Facilities Check List
Practical, step-by-step guides for the busy FM
July 1998
Special Space/Special Costs
Do you know what special space is? It involves a lot more than fancy finishes. Should you care? Well, yes, if you’re a facilities manager trying to recoup as many costs as possible and maintain control of your budget. Special space usually costs more to plan, build, manage, and operate. If your chargeback system is geared to standard office space and does not recover these increased costs, your customers are probably getting a free ride and your budget might be going down the drain. Here’s a checklist of features and conditions that make special space special. Have a look and see which factors apply to your situation. Remember, definitions of special space are usually company-specific.
Design
- Design costs for special space are usually higher than standard office layouts. Look for additional design costs for items such as custom millwork or other design elements, interior design programs, furniture inventorying, dedicated or spot HVAC, structural alterations, special electric panels, and computer/telecom networks.
- Extra meeting time is usually required to define technical requirements and will require a disproportionate amount of facilities staff time.
- If specialized consultants are used, allow extra time to coordinate their work with the standard architectural/engineering team or expect to pay more for you’re asking the A/E to do this for you.
- Most commercial office space design costs for special space are considered above-standard if the alterations are above the building standard.
- Extra coordination and review time to make arrangements with sister departments, such as Management Information Systems, Security, and Environmental Protection.
Continuity, Safety and Security
- Continuous operations are more likely to occur in special space. Look out for hot-SCIF sites (with live back-up capability), after-hours/overtime for contractor staff, and special security arrangements.
- Disaster and recovery planning is more complex for special space, especially for mission-critical functions. You may need to develop a special plan before beginning construction.
- Be sure to check OSHA and EPA rules for unusual operations, disposal of hazardous materials, and ensuring employee/worker safety around dangerous operations.
Above-Standard Construction
Most companies recoup above-standard costs for up-front project build-out. Make sure you catch all of them. Look for items such as:
- Unusual structure:
- Any structural alterations or floor slab penetrations, such as interior stairwells
- Extra reinforcement required to support Lektriever files, bookstacks, exercise equipment, archives, or concrete vaults
- ;Special sound-isolation construction, e.g. double-stud walls
- Unusually long spans between columns in spaces such as auditoria, gymnasiums or cafeterias
- Unusual alterations:
- Raised/access flooring
- Above-standard concentrations of full-height walls
- Unusually high partitions or panels, or with extra acoustic insulation
- Movable folding partitions, including special structural bracing in the ceiling
- Light traps and light-tight doors for darkrooms
- Disposal of existing toxic materials, especially ballasts with PCB, CFCs from old A/C systems, lead paint, asbestos-containing material and oil-based paint
- HVAC:
- Dedicated thermostats in particular rooms
- Unusual air filtering requirements
- High ventilation rates for kitchens and eating areas
- Acoustical insulation in ductwork and walls for auditoria, executive offices, videoconferencing and meeting rooms
- Dedicated air filtration systems
- Oversized ductwork
- Special ventilation for diazo machines; lab fume hoods and dedicated ductwork
- Glass partitions at interior stairwells to preserve air pressure balance between floors
- Electric, data and telecom:
- Any lighting other than fluorescent troffers
- Electrical consumption above building standard. (In many commercial buildings, electrical capacity may already be maxed out by other tenants.)
- Electronic equipment that must be moved and installed by the vendor’s technicians
- Fluorescent troffers with true parabolic lenses, rather than parabolic-type
- Sound-rated fluorescent dimmers for videoconference rooms
- Electronic sound amplification and automated light control systems in large meeting rooms and auditoria
- Unusual numbers of electrical base feeds from floor locations to panel runs
- Dedicated electrical circuits
- Dedicated phone lines
- Clean power lines
- Uninterruptible power service
- Removal of cabling previously installed by your customer without your knowledge
- Plumbing:
- Plumbing other than public lavatories, e.g. private toilets, darkrooms, laboratories, including drainage and disposal of hazardous chemicals such as developer fluid
- Kitchen grease traps
- Kitchen equipment
- Pre-action sprinklers if non-standard
- Finishes, furniture and accessories:
- Above-building-standard finishes; unusual colors of standard materials, such as carpet and paint; heavy-grade vinyl wall covering
- Special locks/entry systems; locks on any interior doors
- Custom signage for suite doors
- Custom entries in building directory
- Extra accessories or desirable options on furniture systems, such as curved corner glass panels
- Oversized furniture that requires special entry procedures or special assembly
- Black-out drapes
Operating Requirements
- Extra HVAC is the most common extra operating cost. In buildings without separate equipment in each zone, a customer may have to pay for conditioning the entire facility to use a small portion of it for after-hours work. In some markets, a surcharge is levied for standard ventilation in unusually high space.
- Extra electric power is an issue in buildings where one customer uses an unusually high level of power compared to its fellow occupants.
- Extra housekeeping is required in spaces such as exercise and athletic facilities, executive offices, and especially child care centers, medical clinics and some labs.
- Toxic waste disposal represents an ongoing cost for many operations, in terms of actual disposal and regulatory recordkeeping requirements.
- Unusual wear and tear occurs in heavy-use areas such as mailrooms and shipping areas. If these are dedicated to a specific customer, they should be billed as a cost of doing business.
- Insurance premium surcharges for activities such as child care centers and labs, exercise rooms and medical clinics
This article is based on BOMI Institute’s Technologies for Facilities Management and Facilities Planning and Project Management courses.
