William Reid: [00:00:00] All right. Continuing on with the world of design in our miniseries, we just finished up talking about structural engineers. These are the doctors of our homes, if you will—the doctors, the designers, the designer doctors of our home. The structural engineer was all about the skeletal aspect of your home and how it's being held up for many years, hopefully.

And now we're gonna move into what's called the next series, which is MEP—mechanical, electrical, plumbing. You'll see that term used quite often in the world of design by architects. And those are the areas that need to be addressed in the design, and how you go about that is what we're gonna talk about today.

There is a thing called mechanical electrical plumbing engineers—MEP engineers, actually—that just [00:01:00] focus on mechanical design, electrical design, and plumbing design. I know it sounds crazy and it's a little over the top for a residential project, but if you're planning to build a very high-end or upper-end, large-size home with real high-efficiency systems, perhaps you maybe even be considering a net zero home or you're not using any gas—it's all electric, you're netting out at consuming no energy—you may have a sophisticated water filtration system and all of these kinds of things that add to the complexity of the design of a project. I wouldn't necessarily rule out using MEP engineers.

That said, it's not that common to do that in residential design, but here's the thing: regardless of who does it, somebody's gotta do it. And that's what we're gonna talk about today.

Now the mission of the Awakened Homeowner Podcast here is not to teach you how to [00:02:00] be a mechanical contractor or an HVAC contractor—heating, ventilation, air conditioning contractor—or even get into the technical aspects of it, because that's what the professionals are for. What we're gonna talk about is how you go about which path you take to coordinate this aspect of your project.

This is the respiratory system of your home. If you think about it, this is all of the heating, this is all the air conditioning, and this is the ventilation of your home, which is becoming more and more important today because in newer construction, architects and builders are designing and building very tightly sealed homes for energy efficiency.

The result of that is it requires mechanical ventilation beyond just normal bathroom fans, if you will. It requires a ventilation [00:03:00] system to bring fresh air back into the home to maintain high quality of indoor air called IAQ—indoor air quality.

Here's what happens in the world of custom home design and construction. For some reason, the HVAC design gets neglected. It gets deferred. There's a lot of assumptions that are made that can really cause negative consequences unknowingly, as you work your way through the design process, and you really don't discover any of this stuff until you show up over the weekend to look at your new home and see some godawful chases and soffits and things that have had to have been built because there was no way to get the ductwork. So we're gonna talk about that.

So I call it the design build trap. So the word "design build," when it comes to building homes and you hear people [00:04:00] that are operating design build businesses, that is where one company coordinates and performs the design and the construction of your home. That's called a design build business model. But that term's also used in the world of HVAC mechanical design, and what that means is the HVAC subcontractor—the mechanical contractor—is the person that actually designs a system.

So an architect or a residential designer will draw locations where they believe that the equipment should go. They will draw locations of where the supply registers at each of the rooms, where they think they should go, and the cold air—the supply returns, the return supply air—where those registers go.

But ultimately, the HVAC contractor has more experience in [00:05:00] ducting sizes, the length of the run of supply ducts and return ducts, the efficiencies—and I say that lightly because not all of them do—but here's the biggest problem. The biggest problem is it's not addressed early enough in the process, and that's why I call it the design build trap.

So things get thrown on the plans. Let's say you're building a two-story home and maybe you have a basement. Maybe you don't have a basement, but there's a closet that's been allocated for the equipment. How is the ductwork getting to the first floor? How is it getting to the second floor? Is there ways to get the ductwork through the second floor ceiling system, second floor system?

Are we running ductwork all the way up to the attic upstairs and then pumping the air back down? Is that a good way to do it in the climate that you're living in? If you're living in a cold climate, do you want the heat coming out of the floors so it [00:06:00] rises up? If you're living in a warm climate, do you want the ducts in the ceiling so the cold air drops down?

You get where I'm going here? It's who's thinking about all of this and when are they thinking about it? Because here's what happens—nobody's thinking about it often, especially if you don't hire a qualified architect for your project. Qualified architects, the good ones, think about that.

Otherwise, it's called the design build trap. They throw some stuff on the plans. You found a great, inexpensive draftsperson. I keep hearing this word "draftsperson" that's designing your million-dollar project. I still don't quite understand that, but you've hired a draftsperson for $10,000 to design your plans for your million-dollar project.

You know what? You're gonna get what you pay for, and they [00:07:00] just throw some plans together and just hope for the best—hope that the HVAC contractor can figure it out. That's what happens—it's the design build trap. So all of a sudden they're brought in, permits are issued, construction's beginning, and here comes the HVAC contractor.

They looked at the plans a while ago, gave a bid to your general contractor. They accepted the bid. Now they show up and they're like, "Where, how are we gonna get the ductwork up into the second floor? Where's the furnace gonna go? And this little closet, that's not enough room." This just goes on and on.

What happens is you end up making compromises. All of a sudden your nine-foot ceiling is eight feet, or all of a sudden you've got this, what's called this soffit, this big boxed-out area across one end of your room so that you could get the supply registers upstairs. All of a sudden, you've got these—your closets are getting consumed with ductwork instead of the storage that you really wanted.

This goes on and on. There's a lot of ramifications of poor planning [00:08:00] and late planning and ignoring or deferring this mechanical HVAC design.

The proper way to do it, if you're not using the MEP engineers—and we'll talk about that later—is what's called a coordinated design build. And what that means is an architect has a relationship either with a home builder or with an HVAC contractor. A home builder would have the relationship with the HVAC contractor. And once the architect has the conceptuals done, and he himself or herself has tentatively thought through where they think the stuff's gonna go—the furnace, the AC condenser, the ductwork, ventilation ducts—they bring that person into the fold and ask them, "Okay, what do you think about this?

This ceiling's 10 feet, this ceiling's 12 feet. What would be the best path? Where should we put the supply registers?" All that kind of stuff. And they talk about it and they coordinate. The design is [00:09:00] still fluid enough where they can make changes. They can build out certain areas, wider closets for the equipment, special dedicated chases.

Maybe they'll make the home a little bit bigger just so they can get this equipment in there. Maybe they'll design a, what's called a web truss system between the two floors that's taller, that has the webs and you can get ductwork through. There are a lot of different solutions to smart design, and that's what we're talking about.

That is called coordinated design build. This is when you're not using dedicated mechanical designers for a project that the architect is taking charge of the design, but they're bringing somebody in early enough to assist with them. That might cost money. I don't know who would just come in and start offering all that service for free, but it's worth it.

If you have to pay an HVAC contractor four or five hours at a time [00:10:00] just to consult, it's well worth it to make sure that you get the best end result. That's what we're talking about. You've got the design build trap—defer it, wait till later, we'll worry about it later, we can always make it work, that kind of stuff. Or the coordinated design build option, which is really the smart way to go.

All right, let's dig a little bit deeper on that, 'cause I want you to know what are some of the things that are really critical when it comes to the HVAC design? So it's becoming more and more complex with the building codes, the energy efficiency codes, and this is driving HVAC design. It's driving the technical aspects of the equipment, the physical size of the equipment, even, and how many different components go along with it.

So when we talk about mechanical design, we're talking about actual architectural plan pages that are in your plan set, and you'll see it [00:11:00] titled M1 0.01, 0.1, 1.2. You'll also see E 1.1. That'll be for electrical and P 1.1. That is normally how you lay out your mechanical, electrical, and plumbing plans.

Now, if it's not that complicated of a project, you can combine the mechanical, the electrical, and the plumbing designs onto one page. If you're getting into a very large home, very high-end, it's smart to break those out so that the particular trades can just use their pages to actually execute the work.

The challenge with that is when you hire a separate mechanical, electrical, and plumbing designer, sometimes they're individual people from one agency. Sometimes they're separate people. The architect's job is coordinating all of these trade contractors and [00:12:00] designers within the plan set. So if you hire a mechanical, electrical, and plumbing designer, the architect will export their software design to them.

They will design their systems, they will bring their software back into the architectural plans. The architect will overlay all of these plans and coordinate all of this to make sure that all of this works well within the building, all of these things are coordinated together because you have three or four different people looking at these areas, and then he or she brings them together and we'll find out things like, "Oh, we've got the water heater and the furnace in the same location." That doesn't work. There's a lot of back and forth that goes on, but here's some of the things that should be on your mechanical pages or supplemental documentation, and that's the actual make and model numbers of the furnaces, the air handlers, the heat pumps, whatever the designer is calling for.

If you [00:13:00] don't have that information on the plans, this is an opportunity to get bids in all kinds of ranges because you're gonna have different subcontractors bidding different equipment. This is one of the advantages of hiring an independent mechanical designer because they will be objective, they will be most up to date with the current specifications of make and models, and that will get documented on the plans.

These designers will also have the installation provisions and space requirements. They will be coordinating with the electrical power needs and the plumbing connections, such as natural gas or propane. They will have dedicated spaces for their main equipment and they will allocate and tell you exactly all of the components coming in and out of this equipment to make sure that you have the space and the clearances required.

And then you'll also have the ancillary equipment that goes along with that, such as filtration systems, [00:14:00] water heaters, and they will actually have diagrams showing where all of this stuff goes, and they will have diagram of the ductwork planning and where it goes all the way through on the plan so that a subcontractor can take a look at those plans and estimate the length of the ductwork diameter, and give a very comprehensive estimate based on the design.

Your architect's not gonna necessarily do that. It's usually a mechanical designer, HVAC designer that does that. You don't have to do that, but if you really want to pin it down, you have a bigger project—this is how you do it. The ductwork planning is one of the most important aspects because the ductwork location can physically change your structure.

It can interject components like I mentioned earlier, into your home that you weren't expecting, such as columns and soffits, and all of a sudden there's [00:15:00] an air register coming out of the ceiling right next to a fire sprinkler and a light fixture. We'll get into that and how you, how that gets resolved.

So the ductwork planning is really important. The register and grill locations like we just talked about, is really important, and how that's tied to all of the different things. What an architect does is they take what's called a reflected ceiling plan, and that's a ceiling plan of your home, of all the floors of your home.

They coordinate all of the aspects that will go into the ceilings, including the architectural elements, the decorative beams, the columns, all of the details that come up and touch the ceiling. It will integrate the structural elements that go into a ceiling such as structural beams that might end up in be in the way of ductwork or grill registers.

It will integrate the electrical and lighting plan so that we can relate the recessed [00:16:00] lighting to the fire sprinkler plan and the HVAC plan. As you can see, this is a lot of the work that goes on behind the scenes that your architect coordinates that provides a tremendous amount of value to you because when you look up, you don't want to see a fire sprinkler two inches away from your light fixture that's hanging out of the ceiling.

You don't want to have a recessed light fixture crammed up against a decorative beam when it could have been equally spaced between the beams, if you see what I'm saying here. So this is a big aspect of what an architect does, and the mechanical HVAC work is a big part of it.

William Reid: So from your perspective as a homeowner, what you care about is what could happen and how to prevent it, right? You aren't expected to understand the technicalities of all of the equipment, but you wanna make sure that you've got the right people on your side designing it. And you may recall in some previous episodes I talked about the [00:17:00] permit push.

And this is another one of those things that ends up being a result is the architect or the designers. And I gotta say it's the architects—the qualified architects usually aren't the problem. It's the inferior architects, the residential designers and the draftspeople, we'll call 'em, that are the culprits here, because they are just trying to do the bare minimum.

Yeah, you paid the bare minimum. You get the bare minimum and they didn't think it through and they just wanna get the permits and get it off their desk. You're the one that gets screwed over because now you're getting bids all over the place. You've got ductwork in midair that can't get, that can't come out of a ceiling somewhere 'cause of beams in the way. You've got subcontractors wanting to cut through beams to get the duct over there.

This is what I'm talking about. And a permit push is a good instigator of that, assuming that the contractor, the builder or and/or the subcontractor is gonna figure it out. That is [00:18:00] either happening consciously or subconsciously. But the bottom line is the can's getting kicked down the road that, "Okay, I put the furnace here, I've got a chase here. They'll figure it out." That's where you run into just a ton of problems.

And if you were to pull a hundred general contractors that build custom homes, and you ask them, "What are some of the top five problems that you run into when you're building a project?" I guarantee you that HVAC design is gonna rank very close to the top, and that's because they're left holding the bag.

They're left trying to figure all this out. They're having to make changes. Sometimes they try to pass that cost onto the customer. Sometimes they eat the cost. Yeah, and you end up paying the price too, both emotionally because you're not getting the design you wanted and financially because you are getting change ordered to death for some of this stuff.

So depending on the contractor is not the right way to go and not fair to them and [00:19:00] not fair to you. And that is because of inadequate coordination. The architect's responsibility, and you need to make sure that you are empowering your architect to do that, meaning you're paying them to do that so that they can coordinate that early.

They can coordinate that with the electrical and the plumbing and the structural aspect of the project. Let them figure it out. Don't push them to the point where or negotiate your great price so that you can move on and end up with a mediocre home.

All right, let's talk about how you can take control of your mechanical design, what you should do as a homeowner to initiate some of the steps I'm talking about. And this usually goes with questions to ask. Here we go again with—we're gonna tackle you don't know what you don't know, but now you're gonna know what to know and know what to ask.

So here's some questions during the design [00:20:00] process that you would ask. Who is responsible for coordinating the mechanical design on my project? Listen, is it the architect? Do they like to bring in a subcontractor? Are they recommending a mechanical design contractor? The best part of all this is you're just getting it out there. They may not come to you and initiate that. They may just do it on their own and try to do the bare minimum without you even knowing what is important.

How early in the design process will you bring in mechanical expertise? Again, the architects starting to understand or your mediocre designers starting to understand that this is an important part of the project. And that they need to take ownership of it. I don't care if they charge you for it or not. It's part of the design process.

When in the design process will mechanical systems be coordinated? In other words, how early are we gonna do this? Are we waiting till the end? Now these people know, these designers know that you have an interest in this. [00:21:00] Will I see the mechanical plans before construction begins?

Asking to see the plans and have them explain to you is just a mechanism for you to instinctively figure out if they have it figured out, and if that somehow never makes it to a meeting, you probably are right that they didn't figure it out. And now you should pause and say, "Okay, show me where all the ductwork's gonna go. If you could just explain that to me." I know this seems like you're micromanaging it, but it's your home. You're the one who's gonna get stuck with some weird details because nobody thought about it.

And then what's your experience working with mechanical engineers or HVAC contractors during design? That's gonna tell us if that architect's used to engaging with mechanical engineers. Or do they like to use a local contractor or a home builder that they bring in? Or do they do it themselves? And if they do it themselves, are they qualified [00:22:00] to think about all the details?

Now one little side benefit—this is happening during the design process and we haven't got there yet. Once I get through all of the consultants and all the team that is gonna be doing all the work, we're gonna talk about the design process. But if you bring in a home builder early in the process. So after you've conceptualized the home, you bring a home builder or a general contractor in, they can come along your side and help you and the architect.

Consult with you on things that they think about because they are the ones that actually implement the designs. They know more than anybody. The architect has very good sense and understands how structures go together, and great at design. But the contractors are the ones that know what really happens.

So a contractor can look at a set of plans and visualize it in their head really rapidly and go, "Okay, where's this going? [00:23:00] Where's that going? Let's talk about this. Let's talk about that." But also now you're getting a chance to interview builders and contractors and get familiar with them way down the line when it's time to start estimating your project.

As you get deeper with the architect and you're having a dialogue back and forth, you're gonna be asking questions like, "Are you recommending an independent mechanical engineer or coordinated design build approach for my project?" Listen and learn. Find out what they like to do. And make an educated decision if we're using a design build approach.

When will the HVAC contractor be brought into the design process? Again, we're driving that point home. If they say, "After we submit for permits," wrong—should be early in the design process after the home is conceptualized. What heating and cooling systems are being recommended and why?

How is the equipment being sized for my specific home? Are there actual load calculations and design work being [00:24:00] done, or is it just a rule of thumb? Many HVAC contractors just look at the square footage and then they go, "There's 3000 square feet, so that should be a five ton system." They just go off the cuff.

In fact, I would have to say a large percentage of projects get done that way. They don't think about the climate, the orientation, the actual architectural design, the multi floors, the wide ranch style. There's a lot of other considerations that have to come into play, and that's where a mechanical designer will definitely trump an HVAC contractor any day when it comes to designing a highly efficient, a highly effective system.

You are gonna be asking things like, "What are the efficiency ratings? How will that affect my utility bills?" Engineers think about that. "Where will the equipment be located and how will that affect noise and aesthetics?" Okay, what about noise? Do these things make [00:25:00] noise? The newer systems don't make that much noise, but if it's right behind your master bedroom headboard for something—for just a hypothetical example—or sitting right above you or sitting right above the dining room or next to the dining room. These are the things that somebody's gotta ask, somebody's gotta think about. And if you don't think about it, other people aren't gonna probably think about it unless they're really good and they're out there.

So here's some red flags to look at as you're working your way through having a dialogue with your architect. And be careful when your architect says that, "Now the HVAC contractor will figure that out." Okay, that's good to know. Now you're gonna ask all kinds of questions about that. Be careful if your architect really has no established relationship with a mechanical consultant or qualified HVAC contractor.

If they don't immediately know who to contact or who to bring in. To me, that tells me that they have never really prioritized [00:26:00] the design of your respiratory system, and that is a big flag for me. Be careful when you hear things like "we'll address that after we submit for permits." Be careful if the architect doesn't take initiative to coordinate some of these meetings with home builders or subcontractors, if that's the path that they've decided to take, and it just slowly gets deferred and deferred out.

It's simple if the equipment's not specified on the plans, if the ductwork routes are not planned, and if your architect just doesn't seem to have a grip on the HVAC technology and the code requirements. I know this sounds crazy, but there are a lot of designers out there that don't make this a priority in their education and they're continuing education.

They either defer or depend on others, which is fine if they are qualified. Architects love design buildings, and not all of them really get into the [00:27:00] entire aspect of the home and the systems. They either forget about it or they bring in the staff or they dive in themselves.

So remember our core principle: it's less expensive to build your product if you invest more in the design process upfront. This is especially true for mechanical systems. You can make some big mistakes not knowing you're making big mistakes, and it's not really that fair to you because you weren't informed.

And guess what? That's what the Awakened Homeowner mission is all about, and that's what your architect and designers are all about and the consultants should be about is educating you so that you can then make informed decisions. But what happens if you don't? This is where the change order hell comes in that you hear about from all your colleagues and friends that have remodeled or online you're reading about this. And that could be because all the sudden ductwork conflicts with the structure of the home.

And you really physically can't get the duct on the other side over there to [00:28:00] supply the proper airflow. So they either compromise on the design of that or changes have to be made to the structure in order for it to happen. This shouldn't happen. This should have been thought about way in advance.

It is possible that you'll be replacing systems 'cause they don't perform well in just a couple years after you get your home going. You'll make aesthetic compromises. And this is the biggest one that I hear about from homeowners when they see that a whole ceiling had to have been dropped or big columns of chases had to be carved out of corners of rooms and closets and registers are not in the proper locations. And then the, of course, the comfort issues—it's an expensive correction to make.

So again, there's two paths to successful HVAC design. That's the independent mechanical engineer for projects. The best part about this is you have an objective person looking out just for [00:29:00] you designing the system. You have a professional engineer that's coordinating with your architect, your professional architect. Together they come up with the best solutions. They're very current on the technology and will specify the proper equipment for the home. They think about the performance, they think about the comfort level.

They do analysis and calculations on the airflow and all this kind of stuff. So again, if you're investing 2, 3, 4, $5 million, $1 million into a home, why not spend five or $6,000 or 10,000, whatever it is, $10,000. Do feel great while you're inside your home to feel great, because the quality of the air on the inside of the home is great, doesn't it?

Makes sense, but a lot of people don't do it for two reasons. One, they didn't know they needed to do it or could do it, and there [00:30:00] were two. They're cheap. And the cheap people, that's on you. That means that you're just trying to build a cheap home and not as concerned about your comfort or your health when it comes to the indoor air quality.

So there, take that. So that's the mechanical engineer aspect. The other one is the coordinated design build, and I've already talked a lot about that, but that is where you bring in a qualified HVAC contractor at the right time, and now you're in a much better position to achieve your goals and your expectations.

All right, we're getting there. So here's some takeaways of everything I talked about. And again, remember, the objective here is to position you so that you can make informed decisions by asking the right questions. The objective here is to not to teach you how many CFM your ducts should be delivering at each register. There's people, professionals for that. You just gotta make sure you get the right ones and they understand what you want.

But during the project planning phase, [00:31:00] you need to decide with your architect, are you gonna be using an independent mechanical engineer or are you gonna go to the coordinated design build approach? We're not gonna do the design build trap, gee, what a surprise, right? Just, those are the two paths you take, and by knowing this, you can jot this down and ask your architect.

During the schematic design, the early design process, ensure that the mechanical concepts are being considered not deferred. I emphasize this because I have personally coordinated hundreds of projects with different architects and designers, and I have to say that a large percentage of 'em, I am the one as the owner agent or as the builder had to initiate addressing. The HVAC designed properly to make sure it's happening as efficiently, as effectively as possible.

So you as a homeowner should not assume that this is just gonna automatically get taken care of. [00:32:00] That you should know to ask. It might just be one simple question to your architect, and not nearly as complex as I'm making it with this podcast episode, but it could just be "tell me about mechanical and HVAC design and how we do it best."

That could open up enough dialogue to get you where you need to be if you decide to do that. Coordinate, design, build approach. Just make sure that it's early on enough. If you're starting to work your way deep into the design and you still haven't heard about the HVAC mechanical design, ring the bell, and let's figure out when that's gonna get addressed.

Review the equipment specifications that are coming about now, that could be through the mechanical design engineer, or it could be through the HVAC contractor that's involved in the project early on. But just take a look at 'em and have them explain it to you and ask questions like, "Why are we using this model? Is there anything better and what's better about it? Is there anything less [00:33:00] expensive that would accomplish the same goals? What are we making compromises on?"

So I always like to ask, "Is this the best way to go? Is this the most efficient, highest performing system that we're doing, or can we do better?" Listen for that answer because very often it'll be "no, we could go with this higher end equipment and this and that's gonna add another five or 10 or $20,000 to the job." And now you're informed, you're included in the decision making process. Don't just assume that everything is okay and that they're specifying the right equipment.

If you're going with a coordinated design build approach, they might be specifying the equipment because they think it's the least expensive so that they can get the project. That's not what we care about. What we care about is how am I gonna feel in my home, and if I gotta spend extra money to feel really great, why not really consider that?

So asking that question. Before the final plans and documents are done, ready to go to get a permit, double check [00:34:00] again. "Can we take a look at the ductwork and where all of this is gonna go and how it's gonna get there? I just want to make sure that I'm not surprised during construction." That is one of the best things that you can do to protect everybody really.

That is some practical takeaways from what we just spoke about and the things that you can do as a homeowner. Or even if you are an owner builder where you are coordinating everything yourself, right? These are the things that you should take away from this so that you can end up with the best end result.

So let's remember the MEP systems—we're talking about the mechanical systems today—is your home's infrastructure. It's built into your home. It's not easy to change later, and it deserves the same attention as your floor plan, your exterior design, the colors, the slab, granite you fell in love with.

This deserves just as much [00:35:00] time. And then you can put it aside and let everybody go to work. You have to remember that this affects your comfort, efficiency, and aesthetics of your home. These are the kind of things that are hard to put your thumb on during design 'cause you're not rubbing the cabinet finish and you're not licking your new granite countertop.

This is invisible air flowing in your home. And if you have the right professionals looking out for you, you're gonna feel great. It's gonna be great for your health, your mental health. If you thought about it, it's miserable if you didn't put enough priority on the HVAC design, and you have to think about it every day as you're living in your home.

So the coordination is everything. They must work harmoniously with your architectural design, your structural design, your electrical and your plumbing elements. And this is where the design professionals come into play.

So remember, you're not just building a house. You're creating your home. You're [00:36:00] creating the infrastructure of your home for decades, hopefully, of comfort and efficiency. So take control from the beginning. In all fairness, you didn't know probably that these are some of the things that need to happen that could happen if you don't know, and that's what we're addressing here.

And remember, we're trying to meet your expectations of this beautiful custom home that you're envisioning. And if you just take this one little example of mechanical design and spread that philosophy across all the other things we're gonna be talking about in the next upcoming episodes. This is how you are orchestrating your home, your dream home.

You're not supposed to become an expert in all of this. Don't try to become an expert in all of this. You'll burn out and you'll give up. But find the right experts, find the right process, then let them go to work, and then poke your head in the door once in a while and make sure they're doing it. I'm Bill Reid.

This is Awakened [00:37:00] Homeowner. We will see you on the next one, which is electrical and lighting, which is very similar. Thanks for listening.