Hot Water System Installation and Coordination with Builders for New Homes

August 17, 2018

It’s harder to install a hot water system in an existing home. Pipe layouts have already been determined and the locations for the fittings set. Sure, an HVAC installer can work around an intransigent home layout, can find a way to overcome the peculiarities of an existing architectural design, but wouldn’t it be easier to be there right from the beginning? After all, new homes have restriction free opportunities aplenty.

Builder Coordinating Benefits 

An older structure could have narrow wall voids and all kinds of restrictive structural features. These are the project-limiting structural attributes that hamper contractors years later. By being onsite, with the builders of a new home, there are well-timed opportunities in the offing. If a concrete plinth is required for the water tank, the hot water system installer communicates this need to the builder. What if the gear is gas-fuelled? Then there’s talk of ventilation. The heating engineer coordinates that mandatory feature, and the tank gains a series of wall vents. Likewise, around key rooms on the property, vents are incorporated into the design plans. Wall void space for extended pipe runs, ceiling layouts that account for layers of thermal insulation, and more, the coordination phase helps eliminate potential system limitations.

Heating Engineer Responsibilities 

From another viewpoint, the hot water system installation will go smoother if the builders know the plans for the various pipes and fittings that are about to be installed. There are load-bearing walls in the structure, support surfaces that would create a nice shortcut for the hot water pipes, but the work would jeopardize the building’s structural integrity. Because of this reason, the building contractor must know the pipe routes, must know which wall or floor panel requires breaching. Otherwise, the two services, heating installer and builder, are blindly working against each other. An unspoken agreement exists while all the workers are active. So the hot water system installation team keeps the building contractor up to date on their activities while receiving the same level of professional courtesy.

More than a professional courtesy, though, the two teams rely on services coordination. The building must, of course, stick closely to its design plans, but there’s always a little wiggle room. It’s the job of the hot water system installation engineer to communicate certain requests. An approved route for the pipes is one thing, but then there are other, more pressing matters to determine. Vents to the outside, concrete plinths, structural integrity, room for fittings, all of these matters break free of system-limiting design factors when there’s a solid line of service-liaising site coordination in effect.

 

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