Contractor of the Month: Nelson Mechanical Design

Nelson Mechanical Design is a one-stop shop: We design, install, and service residential and commercial HVAC, plumbing, and water treatment systems and we offer both conventional (propane and electric) and green (solar hot water, air and geo heat pumps, composting toilets) approaches to our clients' heating, cooling and plumbing needs.

2. How many trucks are does Nelson Mechanical Design have? What type of trucks (make and model)?

We have two 2013 Chevy Express box trucks; one 2012 Chevy Express van; one 2015 Dodge Hemi Ram crew cab with service body; one 2015 Dodge Hemi Ram regular cab with service body; and one 2010 Ford F-350 pickup (V10 4 wd).  Our fleet goal is to replace trucks every three years.

3. What are the most used tools at Nelson Mechanical Design?

Our single most important tool used at Nelson Mechanical Design is the iPad — all 12 of us use our iPads daily to enter time on the job, tasks completed on the job, items used, and crew members.  Each of our 600 customers has an "asset" that describes all of the HVAC and plumbing equipment in their building—this greatly improves our efficiency in dispatching service teams. They arrive at the job knowing what the equipment is as well as its previous service history.

4. What equipment is most installed during residential jobs? 

Right now the mini-split (we offer the Daikin line which includes both wall mounted and ducted) heat pump is extremely popular.  For larger homes with ducted systems, we are installing the variable speed heat pumps (Carrier Greenspeed) in a lot of projects.

5. What makes Nelson Mechanical Design a great place to work?

My business partner, Dave Sprague, and I have made our focus the long-term career for our team stability, and continuity is key for our success and we invest heavily in our team.  They represent our single most important asset and we support them with training, flexible hours, and a lot of team building activities (beach day barbeque in the summer).