believing!

Make sure your mechanical services firm is willing (and able) to perform proactive maintenance and thorough inspections of equipment that other firms might ignore.

“Coil cleaning is a major maintenance issue for many property managers,” observes Kathleen Gaw, operations manager, Trimark Mechanical. “Coils get dirty and blocked over time. However, many low-cost service contracts often exclude this item to keep expenses down. It really needs to be done at least once a year, and—over time—ignoring it will cause multiple problems with your equipment, which take time and money to fix.”

A superior mechanical services firm is also careful to thoroughly inspect heat exchangers for cracks or damage to prevent carbon dioxide leaks into the system. Another often-overlooked inspection item is the consistent clearing of condensation lines. “Many low-cost service contracts overlook these routine measures in order to save money,” observes Gaw. “But low-cost service agreements only save money in the short term. Neglecting these tasks can cost you tens of thousands of dollars in both the short run and long run.

TIP:
BEWARE of “visual” inspections. Trimark Mechanical uses iPads on the jobsite to document work performed. Photos are included in service tickets to document the completion of work outlined in the agreement

5. It’s All About You

If you get the sense that a mechanical services firm is more interested in their own business than yours, don’t engage them. You will want to hire a company that listens to you, works hard to meet your needs and ultimately helps you look good to your supervisors and tenants.

Going Beyond the Call of Duty

When a local restaurant needed the building’s heating and cooling equipment replaced as part of a major renovation, work was scheduled to begin on a Saturday night after the dinner crowd went home and completed by the following afternoon. No one could have predicted that Saturday was to fall on the second day of one of the worst blizzards Washington DC had seen in years.

Working conditions were horrific as Trimark Mechanical’s service technicians slipped and slid across a treacherous rooftop caked in ice and snow during sub-zero temperatures. Hidden mechanical issues further complicated the seemingly insurmountable task of completing the job at all, much less on time.

“No one would have blamed us for walking off the job and coming back under tolerable circumstances,” said Rowzie. “But we persevered through the night and finished on time.”

“It all boils down to one thing: you need a mechanical services company that understands what the property manager and tenants need,” says Rowzie. “Property managers need to provide good service to the tenants and make those tenants happy. At Trimark Mechanical, we understand that happy tenants are the key to your business success. We’re always focused on the benefit to your own customers while being dedicated to making the property manager’s life easier and less stressful.”

Any business property or private residence will readily admit that July is not the month to be without air conditioning in Virginia. Unfortunately, Kimco Realty found one of its Woodbridge, Va. properties in this very predicament. The NOVA South Baseball Training Academy, a tenant residing in over 20,000 square feet of retail space in a Kimco managed strip mall, was without air-conditioning in the beginning of July. Kimco needed a new rooftop air conditioning unit installed with haste to keep its client’s space comfortable for training.

Trimark Mechanical Services has been an honest, trustworthy partner to Kimco for the last five years. Kimco accepted Trimark Mechanical’s bid, confident in Trimark’s ability to deliver quality work in a short period of time.

Property managers know they can count on Trimark Mechanical to finish the job quickly and efficiently. It is reassuring to work with Trimark because they were founded by former property managers and building engineers. They get it.

Batter Up

The NOVA South Baseball Training Academy occupied 20,000 square feet of business space within the Kimco managed property. The air conditioning unit that served the baseball academy’s space had failed and could not be fixed. The ordering and installation of a new unit needed to be done quickly in order for the baseball academy to continue instructional programs.

Trimark hit the ground running—setting up an exact schedule by monitoring weather forecasts and the availability of vendor resources before the bid process was even completed. By explaining in detail to the client how each phase would be approached, many potential problems were eliminated. Client communication continued throughout the project; Keating’s input was welcomed and she was kept up-to-date every step of the way.

This thorough approach to project management allowed Trimark Mechanical to overcome several obstacles unique to this project. The electrical wiring in the Kimco property was older and not up to code. The county would not approve the newly installed air conditioning unit until the wiring was brought up to code. Despite a change in the scope of the job, Trimark Mechanical worked with Kimco and county inspectors to update the electrical system and ready the new air conditioner to pass inspection.

Not only was the new unit installed in a short period of time, Trimark kept the 20,000 square feet cool during the electrical upgrade, allowing the kids at the The NOVA South Baseball Training Academy to train hard and hone their skills in a cooled facility.

In the end, Kimco kept their tenant comfortable and happy.

Trimark goes out of their way to complete work quickly and make sure the client is satisfied. Even when faced with unforeseen problems, Trimark’s staff never bats an eye. They just take care of it.

Sliding Into Home

After the air conditioning unit was installed, Trimark Mechanical capitalized on another opportunity to deepen a valuable relationship and show that it is a leader in HVAC project management. Whether it is a longtime client or a first time customer, Trimark Mechanical Services cares for its clients with the same diligence.

Trimark Mechanical prides itself on its thorough communications procedures to deal swiftly and efficiently with the unexpected. Trimark’s trained professionals and dedicated staff guarantee client satisfaction and long-term success with a job done right.

Play Ball with Trimark Mechanical

Trimark Mechanical Services is a division of the Trimark Corporation. With over 30 years of expertise in commercial property management, Trimark Mechanical has traversed the Capital beltway providing HVAC and plumbing services to the DC metropolitan area, Richmond, Va. and Baltimore, MD commercial properties. Trimark’s certified HVAC experts and plumbers are available 24-hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year to fulfill annual service agreements and
on an as-needed basis.