Baker Group has had the privilege of being the Building Automation Systems sub-contractor to Hometown Mechanical for the University of Iowa’s Petersen Residence Hall. This project is the first opportunity that Baker Group has had to work with Hometown Mechanical.
Petersen was not much different from other HVAC project scopes that we’ve had, other than the fact that it was on a grand scale. It’s not often that we get to work on 10 story buildings, so every challenge that presented itself was often multiplied in complexity.
As a Temperature Controls Contractor, we rely heavily on the strengths of the Mechanical Contractors that we are sub-contracted to. In this case, Hometowns strengths were many. We were able to directly collaborate with Hometown and their foremen on-site, offering an unprecedented level of timely, accurate and valuable service to the customer.
An added challenge to this project was the Commissioning process. A third party contractor was hired to commission the building and verify the work that was performed. We were very appreciative of the prompt and professional responses that Hometown produced. Without exception, action items were resolved to everyone’s satisfaction in a very timely matter. As an example, several dozens of the fan coil units were shipped without condensate level switches. Hometown worked directly with the equipment manufacturer and us to get the new switches ordered, then went above and beyond to foster a relationship between the Electrical Contractor and the equipment manufacturer that became critical in getting the switches installed in a fashion that protected the warranty and met the project timelines. It has been our experience that often times issues like this get a “not our problem” response. Hometown once again proved to be the exemplary exception.
We take great pride in the completion of this project, and in helping achieve another LEED (Silver) rating for a customer.
Baker Group would like to express our confidence in Hometown Mechanical and our desire to work with them on future projects. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss further.
