I recently decided to purchase a commercial building in order to open a hair salon. At that time, I was cutting hair out of a room at my house and the situation wasn’t ideal. I was hoping to provide more parking, rent spots to other stylists and have sufficient space for a tanning bed and manicure/pedicure stations. My budget was rather limited. Since my husband and I are both quite handy, I looked for a building in a good location that was in need of some updates. I was able to pay less because the building needed a great deal of work and remodeling. My husband and I had no problem ripping out the floors, replacing windows, updating the plumbing fixtures or installing sinks. However, I decided to hire a professional for help with the heating and cooling system. There was an ancient and very large packaged HVAC unit taking up a lot of space in the parking lot. It was situated in a way that made it very susceptible to customers hitting it with their cars. The outer cabinet was dented and rusted. When the HVAC contractor inspected the equipment, he recommended replacing it entirely. He said I’d end up saving money by installing a more energy efficient system. He also suggested that I switch to a commercial rooftop unit. This type of system combines heating and cooling into a single piece of equipment that is installed on the roof. It frees up valuable space, never detracts from aesthetics and is not accessible to vandalism. If the HVAC unit requires service, there is no disruption to daily operation of my business. Plus, with the heating and cooling equipment up on the roof, the sound levels are kept to a minimum.