MEP costs astronomically high

EC Harris director Cairney highlighted a shortage of affordable MEP equipment as one of the major issues affecting the facilities management industry in the Middle East currently. “Many of the tenders that are coming through for new buildings are astronomically high in MEP factors,” said Cairney.

Cairney also claimed that due to rising costs there is a growing trend of cutting the amount of quality and functionality going into buildings in order to better manage costs -a process he described as “damaging”.

Emaar senior asset management director Mick Dalton has called for more interaction between MEP consultants and the FM sector.

Dalton said: “Traditionally MEP consultants are designing [in an office] and they aren’t really practical when it comes to seeing what is needed at the handover stage and to properly maintain the building.”

He added that if there was more support from MEP professionals and more engagement with engineers then “we would get a better product”.

Dalton continued: “Quite often you have to end up installing new access holes in ceilings to get to ducts, you might have to put access tunnels in ducts just to change filters or you may have to connect up sensors that have not been connected. That’s quite damning really that you have to do that as part of maintenance.”

Cairney backed up this viewpoint, saying a “good modern-thinking engineer” can generally make “a big difference” in removing problems at the early stages of construction.

Print | Email | Discuss this article

| Share |

READERS' COMMENTS

Click here to post a comment

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Arabian Business would like to point out that only comments relevant to the story will be published. Any containing personal insults or inappropriate language will not be approved.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Enter the words above *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM