Government HVAC contracts and government plumbing contracts for bid
Government HVAC contracts post on SAM.gov every day: a chiller replacement at a VA medical center in Texas, boiler burners at a federal prison in Massachusetts, HVAC maintenance at a lock and dam on the Ohio River, a plumbing and heating job order contract at a Marine Corps base in California. Most of them are in a state you do not work in, are set aside for a status you do not hold, or close before you could get a mechanical engineer to look at the drawings. FederalContracts reads each new federal notice the morning after it posts, scores it out of 100 against your trades, NAICS codes, set-asides and the states you cover, and sends one short list with the best fits first.
A four truck service company in San Antonio and a 200 person mechanical contractor in Houston see the same notices. They should not be reading the same list.
| Match | Solicitation and agency | NAICS | Set-aside | Place of performance | Response due |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80 | NTX Steam Trap Monitoring | 238220 | SDVOSB | Dallas, Texas | 4 Nov |
| 75 | Troubleshoot & Repair of Portable Chillers Service Requirement | 238220 | Total small business | Jbsa Lackland, Texas | 15 Oct 3 days left |
| 74 | CON | Z1DA | REPLACE OR CHILLERS | 580-23-105 | PRESOLICITATION | 238220 | SDVOSB | Houston, Texas | 12 Oct Closes today |
| 74 | CON | Z2DA | REPLACE CHILLER 1 B104 | 580-24-111 | PRESOLICITATION | 238220 | SDVOSB | Houston, Texas | 13 Oct 1 day left |
| 74 | J--E21 PRCA HVAC REPLACEMENT | 238220 | Total small business | Not stated | 27 Oct |
Where do I find government HVAC contracts?
You find federal HVAC contracts on SAM.gov under Contract Opportunities, filtered by NAICS 238220 (plumbing, heating and air conditioning contractors) and service codes such as J041 for HVAC repair and J045 for plumbing and heating equipment. Replacement and renovation work posts as construction under Z1 and Z2 codes. State, county and school district HVAC bids sit on each buyer's own portal.
| Where the work is | Typical buyers | What it looks like | How you get in |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAM.gov service notices | VA medical centers, Army and Air Force bases, Bureau of Prisons, Corps of Engineers | Preventive maintenance, chiller and boiler service, building automation upkeep, kitchen exhaust cleaning | |
| SAM.gov construction notices | VA, National Park Service, Forest Service, GSA, Defense | Chiller, boiler and air handler replacement, rooftop units, steam and hot water system work | |
| Job order contracts and IDIQs | Marine Corps, Army, Navy, Department of Energy | Multi-year task order vehicles for plumbing, heating and air conditioning projects | |
| State and local portals | School districts, counties, state facilities, housing authorities | HVAC service agreements, unit replacements, energy retrofits | |
| Subcontracts | General contractors and facilities primes | The mechanical scope of a larger renovation or base support award |
The ranked list covers the SAM.gov side every morning. On Capture it adds New York City bids from the City Record, so a city agency boiler contract and a VA chiller job land in the same list. Other states and cities are not covered yet.
HVAC contracts for bid in a typical week
These are mechanical notices that were open on SAM.gov in early October 2026, all public records. The mix shows where the steady federal work is.
- VA chiller and boiler replacements. Replace operating room chillers and replace chiller 1 at the Houston VA, replace boilers 4 and 5 at the Milwaukee VA, replace a hot water heating system in Missouri, a rooftop air handler replacement. Almost all set aside for service disabled veteran owned small businesses.
- Maintenance and service. HVAC maintenance and inspection at Olmsted Lock and Dam in Illinois, troubleshooting and repair of portable chillers for the Army in Texas, infrared radiant heat maintenance, steam trap monitoring for VA North Texas, preventive maintenance of a building automation system.
- Plumbing and heating. Boiler burner replacement at the Devens federal medical center, heating condensate pumps at a federal prison in Indiana, a boiler feed pump replacement at a VA hospital in New Jersey.
- Parks, forests and public lands. Forest-wide HVAC repairs in Idaho, a geothermal HVAC system in a Virginia park, HVAC replacements at National Park Service sites, a heat pump for an Agriculture Department building in Arkansas.
- Long vehicles. A job order contract for plumbing, heating and air conditioning projects at two Marine Corps bases, a six year repair mechanical systems IDIQ, a mechanical services basic ordering agreement at a Department of Energy lab in New York.
Notice who the biggest buyer is. The Department of Veterans Affairs runs hundreds of hospitals with central plants that never shut down, and under its Veterans First rules it sets most of that mechanical work aside for veteran owned firms first.
HVAC NAICS and service codes the matching reads
Federal mechanical notices almost always carry one of these codes. Put every code you can perform on your profile, because the same chiller job may post as a service under J041 at one office and as construction under Z2 at another.
| Code | What it covers | Typical federal notice |
|---|---|---|
| NAICS 238220 | Plumbing, heating and air conditioning contractors | Chiller, boiler and air handler replacement, HVAC maintenance, plumbing repair |
| NAICS 811310 | Commercial and industrial machinery repair and maintenance | Pump, burner and equipment repair at federal plants |
| NAICS 238210 | Electrical contractors | Controls, building automation wiring, electrical scope inside HVAC jobs |
| NAICS 236220 | Commercial and institutional building construction | Renovations where HVAC is one trade among several |
| PSC J041 and N041 | Repair and installation of refrigeration, air conditioning and air circulation equipment | Chiller service, rooftop unit repair, cooling tower maintenance |
| PSC J045 | Repair of plumbing, heating and waste disposal equipment | Boiler service, steam system work, water heater repair |
| PSC Z1 and Z2 | Maintenance, repair and alteration of real property | VA and base construction projects such as Z1DA and Z2DA hospital work |
The SBA size standard for NAICS 238220 is 19 million USD in average annual receipts, so most mechanical shops count as small. Check the size standard printed on each notice, because a job posted under 236220 carries a much higher limit than one posted under 238220.
Who awards federal HVAC contracts
The Department of Veterans Affairs buys more hospital mechanical work than anyone else: chillers, boilers, steam distribution, air handlers in operating rooms and research labs, plus the service contracts that keep them running. Most of it is set aside for SDVOSBs, and a veteran owned mechanical contractor near a VA medical center rarely runs out of notices.
Defense is next. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps bases buy HVAC maintenance, kitchen exhaust hood cleaning, chiller repair and job order contracts that bundle years of small mechanical projects into one vehicle. The Bureau of Prisons, the Corps of Engineers, the National Park Service, the Forest Service and the Interior bureaus buy steady small jobs, often under 350,000 USD and set aside for small business, which is where a new federal contractor builds past performance.
If HVAC is one trade in a wider building business, government construction contracts covers renovation and new build work, and government contracts for veterans explains how the VA's veteran set-asides work.
What decides whether you win a government HVAC contract
- Wage rules. Construction work over 2,000 USD falls under Davis-Bacon, with certified weekly payroll at the rates in the wage determination. Maintenance and service contracts over 2,500 USD fall under the Service Contract Act, which sets its own wage and fringe rates. Price the labor from the attached determination, not your shop rate.
- Bonds. The Miller Act requires performance and payment bonds on federal construction over 150,000 USD, usually each at 100% of the price, and sealed bids need a bid guarantee. Check your bonding capacity before you chase a boiler plant replacement.
- Licenses and certifications. Technicians who handle refrigerant need EPA Section 608 certification, and most notices require the state mechanical or plumbing license where the work is. Hospital and lab work often adds infection control and confined space requirements.
- Small purchases first. Contracts under the simplified acquisition threshold, now 350,000 USD, use faster procedures and are often set aside for small business. A maintenance contract or a single unit replacement there builds the references that larger chiller and boiler projects ask for.
- Site visits and question deadlines. Mechanical notices usually hold one site visit, and the question deadline comes well before the due date. A list that shows both dates on day one is worth more than a long list you read a week late.
How HVAC bid matching works
- Describe your trades in one line. HVAC service, chiller and boiler work, rooftop units, building automation, plumbing, steam systems, kitchen exhaust. The matcher reads the full notice text against it, so a VA notice titled with a project number and "Z2DA" still reaches you when the scope is an air handler.
- We read every new notice. Each federal solicitation, presolicitation and sources sought is read in full the morning after it posts, not only the title and NAICS code.
- Each notice gets a score out of 100 with a reason. Scope fit, set-aside eligibility, place of performance and days left to respond, so you see why a chiller replacement in your state ranks above a boiler job across the country.
- You get one short list. The best fits first, with the due date and the award history of similar contracts, so you know who holds the current maintenance contract before the recompete.
Who pays for an HVAC bid list
- Veteran owned mechanical contractors. An SDVOSB near a VA medical center sees the chiller, boiler and air handler work set aside for it, ranked above notices it cannot bid.
- Commercial HVAC service companies. Shops that already run maintenance agreements for hospitals and offices add federal preventive maintenance and service contracts in the states their technicians cover.
- Plumbing and heating contractors. Boiler, steam, hot water and pump work lands in its own list without reading every air conditioning notice.
- Estimators at mid-size mechanical firms. An estimator who prices five federal jobs a month needs the right five in front of them on Monday, with the site visit date, not forty notices to sort.
The same ranking runs for every one of them. What changes is the profile behind it.
Ways to find HVAC bids compared
| Option | What you get | What it costs | Where it falls short |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAM.gov saved searches | Every federal notice by keyword or code, emailed raw | Free | |
| Construction bid services | Private and public plans and bids, mostly building projects | Typically several hundred to a few thousand USD a year | |
| Bid aggregators | Federal, state and local notices in one feed | From about 599 USD a year for one state on BidNet Direct to five figures nationally | |
| Research databases | Award history, forecasts, contacts | GovTribe from 1,500 USD a year, GovWin IQ quoted in five figures | |
| FederalContracts | Federal notices scored out of 100 against your trades, codes and set-asides, with the reason and the deadline | 129 USD a month, or 768 USD a year on Bid Desk |
If your mechanical work is mostly private commercial plans, a construction plans room does more than we do. If the problem is finding the four federal chiller, boiler and maintenance notices a week that fit your crews, the ranked list is the part that saves the time. Government bidding sites compared lists the official portals and paid services side by side.
What HVAC contractors get on each plan
- Bid Desk, 129 USD a month or 768 USD a year. Federal solicitations, 1 company profile, 3 seats, 5 saved searches, a daily ranked digest, deadline reminders and 3 years of competitor award history, so you see who won the last chiller job at that VA before you price.
- Capture, 349 USD a month or 2,088 USD a year. Federal solicitations plus New York City bids from the City Record, 5 business lines (for example HVAC service, plumbing and controls as separate lines), 15 seats, per business line digests and full award history with exports.
Every plan feature is on pricing. Annual billing costs half of twelve monthly payments.
How to get government HVAC contracts?
To get government HVAC contracts, register in SAM.gov with NAICS 238220 and your other mechanical codes, then bid the maintenance, repair and replacement notices near your technicians. Start with small service contracts and single unit replacements under the simplified acquisition threshold, claim every set-aside you qualify for, and use those jobs as past performance for chiller and boiler projects.
What is the NAICS code for HVAC?
The NAICS code for HVAC contractors is 238220, Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning Contractors. Its SBA small business size standard is 19 million USD in average annual receipts. Federal HVAC equipment repair also posts under 811310, and renovations where HVAC is one of several trades often post under 236220.
How do I find HVAC bids?
You find federal HVAC bids on SAM.gov by filtering Contract Opportunities for NAICS 238220 and service codes J041 and J045, and state and local HVAC bids on each state, county and school district procurement portal. A ranked bid service reads those notices for you and sends only the ones that match your trades, states and set-asides.
Do HVAC contractors need to be bonded for government work?
Yes for federal construction over 150,000 USD. The Miller Act requires a performance bond and a payment bond, usually each at 100% of the contract price, and sealed bids need a bid guarantee. Smaller construction jobs use other payment protections, and most maintenance and service contracts do not require bonds at all.
Does the Service Contract Act apply to HVAC maintenance?
Yes. Federal HVAC maintenance and repair contracts over 2,500 USD are covered by the Service Contract Act, so you pay at least the wage and fringe rates in the wage determination attached to the notice. Replacement and installation work is construction instead and falls under Davis-Bacon above 2,000 USD.
Are government HVAC contracts profitable?
Government HVAC contracts can be profitable because the work is steady, payment is reliable and many contracts are set aside for small firms, which limits the competition. Margins depend on pricing the wage determination correctly, owning the equipment the job needs and avoiding projects far from your technicians, where travel eats the profit.
See today's HVAC contracts ranked for your company
Choose the HVAC and mechanical profile above, or type your own trades, state and NAICS codes. Bid Match ranks a dated snapshot of public federal solicitation records against them, so you see the list you would get each morning before you pay anything.
Related reading: government construction contracts, government contracts for veterans, federal construction bid opportunities, government contract alerts, small business government contracting opportunities.