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Plumb Intelligence

Playbook · HVAC contractors

The HVAC playbook

Changeout season pays the bills, but changeout permits are pulled by whoever already won the job. The pipeline that grows an HVAC book is upstream: every new home needs a full mechanical package, every tenant improvement needs design and tonnage, and in Arizona the mechanical contract is one of the biggest trade lines on the job. This is the guide to catching that work while it’s still up for grabs.

Set up in a few minutes; your first digest lands the next morning at 7 AM.

The daily loop

  1. 1

    Aim at construction, verify with the mechanical lens

    Set your ZIPs, then build your primary saved search on new construction and commercial & TI — the work that hires mechanical subs. Keep the HVAC lens as your second search: it shows the trade’s own activity, which is your competitive map more than your lead list.

  2. 2

    Find the GCs and builders who let mechanical contracts

    The leaderboards rank the most active builders and GCs in your ZIPs. A production builder’s section is a mechanical package times every lot; a TI-heavy GC needs tonnage priced monthly. Open their profiles, see the pace, and make the relationship call.

    TipCommercial & TI is the underrated slice — TIs churn constantly in Phoenix and Scottsdale office/retail stock, and each one needs mechanical.

  3. 3

    Vet before you price

    Every contractor profile shows AZ ROC license status, classification, disciplinary history, and recent volume on a match-confidence badge. Price work for GCs who are licensed, clean, and actually building.

  4. 4

    Book your relationships and rivals

    My Book watches the GCs you serve and the mechanical shops you compete with — pace climbing, gone quiet, license lapsing. When a rival slows down, their GCs need a new number to call.

Aim it right

Point your search at the work that needs mechanical

Match the search to the mechanical book you’re building.

If you want…Chase the…
New-construction packagesNew SFR and tract sections“new single family homes in my zips”
Commercial & TITenant improvements and commercial builds“commercial permits over $250k in Scottsdale”
High-end customCustom homes with multi-system designs“new custom homes over $1M”
AdditionsAdditions big enough to need new tonnage“additions over $100k in my zips”
Competitive intelThe changeout market itself“the busiest hvac contractors this year”

Searches you can paste straight in

Type it in plain English — the search bar parses the trade, the ZIPs, the dollar floor, and the date window for you.

“commercial permits over $250k in Scottsdale”

TI and commercial work big enough to carry a real mechanical line, before the sub list is set.

“new single family homes in my zips”

Every new home starting in your territory — each one a full mechanical package tied to a builder.

“the busiest hvac contractors this year”

Your competitive map — who’s pulling the mechanical volume in your market.

What to look for

The signals that separate a call from a waste of a call

Lifecycle stage
“Applied” on a building permit usually means trade contracts aren’t all signed. That’s your window. “Issued” means the schedule is set and mobilizing.
Work class: new vs. TI vs. addition
New construction is a full package; a TI is design + tonnage on a deadline; an addition is a system extension. The work class sizes the job before you call.
GC velocity
A GC whose permit count is climbing lets more mechanical contracts this quarter than last. The leaderboard finds them.
Valuation band
Declared value scales the mechanical line. Sort by value to spend your estimating hours on jobs that justify them.

Power moves

Once you’re past the basics

Chase buildings, audit the trade

Lead with new-construction and TI searches; read the HVAC lens weekly as your market audit — who’s winning changeouts, at what pace, where.

Own three GC relationships

Book the three most active GCs in your ZIPs. Every alert about them is a package to price.

Price at the applied stage

Applied permits carry an estimated issue date — reach the GC while the mechanical line is still a blank on their spreadsheet.

Watch a rival’s pace

A competitor’s profile shows every permit they pull. A slowdown in their pace is your opening with their GCs.

Split residential and commercial digests

Run them as separate saved searches so each estimator’s 7 AM email is already their pipeline.

What you’ll see on every lead

The permit

Type, work class, lifecycle stage, and declared value — or a clearly-labeled estimate when the city doesn’t report one.

The GC/builder

AZ ROC license, status, classification, disciplinary flags, recent volume — on a match-confidence badge.

The property

Parcel-matched address and owner of record, so residential and commercial read differently at a glance.

Freshness

Refreshed daily from each city’s feed.

Straight about the data

What we won’t oversell

  • The honest limit: a changeout permit is a job already won — this is a pipeline and relationship tool, not a list of homeowners shopping for AC. The upstream work is where it earns its keep.
  • Some cities publish permits without a contractor field — Gilbert, Goodyear, Chandler, and Queen Creek name no contractor — so competitor tracking is thinner there.
  • A contractor is resolved on about 39% of all permits and about 61% of the ones that name a contractor — every link shows its confidence.

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