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Vandiver Heating & Air
A service van parked beside a small shop building with its rear doors open on tidy shelves of parts bins.

Second generation. Same family. Since 1987.

One truck in 1987, and not sold since

Ray Vandiver started this company out of a garage in 1987, with one truck and a phone that rang at the house. He picked Cherokee County because it was cheap and quiet, and then he watched it turn into one of the fastest-growing counties in Georgia around him.

His son Erik grew up riding along on Saturdays, got his own tools at nineteen, and took the company over in 2011. Not much else changed. Dana runs operations. Ruben has been here since 2004. Tim has been here since 2008. When you call, one of about twenty-two people answers, and when the truck shows up it is somebody who has been here for years rather than a contractor hired for the week.

That is the whole pitch, and we want to be straight about why we lead with it. A lot of the heating and air companies in metro Atlanta have been bought in the last few years — by holding companies, by private equity, by roll-ups that keep the old sign on the truck for a while. There is nothing illegal about that and some of those shops still do good work. But the dispatcher you talk to may be in another state, the technician may be a contractor, and the person who sold you the system may not be there when the coil fails in year six.

Nobody has bought us. We are not for sale. If the compressor we put in in 2019 gives out in 2031, the same family will be the one you call, and we will already have the model number.

The two certifications, and which is which

NATE-certified technicians, and EPA Section 608 on every technician who opens a refrigerant circuit.

Refrigerant work requires EPA Section 608 certification under federal law. Full terms

The shop on Rope Mill Road

One building, two bays, and a sheet-metal bench that is the reason the transitions on our jobs look the way they do.

The inside of a small shop bay with stacked sheet-metal duct sections and a roll-up door open to daylight.
The bay. Stock on the rack, duct stacked against the wall, and a door that somebody unlocks at half past six.
Two pairs of hands, one older and one younger, working together over an open equipment panel on a bench.
Ray taught Erik on a bench like this one. Erik has taught four people on this one.

About twenty-two of us. Here are nine.

Short bios, because this is a trade where a long one means somebody had time to write it.

  • Illustrated portrait of the owner, a man in his forties in a plain work shirt.

    Erik VandiverEPA 608

    Owner / President

    Ray's son, and the second Vandiver to run this company. He started riding along on Saturday calls at twelve, went out on his own truck at nineteen, and took over in 2011. He still runs the harder replacement quotes himself, mostly because he likes the ones with a puzzle in them.

  • Illustrated portrait of the operations lead, a woman in her forties at a desk.

    Dana Vandiver

    Vice President, Operations

    Dana runs scheduling, dispatch, permitting and payroll, which means she runs the company. She joined full-time in 2009 after eleven years in hospital administration and rebuilt the dispatch process in her first six months. If your appointment window is right, that is her.

  • Illustrated portrait of the general manager, a man in his fifties in a shop bay.

    Ruben OrtizEPA 608

    General Manager

    Ruben has been here since 2004 and has done every job in the building, which is why he is the one who settles arguments about how something should be installed. He oversees both the service and install sides and reviews every large job himself. Two daughters at the high school, and a truck he refuses to replace.

  • Illustrated portrait of the service manager, a man in his forties beside a service van at dusk.

    Tim FowlerEPA 608

    Service Manager

    Tim runs the service board and takes the after-hours calls that come in past midnight. Nineteen years in the trade, eighteen of them here. He is the person who will tell you your system has four good years left instead of selling you one tonight.

  • Illustrated portrait of the install manager, a woman in her forties with a clipboard.

    Cheryl Boyd

    Install Manager

    Cheryl schedules and staffs every installation, orders the equipment, and files the manufacturer registration — which she does within 48 hours, every time, because a system registered late is a system with half the parts coverage. Twelve years here.

  • Illustrated portrait of the comfort advisor, a man in his thirties on a residential driveway.

    Marcus Dill

    Comfort Advisor

    Marcus does the replacement estimates: load calculation, duct evaluation, options in writing, and the number you will actually pay. He came out of commercial controls, so he is unusually good at explaining what a system is doing and why. He will give you the repair number next to the replacement number.

  • Illustrated portrait of the lead install technician, a man in his thirties in an attic access.

    Andre SimmsEPA 608

    Lead Install Technician

    Andre runs the primary install crew and has put in something close to nine hundred systems since he started here in 2013. He is the reason the sheet-metal transitions on our jobs look the way they do. Coaches youth football in the fall.

  • Illustrated portrait of the dispatcher, a woman in her thirties with a headset at a screen.

    Katie Rhodes

    Dispatcher

    Katie is the one deciding whose truck goes where, which on a 98-degree day is a genuinely hard job. She has been doing it here for six years and she is the reason the technician who arrives already knows what you told the office.

  • Illustrated portrait of the customer service representative, a woman in her twenties at a front counter.

    Lorena Cruz

    Customer Service Representative

    Lorena answers the phone, books the calls, and handles membership questions and billing. Bilingual, four years here, and unfailingly patient with people calling about a system that has just quit.

EPA Section 608 is a federal certification required under the Clean Air Act of anyone who opens a refrigerant circuit. It is a federal category rather than a private program with a membership fee, and the initials after a name mean that person holds it.

Who covers where

Who covers which town.
TownWho you are likely to see
WoodstockTim Fowler (Service Manager), Marcus Dill (Comfort Advisor), Andre Simms (Lead Install Technician)
CantonTim Fowler (Service Manager), Marcus Dill (Comfort Advisor), Andre Simms (Lead Install Technician)
Holly SpringsTim Fowler (Service Manager), Marcus Dill (Comfort Advisor), Andre Simms (Lead Install Technician)
Ball GroundMarcus Dill (Comfort Advisor), Andre Simms (Lead Install Technician)
WaleskaMarcus Dill (Comfort Advisor), Andre Simms (Lead Install Technician)
JasperMarcus Dill (Comfort Advisor), Andre Simms (Lead Install Technician)
East CobbMarcus Dill (Comfort Advisor)
MariettaMarcus Dill (Comfort Advisor)
RoswellMarcus Dill (Comfort Advisor)
AlpharettaMarcus Dill (Comfort Advisor)

Around here

We sponsor a high-school baseball program, we have run the same Thanksgiving furnace-repair fund with two local churches since 2014, and Erik has sat on the county chamber's small-business panel for six years.

Two service vans parked nose-out on a gravel lot at the end of the day, a shop bay door half open behind them.

Tell us what it's doing and we'll come look.

Three questions, an address, and a photo of the model plate if you can safely get one.

Book a service callCall (770) 555-0187
Call (770) 555-0187Book a service call