We won’t go into the detail of each service, but you can find resources online (see the end of this guide to access links to lots of resources that will teach you about Building Services). To give you a broad idea of what an M&E Building Service does every day, let’s look at the life cycle of a project, and the jobs created. This will help you see how you can visualise a career path within M&E.
A major bank has a property that now has outdated electrical and mechanical systems and needs to update them for safety reasons. Other reasons for updating are to install more energy efficient systems in line with their commitment to the environment. They also want to make the building more comfortable for its staff and customers by upgrading their heating and air-conditioning systems. New lighting and heating systems will use the latest technology to delivery energy efficient benefits and lower running costs. Data cabling needs to be upgraded to cope with their growing technology infrastructure. The project requires a full strip-out of all existing electrical and mechanical systems and replacing it with a new mechanical & electrical system. Since everything is being stripped out, it will necessitate new fire and security alarms.
As with many commercial buildings of this size, all these systems need to be controlled with Building Management Systems, which are your digital displays that help the user monitor everything from regulating room temperature, electrical power usage, security and so on. What is involved in such a project, and how is it all put together, and who does which job? In the following section learn about the jobs involved in making it all happen and what it looks like using our Bank refit case study.
About the jobs and roles required for an M&E project
A medium-sized business such as DL M&E Building Services Ltd will have 100+ full time staff to handle the required services.
Scope the Project:
The first task of an M&E business is to review the project and see whether it is commercially viable, i.e. can this project be done profitably. Some projects can be too small or too large for a company to handle, and the person to first make a decision on whether to accept a project is the Managing Director and Commercial Director.
This is the boss. If you make it to this position, congratulations! The truth is, only very few will make this position. This is the person that may either own the company, or part own it, or depending on the company structure, will be employed by a Board of Directors to be responsible for running the entire company. Be encouraged, the current owner and Managing Director of DL M&E Building Services Ltd started as an electrician! If you are a good team player, enjoy people, are quick witted, fast thinking, highly motivated, very positive, and entrepreneurial, then you have the raw material to achieve becoming a Director.
This person is one of the most experienced in terms of understanding costs and how to build profitability and viability into the business. They would have reached that position by having worked in most areas of the business, starting perhaps as an electrician or a trainee Quantity Surveyor. Construction can be highly rewarding as a career ladder, starting at a base position and climbing to the highest salaried positions. Understanding the business and having a mathematical talent is vital.
This top-level career post is achieved by becoming the best in the construction industry, growing a reputation of a high achiever with exemplary project and people management skills. This person ensures projects are kept on track, overseeing the project managers on multiple different projects. Operations Directors usually have different divisions of responsibility, such as Mechanical, where an eye for detail can be applied to every part of the business’ operations. Hence the name. Other qualities needed are calmness, consistency and ability to work efficiently under demanding workloads.
Together, the Directors oversee the daily running of the business, ensuring the Client’s requirements are being met, positioning teams and solving issues to ensure successful completion of projects.
To establish the profitability of a project and deliver a price to the Client (e.g. the Bank) before the project starts, a Commercial Director will work closely with his team of Cost Estimators and the Design Department.
This person calculates for the Client the initial cost of all the materials required (pipes, cables, air-conditioning units, etc), the amount of labour (number of people to do the work) and the feasibility (whether this project can be done to the budget cost required by a Client). The Estimator will use computer software and costing databases to source this information, and collaborate with the designer to establish the amount of work and materials required. This work requires a good handle on mathematics and eye for detail.
Once the Client has agreed the costings with the M&E company, the project moves forward to design and planning.
If you imagine an empty building that needs furniture of all types, you can then imagine having to figure out how to fit it all into the building whilst optimised for the user’s best use. The same applies to M&E materials: where should the air conditioning vents be positioned, how can the air ducts fit into the tight ceiling spaces, allowing space for both cold and hot air ducts, and bend around the corners of a building? Air conditioning ducts, processing units and fans are always done in the ceiling spaces or floor spaces, and this must fit alongside all the electrical and data cabling that runs along cable trays which hang from the ceiling too. Lighting positions of different kinds need to be established, as do power points, alarms, speaker systems and so on.
This person calculates for the Client the initial cost of all the materials required (pipes, cables, air-conditioning units, etc), the amount of labour (number of people to do the work) and the feasibility (whether this project can be done to the budget cost required by a Client). The Estimator will use computer software and costing databases to source this information, and collaborate with the designer to establish the amount of work and materials required. This work requires a good handle on mathematics and eye for detail.
There are four main types of M&E designer functions:
If you’ve seen a blueprint or know what one is, then this was created by a designer trained in technical drawing. A building blueprint is first created by an Architect, the person who designs the building with its walls, doors, windows, stairs and ceiling. A blueprint provides the dimensions information needed by a Building Services company to find the best way to add all the pipes, ducts, cables, power points, ventilation units etc into this space. Floor and ceiling dimensions / plans are provided to the M&E designer, but it’s the CAD designers job to take all the equipment and materials to be used in the building and to arrange it so that it fits into the building. The CAD designer, once known as a draughtsperson, no longer draws these plans with pen and ruler, but now uses computer Auto CAD software. The finished design is given to the electricians and mechanical engineers who will use the designs to plan the installation.
There is fast growing technological innovation happening within the Construction Industry and design is moving from the 2-Dimensional flat world of AutoCAD software to the exciting 3-Dimensional world of BIM software such as Revit. Designs are now being produced in 3D enabling virtual reality walkthroughs. Virtual headsets can be given to clients who can see their building designs as if they were real.
As well as the challenges of making everything fit into a building using CAD / BIM Designers, design incorporates knowledge of how mechanical and electrical systems work: For instance, there is science driven research that informs designers of the optimum oxygenated air required in any given office space to help avoid workers becoming sleepy. And there are principles of how dirty, smelly air flows through an office, and how we can best extract it. A senior designer knows these fundamentals and ensures the correct equipment is being used in the right way, in the right place to achieve the goal of providing a comfortable and healthy environment.
Every M&E company will have an experienced Design Manager who manages the CAD designers, servicing different projects.
Getting into construction design doesn’t have to be traditionally through the further education system. As proven so often in construction, people learn on the job through apprentice schemes. True story: one of DL M&E Building Services Ltd’s most experienced CAD designer’s, who has done CAD design for over 30 years, failed his technical drawing exam! We are not encouraging you to fail your exams, as your education will drastically increase your employment potential. But for those who struggle, there is a way into a fulfilling career in construction, including design.
Once the design of the project is complete and all the costs agreed, then all the materials need buying and a team needs assembling who have all the skills to complete the installation. The person that makes this happen is the Project Manager.
In order to be able to manage something you need to know how that something works. M&E project managers usually have a background of being an electrician, who understand the practical part of the M&E installation process.
This is a career which you can grow into if you start the trade as an electrician, plumber or mechanical engineer. The project manager will be responsible for practically resourcing a project, buying the ducts, pipes, air units, cabling and so on.
The M&E project manager will also create the working schedules, ensuring the right skills are put on the project at the right time, co-ordinating the installation team. The Project Manager oversees the entire project, responsible for making it go to plan.
