What Questions Should I Ask HVAC Contractors?

Here's the short list: Are you licensed and insured? Who is actually doing the work? Will you pull a permit? Will you run a load calculation? What exactly does my install include? And what happens after I've paid, if something breaks? Ask those six and you'll filter out most of the contractors who would have burned you.

We answer these questions in Greenville living rooms every week at First Class Heating & Air, and honestly, we wish more homeowners asked them. A good contractor is never offended by any of this. So here's the list we'd hand our own family, along with what a good answer sounds like and which answers should end the conversation.

Are you licensed and insured?

A real contractor gives you a license number on the spot, ours is SC Mechanical License #117789, and can show proof of liability and workers' comp insurance. If they dodge the question or "have to get back to you," that's your answer. Unlicensed work can void your equipment's manufacturer warranty and leaves you with no recourse when something fails. You don't have to take anyone's word for it either: look the number up yourself on the South Carolina LLR contractor license lookup. It takes about a minute.

Will you pull a permit?

Most equipment replacements in South Carolina require a permit and an inspection. The permit is not red tape working against you. It means a city or county inspector, someone with no stake in the sale, comes out and verifies the system was installed properly. A contractor who wants to skip the permit is asking you to remove the only independent check on their work.

Will you do a load calculation?

A load calculation (the industry term is a Manual J) is the math that determines how much heating and cooling your home actually needs, based on your square footage, windows, insulation, and ductwork. Plenty of companies skip it and just match whatever size was there before. Wrong-sized equipment short-cycles, runs up your bill, and never keeps the house comfortable. If a contractor is sizing your system with a guess, keep shopping.

Ask who's actually showing up

Ask whether the people doing the work are the company's own techs or a subcontracted crew you'll never meet, and whether they're background-checked. Then ask how long the company has been in business and where they see themselves in five years. That one sounds soft, but it's a money question: your 10-year parts warranty and any labor coverage only help if the company still exists when you call it in.

Do your homework before anyone comes out

Most of this vetting can happen before you ever pick up the phone. Fifteen minutes online tells you a lot:

• Read the reviews, don't just count the stars. Look for jobs like yours, how long the company has been earning them, and how they respond when something went wrong.
• Check their social media. Are the photos real local jobs or stock pictures? Do they look like people you'd actually want working in your home?
• Check the Better Business Bureau. Look for accreditation and the rating. We're BBB Accredited with an A rating, and any established contractor should have a profile you can find.
• Ask for references. A contractor who's proud of their work will hand you names without hesitation.

You can start with our reviews. At the end of the day it has to be somebody you feel comfortable letting into your home. That gut check matters more than people admit.

Ask exactly what's included in the install

Three quotes for "a new system" are almost never quoting the same job. Before you compare prices, make each contractor spell out what is getting replaced and what is staying:

• What equipment, exactly? Brand, model, and efficiency rating (SEER2 for cooling), so you can compare like for like.
• Are the plenums included? The plenums are the sheet-metal boxes that connect your new equipment to your ductwork, one on the supply side and one on the return. Some companies leave the old ones in place and charge extra to replace them. We replace both plenums on every install, no matter what. That's part of the job, not an add-on.
• What about the drain pan, drain line, and float switch? We replace the drain pan, install a float switch (the safety device that shuts the system off if the drain backs up, before water ends up in your ceiling or floor), and flush the drain line on every install. If the line is in bad shape, we replace some or all of it. A clogged drain line is one of the most common causes of water damage and summer shutdowns.
• Is the lineset being replaced or flushed? The lineset is the pair of copper refrigerant lines running between the outdoor and indoor units. Reusing an old lineset without flushing it can send old oil and debris straight into a brand-new compressor. We replace or properly flush the lineset on every changeout.
• What about the electrical? We install a new disconnect box and electrical whip at the condenser, with surge protection, on every install. Plenty of companies reuse the old, weathered disconnect and hope for the best.
• Is there a new pad, and who hauls off the old equipment? A new pad under the condenser and removal and disposal of the old system are part of our install. Some companies bill disposal as a separate charge, so ask.
• If your air handler is in the attic, is a secondary drain pan included? That's the emergency pan under the unit that catches overflow before it reaches your ceiling. Ours comes with the install and works together with the float switch.
• Is a new thermostat included? Some quotes quietly reuse the old one. A new system runs best with a thermostat matched to it, especially variable-speed equipment, so ask which thermostat you're getting and whether it's in the price.
• Is any ductwork being sealed, modified, or replaced? Leaky ducts waste the efficiency you just paid for.

When you chase the cheapest quote, you're risking quality, performance, and comfort. A $10,000 bid from a contractor who cuts corners on the install, uses cheaper materials, rushes the job, doesn't follow code, and doesn't keep their team trained on the latest best practices will likely cost you more in the long run than the $12,000 quote that covers it all. Those two numbers are typically not the same job.

Ask about the warranty like you mean it

Get specific here, because "10-year warranty" can mean very different things:

• What does the manufacturer's parts warranty cover, and who registers it? Registration deadlines are real. We register every system we install so the full 10-year coverage stays in force.
• Is there a labor warranty, and for how long? The manufacturer covers parts, not the labor to swap them. Every First Class install includes 2 years of labor coverage, extendable to 3, 5, or 10 years, and on a covered repair while both warranties are in effect, you pay $0.
• Who files warranty claims, you or me?
• Do you do any quality assurance inspection after the install? For a lot of companies, "the equipment turned on" is where the job ends. We complete a quality assurance checklist after every installation, with pictures, to verify everything was installed properly and nothing was missed. Ask what that process looks like at the company you're vetting.
• If something goes wrong in February, can I actually reach you?

Chasing the cheapest price is how people get burned

Here's our honest opinion after 15 years in this trade. Get three quotes and one of them will always be the lowest. That alone doesn't make it a bad quote. The homeowners who get burned are the ones shopping for the cheapest number and basing the whole decision on it. When rock-bottom price is the thing a contractor competes on, they usually get there by using lower-grade materials, rushing the work, and skipping the steps you can't see, like the load calculation, the commissioning, and the drain work. A new system is a big investment, anywhere from $8,000 to $25,000 depending on the home and the equipment, and the system is only as good as the installation.

That doesn't mean the highest quote wins either. What you're really after is the best value for the price: an experienced, well-trained team, quality work from a company that stands behind it, a strong warranty, and a contractor you trust, for the money you're paying. Compare licensing, scope, and warranty first, and let price be the tiebreaker. One of our core values is simple: do what's right. Any contractor worth hiring will walk you through every answer on this page without flinching, and let you decide on your own timeline.

Questions that put money back in your pocket

What rebates do I qualify for, and who files the paperwork? Duke Energy and Laurens Electric both offer rebates on higher-efficiency systems, and Duke pays the most for early replacement, meaning you replace a working-but-old system before it dies. If your system is on its last leg, that route often makes the most financial sense: you get the rebate, a new 10-year warranty, and better efficiency, because old systems lose efficiency every year they run. We confirm what you qualify for at the visit and file the paperwork for you.

Do you offer financing, and what are the terms? Ask about 0% interest options and what credit score you need. Good contractors have more than one lender. We have financing options for just about every credit situation, from homeowners still building their credit to those with excellent scores.

Do you offer free second opinions? We do, and they're some of the most telling calls we run. We've come out on plenty of second opinions where a previous contractor recommended a replacement or a very expensive repair, and we found a minor issue, or no issue at all. Homeowners mention those saves in our Google reviews. If another company just quoted you a big number, a free second set of eyes costs you nothing.

Any discounts I qualify for? Ask. Our Heroes discount covers military, first responders, and teachers.

Ask us these questions

Seriously, ask us all of them. Licensing, insurance, permits, load calculations, what's included, warranty terms, rebates, financing. A contractor who does things right has nothing to protect, and the ten minutes it takes to ask will tell you more than any ad.

First Class Heating & Air is licensed (SC Mechanical License #117789) and insured, founded and run here in Greenville. Call (864) 362-6255 or schedule online.

Cameron Soper is the co-founder of First Class Heating & Air and has spent 15 years in the HVAC trade across residential and commercial work. First Class is a BBB-accredited contractor rated 5.0 across 200+ reviews, serving more than 20 communities across Greenville and Spartanburg counties.