Buildings made to be heated, now asked to cool.
Meridian works on heating, cooling and ventilation for commercial facilities and homes around Tacoma. Much of that work is one problem: Puget Sound buildings were designed for mild summers, the summers have changed, and most of the cooling being added is being added badly.
01 · The situation
Heating was the job. Cooling was an afterthought.
For most of the last century a Puget Sound building needed heat and very little else. Summers were short and mild, so offices, schools, clinics, apartment blocks and houses were built with boilers, furnaces, baseboard heaters or radiators — and no cooling at all. Many still are.
That has changed. Hot spells are longer and more frequent, and buildings that were never designed to reject heat now have to. The response in most of them has been piecemeal: a portable unit in one office, a window unit in a bedroom, a single ductless head in a server closet, a rooftop unit added to a building that was never structurally assessed for it.
Most cooling in this region is being added one room at a time, by whoever was available that week.
The result is buildings with three or four unrelated systems, electrical panels at their limit, condensate draining wherever it can, and a ventilation strategy nobody has thought about since the windows were last opened. None of that is anyone's fault. It is simply what happens when a building's job changes and nobody redesigns it.
02 · Who we work for
Facilities first. Homes with the same method.
"Facility Specialists" is in the name because commercial work leads. The homes side is not an afterthought — the same survey, the same written pricing, the same honesty about what a house actually needs.
Offices, schools, clinics, older downtown buildings, light industrial, multi-family
Facilities where heating and cooling have to be planned rather than patched. Downtown and Stadium District brick buildings with radiators and no cooling; 1970s office blocks with tired rooftop units; clinics that need ventilation as much as temperature; warehouses and workshops in the Tideflats and Fife; apartment buildings where every tenant has bought their own portable unit.
- A site survey before any equipment is recommended.
- Work planned around occupancy — schools out of term, offices out of hours.
- Written proposals that make sense to an owner or a board.
- Planned maintenance with a record per unit, kept with the building.
Craftsman houses, post-war ramblers, townhomes and small rentals
Tacoma houses heated by gas furnaces, oil, baseboard electric or old hot-water systems, and cooled — if at all — by a window unit that goes in each July. The common questions: can we add cooling without ducts, should the furnace be replaced with a heat pump, and is the electrical panel up to it?
- A straight answer on ducted versus ductless for your house.
- Electrical capacity checked before anything is quoted.
- Outdoor units placed with the neighbours and the noise in mind.
- A written price before anything billable starts.
03 · What we do
Five kinds of work.
- Surveys
- What the building has, what it needs, what the electrical service and structure can take, and where equipment, piping and condensate can go.
- Adding cooling
- Heat pumps, ductless and ducted systems, and rooftop equipment — designed as one arrangement for the whole building.
- Heating
- Boilers, furnaces and heat pumps: repair, replacement and conversion, including the combustion and venting side of anything gas-fired.
- Ventilation
- Outside air brought in deliberately — heat- and energy-recovery ventilation, make-up air — so a closed-up building stays dry and fresh.
- Maintenance
- Scheduled visits per unit, readings recorded, and a written record that stays with the building.
04 · Adding cooling properly
Five questions before any equipment.
- What heats the building now — and should the new system take that job over too?
- Is there ductwork — and if there is, is it the right size to carry cooling?
- How much electrical capacity is left — the question most often skipped, and the most expensive to discover late.
- Where can equipment and condensate go — roofs, walls, setbacks, neighbours, drains.
- How does the building get fresh air — and will closing it up for cooling take that away?
05 · How we price
Survey, then a written number.
We will tell you on the phone what a survey involves and what it costs. The price of the work itself comes afterwards, in writing, itemised, with the options laid out and our recommendation explained — including the cases where the cheapest option is the right one.
What you will not find on this site
No prices, no "from" figures, no energy-saving percentages and no statements about rebates or incentives. Equipment, electrical work and access vary too much between buildings for a published number to mean anything, and incentive programmes change often enough that anything we printed here could be out of date by the time you read it. Ask, and we will tell you what applies to your building today.
06 · Where we work
Tacoma and Pierce County.
The office is on South 38th Street, which puts most of the county within a short drive. King County's southern edge and the Key Peninsula we take on planned work.
- Tacoma
- Lakewood
- University Place
- Fircrest
- Fife
- Milton
- Puyallup
- Sumner
- Federal Way
- Gig Harbor
- Parkland
- Spanaway
- Steilacoom
- DuPont
07 · Questions
Asked often enough to answer here.
Our building has never had air conditioning. Can cooling be added?
Almost always, but the right way depends on the building. The questions are what heating it has now, whether there is any ductwork, how much electrical capacity is available, where outdoor equipment can go, and where condensate can drain. A survey answers those before anyone recommends equipment.
Is a heat pump the answer for every building?
Often, not always. A heat pump can take over heating and add cooling in one system, which suits a lot of Puget Sound buildings. But electrical capacity, the existing distribution and how the building is used can point to a different arrangement. We recommend after surveying, not before.
Do you work on homes or only commercial facilities?
Both. Commercial facilities lead — offices, schools, clinics, older downtown buildings, light industrial and multi-family — but homes get the same survey-first approach and the same written pricing.
Why does ventilation matter if we are only adding cooling?
Because a building that has been tightened up or closed up for cooling can lose the air changes it was relying on. In a damp climate that shows up as condensation, stale air and moisture problems. Adding cooling is a good moment to make sure outside air is being brought in deliberately.
Will you quote over the phone?
No. We will tell you on the phone what a survey involves and what it costs. The price for the work itself comes in writing after we have seen the building.
Tell us about the building.
What it is, how it is heated now, and what happens to it in a hot week. That is enough for a first conversation.