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.
Philadelphia HVAC is boilers and radiators in rowhouses, plus forced air in Chestnut Hill, Media, and some renovated Fishtown houses. South Philadelphia and Manayunk add access problems. A southern attic-unit ad will not match a no-heat call on a shared block. Say whether you work on steam or hot water, or say you do not. Summer cooling is mini-splits as often as central air.
rowhouses with stacks and party walls, plus older suburban houses in the close-in towns cold winters, humid summers, ice, and nor'easters that test flat roofs and old masonry No-heat boiler repair, forced-air repair where it exists, and mini-splits.
Start the route in Fishtown, South Philadelphia, and Manayunk. Add Chestnut Hill and Media when you can reach them the same day. Rowhouse owners hire a crew that understands shared walls, roof access, and a street with nowhere to stage a dumpster.
The Pennsylvania guide has the filing office. This page is the local version: what the first jobs are, which permit counter to call, and how to price a day here.
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.
$500 in free advertising when you launch
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 progressHVAC names that work here are plain. Use one you can spell from a driveway in Fishtown.
Search it at the Pennsylvania Department of State before you order magnets. The voicemail, the invoice, and the Google profile should use that spelling.
HVAC licenses are usually 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 or air-conditioning section, not a general contractor page from another trade. Form the company before the EIN if you are filing an LLC. The structure does not let you sell replacements without the license.
We do not have a filing fee for Pennsylvania that we are willing to print. The Pennsylvania Department of State publishes it. Sole proprietors who operate under their own name often skip this filing. Confirm that on the same site.
If your customers are in Philadelphia, the registered-agent address still has to satisfy Pennsylvania. Read the filing office's rule. A neighbor's kitchen table is not always an acceptable address.
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.
Read the state mechanical or air-conditioning license, including who may handle refrigerant, and the city rule for a change-out. A maintenance visit and a system replacement are not the same credential question.
State page: Pennsylvania home improvement contractor registration. Home improvement registration is not a license for every trade. Read the page, then check the city.
Philadelphia L&I permits is the local counter for work in Philadelphia. We are naming that office, not linking a fee schedule we have not read. Call them or open the city's own site and ask what a new HVAC has to register before the first job in South Philadelphia.
The Pennsylvania guide has the longer license note for this trade, including the official pages we could verify.
General liability that understands condensers, furnaces, and attic work. Ask about refrigerant and about damage from a condensate leak, which customers often think is a roof. Commercial auto for the van. Workers' compensation before a helper is in an attic in summer. Have the certificate ready for property managers.
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 Philadelphia.
Equipment purchases and customer deposits need a business account before the first change-out. A maintenance plan's small monthly payments are easy to lose in a personal account. Deposit them, and set tax money aside when a replacement job pays.
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.
Lead with diagnosis. A no-cool call is a diagnostic price plus the repair, not an automatic system quote. Write the diagnostic price down, including whether it is waived if they buy the repair.
Replacement prices depend on the equipment location and the ductwork, which you cannot see from a national average. Say that you quote replacement after the diagnostic. Publish the hours you answer when the house is unsafe to stay in.
cold winters, humid summers, ice, and nor'easters that test flat roofs and old masonry rowhouses with stacks and party walls, plus older suburban houses in the close-in towns That is why a price copied from another metro will miss. No-heat boiler repair, forced-air repair where it exists, and mini-splits.
Write the price you want for the common job in Fishtown and the price you want for a far stop in Media. If the second number is not worth the drive, leave Media off the service area.
Claim the Google Business Profile for Philadelphia, PA. Set hours you answer. The service area should list Fishtown, South Philadelphia, and Manayunk if those are real stops, and it should leave off towns you will not drive.
Ask for a review after a clean job, and ask them to mention the neighborhood and the task. A review that says the work and Chestnut Hill helps the next search. A review that says 'great service' does not.
The Google Business Profile should say repair and replacement as separate services, and it should match the season people are actually in. Photos of equipment in local attics, closets, or roofs beat a stock condenser. The website form asks for the symptom and whether anyone in the house is at risk from the temperature. ServiceBase keeps those requests in a list you can work from the driveway.
When the name and the phone are real, create the free HVAC site with Philadelphia already filled in. Quote requests land in your list. The site does not replace Philadelphia L&I permits.
$500 in free advertising when you launch
Signup asks for an email and a password. No card. This guide opens the next step with the trade and city filled in. You can change every line after.
Pick the service you can finish, search the name at the Pennsylvania Department of State, get the free EIN from the IRS, read the license page (Pennsylvania home improvement contractor registration), call Philadelphia L&I permits, insure the work, open a business account, and publish a page that names Fishtown and the jobs you want. No-heat boiler repair, forced-air repair where it exists, and mini-splits.
Read the state mechanical or air-conditioning license, including who may handle refrigerant, and the city rule for a change-out. A maintenance visit and a system replacement are not the same credential question. Start at the Pennsylvania home improvement contractor registration. Then ask Philadelphia L&I permits what the city adds.
Lead with diagnosis. A no-cool call is a diagnostic price plus the repair, not an automatic system quote. Write the diagnostic price down, including whether it is waived if they buy the repair. cold winters, humid summers, ice, and nor'easters that test flat roofs and old masonry Time the first ten jobs in Fishtown and Manayunk before you copy a price from another city.
You can draft it. Put it in public under the name you will actually use, with the phone you answer. If the state requires the license before you advertise the work, wait. The free ServiceBase site does not file the company. Signup can open with HVAC and Philadelphia filled in so you are not retyping them.
Pennsylvania filing and license · Free HVAC website in Philadelphia, PA · All trades in Philadelphia, PA
Prefer a one-time score? The AI visibility checklist stays in this browser. It is not emailed.