How to bid HVAC and mechanical work in Texas

1. Before you can bid at all

The entry ticket: the registrations buyers check, the licence the law requires for this trade, the certifications that change who can win, and the wage floors that set your labour line.

Registrations

• Form the entity with the Texas Secretary of State (a Certificate of Formation for an LLC is $300) and get a federal EIN; then register with the Comptroller for a sales and use tax permit (free) and the annual franchise tax report, due May 15, which owes nothing under the no-tax-due revenue threshold.Source: www.sos.state.tx.us/corp/forms_option.shtml
• Register on the Comptroller's Centralized Master Bidders List (CMBL), $70 a year. State agencies and most Texas SmartBuy members find and notify vendors from it by class code and highway district, and a CMBL vendor ID is asked for on state solicitations.Source: www.comptroller.texas.gov/purchasing/vendor/cmbl
• Watch the Electronic State Business Daily (ESBD): state agencies must post there, and around 400 local members (school districts, counties, cities, colleges, authorities) post there too. New postings from it appear here within a day.Source: www.txsmartbuy.gov/esbd
• Keep a W-9, a certificate of insurance and your CMBL vendor ID ready. Local buyers add their own vendor registration on their portal (Bonfire, IonWave, Public Purchase, CivicEngage), and most send bid notices only to registered vendors.Source: comptroller.texas.gov/help/vendor/register.php

The licence the law requires for HVAC and mechanical

• HVAC work for hire needs a TDLR Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Contractor licence: Class A for any size equipment, Class B up to 25 tons cooling and 1.5 million BTU/hour heating; 48 months of work under a licensed contractor within the last 72 months (or 36 months supervised), an exam, and endorsements for environmental air, commercial refrigeration, or both.Source: www.tdlr.texas.gov/acr/acr.htm
• Every technician registers with TDLR as an ACR technician ($20, works under a licensed contractor), and anyone who handles refrigerant holds federal EPA Section 608 certification; the two are separate and neither satisfies the other.Source: www.tdlr.texas.gov/acr/acr.htm
• Licences renew yearly with eight hours of continuing education; mechanical permits come from the city or county for replacements and new installs.Source: www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/texas/16-Tex-Admin-Code-SS-75-22

Certifications that change who can win

• Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) through the Comptroller: at least 51% owned by Black, Hispanic, Asian Pacific American or Native American individuals, women, or service-disabled veterans, with a principal place of business in Texas; free, good for up to four years. State agencies and many local buyers carry HUB subcontracting goals and ask for a HUB subcontracting plan on larger contracts.Source: comptroller.texas.gov/purchasing/vendor/hub/
• Texas has no separate state MBE or small-business reserve programme; HUB is the certification buyers ask for. Federal certifications (8(a), WOSB, SDVOSB) matter where a district or city is spending federal money.Source: comptroller.texas.gov/purchasing/vendor/hub/

Wage floors

• Texas has no state living wage for contractors, and the state minimum wage follows the federal $7.25. State law bars cities and counties from setting a higher minimum wage, so on most Texas public contracts the floor is the market rate for the trade, not a statute.Source: statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/LA/htm/LA.62.htm
• Individual buyers can still write a wage into their own contracts. The City of Austin's Living Wage Program sets $22.05 an hour for the 2026 fiscal year on formally solicited non-construction service contracts performed on city property or vehicles. Read each solicitation for its own clause.Source: www.austintexas.gov/financial-services/living-wage-program
• Prevailing wage under Government Code 2258 applies to public works construction, not to service contracts like cleaning, grounds, pest or guard work; an HVAC replacement job is construction and carries it.Source: statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/GV/htm/GV.2258.htm

2. How buying works in Texas

• Thresholds by buyer type: cities must competitively bid or propose above $100,000 (raised from $50,000 on September 1, 2025); counties above $50,000; school districts must use one of the statutory methods for purchases of $50,000 or more in a twelve-month period. Below those lines buyers take quotes, and that is where a new firm gets its first work.Source: texas.public.law/statutes/tex._local_gov't_code_section_252.021
• Counties buy under Local Government Code 262 through the county purchasing agent; the $50,000 line and the required notice period are in the statute, and the commissioners court makes the award in open session.Source: texas.public.law/statutes/tex._local_gov't_code_section_262.023
• School districts choose the method that gives 'best value': competitive bidding, competitive sealed proposals, a request for proposals, or a cooperative contract; read which one you are answering, because a proposal is scored on more than price.Source: texas.public.law/statutes/tex._educ._code_section_44.031
• Reciprocity: a Texas buyer may not award to an out-of-state bidder unless it underbids the lowest Texas bidder by the margin that bidder's home state would impose on a Texan. Texas-based firms get that edge automatically.Source: statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/GV/htm/GV.2252.htm
• Prompt payment: the Texas Prompt Payment Act makes a government payment overdue on the 31st day after the later of delivery, completion or invoice (the 46th day for bodies that meet monthly or less), with interest after that.Source: statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/GV/htm/GV.2251.htm
• Bid openings are public and the tabulation is a public record; most Texas counties and districts post it as a PDF under the bid, and the state board's detail page names the awardee and the value.Source: www.txsmartbuy.gov/esbd

3. What Texas buyers actually ask for in HVAC and mechanical

Counted from the bids we have read in full. Thin where the count is low; it grows as we read more.

4. How to price it

The craft, then the evidence: what this work actually went for at Texas bid openings, and who has been winning.

• Maintenance contracts price per visit per unit type on a schedule (filters, belts, coils, controls checks), with on-call repair at hourly rates by class plus a stated parts markup; buyers compare the annual maintenance figure first.
• Replacement and upgrade bids are capital work: bid, performance and payment bonds, permit costs, and prevailing wage under Government Code 2258.
• Texas cooling loads are the whole year's cost: response-time commitments carry a premium in summer; read the liquidated-damages clause before pricing it.
• The tabulations below show accepted prices; the debrief shows your gap.

5. Starting from zero: the first 90 days

For someone who wants to start a HVAC and mechanical business and sell only to government. The order matters: the licence and the registrations gate everything else.

1. Weeks 1 to 2: entity, EIN, sales tax permit, general liability, auto, workers' compensation; confirm the licence holder's TDLR class and endorsements and every technician's registration and EPA 608 card.
2. Weeks 2 to 4: CMBL registration with HVAC and mechanical class codes; HUB application if eligible; a surety relationship, because capital HVAC bids carry bid and performance bonds.
3. Weeks 4 to 8: quotes under the threshold: on-call service for a small city, a library system, a housing authority.
4. Weeks 8 to 12: the first term maintenance bid; walk every site at the pre-bid and count units yourself.