Site Management of Building Services Contractors

Jim Wild

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2002
• Print ISBN: 9780419204503
• eBook ISBN: 9781135819712
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture General

Managing building services contractors can prove to be a minefield. The most successful jobs will always be those where building site managers have first built teams focused on tackling issues that might cause adversarial attitudes later on and jeopardize the project. The author shows how a simple common management approach can improve site managers' competency in overseeing building services contractors, sub traders and specialists, and maximize the effectiveness of time spent on building services.

Part One
Building Services

1 An overview of building services

1.1 What are building services?

Building services are engineering systems. They are placed on, threaded through, and fixed to the structure and fabric of a building.

Any building services (BS) system comprises three elements:

• plant
• distribution
• terminals.

Even the most basic building requires six or seven separately identifiable systems to make it work. The building’s form and function affect the complexity of building services.

Building engineering services are generally referred to by builders as M & E, mechanical and electrical services. This broad grouping can include public health, fire and security systems. Lifts and escalators are usually referred to under those names and carried out by specialist firms. Other associated but specialist building services systems which may be carried out under separate contracts are:

• sub stations
• high voltage switch gear
• data and telecommunications services
• generators
• uninterrupted power systems (UPS)
• kitchens and cold rooms
• medical gases
• process services.

These services may also be found within M & E contracts as specialist subtraders. We can understand why they are necessary by glancing at Table 1.1.

To support and operate the BS there are the essential utilities:

• gas
• water
• electricity
• drainage
• telecommunications.

Table 1.1 The generic families of building services

1.2 Why are building services necessary?

Building services enable buildings to be used for their designated purpose. This they do within a framework of enabling and controlling legislation:

• by creating an internal environment—heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting and acoustics;
• by defending the building from the external environment—lightning, rain, wind, noise, heat and cold;
• by providing protection—against fire and for security;
• by enabling communication—through voice, vision and data systems;
• by providing welfare—with toilet and first aid facilities (including those for the disabled), and vending/catering;
• by disposal of waste—through plumbing, recycling and refuse collection systems and services.

Through services systems buildings are made to function safely and healthily.

During building occupation the environmental, power and public health services are dynamic, while those of fire fighting and security are generally passive. The passive systems becoming dynamic only upon activation, which may be by human intervention or automatic sensing. Outside periods of building occupancy the systems are in dormant and passive sensing modes, or in the case of environmental systems maintaining a predetermined lower level of internal climate that can be raised quickly to occupancy standard.

1.3 Matters of design

1.3.1 CLIMATE

Geographically designated as a temperate climatic zone, the weather patterns of the British Isles pose problems for the BS designer. By comparison Scandinavian countries have much lower external ambient temperatures, but the temperature tends to go down and stay down for long periods. This gives an external environmental stability to which internal climates can be matched. But in the British Isles we can be subjected to considerable unpredictable changes in temperature; rain and wind in a 12 hour daytime period. Designing for the ‘average’ often catches out the ability of internal climate systems to cope with such changes.

13.2 ESSENTIAL SERVICES

It is mandatory for all occupied buildings in the UK to have:

• heating
• ventilation
• plumbing
• hot and cold water
• power
• lighting.

and supporting utilities. Certainly the ventilation may be by natural means, via openable windows; it is nevertheless essential in providing the oxygen we breathe.

1.3.3 THE EFFECT OF FUNCTION AND FORM

Services designs are affected by building function, which dictates building form and layout. These latter have an impact on the complexity of the engineering services to be provided and the way they are integrated with the structure, and interface with the buildings fabric and finishes. Some examples of the effect of these aspects on different buildings are as follows:

• A modern hospital of ‘nucleus’ cruciform design has service streets meeting at intersections where operating theatres, laboratories and toilet facilities increase the density of services provision.
• Manufacturing facilities with process equipment and machinery bring demands for spaces varying from large open production lines with exposed services, to small clean/sterile atmosphere rooms and enclosed services. In either, the mix of process related services may include steam and condense, compressed air, vacuum, cooling water and drainage lines, clean electrical supplies, high grade lighting, and volatile gases requiring state of the art leak detection.
• The acoustics of theatres and concert halls will make demands on the careful application of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems serving auditoria and rehearsal rooms, etc. The rotating machinery of fans and pumps will be of slow speed and isolated from the ducting and pipework systems. Air distribution terminals must be selected to give adequate throw of air without generating noise at the outlet.
• Leisure centres with swimming pools and ice rinks bring specialist complexity to engineering services. Flumes, diving tanks, underwater lighting effects, lighting to avoid spectral glare, water filtration and treatment are all requirements additional to the general services. For an ice rink the integration of the ice pad with the building structure and foundations is an interface requiring particular care.
• For offices the depth of floor plan (shallow or deep), relationship to an atrium, false ceiling and floor depths and the number of service cores will determine the layout of engineering services. Whether it is to be speculative, a prestigious headquarters or a local authority building will determine the standards.

1.3.4 LEGISLATION, CODES AND STANDARDS

The legislated requirements for buildings and their services are very extensive and are treated here in the context of scene setting. Buildings first require planning approval and must be further designed and constructed in compliance with the Building Regulations. Approval to the latter is through local authority building control departments; these may also carry the responsibility for fire approval. Alternatively, fire approval may be delegated to the local brigade. Whatever patterns of controlling organization apply, matters of public and environmental health will be generally embraced by the local authorities. If the building is being procured on behalf of the state e.g. as a prison, government laboratory or defence establishment some ‘normal’ building regulations may be set aside. But, be assured, they are nearly always replaced by a higher, more onerous level of requirement.

As befits a developed society there is no shortfall, locally or nationally, in the requirements for providing safe and healthy buildings. The overall architecture of relative legislation is framed in the Health and Safety at Work Act etc. 1974. Under this Act, regulations covering premises, plant and machinery, substances, procedures and people have been introduced. One of the most far reaching regulations for the site manager are the recently introduced Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994.

For the services designer, compliance with legislation means the acquisition of knowledge so that the system selected to meet the brief are as strong, safe and simple as they can be. Fortunately there is much guidance by way of Approved Codes of Practice (ACoP), Codes of Practice (CoPs) and of course British Standards. The last named are generally recognized as being the minimum standards for components, equipment and system designs. Some also cover system management. Further help is on hand for the designer through membership of professional institutions, with their guides, codes, manuals, standards, technical notes and memoranda. Support can be procured from a wide range of government and industry research organizations:

• the Energy Efficiency Office (EEO)
• the Building Research Establishment (BRE)
• the Fire Research Station (FRS)
• the Building Services Research and Information Association (BSRIA)
• the Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA).

BSRIA’s Reading Guide 14/95 Building Services Legislation [1] is a good starting point for any investigation into discovering whether, or what, legislation applies to a subject. For standards, codes, guides and other information available from most of the professional institutions, consultancy associations and learned societies (see Appendix M). Much of the information is available to non-members.

All buildings have to meet minimum standards in the provision of fire detection and prevention systems. Determined by law according to the function of the building they may be enhanced, thereby attracting lower insurance premiums, or backed up because the building must operate at the highest level of availability. Security systems are not required by law but may be provided to enhanced levels for the same reasons as fire systems.

1.3.5 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Clients, particularly those that trade their products to the general public, are concerned with image and the environmental impact of their buildings. Environmental impact may be looked at on three levels:

• global
• neighbourhood
• internal.

These factors do not always appear in harmony. A new building on a greenfield site may require infrastructure development in the road and public utility demands that it makes. Yet it may be a very good neighbour, being sensitively landscaped and providing jobs. Its location may mean that it can possibly manage without air conditioning. In the case of an office building, the greenfield site may be no better than the town or city centre. The central location and the need to keep out noise, dirt and heat usually make the provision of mechanically refrigerated air conditioning essential; but such a development does not require new roads or services mains. Fortunately the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) schemes allow comparison of buildings employing differing BS technologies. Additionally, the EEO offers much good guidance on energy targeting and usage to clients in all sectors of commerce and industry.

It is in the provision of new commercial building stock that we are seeing a greater integration of building services. The orientation of a building, application of shading overhangs and vertical screens, taller, narrower windows with deep reveals, trickle vents, and internally, mass concrete thermal sinks, are all important. They can be used in a variety of combinations to mitigate the need for comfort cooling or full air conditioning.

Building structure and fabric and building services are thus becoming more closely entwined. In such facilities it will no longer be possible to test and prove the building climate services independently of structure and fabric.

1.3.6 SCHEMATICS

The visualization of BS systems first takes place through the designer’s production of schematics. Issued to the builder at tender enquiry stage they can be the source of much valuable information. Whether it is generic or specific, a system schematic will show the essential three elements of plant, distribution and terminals. A generic schematic, e.g. Fig. 1.1, will simply show the relationship of the parts for that type of system. Job specific schematics will diagrammatically relate the system selected by the designer to the building’s basic geography; Fig. 1.2 shows a small bore heating system for a bungalow and indicates the piping routes from the boiler to the radiators, and names the rooms served.

1.3.7 SYSTEM SELECTION

The generic families of building services (see Table 1.1) do not define the type of lighting, security or air conditioning s...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Abbreviations
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part One: Building Services
• Part Two: The Management of Building Services Contracts
• Appendix A: CAWS—Common Arrangement Work Sections. R-X Including First and Second Level Descriptions
• Appendix B: ACE Agreements 1995 A(2), B(2) and C(2) Appendix 1, Work Elements Correlated to CAWS
• Appendix C: Suggested Duties for a Consultant Appointed By a D & B Contractor
• Appendix D: Building Services Design Risk: A Matrix for Identifying Potential Pitfalls
• Appendix E: Building Services Manager—Job Description
• Appendix F: Breakdown of Tender—Summary of Headings and Listing of Subelements for Customization
• Appendix G: Declaration of Management Strategy Requirements for a Building Services Contract
• Appendix H: Quality Plans
• Appendix I: Programming—Range of BS Activities
• Appendix J: BS Inspection Forms
• Appendix K: BS Contractor Reports—Requirements
• Appendix L: Commissioning Management
• Appendix M: Professional Institutions, Consultancy Associations and Learned Societies