Mechanical rooms
The mechanical room, designed as a room.
The boilers, manifolds, pumps and controls live in one place. We plan its size, access and sound before the framing goes up, then label everything in it.
A good fit when
A new house with the room still on paper
A remodel with equipment squeezed into a closet
Equipment that has to be reached in the middle of winter
A room that shares a wall with a bedroom
What we plan
What a good mechanical room has.
The checklist we send to the architect at schematic design.
Floor area and clearances
Room to stand, to open a panel and to replace a pump without cutting a wall.
A door the equipment fits through
Today's boiler and the next one, both.
Floor drains and condensate
Water has somewhere to go when something is drained or leaks.
Combustion and make-up air
Sized for altitude and openings drawn on the plans.
Sound isolation
Isolated pump mounts, a sealed door and a wall build-up agreed with the architect.
Labels and a wall schematic
Every valve and pipe named, with one diagram on the wall that matches the room.
Shut-offs you can find
Water and gas shut-offs marked, with the house manager shown where they are.
Questions about this work
How big should the room be?
It depends on the systems. We ask for a first size at schematic design and refine it as the load calculation firms up. A room that is too small is one of the costliest things to fix after framing.
How loud will the system be?
We set a noise target for each room with you and the architect, using NC ratings, then design to it: equipment away from sleeping floors, slow air through the ducts, isolated mounts and sealed doors on the mechanical room. At start-up we take sound readings and give you the numbers.
My carbon monoxide alarm is sounding, or I smell gas.
Leave the house with everyone in it, and call 911 and the gas utility from outside. Don't call us first, and don't go back in to switch anything off. Once the house is cleared, we can help with the repair.
Who pulls the permits?
We pull the mechanical permit and schedule the inspections for our work. On a new home the builder may hold the main permit, and we then work under it. Your architect and builder will tell us which applies.
Tell us about the house.
A few lines about the site and the schedule are enough to start.