Planning: too much and nothing happens...too little and nothing happens right...
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Can you plan too much? You can plan too little... in the words of Mr. Miagi "Balance" is the key.
Over the years I have been engaged in many projects ranging from the small one room media system all the way up to elaborate multi-story, multi building projects that take years to complete. I have engaged in these projects at many different capacities. Sometimes it was just the Audio Video guy other times it was the Project Manager in charge of everything including the overall construction. I have a great deal of experience in mechanical spaces and mechanical systems in a building and I have seen a great many mistakes either due to lack of planning or in come cases too much planning. One of my builder friends puts it this way..."they are sitting behind a desk drawing it. They have no idea how it goes together" and in some regards he is right. I wanted to take a moment to share my thoughts on what you as a home owner should expect and what should be expected of you on any project not just Audio Video. Planning overall is a good thing and done right it can save you endless hours later and save you a great deal of money. Here are some pointers and observations gathered over years of doing this:
1. YOU CAN PLAN TOO MUCH: I once hired a lighting designer to plan the lighting in an 8000 sq. ft. house (almost a museum really). What I got back was perhaps one of the most detailed plans you could imagine. It had every fixture, every wattage, every location, circuiting etc. all detailed in a 40 page report with a 4 page set of plans that listed all of the same keyed information. I took one look at it and realized that with the electrical crew I had on the job they would be hopelessly forevermore confused by this plan. As a result I took the plan and sat down the architect and simplified their scheme. Instead of a 14 digit room moniker I reduced it to the room name and a simple room number. For Instance 101A meant "1" for first floor, "01" for room 1 and "A" for circuit A. This was an old Lutron trick I learned years ago (Thanks David Craze). Then I also added the proper room name in plain english to each room. Finally I added one digit to each number scheme "1" and keyed them to the type of fixture with just the simple "how to wire it" cut sheets for each fixture. In the end it looked like "Main Hall 101A-1" I then made sure the electricians had label machines and plenty of label tape and instructed them to label each wire both ways. Putting the normal room name on the plan and the circuit number. Lastly we laminated the simple room chart and put it on the wall of the mechanical room in several places. Over the next few months as the electricians wired the house we had very little lost time due to digging through plans and all wires were properly identified in the process. Also even today it takes no time at all to find a wire. The charts and labels are still there. If I had left it over planned as the documents I was handed were I have no doubt confusion would have ensued and chaos would have reigned in the mechanical space. Simple is not always better but in this case it certainly was. We were also able to re-use the same room names and numbers for the Audio Video in the building and for the HVAC. In effect everyone was on the same page. Maintenance today is simpler and easier and will be for years to come.
2. YOU CAN PLAN TOO LITTLE: I recently was invited to a site where a beautiful house was under construction. It overlooked one of the area lakes and a great deal of thought had already been put into the architecture of the home. Exposed beams, Large windows in the right places to frame the views were the norm from room to room. When I asked how they were planning on lighting the exposed beams I got an answer that chilled me "were not sure yet." Did I mention most of the ceilings were up and the beams were there. Did I mention there was no attic space to run HVAC or electrical in later? Did I mention there were no electrical plans? They were building a house with no thought to the mechanicals what so ever. They had started a Geothermal field and the HVAC tech was starting but you could tell he had no idea how he was going to get large HVAC ducts from one side of the building to the other. With no attic space, no basement and no central mechanical space his chances of creating a successful easy to maintain system were greatly diminished. I was at another house not far away from there where the Architect was clearly driving the bus. Low roofs, lots of metal, wide sweeping glass and clean lines were the order of the day and zero mechanical thought given to anything. The builder was a little despondent stating that the HVAC guy would have first crack at the building as he had no idea how we was going to accomplish it. As an Architect this irresponsibility of understanding the mechanical needs of a modern home is inexcusable. He should have planned the pathways, thought about the lighting, thought about the wiring, thought about maintenance. All these things can drastically change the way someone enjoys a home. If you were a homeowner of a massive 40 thousand square foot building with 14 air conditioners wouldn't it be better if all those systems could be maintained in a hidden service room away from site. Would it not be better to locate the HVAC units in a centralized space where when they leaked, not if they leaked, it did not damage the custom hand done plaster ceiling in your master bedroom. Leaving the building process up to fate is going to cost you more money. It may not cost you right away but it will cost you in the end.
A little telling example. I work on a house frequently with very high ceilings. At some point during the building process someone suggested putting lights in the high ceiling. These lights were smallish MR16 based lights about 30 feet of the ground. Great idea right? Put them high, cover the whole room with ease and could be aimed anywhere. Great idea that it until you try to change a bulb. At the time MR-16's lasted about a year at best. Today with LED's this is much longer. But for years every time a build needed to be changed it meant moving all the furniture, bringing in scaffolding and a crew and changing the bulb and then putting all the furniture back. When we went to build the next building we found a better way. By lowering the visible ceiling a little and adding a decked attic we gave ourselves a path to change the bulbs from above. Simple and effective I no longer have to worry about damaging high dollar furniture in that space. Planning too little can hurt you. As the homeowner you should have a vision of what you want. If you don't have it, don't start building. If you need help hire someone to guide you. Just make sure they have experience in all areas and are willing to compromise. Don't hire an Interior Designer or Architect as the lead if they only care about the look of the space. My suggesting would be to assemble a small team. 3 people at most. Each responsible for their area. The builder in charge of the structure, the Interior Designer in charge of the look and feel and someone in charge of all the living amenities, maintenance, electrical, Audio Video, Automation etc. This should provide a balance between them and provide the best product. Also encourage and be willing to pay for weekly meetings. This communication is vital of the success of any large project. In the end you have to live with it and maintain it.
3. Centralization is the key. Let me say that again...Centralization is the key. The easiest thing to do on most houses is to centralize as much as humanly possible. This gives the systems a change to interact easily as needs change. More importantly when it comes to maintenance and changes later there is no running from room to room trying to figure out where something is. If all the HVAC ends up in the main mechanical space then it's easy to service and find anything having to do with HVAC. Pick a space in your design. The more central the better. Set Aside a space that is at least 10' wide x 10' long x 8' high (might be much larger depending on your total square footage) Why so large? Because in that space you are going to locate your HVAC, AV, Breaker Panels, Lighting Controls, Security Main, Central Vac, Shade Controls, etc. The list goes on and on. Try not to split these up. Keep them in the same room. This make service easier and more painless in the future and prevents service technicians wondering all over your house unless absolutely necessary. I work on a house frequently that has HVAC units in attics. While it's done a lot it's not ideal. They leak, they need maintenance and they have to be accessed. With a walk out attic this would be easy but with pull down stairs not so much. Every time he comes the HVAC guy wonders from stairs to stairs pulls them down and changes filters etc. and each time he leaves an insulation trail down the halls he has to clean up. With one or two HVAC units this is no big deal. But with 14 it's a problem that adds up. The size of your house and it's mechanical systems changes your approach. The larger the house the more attention these systems require. You can't just give up a 4' x 4' closet on a 10,000 square foot house and thinks it is going to be okay.
If you need help planning an AV project or Mechanical spaces we can help with that.
1. YOU CAN PLAN TOO MUCH: I once hired a lighting designer to plan the lighting in an 8000 sq. ft. house (almost a museum really). What I got back was perhaps one of the most detailed plans you could imagine. It had every fixture, every wattage, every location, circuiting etc. all detailed in a 40 page report with a 4 page set of plans that listed all of the same keyed information. I took one look at it and realized that with the electrical crew I had on the job they would be hopelessly forevermore confused by this plan. As a result I took the plan and sat down the architect and simplified their scheme. Instead of a 14 digit room moniker I reduced it to the room name and a simple room number. For Instance 101A meant "1" for first floor, "01" for room 1 and "A" for circuit A. This was an old Lutron trick I learned years ago (Thanks David Craze). Then I also added the proper room name in plain english to each room. Finally I added one digit to each number scheme "1" and keyed them to the type of fixture with just the simple "how to wire it" cut sheets for each fixture. In the end it looked like "Main Hall 101A-1" I then made sure the electricians had label machines and plenty of label tape and instructed them to label each wire both ways. Putting the normal room name on the plan and the circuit number. Lastly we laminated the simple room chart and put it on the wall of the mechanical room in several places. Over the next few months as the electricians wired the house we had very little lost time due to digging through plans and all wires were properly identified in the process. Also even today it takes no time at all to find a wire. The charts and labels are still there. If I had left it over planned as the documents I was handed were I have no doubt confusion would have ensued and chaos would have reigned in the mechanical space. Simple is not always better but in this case it certainly was. We were also able to re-use the same room names and numbers for the Audio Video in the building and for the HVAC. In effect everyone was on the same page. Maintenance today is simpler and easier and will be for years to come.
2. YOU CAN PLAN TOO LITTLE: I recently was invited to a site where a beautiful house was under construction. It overlooked one of the area lakes and a great deal of thought had already been put into the architecture of the home. Exposed beams, Large windows in the right places to frame the views were the norm from room to room. When I asked how they were planning on lighting the exposed beams I got an answer that chilled me "were not sure yet." Did I mention most of the ceilings were up and the beams were there. Did I mention there was no attic space to run HVAC or electrical in later? Did I mention there were no electrical plans? They were building a house with no thought to the mechanicals what so ever. They had started a Geothermal field and the HVAC tech was starting but you could tell he had no idea how he was going to get large HVAC ducts from one side of the building to the other. With no attic space, no basement and no central mechanical space his chances of creating a successful easy to maintain system were greatly diminished. I was at another house not far away from there where the Architect was clearly driving the bus. Low roofs, lots of metal, wide sweeping glass and clean lines were the order of the day and zero mechanical thought given to anything. The builder was a little despondent stating that the HVAC guy would have first crack at the building as he had no idea how we was going to accomplish it. As an Architect this irresponsibility of understanding the mechanical needs of a modern home is inexcusable. He should have planned the pathways, thought about the lighting, thought about the wiring, thought about maintenance. All these things can drastically change the way someone enjoys a home. If you were a homeowner of a massive 40 thousand square foot building with 14 air conditioners wouldn't it be better if all those systems could be maintained in a hidden service room away from site. Would it not be better to locate the HVAC units in a centralized space where when they leaked, not if they leaked, it did not damage the custom hand done plaster ceiling in your master bedroom. Leaving the building process up to fate is going to cost you more money. It may not cost you right away but it will cost you in the end.
A little telling example. I work on a house frequently with very high ceilings. At some point during the building process someone suggested putting lights in the high ceiling. These lights were smallish MR16 based lights about 30 feet of the ground. Great idea right? Put them high, cover the whole room with ease and could be aimed anywhere. Great idea that it until you try to change a bulb. At the time MR-16's lasted about a year at best. Today with LED's this is much longer. But for years every time a build needed to be changed it meant moving all the furniture, bringing in scaffolding and a crew and changing the bulb and then putting all the furniture back. When we went to build the next building we found a better way. By lowering the visible ceiling a little and adding a decked attic we gave ourselves a path to change the bulbs from above. Simple and effective I no longer have to worry about damaging high dollar furniture in that space. Planning too little can hurt you. As the homeowner you should have a vision of what you want. If you don't have it, don't start building. If you need help hire someone to guide you. Just make sure they have experience in all areas and are willing to compromise. Don't hire an Interior Designer or Architect as the lead if they only care about the look of the space. My suggesting would be to assemble a small team. 3 people at most. Each responsible for their area. The builder in charge of the structure, the Interior Designer in charge of the look and feel and someone in charge of all the living amenities, maintenance, electrical, Audio Video, Automation etc. This should provide a balance between them and provide the best product. Also encourage and be willing to pay for weekly meetings. This communication is vital of the success of any large project. In the end you have to live with it and maintain it.
3. Centralization is the key. Let me say that again...Centralization is the key. The easiest thing to do on most houses is to centralize as much as humanly possible. This gives the systems a change to interact easily as needs change. More importantly when it comes to maintenance and changes later there is no running from room to room trying to figure out where something is. If all the HVAC ends up in the main mechanical space then it's easy to service and find anything having to do with HVAC. Pick a space in your design. The more central the better. Set Aside a space that is at least 10' wide x 10' long x 8' high (might be much larger depending on your total square footage) Why so large? Because in that space you are going to locate your HVAC, AV, Breaker Panels, Lighting Controls, Security Main, Central Vac, Shade Controls, etc. The list goes on and on. Try not to split these up. Keep them in the same room. This make service easier and more painless in the future and prevents service technicians wondering all over your house unless absolutely necessary. I work on a house frequently that has HVAC units in attics. While it's done a lot it's not ideal. They leak, they need maintenance and they have to be accessed. With a walk out attic this would be easy but with pull down stairs not so much. Every time he comes the HVAC guy wonders from stairs to stairs pulls them down and changes filters etc. and each time he leaves an insulation trail down the halls he has to clean up. With one or two HVAC units this is no big deal. But with 14 it's a problem that adds up. The size of your house and it's mechanical systems changes your approach. The larger the house the more attention these systems require. You can't just give up a 4' x 4' closet on a 10,000 square foot house and thinks it is going to be okay.
If you need help planning an AV project or Mechanical spaces we can help with that.
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