Building Services

This includes heating, ventilation, air conditioning, domestic water, drainage, electrical power, lighting, data, communications, fire alarms, security systems and lightning protection. We work in a wide range of industry sectors including residential schemes, education and community projects. We also specialise in projects involving the conservation and reuse of historic buildings.

Our involvement as early as possible in the project can really add value and play a vital part in the performance of buildings – good design can radically reduce energy consumption

The building services offering from Greengauge is traditionally broken down into design phases informed by the architectural RIBA Stages. There a 4 main appointment phases:

• Brief – RIBA Stage 1 – Aims to work with clients to understand their needs and project requirements. This is often completed if no brief exists but even where one exists, a review and challenge of this can be very valuable from our experienced team.
  
  
• Concept – RIBA Stage 2 – Culminates in a report at the end of the appointment. This document builds upon meetings and emails with the client and architect in order to settle upon an agreed strategy. This report will include M&E information for the HVAC strategy options and bring together any other elements such as PHPP analysis, Part L compliance and even building biology concepts which have contributed to the selected servicing strategy indicating typical equipment strategies and sizes for client agreement and to assist with the cost planning by the QS, prior to moving through RIBA Stage 3-4.
  
  
• Tender – RIBA Stage 3-4 – Production of a specification and drawings of varying detail dependent on whether the appointment is RIBA Stage 3 Developed Design or Stage 4 Technical Design. The more advanced RIBA Stage 4, if selected for appointment, increases the detail of the tender information reducing project risk.
  
  
• Site – RIBA Stage 5-7 – encompasses our site monitoring and advisory service during construction to ensure the build goes as smoothly as possible.

The most important decisions are usually made early in the design process so our involvement as early as possible in the project can really add value and play a vital part in the performance of all buildings. Our approach is to work closely with the design team to explore these aspects at a very early stage and we understand that good design can radically reduce energy consumption and we work hard to find the systems and technologies for each scheme that are fit for purpose and within budget. The simplest system that can meet the user’s needs will often yield best in-use results as they’re simple to operate (and often the cheapest).

This is aided by good building fabric design. The less spent on services means the more to spend on insulation. Please see the other section on Building Fabric.