Quick outline
- What the job feels like
- Two real jobs I ran
- What I loved vs what wore me down
- Tools I used and why
- Money, time, and people stuff
- Who should do this work
- My final take
My take in plain words
I’m Kayla, and I’ve run HVAC jobs for real. Schools, clinics, a data room that never slept—yep, did that. The title sounds stiff, but the work is hands-on and human. You deal with plans and people. You move parts and feelings. Some days you play traffic cop. Other days you’re a calm firefighter. You know what? I kind of love that mix.
For the blow-by-blow, my longer write-up lives here.
If you’re hunting for more field-tested project-management stories (and a place to swap lessons learned), I hang out at PMO Network and it’s been priceless.
If you want to see how companies formalize all these duties, check out this sample HVAC Project Manager job posting for a point-by-point breakdown of responsibilities.
What it feels like day to day
Picture a control room in your head. Phones ring. A crane beeps outside. Someone asks about a permit. Someone else asks about duct size. Coffee gets cold. The air handler goes hot. Then cool. Then hot again. You keep the team steady. You keep the owner calm. You keep the schedule real. Not perfect—real.
A real job: the school retrofit over winter break
We had 12 school days. Replace two rooftop units (one 50-ton York and one 30-ton), swap 14 classroom VAV boxes, and add new controls. Tight path, tight weather.
- First move: I ordered the curb adapters early and begged the vendor to confirm sizes. No surprises on crane day.
- We set a weekend crane pick. Streets were icy, so I had sand delivered Friday night. Small thing, big save.
- The old RTU bolts were corroded. I kept a grinder and extra Sawzall blades on-site. No stalls.
- Electric got hung up on a bad breaker. I called the city inspector Sunday. He came out Monday at 7 a.m. That call kept us on track.
- We used temp heat for two nights—two 200k BTU rentals—to keep pipes safe. Cost stung, but frozen pipes cost more.
On day 10, controls went live. The rooms were 72 and quiet. Teachers smiled. I slept hard.
Another real one: the hospital OR air handler swap
This one was touchy. An OR can’t get dusty. We replaced AHU-3, added HEPA filters, and did TAB (testing and balancing).
- We built a clean barrier with zip walls, sticky mats, and negative air machines. Infection control signed off.
- The coil didn’t match the shop drawing. It was off by an inch. I logged an RFI (a question to the engineer) and caught a late-night welder. That inch was a mile, trust me.
- TAB techs came in at 2 a.m. We checked static pressure, set flows, and tuned reheat valves. The hiss went soft. Vents hit the mark.
- The OR manager wanted zero smell. We used low-VOC sealants and kept charcoal filters on hand. It helped.
It ran on a Sunday start. No canceled cases. That felt good.
If you’re curious how this chaos compares with keeping water out instead of keeping air in, my buddy wrote up a raw roofing project management review that’s worth a skim.
The wins that keep me in it
- Solving puzzles with real stakes. Air that feels right is invisible, but folks notice when it’s wrong.
- Team wins. Foreman calls you at midnight with “We got it.” That’s gold.
- Saving power. We cut a school’s bill by 18% with smarter controls and better setpoints. The custodian hugged me. Well, almost.
The rough parts I won’t sugarcoat
- Long lead gear. Heat pumps and big RTUs can take months. I had a 26-week wait on a chiller. Painful.
- Change orders. Walls hide pipes. Ceilings hide wires. You find them. You own the fix with clear notes and fair costs.
- Night work. Hospitals and data rooms like 2 a.m. starts. Bring snacks. Bring patience.
- Finger-pointing. When it’s hot, folks get hot. Stay calm. Write it down. Meet in person.
One survival trick I keep in my back pocket: remember you still have a personal life. After a 16-hour shift, small talk feels impossible, so I’ve been known to open PlanCul—its no-strings, location-based matching makes it ridiculously easy to line up a low-key drink or coffee and mentally reset before the next day’s chaos.
Another road-warrior cheat: when a project pins me in California’s Imperial Valley and I’ve only got one evening to unwind before the 5 a.m. crane pick, a quick scan of Erotic Monkey El Centro gives me crowd-sourced intel on which local massage spots are legit (and which to skip), sparing me from wasting my rare downtime on guesswork.
Tools I leaned on (and how I used them)
- Procore for daily logs, photos, and punch lists. It kept everyone seeing the same truth.
- Bluebeam Revu for markups. I circled duct clashes in red and sent them fast.
- Smartsheet for schedules. Simple Gantt bars, no fluff. The owner could read it.
- Slack for quick crew chats, but big calls stayed on email or meetings.
- A laser thermometer and a manometer in my bag. Trust, but verify.
- Excel for AIA pay apps and change order logs. Boring, but clean.
Money and time, straight talk
I made good pay as a PM. I’ve seen $85k to $130k in my market, plus a truck or stipend. Hours swing. Summer hits hard. Winter can, too. Calls show up at odd times. But if you plan well, your nights calm down. Not perfect—better.
For a national snapshot of salary ranges, reviews, and career paths from people already in the role, the crowd-sourced data on the HVAC Project Manager career overview is worth a peek.
Owners sometimes wonder if bringing an outside PM is actually worth the fee; one candid account lives here.
How I run the crew without drama
- Morning huddles: five minutes, max. Safety, plan, blockers.
- Pre-punch walks on Fridays. Fix small stuff early.
- Photos of everything: before ceiling close, after valve swaps, before crane picks.
- Clear rules on who calls who. No “I thought you knew.”
If you’ve ever puzzled over where the superintendent ends and the project manager begins, this side-by-side field tale helps clear the fog: Superintendent vs. Project Manager.
Tips I’d give past me
- Order long-lead gear day one. Even if the submittal is still in review, flag it and push.
- Walk the site three times a day. Morning, lunch, close. You’ll spot things before they spot you.
- Share bad news early. Owners can handle a hit. They hate surprises.
- Label everything. Dampers, valves, breakers. Future-you will cheer.
Who should do this
If you like plans and people, both, this fits. If you can say “I don’t know, let me check,” and mean it, you’ll be fine. If heat, noise, and a little chaos wreck your mood, it might sting.
Condo boards play by their own rules—this story about hiring a condo project manager spells it out in painful (and funny) detail: I Hired a Condo Project Manager—Here’s What Actually Happened.
Tiny gripe, weirdly big
Spec sheets that don’t match field gear. It’s common. I now carry a small tape, a level, and painter’s tape. I mark sizes on the floor. Childish? Maybe. It works.
My verdict
Four out of five stars for the HVAC project manager life. It’s not clean. It’s not quiet. But when the fans hum low and the rooms sit cool, you feel it—this quiet win. Would I do it again? Yeah. With good boots, a strong thermos, and one extra Sawzall blade, just in case.