Years ago, I was responsible for quality control (QC) of our facility manager’s performance of outsourced building management services, and I did part of my QC responsibilities by completing walking tours of the equipment rooms. We titled the approach a quality control assurance process (QCAP), and I would complete building tours of each facility we managed, which covered around 24 million square feet at that time. It was that process that got me to thinking about writing this column and the previous two month’s columns. This, a tour of an air-handling room, is the last of the three QC equipment room walking tours.
This tour can occur annually or semi-annually to raise awareness of the importance of what is happening within these walls. It can also be a training tour to remind the workers of the documents within this equipment room. It’s important to note that if the reader is a design engineer, he or she should take note of the comments herein as “lessons learned” about maintaining a clean, well-ventilated, and safe space.