Commercial HVAC, Plumbing & Fire Protection in Nanaimo & Victoria
P3 Mechanical & Electrical maintains and repairs commercial mechanical systems across Nanaimo and central Vancouver Island: rooftop units, make-up air, ventilation, plumbing, and fire protection. The work is set up for property managers, strata councils, restaurants, and retail tenants, and most of it runs on a scheduled maintenance contract rather than emergency call-outs. All three trades are in-house, so a dead rooftop unit and an overdue sprinkler inspection are one contractor, not two.
Buildings we look after
Restaurants & commercial kitchens
Hoods pull more air out than the building can replace, and the line feels it first. We repair and replace make-up air units, and cover the plumbing and gas side of a fit-out.
Retail & mixed-use
A unit that runs hot stops selling. Rooftop units, exhaust, and the extra ventilation capacity a tenant improvement or a change of use turns out to need.
Multi-unit & strata buildings
Councils need a paper trail as much as a repair. We work to an agreed scope and put findings in writing, separating what is urgent from what belongs in the depreciation report.
Offices & light industrial
Heating, cooling, ventilation, and the plumbing that runs alongside them. When another repair stops making sense on an aging unit, we say so and quote the replacement.
Why commercial buildings here need their own schedule
Commercial equipment ages differently on this coast. Rooftop units sit in salt-laden air off the Strait of Georgia, and corrosion reaches condenser coils, cabinet fasteners, and control connections years before the compressor gives out. Wind-driven rain on a flat roof does the rest, so failures cluster in the shoulder seasons when nobody is watching the equipment.
Who decides is the other difference. In a strata the equipment is split between common property and the unit, and your bylaws and the Strata Property Act settle which side a repair falls on — so a quote has to carry scope, consequence, and a number a council can approve at a meeting. Compliance runs alongside it: permits on mechanical work are the contractor’s job to pull, and where a sprinkler ties into an alarm or a make-up air unit interlocks with a hood, one company holding all three trades means nothing gets orphaned between subcontractors.
Commercial work by trade
HVAC & ventilation
- Rooftop Unit Repairs & Replacement
Diagnosis, repair, and replacement of RTUs on flat commercial roofs.
- Make-Up Air System Repair & Replacement
Tempered replacement air for kitchens and buildings running heavy exhaust.
- Commercial HVAC & Building Maintenance
Filters, coils, belts, controls, and the seasonal changeover, building-wide.
- HVAC Maintenance
The plan itself: scheduled visits, recorded readings, a report per site.
- Heating & Furnace Services
Boilers, furnaces, and heat pumps in mixed-use and multi-family stock.
Plumbing
- Commercial Plumbing Services
Fixtures, supply, and waste for restaurants, retail units, and multi-family buildings.
- Drain Cleaning
Grease-loaded kitchen lines and shared stacks cleared before they back up.
- Sewer Camera Inspection
Camera survey that settles whether a recurring backup is roots, grease, or a break.
Fire protection
- Commercial Fire Protection
Inspection and testing of sprinklers, alarms, emergency lighting, and extinguishers on the BC Fire Code cadence.
Scheduled visits beat emergency call-outs
A maintenance contract exists so equipment failures stop being events. We inventory the roof and the mechanical room, agree a scope per site, and set the visits from there — plans run annual, semi-annual, or a schedule built around your equipment, built around what is actually installed. On price there is no rate card and no per-square-foot number: a contract is quoted after the walkthrough, against the equipment list it produces. We respond to service requests within 24 hours.
Ask for a site walkthroughWhat a scheduled visit covers
- Filters changed, belts and bearings checked on every unit
- Coils cleaned and condensate drains cleared before the season loads them
- Refrigerant pressures and motor amp draws recorded against the last visit
- Make-up air and exhaust balanced against what the hoods pull
- Life-safety items logged ahead of the annual fire inspection
- A written report per site: done, watch, quote
How a maintenance contract starts
Walkthrough — we inventory the equipment: make, model, age, access, and what stops working when it fails.
Scope and quote — a written scope per site, in a form a council or an owner can approve as it stands.
Scheduled visits — dates set for the year, so access to occupied units is arranged in advance.
Reporting — readings, photos of anything failing, and a separate list of what to quote next.
Frequently asked questions
Do you take on maintenance contracts for strata buildings?
Yes — multi-unit and strata buildings are a large share of this work. We inventory the equipment, agree a scope with the council or the property manager, and set the visits from there: plans run annual, semi-annual, or a schedule built around your equipment, so a building with a kitchen and a bank of rooftop units is not put on the same schedule as an office with one.
How much does a commercial HVAC maintenance contract cost?
We do not publish a rate, because no per-square-foot number survives contact with a real building — unit count, age, and roof access change it more than floor area does. We walk the site, list what is on it, and quote against that list in writing. Ask for a walkthrough and the number comes back with the scope attached to it.
How often does a commercial building in BC need a fire protection inspection?
Most commercial life-safety systems need an annual professional inspection under the BC Fire Code, and emergency lighting and exit signs are typically checked monthly. Sprinklers, alarms, and extinguishers each run on their own intervals, which is why buildings put them all on one schedule.
Can one contractor handle HVAC, plumbing, and fire protection?
That is the shape this company is built in — all three trades in-house, so a rooftop replacement that needs a drain re-run and a relocated sprinkler head is one scope and one invoice. Most contractors here cover one trade and subcontract the rest. Electrical is the exception, and it is worth saying plainly rather than in a footnote: there is no licensed electrical technician on staff, so P3 does not take electrical work on at all.
In a strata, who pays for the repair — the owner or the strata?
It depends on whether the equipment is common property, limited common property, or inside the unit — your bylaws and the Strata Property Act settle that, not the contractor. We itemize work by location and system so the split is visible rather than buried in a lump sum.
Our rooftop unit is about 20 years old — repair it or replace it?
On this coast corrosion usually decides it before run hours do: once the cabinet, coils, and connections are going, each repair buys less time than the last. We price the repair and the replacement, and leave the call to you.
Send us the equipment list
Tell us what is on the roof and in the mechanical room, and we will come and look at it.