Commercial rooftop units
We service and replace commercial rooftop units up to forty tons. Crane change-outs are routine work for our crews, not a special event, and we are a Rheem and Trane dealer with access to commercial equipment already in stock, which means we can often have a replacement unit here overnight. When a unit is down and your building is not usable until it runs, that matters. Family owned in Pittsburgh since 1980.
Rooftop units up to forty tons
A rooftop unit is your entire heating and cooling system packed into one cabinet sitting on a curb on your roof. Gas heat, compressors, condenser coil, blower, filters, controls, all in one box, ducted straight down through the roof into the space below. Simple in concept. Miserable to ignore.
Forty tons is our upper limit on a single unit. Most of what we see in Pittsburgh sits well under that: retail strips, offices, churches, restaurants, light industrial, medical suites, and multi-unit buildings with a bank of smaller units feeding separate tenants.
If your building runs something larger than forty tons on one unit, say so when you call. We will tell you whether it is our work before anybody gets scheduled.
- Seasonal tune ups, before cooling season and before heating season
- Diagnostics and repair on units already in place
- Full change-outs, including crane picks
- Curb adapters when the new footprint does not match the old
- Gas piping and electrical reconnection at the roof
- Economizer, damper and control repairs
- Filter and belt changes on belt-drive units
- 24/7 emergency service
Crane change-outs are routine work here
Replacing a rooftop unit is a different job from servicing one. It means a crane, a lot or a lane closed off for part of a day, a rigging plan, and a weather window that does not move. That is ordinary work here. We do change-outs that need a crane all the time, and we have been doing them our whole working lives.
That matters to you on the first visit. Because we are set up to do either one, you get a direct read on whether the unit is worth repairing or whether you are putting money into a cabinet that is going to fail again, with the crane, the rigging and the lead time already accounted for instead of treated as an unknown.
We handle the pick, the set, the curb adapter, the duct transition, the gas and electric reconnect, and startup. One company on your roof, from the first measurement to the day it runs.
Getting a replacement unit here quickly
Commercial rooftop equipment is not a residential furnace you grab off a shelf. Availability comes down to a specific tonnage, voltage and gas or electric configuration, and those combinations are not all sitting in the same warehouse.
Between our Rheem and Trane dealer relationships and our supply channels, we have access to a large pool of commercial equipment already in stock, and we can often have it here overnight. For a restaurant in July or an office suite in January, that is the difference between open and closed.
We will not guess at it in front of you. When you call, we check what is available in your tonnage and configuration and tell you what we find, before you commit to anything.
What goes wrong on a roof
Rooftop units live outside in Pittsburgh weather with nobody looking at them. Nothing on a roof gets noticed early, because there is no homeowner walking past it in the basement. The failures are predictable, and most of them are cheap right up until they are not.
Two of these deserve extra attention. The economizer is the damper assembly that pulls in outside air for free cooling when conditions allow, and it is one of the most commonly ignored parts of a rooftop unit. Linkages seize, actuators die, and the whole assembly gets wired shut instead of repaired, which means you pay to mechanically cool air you could have gotten free. The condensate drain sits on a roof, so when it plugs, water backs up into the pan and finds its way down through the curb into your ceiling.
Belt-driven blowers on older units are their own category. A belt is a small part with a big consequence, because a snapped belt means the compressors run with no airflow across the coil.
- Contactors and capacitors, a common single-part failure on any rooftop unit
- Blower belts, sheaves and worn motor bearings on belt-drive units
- Condenser coils packed with cottonwood, leaves and roof grit, which drives head pressure up
- Restricted filters, which starve airflow and can ice the evaporator coil in cooling season
- Economizer dampers, linkages and actuators seized or disabled
- Plugged condensate drains and traps, which put water through the curb and into your ceiling
- Refrigerant leaks at fittings, schrader cores and coil bends
- Gas section problems: ignition, flame sensor, inducer, and cracked heat exchangers on aging units
- Failed curb gaskets and flashing, which leak independently of anything mechanical
Most of our rooftop work is maintenance
Most of our rooftop calls are maintenance, not emergencies, and that is how it should be. A rooftop unit that gets looked at twice a year, once before cooling season and once before heating season, tells you what it needs while you still have time to plan for it.
A real rooftop tune up is not a filter swap. It covers amp draws on the compressors and motors, capacitor readings, contactor condition, belt tension and alignment, coil condition, refrigerant pressures against ambient, condensate drain flow, economizer operation checked through its full range, gas manifold pressure and combustion on the heat side, and a look at the curb, gaskets and cabinet panels.
For buildings running several units, we can set the visits up unit by unit, with tonnage and filter sizes written down, so nobody is guessing which unit feeds which suite. Multi-tenant buildings especially benefit, because the tenant who is too hot is rarely the tenant whose unit is broken.
What a replacement involves
Building owners get surprised by change-outs because the unit itself is only part of the job. Here is the sequence, so you can plan around it instead of finding out on the day.
We measure the existing curb and the duct openings first. New units rarely land on an old footprint cleanly, so most replacements need a curb adapter fabricated to bridge the old opening to the new one. Then power and gas get disconnected at the roof, the old unit comes off, the adapter is set and sealed, the new unit is set, gas and electric are reconnected, controls are wired and configured, and the unit is started, charged and checked under real load.
Access drives the schedule more than anything else. The crane needs somewhere to set up, and that usually means a parking area or a lane blocked off for part of a day. We would rather sort that out with you a week ahead than work around your tenants at seven in the morning.
If your building runs more than one unit, ask us which ones are closest behind this one, so you can budget for them instead of reacting to them. We will write down what we saw on each one while we are up there.
Why building owners in Pittsburgh call us
We are a family owned business, founded in 1980 and now run by the next generation. Fifty-five team members, more than forty trucks, and an 87,000 square foot facility on six acres in Oakdale. That size is what lets us take on a crane change-out and keep the rest of our work moving.
We are licensed and insured, with a master plumber on staff, PA HIC #PA022302. We hold an A+ rating with the BBB and have 1,522 five-star Google reviews at a 4.8 rating. Pricing is flat rate. You get the price in writing before the work starts.
Call (412) 276-9245. We offer 24/7 emergency service, so there is somebody to talk to when a unit goes down outside business hours.
Let us reach out to you
Fill out the quick form and we will call you back. For an emergency, call any time at (412) 276-9245.
Questions, answered
How large a rooftop unit can you work on?
Up to forty tons. That covers most retail, office, restaurant, church and light industrial buildings in the Pittsburgh area, including buildings running several smaller units side by side. If you have something bigger than forty tons on a single unit, tell us when you call and we will tell you whether it is our work.
Do you handle change-outs that need a crane?
Yes, and we do them all the time. Crane change-outs are routine work for our crews, not a once-a-year event. We handle the rigging plan, the pick, the curb adapter, the duct transition, the gas and electrical reconnect, controls and startup.
How quickly can you get a replacement rooftop unit?
We are a Rheem and Trane dealer with access to a deep pool of commercial equipment already in stock, and we can often have a unit here overnight. Availability depends on the tonnage, voltage and gas or electric configuration your building needs, so we check what is available for your specific unit and tell you what we find before you commit.
Do you service brands other than Rheem and Trane?
Yes. We are a Rheem and Trane dealer for new equipment, but we service the unit that is already on your roof regardless of whose badge is on the cabinet. Most of our rooftop work is maintenance and repair on equipment that was already up there before we got involved.
How often should a rooftop unit be serviced?
Twice a year is the standard we work to, once before cooling season and once before heating season. Rooftop units sit outside where nobody sees them, so problems that would get noticed immediately in a basement go unnoticed for months. Two visits a year catch belts, capacitors, contactors, plugged drains and dirty coils while they are still small.
Why does my economizer matter?
The economizer is the damper assembly that brings in outside air for free cooling when the outdoor conditions allow it. When it seizes or the actuator fails, the common shortcut is to wire it shut, which means you pay to mechanically cool air you could have brought in for nothing. We check economizer operation through its full range and repair it rather than disable it.
Do you offer emergency service on commercial rooftop units?
Yes, we offer 24/7 emergency service. Call (412) 276-9245 any hour. We are licensed and insured, PA HIC #PA022302, with a master plumber on staff for the gas side of the work.
Ready when you are
Call us and get a straight answer. You get the price in writing before the work starts.
Call (412) 276-9245Schedule online