In last month's column, we discussed the importance of coordinating the testing, adjusting, and balancing (TAB) work with the commissioning work on each project. Three options were presented for approaches most often taken by facility owners: commissioning as separate from TAB; commissioning that includes spot checking the TAB contractor's work; and commissioning that includes all TAB work as part of the commissioning consultant's scope of services. This month, I want to concentrate on some of the issues associated with the latter approach.
It is rare to have a facility owner request that the commissioning provider include TAB as part of the scope of services. However, some owners are looking for the commissioning process to solve a multitude of problems experienced on past construction projects, and sometimes these include TAB problems. Simply slipping the TAB work under the commissioning umbrella will not necessarily make some TAB issues go away, but it will make them the responsibility of a professional who has no interests other than delivering a quality project.