Sonya Hardwick
Founder and principal
Leads design and every architect meeting. Reads each drawing set before it goes out.
Mechanical design and installation, Aspen
Mechanical systems, drawn with the house.
Radiant floors, zoned heating and cooling, and snowmelt for custom homes in the Roaring Fork Valley. We work alongside your architect, then build what we drew.
How we think about it
A mountain house is judged in January.
At 8,000 feet the heating system is not an accessory. It decides whether a glass wall is a pleasure or a draft, whether the guest wing can be closed up for the week, and whether the drive is clear when the plow has come and gone.
Most of what makes a system comfortable is settled on paper, long before a pipe is cut: where the mechanical room sits, how wide the chase is, which floors can take tubing, how far the air handler is from the bedroom. So we start with the drawings, and we start with your architect.
Then we build what we drew, test it before it is covered, and come back for the first winter to adjust it.
What we do
Five systems, one set of drawings.
Each is designed for the house, not chosen from a catalog. Most projects use three or four of them together.
Radiant floors
Warm water in tubing under the floor, zoned room by room and read by sensors in the slab and outdoors.
Radiant floorsZoned heating and cooling
Air systems split into zones, with the equipment placed where the bedrooms can't hear it.
Zoned comfortSnowmelt
Heated drives, walks, steps and roof edges that start when snow does.
SnowmeltMechanical rooms
The boilers, manifolds and controls: planned, labeled and left tidy.
Mechanical roomsSecond-home care
Start-up before you arrive, shut-down when you leave, and checks in between.
Second-home care
For architects and builders
Drawn with your architect, not after them.
Send us the set at schematic design. We come back with the sizes and locations your drawings need, then stay for the coordination meetings.
What you get from us
Zone plan, riser and chase sizes at schematic design
Radiant and snowmelt layouts before the slab is poured
A noise target for each room, measured at start-up
Quiet, as a number
Every room gets a noise target before the walls close.
We use NC ratings, the scale acoustic consultants use. These are the targets we usually propose; yours are set with the architect.
- Target NC 25–30
Bedrooms
Air handlers off the sleeping floor, slow air in the ducts, lined supply runs.
- Target NC 30–35
Living and dining rooms
Equipment in its own room, on isolated mounts, behind a sealed door.
- Set per project
Rooms beside the mechanical room
Wall build-up, pump mounts and door seals agreed at design development.
How a project runs
From the first sketch to the first winter.
- 01
Step 1: Site and load review
We walk the lot or the house, read the plans, and work out how much heat each room needs.
- 02
Step 2: Coordination drawings
Zone plan, equipment room, risers and chases, sent back to your architect marked up.
- 03
Step 3: Rough-in and slab
Tubing is laid and pressure-tested before the concrete, with the pour date agreed in advance.
- 04
Step 4: Start-up and testing
Controls set, combustion measured, sound readings taken and written down.
- 05
Step 5: The first winter
We come back after the first hard cold to adjust the zones to how you live.
The studio
Twelve people, four who lead your project.
You will meet these four. The crews they run are our own employees, not subcontractors.
Aldo Archuleta
Design lead
Draws the mechanical sets and marks up your architect's plans.
Aracely Salas
Field superintendent
Runs the radiant and snowmelt crews on site and signs off the pressure tests.
Vishal Arora
Controls and commissioning
Sets up zoning, takes sound readings and runs start-up.
From clients
What the work is like from the other side of the table.
“Their sheets came back with questions marked on our plans, not after. The chase we had drawn was an inch short, and we learned that in drawings, not at framing.”
Noor K.Architect, Basalt
“The slab layout was settled a month before the pour. When the drywall went up, the floors were already running and the rooms were even.”
Reuben T.Homeowner, Woody Creek
“The drive has a sensor and I never think about it. Ask what temperature the loop idles at: that was the best question anyone gave me.”
Ysabel R.Homeowner, Snowmass Village
Sample reviews.
Our valley
The Roaring Fork Valley, from Aspen to Glenwood Springs.
Our crews live in the valley. A project outside it starts with a conversation about travel.
Pitkin County
- Aspen
- Snowmass Village
- Woody Creek
- Old Snowmass
- Redstone
Eagle County
- Basalt
- El Jebel
Garfield County
- Carbondale
- Glenwood Springs
We don't take projects in Vail, Summit County or the Front Range. We will pass the call to someone there rather than send a crew three hours each way.
Questions
Before you call.
Do you work with our architect?
Yes, and we would rather start early. The best time for a first call is schematic design, when the mechanical room is still a rectangle on a plan and the chases are still being drawn. We work from your architect's files, send back marked-up sheets and questions, and join the coordination meetings.
How do you price a project?
From a written scope, not a price list. We read the drawings, walk the site, and write a scope sheet that lists each system, the equipment by model, the permits, the start-up testing and how long the quote holds. No two mechanical rooms are alike, so we don't publish a number before we have seen the house.
How loud will the system be?
We set a noise target for each room with you and the architect, using NC ratings, then design to it: equipment away from sleeping floors, slow air through the ducts, isolated mounts and sealed doors on the mechanical room. At start-up we take sound readings and give you the numbers.
Does altitude change the equipment?
It does. Gas burners are adjusted for thin air, some fan and pump equipment is selected differently, and combustion is measured with an analyzer at start-up rather than assumed. At roughly 8,000 feet, a system sized for sea level is the wrong system.
What if the heat fails in January?
Call the office number. In office hours a person answers. Outside them the line goes to the technician on call for homes we installed or service. Say if pipes are at risk, so we know how fast to move.
My carbon monoxide alarm is sounding, or I smell gas.
Leave the house with everyone in it, and call 911 and the gas utility from outside. Don't call us first, and don't go back in to switch anything off. Once the house is cleared, we can help with the repair.
Plan a project
Tell us about the house.
A few lines are enough. We reply on the next business day with questions, and to set a time to walk the site or read the plans.
Phone(970) 555-0101
Hours
- Monday – FridayToday
- 7:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
- Saturday – SundayToday
- Closed