NANAIMO – “Do what you say you’re going to do, and do it well,” says Bryans Mechanical Ltd. owner/operator Bob Bryans.
For Bryans, this mantra is the reason his company has been so successful for 25 years and counting.
With all work done in-house, Bryans Mechanical offers products and services that are making homes more comfortable, including high quality furnaces, fireplaces, air conditioners and air purifiers from Daikin, Napoleon, and Bryant.
“I’ve been doing this work since I was 16 years old,” says Bryans. “I got involved in the heating business, working on the weekends, and I decided to stick with that when I got out of school.”
Bryans has been in the mechanical industry ever since, racking up a staggering 44 years in industry experience. He has acquired Red Seal certification for sheet metal work and gas fitting, and has undergone extensive training in HVAC and air design.
“I started my first company in Vancouver around ‘86,” he says. “I got sick and tired of being out of town, as I used to work big jobs in sawmills and other big shutdowns out of town.
“I was never home, and always in some camp. The work was good, the pay was good, but the life sucked.”
After working in Vancouver for about five years, Bryans decided to move to the Island.
“We had jobs on the Island in my old company, and I really liked it there,” he says.
When it came to breaking into the Island’s construction industry, Bryans faced some initial challenges.
“Vancouver Island is a tight knit community, which is a good thing, but it means that people are more hesitant to trust outsiders,” he says. “It’s hard to be transient here and get steady work. If people get burned out here, they talk, and it’s hard to get a reputation back after that. It’s really hard for a no-name to break in.”
It took Bryans almost a decade before he felt he’d earned the trust of the construction community. This reputation came thanks to his commitment to doing quality work.
“Do what you say you’re going to do, and do it well,” says Bryans. “If you say you’re going to be there Thursday, then be there Thursday. If you say you’re going to be done Friday, be done Friday. Do the job well and back up what you say.”
Over the years, Bryans has been entrusted with many significant projects, including the Kwa’lilas Hotel in Port Hardy, the new Stz’uminus Secondary School, Industrial Plastics and Paints, Lewkowich Engineering Associates, and the renovation of Harewood Mall Shopping Centre into the University Village Mall in Nanaimo.
He has worked on countless residential projects, and there was a period where builders had him working on 50 to 100 homes per year.
He is the main HVAC contractor for Ballard Fine Homes, which is one of the largest residential construction firms on Vancouver Island.
“We service everything we install, and we try to balance the amount of installation and service work we do so our employees are busy enough throughout the year.”
The company started with 4 employees and 2 vehicles, and now fields around 30 qualified employees with about 20 vehicles.
Bryans Mechanical has exclusive dealing rights for Daikin products for an area covering Duncan to Nanaimo to Tofino.
Daikin is a multi-national air conditioning manufacturing company based in Osaka, Japan. Founded in 1924, the company has recently expanded into North America, offering an unusually high quality product.
“Representatives from Daikin approached me when they first started moving into North America about 5 years ago,” says Bryans. “I was one of the biggest HVAC contractors on the Island, and I had a proven track record of high quality service.
“One of their policies is that you get exclusivity in an area that you’re going to service. They sold me the ability to service their brand and warranties. It’s a pretty big deal, because they’re very selective with who they let represent them.”
One of Daikin’s biggest selling points is their 12 year factory warranty.
“That warranty is amazing,” says Bryans. “A lot of companies have unreliable warranties. If Jupiter isn’t aligned with Mars that day, you won’t be covered. With Daikon, their 12 year warranty covers everything. Since it’s a factory warranty, I could drop dead one day, and the whole thing would still be covered.”
Daikin is an industry leader in reliable, sustainable, and stalwart HVAC products, including an innovative approach to split system air condition.
“Daikin products are a great selling point for Ballard Fine Homes customers,” says Bryans. “Since we install all the HVAC in our homes, they all have these amazing 12 year warranties.”
The team at Bryans commits to servicing all the systems they install.
They offer heating systems including furnaces, heat pumps and packaged units. They are Nanaimo’s premier Napoleon Fireplaces sales and service providers, offering direct vent, stove, and electric inserts.
Their staff of fully-licensed refrigeration and gas fitting technicians are able to offer a full range of service to commercial facilities.
They carry a line of products that keep indoor air quality at a healthy level. They also install ductless systems, which offer a smart, energy-efficient way to cool or heat individual rooms, including mini-split air conditioners, heat pumps, inverters and flex multi-split systems.
Their company description states that “Bryans Mechanical technicians are fully certified, licensed and have undergone a complete background check. You can rest assured that your unit will be installed correctly.”