The purpose of building services engineering systems is to provide a safe environment that is comfortable for building occupants and/or suitable for any processes happening within buildings: their remit may also extend to areas outside buildings in places where a controlled environment is required. I have come across very many situations where a finished building does not perform as building services engineers had intended: there is a performance gap; for example, the end users are not comfortable in their environment, the building operator is not happy with the maintainability, flexibility or energy consumption of the finished building, or the building does not satisfactorily support the processes happening within. In a worst case scenario, a completed building may fail to comply with the requirements of an enforcing authority such that the building cannot be occupied and used.

Despite improvements in design procurement methods that encourage more, and earlier, involvement of construction personnel and the advancement of Building Information Management (BIM) as a tool for collaborative working, suboptimal design solutions and a lack of constructability may only become apparent once the construction works start. The consequences of rectifying these go beyond the reworking of the design, extending in some cases to a knock-on effect on interfacing, programme delays and cost overruns, an increase in claims and disputes and, at the end of the process, higher maintenance costs, which are ultimately borne by clients commissioning the building. This situation can reflect badly on building services engineers capability and competency. At best, on a personal level, such ‘criticisms’ can be mildly disheartening; at worst, they can involve building services engineers in litigation processes, with all the associated disruption, costs and potential effects on reputation. In the middle, they may have to endure requests for call-backs, investigations, revisiting of the basis of design documentation – this may be during construction, at handover or initial occupancy, or may be years later. Whatever the circumstances, such distractions are irritating and are all at a cost and time to individuals and business organisations.

Furthermore, some of the original design information is included in the documentation handed over at completion of a building. This needs to be reliable, accurate and in a suitable format for the lifetime, and ultimate decommissioning and disposal, of a building. Operators and occupiers of a building need to understand the expected ‘design’ performance so as to help with operation and maintenance. Likewise, any decision-making processes of organisations with respect to capital planning (new construction and renovation) programmes may depend on original design; for example, allowances for extending systems for additional electrical power, humidity control, more building management system (BMS) functionality, drainage capacity and so on.

Construction is a multifarious process, with the focus changing as the project progresses. After the design team has completed the bulk of its work, the construction cohort takes the lead; however, building services engineers have strong incentives to support the continuity, quality, and intent of the design. By being properly involved they can better manage and limit the potential risks, such as defects and client complaints, and achieve recognition for the quality of their design work.

This book aims to give practical and relevant information to those involved with the design of building services engineering systems. In particular, it recognises the idiosyncrasies and distinct features of building services engineering that are not specifically covered in general texts on construction management issues. This book follows on from Building Services Design Management (Portman, 2014), which recognises the particular planning and management techniques to progress the design of the building services engineering system to ensure that the design deliverables are suitable for onward use in the construction phase. The intended audience includes:

• Building services engineering students and their tutors: to forewarn them what to expect during the construction phases of projects.
• Other students in construction-related disciplines and their tutors: to educate them on the particular issues associated with building services engineering during construction.
• Practicing building services engineers frustrated that all their efforts to deliver the best design are subsequently scuppered.
• Construction project managers who want a better understanding of the particular characteristics of building services engineering during construction.
• Clients who want to understand what measures they should take to ensure that their aspirations for a safe, comfortable and appropriate environment are translated into reality.
• Other built environment practitioners who are not qualified or expert in building services engineering but who wish to develop a greater understanding of the implications of the increasingly important building services sector.

Part One of the book sets the scene by describing the stakeholders involved in the construction phase who are involved with translating the building services engineering design into the finished installation.

Part Two focuses specifically on the potential processes and duties building services engineers may be involved with during construction and the initial post-construction period.

Throughout, two types of boxed text are included to provide some light relief from the main text: one is used give further explanations or useful background information while the other comprises worked examples. Feedback questions are included at the end of most chapters to help with the learning process. The responses for these are discussed in the book’s companion web site (www.wiley.com/go/portman/buildingservicesengineering). On this website you will also find Scenario Questions with detailed explanatory answers for many of the chapters; these will help to test your understanding of the issues covered in the book.

Whilst the book is biased towards the UK market in terms of references to terminology, legislation and working practices, the approaches and methodologies are applicable to other regions.

Reference

1. Portman, J. (2014) Building Services Design Management. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester, UK.

Dr Jackie Portman DBEnv, MSc, BEng(Hons), ACGI, CEng, FCIBSE, FIET, MCIOB, is a highly accomplished building services engineering project manager with an enviable track record of delivering complex multimillion pound infrastructure and construction projects within budget and operational standards. She graduated in electrical engineering from Imperial College, University of London, and took her first steps into the construction industry. She was attracted by the exciting, challenging, ever-changing and all-encompassing nature of the construction industry, where there are always new challenges and areas of interest, and has never looked back. She has worked in consultancy, main contracting, building services subcontracting, project management and client organisations in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

She has led the project management process of a range of projects in terms of complexity, size and uses: university complexes (libraries, archive buildings, state-of-the-art education and research facilities), healthcare projects (wards, laboratories, clinical areas), single and mixed use commercial office complexes, residential developments and schools.

She has always been keen to enthuse and motivate students and trainees and has used her ‘hands-on’ perspective to support full-time academics and teachers. She has been a visiting lecturer at the University of the West of England and the City of Bristol College, also contributing to the development of the syllabuses, in particular, ensuring the relevance to current industry trends and requirements.

She obtained her doctorate from the University of the West of England, researching into ways and means of improving the contribution of building services engineers to the building design process: looking at how they are perceived by the rest of the construction industry and what tools and processes would help improve their performances.

Building services engineers are responsible for developing and delivering information that describes the design intent for the building services engineering services for specific building projects. It is part of the design continuum (Figure 0.1).

The design information needs to be sufficient for the purpose of informing those responsible for the construction about what is required for the physical works and provides a starting point for determining how long it may take and how much it may cost.

However, the building services engineers’ contribution to successful building projects should not stop when these design deliverables are ‘complete’.

Building services engineers may be colloquially referred to as building engineers, architectural engineers, environmental engineers or mechanical and electrical (M&E) or mechanical, electrical and public health (MEP) engineers. The individuals and organisations involved as engineers are sometimes referred to as consultants or designers. For consistency this book uses the term ‘building services engineers’ throughout.

Building services engineering design is delivered by an entity that may be ‘stand alone’ or integrated with other entities. This integration may be on a vertical or horizontal basis (Figure 0.2). In a vertical integration arrangement, building services engineering entities may be part of a subcontractor or main contractor organisation, or a client organisation. In a horizontal integration arrangement, building services engineering entities may be part of a multidisciplinary organisation with other design-related disciplines: civil and structural engineering, architectural or quantity surveying services.

The material values of the building services installation is typically in the order of 30–60% (Hawkins, 2011) of the total value of the construction of a building project. This can be even higher for buildings heavily reliant on close control of the internal environment, such as data centres, laboratories and specialist healthcare areas including operating theatres. Furthermore, the importance of the building services engineering systems of any building is now considerable and growing in terms of both economic and commercial value to the end-user; for example, without functioning heating, ventilation, air conditioning, fire and life safety systems, lighting, security systems and electrical services the building may not be fit for purpose.

The nature of the design information that is delivered will depend on the particular contract and the options taken within that contract. This may be a standard form of contract, such as:

• The Royal Institute of British Architect’s (RIBA) Plan of Work, which is the most commonly accepted model of the whole construction process.
• The Association of Consulting Engineers (ACE) Schedule of Services – Part G(g).
• The New Engineering Contract (NEC) Professional Services Contract.

Alternatively, some clients issue bespoke contracts that include their own specific requirements for deliverables. Different forms of contract use their own terminology and set out their own expectations with respect to requirements for the deliverables at defined stages. With the agreement of both parties, the schedule of deliverables can be amended to suit particular building projects.

It is not necessarily for the same entity to provide a service at each stage; different entities may handover the responsibility and contribute to the design, cost and procurement at different stages. The design works cannot be considered to be complete until the installation is complete and commissioned to prove the design criteria established. At this point the final account can be settled and final payments made.

Along this continuum the building services engineers’ original design intents can be altered or compromised, particularly during the construction phase, so as to alter the nearness and trueness of the final scheme to that intended at the outset … and not necessarily in a good way. Reasons why the original design intents may be compromised are:

• Poor workmanship meaning that the criteria aspired to in the design are not achieved, which coupled with poor handover procedures mean that the performance of well-designed systems are compromised.

  Figure 0.3 illustrates the consequences of either poor quality welding on a solid pipe system or a screwed pipe system not fitted properly.

• Coordination issues where, despite what might be shown on the design drawings, the installation on site is not quite the same, such that building services engineering systems fail to coordinate with themselves, as illustrated in Figure 0.4 for the case of a CCTV installation.

  Additionally, installed building services installations may not coordinate with other building services engineering systems or a building fabric and structure.

On the other hand, however, there also may be errors in base design that go unnoticed at the time, only becoming apparent after the installation is in progress. Figure 0.5 illustrates the case of an error in a calculation, which was not detected in any review process, resulting in the wrong pipe size being included within the design deliverables … and in due course being installed incorrectly.

These situations can affect the integrity of the building services engineering systems performance, the programme and their final cost. As such, it is beneficial that building services engineers’ involvement does not stop once their design information has been completed. They also have a duty of care to clients and end-users. Their continued involvement should lessen project risks by identifying and resolving issuing arising during construction.

Design finalisation

From whatever point in the design continuum that the design is delivered by one design entity, further design work may be required. Reasons include:

• Discharging residual design responsibilities – Some procurement routes are such that the design is only partially developed at the point of appointing a construction team; thereafter, the design still needs to be completed. In the case of refurbishment or extension projects, the level and accuracy of information available relating to the base building may affect the quality of the design information. As more information becomes available during the construction phase, building services engineers may need to revisit and modify their designs.
• Rectifying errors in the original design – Preparing a successful design requires a unique combination of scientific and technical expertise, and accomplishing it in a perfect manner is difficult, if not impossible. Any discrepancies or shortcomings at the design stage, left unchallenged/unaddressed may be magnified at the construction phase. Even using the very best designers and implementing seemingly the most robust review and checking processes will not guarantee that there may be shortcomings in the original design that do not become apparent until the construction phase and even after handover.
• Addressing new design requirements – The need to make changes on any construction project is a matter of practical reality. Even the most thoughtfully planned project may necessitate modifications due to client changes, changes in legislation which are enforceable, differing site conditions, specified methods of construction becoming unfeasible and new developments in technology.

To ensure that the building services engineers’ intents are correctly interpreted by the construction team, it is sensible for them to be available to respond to queries and to examine the construction information. Furthermore, building services engineers’ presence on site will help guard clients against defects and deficiencies in the physical installation. However, the examination of the physical installation generally considers the static installation, it is not until the commissioning when, firstly, the safety and, secondly, the functionality of the building services engineering systems are tested that there is confirmation that the original design intents have been achieved.

Cost finalisation

The cost continuum starts with cost estimating, where construction entities determine what their direct costs would be to undertake the works. This provides a ‘bottom line’ cost below which it would not be economical for them to carry out the work.

Thereafter, the cost estimate is developed based on the particular information available at the time. With reference to Figure 0.6, the design information relating to building services engineering installation comes from a variety of sources, each of whom may be working on different time scales. As the design develops the cost estimate becomes more certain. A final cost estimate prepared from complete plans and specifications should be within +/−5–10% of the actual final cost.

The final cost estimate provides a benchmark for the actual final cost of the installation. The process for reaching the actual final cost may, at one extreme, involve a formal tender with an evaluation and adjudication process taking place, while, at the other extreme, the works may proceed with estimated costs being substituted for actual costs as they become known. Otherwise a process involving both elements may be used.

At handover building projects enter a defects liability period, where it is occupied and used, but the construction team may still be involved with putting right any identified defects. At the end of the defects liability period (typically one year after completion) the final account particulars can be settled. This may include adjustments due to allowances for prime costs and provisional sums, and for variations (either adding or subtracting costs) associated with changes in scope and programme. When all outstanding defects have been rectified, outstanding payment are made and the final certificate issued.