Commercial HVAC case studies from Southern California retail sites

Rooftop HVAC replacements at open retail stores in four Southern California counties

The five REE Mechanical Inc. case studies below document packaged rooftop unit replacements completed at operating retail stores in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties, told through our own crew's jobsite photos.

Every job on this page is a replacement at a store that stayed in business while the work happened: a national off-price store in San Ysidro, a national electronics store and a national off-price store in Los Angeles, a national home furnishings store in a Rancho Cucamonga shopping center, and a department store in the Coachella Valley. The equipment ranges from a single packaged unit set on a new galvanized curb frame to large rooftop units on raised structural steel and a full trailer of new units swapped in one mobilization.

We describe each job by sector and city only. The retailers are named accounts under NDA, so we do not publish store names, tonnage, dates or costs, and we do not fill that gap with estimated figures. What each case study does show is the record our crew kept on the roof: how the lift was staged, how units came off and went on, and what was in place when the crane left.

How REE Mechanical Inc. plans a crane-lift rooftop unit replacement at an operating store

Each replacement is planned around the store first: where the crane and trailer can stage, which hours keep the lift away from shoppers, and the order in which units come off and go on.

• Staging outside trading hours. In San Ysidro the crane, trucks and trailer were in the store lot before dawn. On a dense Los Angeles block with no lot to spare, the lift was worked from the street after dark.
• Matching crane reach to the roof. A mobile crane set up in a drive aisle served one Los Angeles store. Large units inside a rooftop screen wall in the Coachella Valley needed a third-party lattice-boom crane assembled on the street, with the roadway coned off.
• Fitting new equipment to what stays. New units were tied into existing duct transitions, electrical disconnects and gas piping on raised steel, or landed square on curb frames so the supply and return openings line up and the curb can seal.
• Running the roof by radio. Technicians stand at the corners of the curb to guide each unit down while one crew member directs the pick by radio and hand signal.

Every one of these jobs is a rooftop unit installation and replacement. The crane day is the visible part; confirming curbs, connections, the rigging plan and the store's own facilities process comes first.

Licensed commercial HVAC technicians and maintenance after the crane leaves

REE Mechanical Inc. is a licensed, bonded and insured commercial HVAC contractor with family heritage dating to 1987. All of our technicians are EPA certified and based across Southern California and Arizona.

New equipment earns its keep after installation. Replaced units go into a preventive maintenance and tune-up program, and HVAC asset inspection and testing puts each unit's history in one place for the facilities team. The same company handles emergency HVAC service and HVAC controls installation and service across six Southern California counties and all 15 Arizona counties. See our service areas for coverage.