Quality Assurance in MEP Engineering

Ensuring the quality of MEP engineering is critical to the success of any project. The work must be meticulously carried out according to specific standards and regulations to avoid costly mistakes and delays.      

Quality assurance professionals ensure that all aspects of MEP engineering are up to par. These experts use various methods to inspect and test systems, identify issues, and correct them before they cause problems. This article provides an overview of quality assurance in MEP engineering.

What is Quality Assurance in MEP Engineering?

Quality assurance (QA) in MEP engineering is a building process that assures building owners and developers that their building products and systems will meet or exceed industry standards. In the commercial building industry, these include the International Building Codes (IBC), National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards.

MEP QA engineers typically have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in engineering and are licensed Professional Engineers (PEs). They work with architects, building owners, developers, and contractors to ensure that the building’s MEP systems are designed and installed correctly. This includes reviewing drawings and specifications, attending project meetings, conducting site visits, and performing quality control testing.

QA engineers also develop and implement quality assurance plans that outline how the building’s MEP systems will be monitored throughout the construction process. By following these plans, QA engineers can identify potential problems early on and take corrective action to prevent them from becoming major issues. Quality assurance is essential to MEP engineering because it helps ensure that buildings are safe, efficient, and compliant with code requirements.

Roles & Responsibilities of a Quality Assurance Engineer

Six Step QA Process
The commercial building industry’s quality assurance (QA) process is essential to ensuring that buildings are safe and meet all required building codes and standards. Quality assurance engineers, or teams, oversee the QA process and ensure that all building materials and products meet the required specifications.  This includes working with building owners, developers, and contractors to ensure that they know the requirements and take the necessary steps to meet them. The QA team also conducts regular inspections of building materials and products, during construction, to ensure that they meet the required standards.

It is important that the QA process have multiple levels or tiers of oversight.   This is essential because it is often difficult for a design engineer to see the potential issues in a specific design, because they may be too close to the proposed design or may not have the same experience level as the other engineers reviewing the drawings.   At Schnackel Engineers, we employ a minimum of four tiers of engineering quality reviews for all projects, and often all six steps are taken on larger projects.

Team-Level Reviews
Quality assurance engineers need to be involved in team-level reviews to assess the quality of work performed by the design engineers and other workers.  In this role, they may identify areas where quality needs to be improved and make recommendations for how to achieve the desired result.  Quality assurance engineers ensure that commercial building projects meet the required standards before they are submitted for discipline level reviews.  Often, the team level reviews include the Project Manager, who has specific insights into the objectives of the project and its stakeholders.

Discipline Level Reviews
Once the design has passed all team level QA reviews, the project is submitted to the discipline specific QA directors. The discipline specific QA director and team ensures that the building services (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) meet the required code and standards, as well as, is integrated with all disciplines involved in the project.  This includes conducting research on existing conditions, project criteria, the owner’s project requirements (OPR) and any basis of design (BOD) that was established during the course of design.  Often, this includes coordinating with the building owner, developer, and other stakeholders to ensure what has been reflected on the drawings, matches their intent for the project.

To effectively carry out their role, QA MEP engineers must be highly experienced, have a strong understanding of the building codes and be up-to-date on the latest industry standards and technology. They must also be able to communicate effectively with the other design team members, both internal and external to the firm.  They will check each system separately to ensure that it meets all requirements and then check for coordination between the systems to ensure a cohesive overall design.

Peer Reviews
Peer reviews are an important part of the quality assurance process, particularly on larger projects, as they allow experts to assess their peers’ work and identify potential problems or areas for improvement. In addition, QA MEP engineers or teams may also be responsible for preparing quality control plans and specifications, which may include peer reviews. The crux of the peer review process is to get a “fresh set of eyes” on each design to identify potential issues that the design engineers may not have noticed. 

Peer reviews can be internal or external to the firm. External peer reviews are often completed by competing firms to enhance the depth of the peer review process. Peer reviews are, by their nature, expensive and are typically reserved only for the largest and most mission critical projects.

Shop Drawing Reviews
One of the essential roles of a quality assurance MEP engineer is to review shop drawings. Shop drawings are usually prepared by the contractor and submitted to the building owner or developer for approval. The building owner or developer then forwards the drawings to the architect and or MEP quality assurance engineer for review.

The quality assurance engineer’s role is to ensure that the shop drawings meet the requirements of the building code and the contract documents. In addition, the quality assurance engineer may also need to provide comments and recommendations on the shop drawings. At Schnackel Engineers, all shop drawing submittals are checked by an independent expert who was not a part of the initial design team.  This provides that “fresh set of eyes” on the project before any equipment or materials are ordered.   Shop drawing reviews by a separate expert will often identify and avoid potential problems in the field or during the operation of the building.

Construction Administration
Construction administration is a role and responsibility of a quality assurance MEP engineering team. The building owner or developer employs the engineer to provide continuing services during the construction of the project. In the commercial building industry, it is customary for the MEP engineer to be engaged by the building owner or developer to monitor the construction contractor’s performance of the MEP work in the field. The engineer’s role is to ensure to the best of his ability that the contractor performs their work as per the contract documents.

QA MEP engineers may also be involved in building inspections, reviewing construction documents and drawings, and coordinating with builders and contractors to resolve any issues that arise.

Field Coordination
Field coordination is another role and responsibility of a quality assurance MEP engineering team. Many building owners and developers require the MEP engineer to attend project meetings and field coordination meetings, particularly at the start of construction, to ensure that all systems fit within the spaces allocated and can be serviced once the building is completed.  Field coordination is essential for the engineer to know what is happening on-site so that they can provide input and feedback to the building design, construction, and ownership team.

The engineer must communicate with all trades, understand their scope of work, and be familiar with the construction schedule. The MEP engineer needs to perform site visits to verify that the installation meets the building code requirements and the design intent.

Importance & Benefits
A quality assurance MEP engineer provides building owners, developers, and the commercial building industry with essential benefits and peace of mind during both design and construction. Peace of mind that their building’s systems will be appropriately designed, integrated, and coordinated according to the applicable building codes.

The necessary quality controls must be in place during design, planning, and installation so that the work will be performed correctly, tested, and commissioned to verify compliance with the design intent before turnover to the building owner.  QA/QC plus testing and commissioning services, to protect the owner’s investment, ensure safety and can save a lot of money in costly rework, change orders, or potential litigation.

How Can We Help?

MEP engineering is essential in construction, and quality assurance is key to a successful project. Schnackel Engineers has a long history of providing quality MEP engineering services for projects of all sizes.  Our six step quality processes are unique in this industry.  We have the experience and expertise to help your project stay on track and within budget. Let us put our knowledge to work for you – contact us today for a consultation!