Xavier Ochoa went into HVAC at 17, straight out of high school, with his father’s tools. His father worked in the trade and still takes on HVAC work now and then. The son started where most people in the trade start, at the bottom, installing ductwork.
He moved up one rung at a time. After ductwork came installing the equipment, then servicing it. Then came a role he describes as something like a warranty manager, which also had him selling parts. “It took me years to climb up from the bottom all the way up to the top,” Ochoa says.
In July 2024 he opened XXXTREME Services in Berthoud and put those years to work under his own name. Most of the work is residential heating and cooling, with some light commercial rooftop units. Heating and cooling is where his expertise lies, he says, but the company also runs a handyman side that lays laminate flooring and paints. Customers have hired it to fix a door, replace a damaged cabinet base under a sink and refinish a two-story deck. The company’s site lists Berthoud and a long run of towns around it, from Fort Collins and Loveland to Boulder and Estes Park.
He does not work alone. Customers describe a husband-and-wife team, and his wife, Amber, works jobs alongside him. One early customer who had a system installed compared Ochoa to an artist and called him a perfectionist, the kind of technician who keeps at a job until it meets his own standard, however long that takes.
Going out on his own changed what the work asks of him. Working for someone else, he says, meant showing up and doing what you’re told. Now the relationships with customers are his to build, what he calls “creating bonds with your clients.” He sets the bar plainly: “Just trying to stay as wholesome as possible.” He adds that it isn’t that hard. “If you have a good heart in it, you should be fine.”
Most days, that means waking up, making sure he has everything he needs and doing good work, he says, even on the days he is tired. Even the small service calls matter to him, because together they keep the business going and let him help people when they need it. The ones he is gladdest to get are the calls where a homeowner has braced for a brand-new system, or for a big number, and the problem turns out to be minor. Sometimes, he says, “all it was was a small little issue, and we were able to fix it within an hour or so.”