Step by step. Official links included.
This is not legal, tax, or insurance advice. Read the official pages linked here. Partner offers are optional and labeled.
Sell the repair you can finish with the license you hold. Add replacements when you can pull the permit and warrant the equipment. In a cold market the urgent calls sit in late fall through winter. In a short heating season, such as north Texas, the same page still has to say the season is a cold snap, not a five-month contract. Pair the slow months with cooling repair only if that work is real and licensed. Do not advertise boilers you have never opened. In Oregon the first customers are in Portland. Furnaces and heat pumps share the damp houses.
Western Oregon is a long rainy season, moss, and damp crawl spaces, with hotter drier summers than the old calendar assumed. The Washington side of the Portland metro is a different license. Confirm the state contractor board and the city.
File an LLC with the Oregon Secretary of State. We do not have a filing fee for Oregon that we are willing to print. The Oregon Secretary of State publishes it. Sole proprietors who operate under their own name often skip this filing. Confirm that on the same site.
Some boxes are labeled Partner. ServiceBase has not joined those programs. The links go to each company's own homepage, not a tracking link. If a program later approves us, the address will change and we may earn a commission. You can file, insure, and bank anywhere. Official government links are not partner links. Nothing on this page is a discount code.
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The guide stays public. An account saves your state, city, and trade, and lets you mark each filing as you go. The advertising credit is reserved when you register. It can be spent after the free website is live.
Create a free account to track your progressUse a name a cold-house customer can say without spelling it twice. Search the license board and the state filing office together. The name on the mechanical permit, the invoice, and the voicemail should match. Skip 'comfort solutions.' People search no heat, then check whether you are a real company.
Search that name at the Oregon Secretary of State before you print shirts. Use the same spelling on the truck and on a quote in Portland.
The mechanical or HVAC license is often held by a person who qualifies the company. A sole proprietorship works when that person is you. An LLC works when the board lets the company hold the registration with you as qualifier. Read the mechanical section before you file. An LLC does not let an unlicensed owner pull a permit or buy refrigerant. This page is not legal advice.
We do not have a filing fee for Oregon that we are willing to print. The Oregon Secretary of State publishes it. Sole proprietors who operate under their own name often skip this filing. Confirm that on the same site.
An employer identification number is the business tax ID. The IRS issues it online at no charge and says you never have to pay a company to get one. If you form an LLC, file with the state first. The IRS says an EIN application can stall when the state filing is not done. A sole proprietor can often start with a Social Security number and get an EIN when a bank or a hire requires it.
Apply on the IRS page if you want the number yourself. LegalZoom, the partner beside this step, can request it while they form the company. That service is optional. The IRS fee is still zero either way.
The Oregon licensing page we could verify is the Oregon Construction Contractors Board. Open it and read the part that names the work you will sell.
Read this page for your trade. A city or county can require its own registration even when the state does not.
Read the mechanical or HVAC board for the license and who may pull a permit. Ask the city whether a furnace change-out needs one. Say whether boilers are in or out. Refrigerant handling is a separate credential when the job leaves the furnace.
A city or county can require its own registration even when the state page is quiet. The city guides name the local permit counter. Call that office and write down what they say. Do not pay a third party that promises a license until you have read the official page.
General liability that understands heating equipment. Tell the insurer you open furnaces and, if it is true, that you replace them. A carbon-monoxide claim and a water leak from a coil are the losses to describe. Commercial auto for the van. Workers' compensation before a helper is in an attic or a basement. A property manager will ask for the certificate and the license number together.
Workers' compensation is a state program. Before anyone works with you, including a friend, ask an insurer and the state labor office whether you must carry it. This guide does not quote a headcount, because those rules differ and the state page is the source. The SBA page describes the common policies. It does not sell them. Buy the policy before you work in a house in Oregon.
No-heat calls pay in smaller checks than a full system, and a replacement pays in a large one. Both belong in a business account, or the big jobs will hide whether the repairs pay the truck. Set tax money aside the day a change-out clears. Parts-house bills should not land on a personal card you sort out in April.
The bank will usually ask for your ID, the EIN or your Social Security number, and the formation papers if you filed an LLC. A checking account and a habit of setting tax money aside are enough at the start.
Treat these as typical planning estimates, not a quote. A diagnosis plus a common part, an ignitor or a flame sensor, is often discussed as a few hundred dollars. A heat exchanger, a blower motor, or a full furnace is a different visit and should not share the number. Write three prices from your own hours: the diagnostic visit, the repair you can finish with stocked parts, and the replacement you will not price until you have seen the equipment.
Attic furnaces, basement furnaces, and boilers do not take the same hour. A price copied from a one-story ranch will miss on a tight closet system. Adjust after ten real no-heat calls. Say on the page that the estimate is a starting point until someone has opened the cabinet.
Portland: a long rainy season, moss, a mild winter with occasional ice, and hot dry spells that exposed houses with no real cooling No-heat diagnosis, the repair, and a replacement only after you have seen the furnace. In Portland, OR, list Alberta and Gresham together only if one crew really covers both.
Open the Google Business Profile before the heating season, with the license number and a service area made of towns you can reach when the house is cold. Photos of furnaces you have actually repaired beat a stock cabinet. The website leads with no heat, splits repair from replacement, and says whether you service boilers. The form asks for the symptom, the fuel if they know it, and whether anyone in the house is at risk from the cold. ServiceBase publishes that page and keeps the requests. It does not diagnose the furnace.
In Portland, the profile, the reviews, and the site should name the neighborhoods you actually drive. ServiceBase publishes the page and keeps quote requests in a list on your account. No card. It does not file the LLC, get the EIN, or buy the insurance.
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Signup asks for an email and a password. No card. This guide opens the next step with the trade filled in. You can change every line after.
We do not have a filing fee for Oregon that we are willing to print. The Oregon Secretary of State publishes it. Sole proprietors who operate under their own name often skip this filing. Confirm that on the same site.
The Oregon licensing page we could verify is the Oregon Construction Contractors Board. Open it and read the part that names the work you will sell. Read this page for your trade. A city or county can require its own registration even when the state does not.
Start where you can reach the stops in a day. The city guides cover Portland. People hire for moisture as much as for the trade name. A statewide claim is a weak service area.
Yes. Use the IRS link in the steps if you want the number yourself. LegalZoom, the partner on the EIN step, can request it while they form the company. That service is optional. The IRS fee is still zero.
All furnace repair business steps · Furnace repair website guide
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