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Need to Relocate Your Air Conditioner for Balcony Repairs, Landscaping or Renovations
Getting your balcony regrouted? Landscaping the backyard? Renovating? At some point, the builder or trades team will turn to you and say: “The air conditioner needs to move.”
It’s a common situation — and one that catches a lot of homeowners and body corporates off guard. The air conditioner looks straightforward enough to shift, but moving or disconnecting any refrigerant-based system is licensed work. Getting it wrong can damage the unit, void the warranty, and create a safety issue.
Here’s what’s actually involved, and how to make sure the job goes smoothly.
Planning works that require your AC to move?
Call us early — ideally before the builder starts. We coordinate directly with your tradesperson or body corporate to schedule around the works. 1300 30 90 30 or book online.
What Types of Units Get Relocated?
We handle relocations across all system types:
- Split system outdoor units — the most common, typically wall-mounted or ground-mounted on a slab or bracket
- Ducted outdoor units — larger and heavier, usually on a rooftop or ground pad, with more refrigerant pipework involved
- Cassette units — ceiling-mounted indoor units that may need to be shifted when ceilings are being opened up during renovations
Each type has different logistics, but all of them share one non-negotiable: the refrigerant must be recovered by a licensed ARCtick technician before the unit can be moved.
The Most Common Scenarios We’re Called For
The three situations we deal with most regularly are:
- Balcony and deck repairs or replacement — the outdoor unit is mounted on the balcony structure and needs to come off before works begin, then go back once the new surface is down
- Landscaping and garden works — the ground-mounted outdoor unit is sitting in the path of new paving, retaining walls, garden beds, or fencing
- Building renovations or extensions — walls, rooflines, or ceiling cavities are being modified and existing indoor or outdoor units are in the way
Depending on the scope of works, this may mean a temporary disconnection — where the unit comes off, the builder does their work, and we reconnect it to the same location — or a full permanent decommissioning.
⚠️ Why You Can’t Just Ask the Builder to Move It
This is where things go wrong most often. Builders, landscapers, and even some electricians assume that disconnecting an air conditioner is a straightforward job. It isn’t — at least not legally or safely.
⚠️ Refrigerant handling is licensed work. Under Australian law, only an ARCtick-licensed refrigeration technician can recover, handle, or recharge refrigerant. A builder or unlicensed tradesperson moving a unit without recovering the refrigerant first will either vent it to atmosphere (illegal) or leave the system open to moisture and contamination. In practice this means loss of refrigerant gas, contamination of the refrigerant pipes and circuit, and in many cases a system that is rendered completely non-operational — requiring expensive pipe flushing, component replacement, or a full recharge before it will run again. Either way, the unit and its warranty are at risk.
We regularly get called in after the fact — to repair units that have been improperly disconnected, or to recover systems that now have moisture in the refrigerant circuit. It’s always more expensive than calling us first.
Who Coordinates the Job?
We work with all parties depending on how the project is being managed:
- Homeowners organising their own trades — we can work directly with you and coordinate timing around the builder’s schedule
- Builders and tradespeople — we’re happy to be added to the project scope and deal directly with the site supervisor
- Body corporates and strata managers — we understand the approval and access requirements that come with strata properties, and can provide documentation as needed
💡 Tip for body corporate properties: If the outdoor unit sits on common property — a shared roof, plant room, or balcony — your strata manager will likely need to be involved before any works can proceed. Let us know early and we can provide the right questions to support your approval process.
What the Job Involves
Every relocation job is different, but the process generally follows this sequence:
- Site photographs to assess the job, pipework run, and new or temporary position
- Refrigerant recovery — safely extracted and stored before disconnection
- Unit disconnected and moved clear of the works area (or to its new permanent position)
- Pipework extended, rerouted, or replaced as required
- Unit reconnected, refrigerant recharged, and system tested to confirm correct operation
Where pipework needs to be extended or new pipe covers fitted, we’ll confirm with you whether that’s part of our scope or the builder’s — it varies by job and site.
The Simple Rule
Call us early in the process — not after the unit has already been disconnected. Early coordination means we can schedule around the works, avoid delays on site, and make sure the system goes back in the right position first time.
The cost of a planned relocation is always less than the cost of repairing or regassing a unit that’s been improperly disconnected.
Need Your AC Unit Relocated?For Further Information Or To Arrange An Appointment
Phone 1300 30 90 30
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