MEP / Divisions 21, 22, 23, 26
MEP estimating services
MEP is not a division. It is Divisions 21, 22, 23 and 26, and often 25, 27 and 28. The reason a buyer wants one firm for all of it is not convenience. It is that the expensive items fall between them.
What MEP covers, in real division numbers
- 21Fire SuppressionEstimated
- 22PlumbingEstimated
- 23Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning (HVAC)Estimated
- 26ElectricalEstimated
- 25Integrated AutomationOn request
- 27CommunicationsOn request
- 28Electronic Safety and SecurityOn request
Why one firm for all of it
Priced separately, each MEP trade is priced correctly and something between them is priced by nobody. The equipment is furnished under 23 and connected under 26. The controls sit between 23 and 25. The fire alarm sits between 26 and 28. The sleeves and firestopping belong to whoever gets to the wall last.
Pricing them together does not make any one number cheaper. It makes the gaps visible, which is the only way they get carried.
The scope traps that only appear when MEP is priced together
This is the content that makes the page worth existing.
- Equipment furnished under 23 and connected under 26, priced by neither.
- Controls sitting between 23 and 25, where the boundary is a paragraph in a specification nobody reads twice.
- Fire alarm sitting between 26 and 28.
- Sleeves, penetrations and firestopping, belonging to whoever gets there last.
- Ceiling space coordination, where duct, pipe, conduit, sprinkler and structure all compete and the loser is priced twice, once in place and once relocated.
- Roof curbs and structural support for equipment, drawn on no MEP sheet.
- Housekeeping pads, on the mechanical and electrical drawings and in the concrete scope.
Where more than one MEP division was priced together
- Construction
Residential remodel and addition
Arizona high desert
Sixteen trades from demolition through electrical, including septic and deck. 132 line items.
Estimating & Takeoff
Send the mechanical, electrical and plumbing sets together.
One reading, one set of quantities, and the items between the divisions carried by someone.