Commercial HVAC for the 1960s plazas, the Granada offices and the Airpark's steel buildings

Three kinds of building, three kinds of problem

The 1960s strip plaza. Granada Boulevard, Nova Road and the older blocks near the Halifax are lined with single-story block plazas from Ormond Beach’s post-war growth. The rooftop units on them have been replaced two or three times, the duct is original or close to it, and the roofs themselves have had every kind of patch. Common failure: a unit that cools fine until a tenant adds a kitchen or a server closet the system was never sized for.

The 1980s and 90s office building. Medical and professional offices along Granada west of Nova and near the AdventHealth and Halifax Health campuses. Split systems or rooftop units with zoning that has drifted, thermostats in the wrong rooms, and a tenant mix that changes every few years. Common failure: comfort complaints that are really control and airflow problems.

The Airpark steel building. The Ormond Beach Business Park and Airpark hold a few dozen companies, including manufacturing. Big rooftop units, make-up air, exhaust, and process loads that don’t show up on a square-footage calculation. Common failure: a unit that has been running at full load for years because nobody rebalanced it after the floor plan changed.

The manager’s checklist, before you call

1. Thermostats. Mode, setpoint, schedule, and whether the lockout cover has kept staff from changing anything. Someone switched a rooftop unit to emergency heat in March more often than you’d think.
2. Filters. Where they are, when they were last changed, and whether the ones in the unit are the right size. An undersized filter with gaps is a dirty coil in waiting.
3. Breakers and disconnects. At the panel and on the roof. One reset. If it trips again, stop.
4. Rooftop drains. After a summer storm, a unit sitting in a puddle because the roof drain clogged is a unit whose condensate can’t leave.
5. Supply registers. Open, unobstructed, and not pointed at the thermostat.
6. Outdoor coils. Visible from the parking lot: cottonwood, pine straw, and in the Airpark, whatever the process exhaust puts in the air.
7. Tenant changes. Anything new that makes heat: equipment, people, lighting, a hood.

When to stop and pick up the phone

• The breaker trips twice.
• A compressor hums but doesn’t start, or starts and shuts off in seconds.
• Water through the ceiling tiles.
• A burning smell at a rooftop unit or an air handler.
• A walk-in or a server room losing its setpoint.
• Any gas smell at a heat section.
• The unit went through a storm surge or a lightning strike. The Daytona area has some of the heaviest lightning in the country, and commercial rooftops take it first.

Call 866-266-5709. The line is answered 24 hours a day, and there is no after-hours charge for a night, weekend or holiday visit.

Call for commercial service

What Cook’s does for commercial accounts

Repair. Rooftop package units, split systems, make-up air units, exhaust fans and the heat sections on all of them. Any brand. The truck comes 26 miles from the headquarters on Fairmont Lane in Palm Coast with the contactors, capacitors, motors, boards and belts that fail most.

Maintenance. Quarterly or seasonal visits on a schedule set around the business. Coils, belts, drains, filters, controls and refrigerant, with a written report per unit so the building owner can see which ones are nearing the end. Ask for the agreement terms offered to commercial accounts. [[CONFIRM WITH JERRY]]

Installation. Lennox commercial equipment sized by load and by use, not by what was there. Replacement of rooftop units with a crane on a Saturday morning so Monday’s tenants never know. Ductwork and controls corrected while the roof is open.

Air quality. Filtration and ventilation for medical offices and the manufacturers in the Airpark whose processes have their own requirements.

Scheduling around a business

Most of the Ormond Beach commercial accounts Cook’s serves can’t close for HVAC. A restaurant on Granada needs the walk-in and the dining room both running through dinner; a medical office near the hospital campuses can’t have a crew on the roof during patient hours; a manufacturer in the Airpark runs shifts. So the work gets scheduled around the building: rooftop replacements on a Saturday morning with a crane, maintenance before opening or after close, repairs whenever the failure happens, including 2 a.m. The price doesn’t change with the hour. For a multi-tenant plaza, Cook’s works with the property manager on one schedule and bills per unit, so each tenant’s history is its own record.

Aftercare

Every commercial visit ends with a per-unit note: what was done, what was measured, what’s next. For multi-unit buildings that becomes a running log, so the owner can replace units on a plan instead of on an emergency. Surge protection gets recommended on every rooftop in this town, and coil coating on every one within sight of the ocean or the river.