HVAC cooling towers
Hospitals, universities, office towers, data centers, arenas and stadiums. Since 1964 we have repaired and upgraded every type of cooling tower from every manufacturer, and a comfort-cooling tower is still a cooling tower.
An industrial crew on a commercial building
Most companies servicing rooftop towers are mechanical or HVAC contractors for whom the tower is one item among many. We do nothing else.
That changes what happens when the job is not straightforward: a steel basin that has rusted through, structural members that are no longer carrying load, a tower that has never met its design temperature since it was installed. Those are ordinary problems to us.
It also changes the constraints we plan around. A rooftop tower on an occupied building brings problems an industrial site does not:
- Access. Getting material and equipment onto a roof, through a building, or up a shaft, and what that costs in crane time and street closure
- Occupants. Noise, working hours, lift use and keeping the building comfortable while its cooling is compromised
- Continuity. A hospital or data center cannot simply lose cooling; work is staged around whatever redundancy exists
- Weight. Structural loading limits on what can be landed on the roof, and where
Fan assembly flown into place at the Caesars Superdome, New Orleans.
We will…
The specific work we carry out on commercial and institutional towers. This list has barely changed in twenty years, because the components have not.
Structure
- Repair or replace steel structural members as required
- Repair, or provide and install new, siding, fan stacks and ladders
- Repair, or provide and install new, steel hot and cold water basins
Internals & distribution
- Remove, provide and install new high-efficiency fill, drift eliminators and louvers
- Repair, or provide and install new, distribution systems in counterflow towers
Mechanical equipment
- Rebuild, or provide and install new, gearboxes (often rebuilt in place)
- Provide and install new drive shafts, motors, fans and belts
Commissioning
- Align and dynamically balance mechanical equipment to ensure smooth, quiet operation
Mechanical deck of a multi-cell rooftop tower in Houston: insulated drive shafts and gear reducers in a row.
Gearboxes can often be rebuilt in place
On a rooftop tower, the crane is frequently more expensive and more disruptive than the gearbox. Rebuilding the unit where it sits removes that cost entirely.
Pulling a gear reducer off a roof usually means a crane, a lift plan, a street or car park closure, a permit, and a day when nobody can use the front of the building. Then the same again to put it back.
Where the housing and the mounting are sound, we can strip the unit in position (bearings, seals, gears, shafts) and reassemble it there. The tower comes back into service the same way it went out, and the building carries on as normal.
Where it applies
- Gear reducer bearing and seal replacement
- Gear set replacement where the housing is serviceable
- Drive shaft and coupling replacement
- Fan hub and blade replacement
- Realignment and dynamic balancing after reassembly
It is not always possible; a cracked or corroded housing has to come out. But it is worth establishing before anyone books a crane.
Buildings we have worked on since 1964
Comfort cooling, process cooling and critical cooling all end up on a tower, and the consequence of losing it differs enormously between them.
- Hospitals
- Universities & campuses
- Office buildings
- Apartment buildings
- Stadiums & arenas
- Data centers
- Hotels
- Shopping centers
- Manufacturing & processing plants
- Institutional & government
Where people usually go from here
Inspections & engineering
A written condition report with costs, useful when you need to justify capital expenditure to a board or a landlord.
View serviceMaintenance
What a tower needs and how often, and which of that work we can carry out on a schedule around your occupancy.
View serviceEmergency service
Lost cooling in an occupied building is an emergency on a much shorter clock. Start here.
Emergency responseTell us about the building as well as the tower
Roof access, crane restrictions, occupancy hours, noise limits and what redundancy you have. Those decide how the work has to be staged, so we would rather know them before we quote.
- Phone
- (713) 643-0691
- Shop & office
-
3811 Cedar Blvd Ste A
Baytown, TX 77523