Chapter #12 – HVAC Equipment Labor

There are several sources for equipment labor values. But none is better than the contractors own historical data of the actual time required to set a piece of HVAC equipment in place. Below is a list of published data on equipment rigging and setting time. Read carefully the information contained in each reference as to what the labor units include and exclude, so that you can make any necessary adjustments.

MCAA (The Mechanical Contractors Association of America)

MCA publishes labor hours for various pieces of HVAC equipment such as, Air Handlers, Chillers, Pumps, Cooling Towers and accessories. Each category of HVAC equipment has a range of sizes with varying amounts of labor required to set in place. Depending on the geographical location of your project, you will apply a factor to these values. Members get access to their online database of labor.

SMACNA (Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors National Association)

SMACNA publishes labor units for sheet metal duct and fittings in addition to certain HVAC equipment and accessories based on National averages. Air Conditioning Units, Coils, Fans, Filters, Sound Traps and miscellaneous items are available with various units of labor based on the size and or weight of the item. The SMACNA labor manual also provides a means to adjust labor based on difficult and very difficult conditions. The labor data was derived from surveys of sheet metal and air conditioning contractors in the United States and Canada, which included data from actual projects.

RS Means (Gordian)

Gordian publishes material and labor values for a wide range of construction components and assemblies for all trades. Many municipalities use the Gordian system for their procurement of construction services. The material and labor database is maintained and updated regularly by the Gordian Group.

PHCC (Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association)

PHCC publishes labor data which you can purchase. Their database covers a wide range of pipe, valves and fittings in addition to some equipment.

Company Historical Data

Historical Data that your company keeps from projects that have been completed is the best data available for your estimates. The problem is that most companies done take the time or effort to document these values, so they will need to rely on one or more of the industry published databases mentioned above for their benchmark labor.

If your company doesn’t keep track of the time it takes to rig and set in place the various pieces of HVAC equipment, I would suggest starting such effort in order to understand what it takes in the way of man hours and effort. It doesn’t matter what some industry database says it should take if your company can do it faster or slower than the published productivity rate. So begin to establish a company standard with the cooperation of your project managers and field personnel to record the time it takes to rig and set equipment and the various factors and conditions involved.

Basic Assumptions in Published Labor Databases

The industry published labor data for the time required to rig and set HVAC equipment is based on certain assumptions which are usually listed at the beginning of their labor manuals. Be sure to read any of the footnotes (MCA) or Correction Factors (SMACNA) on any of the equipment labor tables contained within these industry databases, as they will indicate any additional conditions or assumptions to be aware of. Assumptions might include some of the following which you should be thinking about when you go to labor the equipment and accessories.

Part of the process of dealing with equipment and accessories is the unloading, stockpiling, assembling, erecting and preparing the equipment for startup and testing. Depending on how your company prefers to allocate their labor, there might be a separate category of labor called material handling in which different pay rates are utilized.

Things to Consider When Figuring Equipment Labor

Location of Equipment

The industry equipment labor databases assume that the equipment will be within a certain distance from where it is to be installed, such as with MCA it’s assumed to be received within 100 feet from its final destination.

Size and Weight of HVAC Equipment

Equipment that weights under 250 Lbs (per MCA) is considered to be handled by a two person crew with the use of chain falls, hi-jacks or similar tools.

Equipment that is over 250 Lbs might require a Roustabout, chain falls, crane, forklift, lift jacks, rollers, etc. to move them and get them in place. Below is a Genie Lift with varying capacity based on the model you own.

How heavy is the equipment? Cooling Towers, Chillers, Large Boilers and Air Handlers will require rigging by a crane, forklift or helicopter depending on its location in the building or on the roof. Is the physical size of the equipment too large to be handled safely by workers? Will you need equipment rollers or the use of a hoist? Does the equipment come in several pieces in order for it to fit on a truck from the factory?

You must become familiar with each piece of equipment and what is required to get it rigged and set in the location shown on the drawings. Is the equipment located indoors or outdoors?

Access to Equipment Location

1. How will the equipment get into its designated location?
2. If it is an existing building will the equipment fit in the service elevator or through doorways to its final resting spot?
3. Does the equipment easily breakdown into smaller pieces for rigging?
4. Is there room for a crane to setup on the side of the building closet to the equipment?
5. Do you need a street closer permit in order to block traffic during the rig so the crane can setup in the street?
6. Are there electrical overhead wires preventing a crane from operating in the area?
7. Do you need a helicopter?
8. Do you have to move other equipment or services to get your equipment in position?

Above are just a few of the things to think about when laboring equipment. You will need to adjust the standard labor based on the perceived risk and jobsite conditioned expected to be encountered during construction.

Method of Support

Is the equipment hung from above or set on the floor or roof? Does the equipment sit on vibration isolation? Do you need to build a support frame to hold the equipment, or does the equipment come with its own supports? Are seismic restraints required, as they add additional time to your equipment setting labor because of the additional time to install the restraints? Look at the detail pages on the drawings to find any engineered attachment or support methods.

Equipment Accessories

Does the equipment come with parts unattached for field assembly? Large filter racks need to be built up in place and then have their filters inserted. Sound traps can come with many modules needing assembling. Economizers are sometimes shipped loose and need to be attached. Backdraft dampers and roof curbs for exhaust fans. Vibration isolators for all types of equipment are a separate component that gets installed with the equipment. Cooling towers have ladders, motor davits and vibration isolators that ship separately.

Multiple Pieces

Does the equipment come in several pieces because they are too large to ship in one piece, or are too large to fit through an existing doorway? Air handlers can be shipped broken down into fan, coil and filter sections all separated for easy shipment and field assembly. Cooling towers and fluid coolers also come in multiple sections. Talk to your vendor about how they plan to ship any large equipment that could possibly come in multiple pieces.

Crew Size

How many men are required to rig and set in place each piece of equipment? Composite crews made up of piping and sheet metal union workers will set anything that has piping and sheet metal attached to it, each union claiming a part of the work. As such, any piece of equipment that has only sheet metal attached will be claimed by the sheet metal union and vice versus for the piping union. If you work for a non-union company then worrying about jurisdictional labor allocation isn’t a problem. (See chapter on Labor Crew Size)

What Information Should You Record

Most of the information that you will need to labor the equipment can be found on the equipment schedule of the plans and specifications, or from the equipment submittal of the manufacture. Below is a list of a few items and what characteristics you might list for each piece of equipment on your estimating spreadsheet to help you provide a value for labor.

Air Compressors: List the HP (Horsepower), Receiver Capacity, Dimensions and Weight.

Air Conditioners: List the type, Tons, CFM (Cubic Feet per Minute), Dimensions and Weight. Types might include “Self-Contained”, “Water-Cooled Vertical”, “Packaged Rooftop Gas/Electric”

Air Handlers: List the type, CFM, Dimensions and Weight. Types may include Multi-Zone, Floor or Ceiling mounted, Custom, Roof Mounted.

Boilers: List the Type, HP (horse power), If steam Lbs/Hr, BTUH (BTU per Hour), Weight.

Chemical Feeders: Tank Capacity, size and weight

Chillers: Type, Tons, Air or Water-Cooled, Accessories

Coils: Type, Area FT2, Dimensions, rows of coils and weight.

Compressors: Type, Tons and weight

Condensate Return System: GPM (Gallons per Minute), Dimension and weight.

Condensers: Type, Tons, Dimensions and weight

HVAC Equipment Tab – Estimating Spreadsheet

Equipment labor should be applied to every piece of equipment and accessories that the field labor will be required to rig and anchor in place, whether fasten to the ground or hung in the air, or sitting on the roof. Your estimating spreadsheet should allow for conveniently allocating hours for each piece of equipment alongside its pricing.

HVAC contractors can provide both the sheet metal and HVAC piping requirements for a project. Some pieces of equipment will require a composite labor crew; especially if they’re a union company with define roles for each trade. Equipment that has water or refrigerant connected to it along with sheet metal may require a composite labor crew.

Enter the quantity and description of the equipment, and then enter the unit of labor required for each piece of equipment. If you have four (4) Rooftop Upblast Exhaust Fans that sit on a roof curb, you might enter 4 hours each if they’re smaller units, which would give you a total of 16 sheet metal hours for the 4 small exhaust fans.

Retrofit Projects

If you are bidding on a project that is within an existing building, then you will need to consider additional labor items. Ducts and pipes will need to be disconnected from the HVAC equipment. Water will need to be drained out of any pipes connected to any equipment receiving any form of water or steam service.

To get large pieces of equipment out of existing spaces, often requires that it be taken apart or cut into pieces. If your company doesn’t do this type of work, there are specialty companies that you can subcontract this work to. If you are bidding on a turn-key project, one in where your company is responsible for all trades, then you will need to get other companies involved, this usually occurs under the design/build method of construction contracts.

What’s Not Included in the Labor Units

Start Up & Testing of Equipment

The time for startup and testing is a separate labor task that is usually done by trained technicians different than those installing the equipment. These specialized individuals are familiar with the procedures and documentation required for starting up and testing HVAC equipment.

Air and Water Balance

Often the specification will require a third party to perform the air and water balancing in order to avoid conflicts of interest that occur when the contractor self performs this work. Typically the specifications will call for the Air and Water Balance Company to use NEBB or ABBC certified technicians to perform the work.

Equipment Identification

Each piece of HVAC, Plumbing or Electrical equipment will get an identification tag that identifies what the equipment is, along with some of its capacity information and possibly the area it serves.

There will be a unit cost for material and labor for every equipment ID tag. A field laborer will need to fasten the equipment tag somewhere visible to the maintenance staff when accessing the equipment. The background and lettering color maybe dictated by the specifications and is often provided on some form of laminated plastic. Put this requirement on the sheet metal specialties tab of your estimating spreadsheet. (see chapter on Sheet Metal Specialties)

Get a copy of the MEP Academy Estimating Spreadsheet.

Sheet Metal Field Installation Course

• Chapter #1- Rectangular Duct and Fittings
• Chapter #2 – Round Ductwork and Fittings
• Chapter #3 – Sheet Metal Duct Hangers
• Chapter #4 – Sheet Metal Field Labor Productivity
• Chapter #5 – Labor Crew Sizes
• Chapter #6 – Sheet Metal Duct Sealer
• Chapter #7 – Sheet Metal Details and Specialties
• Chapter #8 – Grease Exhaust
• Chapter #9 – Air Distribution
• Chapter #10 – Rental Equipment
• Chapter #11 – Conditions Affecting Field Labor
• Chapter #12 – HVAC Equipment Labor

Chapter #10 – Rental Equipment

Now that you have figured the labor to set each piece of equipment, you should have a good idea as to what rental equipment will be required for each task. Did you figure setting some of the equipment with a crane? Do you need a forklift to move materials around or remove a piece of equipment from a delivery truck, or to raise a heavy piece of equipment in the air or reach the second floor from the outside of the building in new construction? Will the works need a scissor lift to hang a section of piping or ductwork?

These are the questions you will need to ask yourself or others when analyzing the field labor required to rig and set the HVAC equipment. Using the proper tools makes for a more efficient installation and a safer project. The total cost for equipment rentals appears under other cost on the estimate summary sheet of your spreadsheet.

You must have a good idea how long you will need the rental piece of equipment, as rental rates are cheaper the longer you rent them, but you don’t won’t to rent them longer then you need them ,as this would make your bid less competitive.

Helicopters

Sometimes the only method of safely getting equipment to its point of use is by helicopter. Helicopters are useful in placing equipment that sits far from the side of the building, or when there are multiple buildings. These are some of the cases where a helicopter will be more feasible than a crane. Call an get a quote for any job that you are bidding that may require a helicopter to see how it compares to the use of a crane.

In the video below you’ll see Air Conditioning units being helicoptered onto AC Adapter curbs. Adapter curbs are used to match up the existing curbs supply air and return air configuration with the new A/C units supply & return air configuration. This video is for just two air conditioners, but we have rigged more than 100 air conditioners in a day using a helicopter.

For larger HVAC units you would need to a much larger helicopter such as that provided by Erickson Crane. For Large and heavy HVAC units you would need the S-64 Aircrane from Erickson which has the capacity to lift up to 25,000 pounds. (See the video below for the S-64 Aircrane) They have smaller helicopter that will do up to 7,000 pounds.

Cranes

Cranes are good for a wide range of equipment and purposes. If you have something located on a roof that is too heavy to carry safely up the stairway you might need a crane. Anything from a small sign crane to a large built-up crane can be secured from one of many crane rental companies. If conditions are such that a crane cannot reach the roof or isn’t feasible you may need to call a helicopter operator who specializes in HVAC equipment rigs. Sometimes the use of a helicopter makes sense over a crane, because of site logistic, such as having many buildings spread out over a campus, which would require a crane to move and setup multiple times.

Watch this video of a 550 Ton Hydraulic Crane rigging large Air Conditioners off and onto this building. It takes considerable effort to put this crane together to handle the weight of these air conditioners and for the crane to reach the units. Of course not all cranes have to be built up like this one, but this shows you the cost involved when rigging heavy HVAC equipment that is located far from the perimeter of the building.

Prices and regulatory requirements vary from location to location, so call your crane or helicopter company with the address of the building and the size and weight of the heaviest piece of equipment. Also, you will need to let them know how many equipment picks you have going up and down, the location of the equipment on the building. The distance from where the crane can set up to the location where the equipment will be set and the height of the building affects the size of the crane and the cost.

Below is a quick video of the crane rig of several rooftop air-cooled chillers. The workers first grind off the welds that are holding the existing air-cooled chillers to the support steel.

Crane Charts

The size of the crane required is based on the weight of the HVAC equipment and the height (Vertical distance) and (horizontal distance) to where the unit will sit on the building. As shown in the Crane Chart below for a 550-Ton crane, there is a point at which the crane can’t reach (shown in pink) without adding additional jibs or extending arms if available.

The crane rental companies use software that determines the required crane size based on your rigging requirements. The crane charts provide a quick visual representation of the various limitations based on vertical and horizontal distances. Check Bragg Cranes website for additional information on cranes and their rigging capacities.

Scissor Lifts

Scissor lifts are useful when the working height becomes unsafe for ladders. In construction safety should always be the priority, so you want to make sure your workers are provided with adequate tools to do their jobs. Definitely anything heavy and awkward that is to be installed over 15 feet in height will need a scissor lift or some other raised platform to work from.

You will need to determine how many hours you have in the area with the high working environment, and how many workers will be doing that task, so you can determine how many days, weeks or months you will need the rental equipment. This is one of the reasons we breakdown a takeoff into different areas and task, so that we can analyze labor and rental equipment requirements.

Watch the video below to see how they operate.

Forklifts

Equipment being delivered to the jobsite that will not be rigged with a crane the day it arrives will need to be taken off the truck and stored until rig day. Heavy equipment will require something like a forklift to remove it from the truck and move it around the project site for temporary storage. Forklifts are good for moving heavy pieces of equipment safely around the jobsite, or for loading pallets of material from a truck to a laydown area. They are also good for loading equipment or material onto the second floor if within reach from ground level.

Boom Lifts

These are used where a scissor lift won’t work. Scissor lifts are good for going up and down, but a boom lift does that and more. The boom lift can go up and pivot over objects to reach areas that a scissor lift can’t watch the enclosed video to see the versatility of a boom lift.

Articulated Booms provide additional versatility (watch video below). Check with your rental equipment provider to see what the equipment capabilities are in your area. This particular articulating boom lift is in Australia, but similar boom lifts are available worldwide. The video below is a little dramatic, but hold out to see just how well this equipment works.

Backhoes / Excavators

If you will be digging a ditch for underground pipes or ducts, then a backhoe might be needed. If you subcontract all of your excavation and backfill you won’t need to worry about this rental equipment. Make sure to include the hourly cost of the backhoe operator if you don’t have someone capable of doing it.

Welders

If you plan on doing any pipe, duct or support steel welding, make sure to include the cost for welders. Gas or electric welders can be rented for the day, week or month.

Air Compressors

Some tools require pressurized air to make them operate including some jack hammers.

Groover’s

If you will be fabricating grooved pipe onsite for grooved type connections then having this tool at the site will save time and money.

Storage Containers

Each project has different requirements, but most new construction projects will need a storage bin to lock up your materials and tools, otherwise they could be stolen, or you would need to handle them every time you arrived and left the project site.

Miscellaneous Equipment

This piece of rental equipment helps save on the cost of using a larger crane to reach far from the perimeter. By using a smaller crane that to rig the HVAC units onto the perimeter of the roof at the point closest to the edge of the roof, then using this piece of rental equipment to roll the HVAC units into place, will save money by not having to use a larger carne.

As an estimator you should search for better ways to do things that will make you more competitive, this is just one way.

Contractor Owned Rental Equipment

If your company owns a piece of equipment you could normally rent it, then charging it to the project at a reasonable rental rate is one way to recoup its cost.

You might be thinking, why don’t I leave out the cost of the company owned rental equipment and make our bid lower. Every piece of company owned equipment has value that is depreciating as it gets older, and it cost money to operate and maintain. So if you don’t charge for the equipment you would theoretically be losing money. The cost to operate that piece of equipment has to come from somewhere and rightly it should come from the job that is benefiting from its use. Gas, oil, tires, parts and maintenance will be expended in the use of that equipment. Make it a happen to charge for company owned rental equipment unless its cost recovery is included in your labor burden rates or some other recovery line item.

There are many more pieces of rental equipment that you will encounter, but the list below will get you started. List all those pieces of rental equipment that you normally rent on your rental form in your estimating spreadsheet along with their rental rates for either daily, weekly or monthly.

You should setup your rental sheet on your estimating spreadsheet with the rental equipment that you rent most often. This will save you time from having to re-enter the data over again. List the rental equipment and the rate you are charged for the duration that you expect to use for this project. If you have 240 hours of work in a high bay area that requires a scissor lift and a two person crew, that is equivalent to three weeks of rental. In that case I would carry a months’ worth of rental for a scissor lift.

If you have many pieces of equipment coming from various vendors, all to be rigged onto the roof, then you might want to receive all the equipment into your warehouse or pay the crane company extra to store the equipment until rig day.

Sources of Rental Rates

There are numerous sources for equipment rental rates.

Local Rental Company

The best source of course is your local equipment rental company, the one you most often and trust. If the project is far from your normal rental company, then you will want to get prices from rental companies in the area where the project is being built or renovated.

MCA (Mechanical Contractors Association)

MCA publishes a book of rental rates for various pieces of equipment and tools. This is a good source if you own your own equipment and are trying to negotiate a fair rental rate with an owner or GC (General Contractor). Remember just because you own a piece of equipment, doesn’t mean you can’t charge for it. The cost should be included in your change-orders if the contract allows.

Army Corp of Engineers

The Army Corp of Engineers publishes rates for various rental equipment.

Blue Book Rental Rates

Sheet Metal Field Installation Course

• Chapter #1- Rectangular Duct and Fittings
• Chapter #2 – Round Ductwork and Fittings
• Chapter #3 – Sheet Metal Duct Hangers
• Chapter #4 – Sheet Metal Field Labor Productivity
• Chapter #5 – Labor Crew Sizes
• Chapter #6 – Sheet Metal Duct Sealer
• Chapter #7 – Sheet Metal Details and Specialties
• Chapter #8 – Grease Exhaust
• Chapter #9 – Air Distribution
• Chapter #10 – Rental Equipment
• Chapter #11 – Conditions Affecting Field Labor
• Chapter #12 – HVAC Equipment Labor