MaintScope · Nail salon
Nail salon ventilation & extraction
This is a ventilation job more than a cooling one. Monomer, acetone and dust are what your staff breathe all day, and an exhaust fan with no make-up air just makes noise — which is why the room still smells even though something's running.
And if it's still running
Know what it's going to cost you — before it costs you
A licenced tech goes through every bit of air conditioning, ventilation and refrigeration you've got, and writes down what condition it's in, what needs doing and when, and what it's realistically going to cost you over the next year and the next five. Plain English, one PDF.
Nothing perishes — but a room that's uncomfortable empties out.
Get a health checkWorked example · Nail salon · Erina
What the report actually says
What you’ve got
| Equipment | Age | Condition | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Split systems x2 | ~6 yrs | Watch | Filters loaded, chemical residue on coils |
| Table/source extraction | ~6 yrs | Action | Several stations with no working extraction |
| General exhaust | Original | Action | Well below the air changes this room needs |
| Make-up air | None | Action | Exhaust with no replacement air can’t work |
Needs attention now
- This is a ventilation report more than a cooling one. Acrylic monomer, acetone and dust are what your staff breathe for eight hours a day. Several stations have extraction that isn’t pulling.
- No make-up air. An exhaust fan with nowhere to draw replacement air from just makes noise. This is the most common ventilation mistake in nail salons and it’s why the room still smells.
- Chemical residue on the AC coils. Solvents degrade coils and controls faster than normal air does.
Your service year
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Monthly | Filter check on splits and extraction |
| Quarterly | Extraction performance check at each station |
| 6-monthly | Split service with coil clean |
| Annual | Full ventilation assessment |
What it costs — next 12 months
| Item | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Splits (2), 2 visits with coil clean | $840 | $1,280 |
| Station extraction service | $480 | $960 |
| General exhaust service | $280 | $560 |
| Ventilation assessment | $280 | $560 |
| Total | $1,880 | $3,360 |
Coming in five years
- Proper source extraction at every station — $4,000–12,000 depending on station count
- Make-up air system — $3,000–8,000
- Split replacement — $2,200–4,000 each, brought forward by chemical exposure
Quietly costing you money
Staff turnover and sick days. Headaches and respiratory irritation in this trade are usually a ventilation problem, and training a replacement technician costs more than fixing the air. There’s also a work health and safety obligation here that most salon owners have never had explained to them.
What I’d do first
- Test extraction at every station — find out which actually work
- Sort make-up air, or the exhaust you have will never perform
- Coil clean on both splits, then 6-monthly
How it works
$150 to come out. Everything else depends on what's there.
- I come out — $150.I go through the lot: what you've got, how old it is, what condition it's in. Takes an hour or two depending on how much is in the place.
- You get it in writing within 48 hours.One PDF. What's there, what needs doing and when, what it should cost you over the year, and what's coming further out.
- Anything that needs fixing, I quote on what I find.I can't price a service off a website — it depends on the unit, the access and what turns up when it's open. You'll get a real number, not a guess.
- If you'd rather not think about it again, I'll handle it.Scheduled servicing across the year, timed around your trade. No lock-in — plenty of people take the report and go it alone, and that's genuinely fine.