- Home
- Businesses
Shops, kitchens, studios and buildings with people living above
Mixed-use is the normal case here rather than the exception, and it changes almost everything about how a commercial job has to be done.
Every unit found, identified and mapped to what it serves
On a building that has changed tenants several times the roof holds a mixture of live plant, dead plant and units connected to nothing, and what serves what is rarely what anybody assumes. We produce a list: unit by unit, model and serial, measured condition, the area it actually feeds, and whether it runs.
Then the readings that matter commercially: airflow and static pressure, refrigerant charge, economiser operation where one is fitted, filter condition and the pressure drop across it, belt and bearing condition, condensate drainage, and a combustion analysis on gas heat.
And on any older building, how the plant is fixed down and whether the gas and refrigerant connections can move — because on a roof, that is genuinely part of the mechanical job.
Somebody lives above the business
What that changes about the equipment
Noise and vibration stop being a comfort question and become a tenancy question. A condenser bolted to a shared structure transmits through it, and a unit that is perfectly acceptable on an industrial roof is not acceptable under somebody’s bedroom. Siting, isolation and run schedule all get decided differently, and they have to be decided before the equipment is ordered rather than after the first complaint.
Extract is the other one. A kitchen flue discharging beside a residential window is a problem that no amount of filtration solves, and the only real answers are termination height and position.
What that changes about us
We will measure sound pressure and give both parties the figures with the date and the method. We will site and isolate equipment properly, and we will tell a business owner plainly when what they are asking for will not be tolerable upstairs.
What we will not do is take a side. We are frequently instructed by one party in a building where the other party is unhappy, and we will say so to both. The measurement is the document. Neither of you gets a version of it written for you.
What we do in premises
- Written plant survey
Every unit found, identified, measured and mapped to what it serves, with abandoned plant marked as dead.
- Planned maintenance
Scheduled visits, the same readings each time, written specifically enough that a lease obligation can be shown to have been met.
- Repair and replacement
Repair diagnosed and costed first. Replacement sized from the load the building carries now, with access and crane logistics established before anything is ordered.
- Noise and vibration
Sound pressure measured before and after, equipment sited and isolated, and an honest answer where a plan will not work in a mixed-use building.
- Make-up air and kitchen balance
Extraction measured against supply, with the figures written down. We do not clean hoods or certify fire suppression.
- Plant restraint
Rooftop and platform equipment fixed and connected to manufacturer instructions, with flexible connections where they are missing.
Work we turn down
| We decline | Who it belongs to |
|---|---|
| Structural and seismic certification | We install restraint and we photograph it. Calculations, sign-off and anything an insurer or an inspector relies on belong to a structural engineer. |
| Acoustic certification | We measure sound pressure and build quiet plant. Signing a space off to a criterion is an acoustic consultant’s work. |
| Central chiller plant and cooling towers | A different discipline with different tickets, and we are not going to learn it on your building. |
| Proprietary building management systems | We will work with the controls in front of us and tell you what a schedule is doing. Programming a manufacturer-locked system belongs to whoever holds the licence. |
| Commercial refrigeration | Walk-ins, display cases and ice machines are adjacent and are not the same trade. |
| Hood cleaning and fire suppression | Separate licensed jobs. We do the air balance around the hood. |
| Laboratory fume extraction | Where extraction is a containment question rather than a comfort one it needs an industrial hygienist and a specialist contractor, and we will say so rather than take it on. |
Tell us the building
What it is used for, whether anybody lives above it, roughly how many units are on the roof, and where the complaints come from. 1224 Tenth St, Berkeley. Monday to Friday, 7.30am to 4pm.