An Overview of the Five Building Commissioning Phases
Building commissioning is basically a process to ensure that plumbing, building security, electrical and fire or life safety in a new construction are operating based on the design provided by the engineers and building architects. The first of the building commissioning phases is called the Pre-Design phase. In this phase, a member of contractor’s team will meet with a project team representative from the hiring company to establish the ground rules and to be sure everyone is on the same page as to how the process will proceed. Visit PrimaryIntegration.com to learn more about the 5 building commissioning phases.
The second phase is called the Design phase. This part of the commissioning phase calls for the contractor to review all schematic documents that they are provided with. The team will review all documents and compare them to the requirements in the program. In this commissioning phase, any questions, concerns, or suggestions will be documented and brought to the attention of the project management team to be discussed prior to moving forward to the construction phase.
Once all of the issues are resolved and the plans are finalized, you would then move to the Construction Phase. During this commissioning phase, all team members from the commissioning team will meet with the construction team to review the roles of all members. Once construction has started, a member from the commissioning team will stay in contact with the construction team to ensure the project is staying on schedule. As the construction commissioning phase draws to a close, a coordinator will lead the planning of the acceptance phase.
The next commissioning phase is the Occupancy phase. This phase is where the formal training of any onsite staff by the installing contractors will be completed for proper operation and maintenance. This is also where a close out meeting with the project team occurs to cover any final resolutions to any open items or issues to ensure all parties are satisfied with the project.
The final commissioning stage is the Post-Occupancy phase. This occurs approximately ten months after the completion of the construction project. The purpose of this meeting is to review the performance of the facility as a whole with the staff to identify any issues that have arisen. All problems will be documented at this time and forwarded to the responsible party as well as the entire project team. A follow up call will be scheduled with the project team to talk about any additional problems and to determine what actions will be taken to finalize the project to everyone’s satisfaction. For more information about the 5 building commissioning contact a representative from Primary Integration Solutions.