Question

We are designing the catering in a new build and the main client has told us that it’s our responsibility to design/draw the pipework route from the coldrooms to the roof located compressors. We’ve never done this before as its always been part of the M&E package. Could members advise either on their experience or a suitable reply?

Replies

1. The simplest way to achieve this is to get the cold room manufacturer on site to execute a full and detailed survey, they will then produce manufacturers drawings showing the route. There may be a cost for this exercise.
2. I would recommend they get the appropriate advice from their coldroom suppliers as usually there are oil traps required on a vertical run. They would have to agree a route with the builder or building management as this would depend on access physical provision of the route, so a site survey by the refrigeration supplier would need to happen. Also, usually containment is down to the builder so might be worth checking if that will be excluded also.
3. As a top quality ceda member surely the company who supplies the refrigeration install service would do this as a level of their competence.
4. Our experience of this was to ask our sub-contract cold-room installer who makes the cold-rooms up and was happy to provide us with the layout drawing as they were running the pipework. It does mean faffing around revisiting site if the walls are up and then planning the route, which can take some time. You must ensure that they the client provide a drawing showing all other plant or equipment as we found that the position of our pipe run was through a boiler that was not on their drawings. We also charged for this service . Hope this helps .
5. This needs to be coordinated by the M&E contractor/consultant but it is not unreasonable for them to ask the fridge contractor for this to be provided as a drawing. Suggest they throw back to the client and ask for confirmation of pipework route required for the coordination of the installation with other services and future maintenance. Ask for a full set of cad drawings for the route so once a route is agreed, get the fridge company to plot it on the drawing.
6. As a general rule of thumb this is the norm on most of the projects we undertake. The design and drawing would always be with the Cold Store provider.