Revised December 19,
2005
The
following are my procedures and suggestions for Fairfax County Peer
Review. These are intended to minimize
the review and response times. Please
let me know if alternate procedures are needed.
Materials needed for review
1. I
recommend that the designer review the County requirements for drawing
submittals for new construction or tenant drawings. The documents giving these requirements, as
well as other useful information and forms, are available on the County’s web
site at:
http://www.co.fairfax.va.us/living/construction/default.htm.
2. One set of drawings for Mechanical, Plumbing, and Electrical areas and at least those sheets of architectural, structural, and civil site work that have interface or coordination with the Mechanical, Plumbing, or Electrical areas.
3. Note
that storm drainage (i.e. roof drainage) is currently a Plumbing Code item so
this is checked as part of the plumbing review.
Please also note the County’s requirements for the separation of storm
drainage design on the building drawings versus the site plan as documented in
the
4. If there is any mechanical equipment located on the roof of particular concern is architectural drawings showing the roof access and that there are roof-edge guards as needed.
1. One set of mechanical and electrical calculations and forms as needed for energy conservation compliance per applicable energy code (International Energy Conservation Code). Please be sure that the building envelope energy compliance calculations agree with the building envelope design on the Architectural drawings. Provide those architectural sheets that are needed to show this agreement.
2. The Fairfax County Health Department is not a participant in the Peer Review Program but they will provide informal preliminary reviews of drawings. For projects requiring County Health Department approval (food service, swimming pools, health clubs, etc.) I recommend that a set of drawings be submitted for preliminary Health Department review in parallel with, or before, the Peer Review. It is highly recommended that the Health Department preliminary review be done early in the design as their comments can have impacts on equipment arrangements, types, locations, and quantities. The County will not grant plumbing approval without prior Health Department approval for those projects that require Health Department approval.
3.
As of May 2000 the County is requiring specific data
regarding the coordination of the water and sewer (sanitary and storm) piping
on the Plumbing drawings and the site plan.
A new form recording this information, the PLAN REVIEW RECORD,
Plumbing Insert, Site Plan Coordination must be filled out and submitted by
the Peer Review. This form is available on the
Review comments and response handling
1. Comments will be provided on an on-going basis as the review is done and will not be held until the review is complete. The intent is to allow action for comment resolution to be commenced as soon as possible. The final set of comments will clearly state that it is the final set for the submittal.
2. Comments that will require additional submittals will be made as early in the review as possible.
3. Comments will be provided in informal form and responses may be informal as well.
4. A copy of comments will be sent via FAX or e-mail unless otherwise requested by the designer.
5. For those comments for which I request immediate response (Action Code 1), it is NOT necessary to provide a complete new drawing sheet. A part of a sheet, or a sketch, or a written response is fine provided that the final drawings are changed to reflect the comment resolution.
6. For those comments for which I request only final changes (Action Code 2), it is ONLY necessary that the final drawings be changed to reflect the comment resolution. It is the designer’s choice as to whether or not Peer Review drawing changes will be controlled as external or internal drawing changes.
7. If drawing changes are controlled as external changes then the drawings should be annotated (“clouded” or “bubbled”) to highlight the changes for Peer Review. I recommend that any such annotations be removed prior to submittal to the County. If they are controlled as internal (“in-house”) changes then the drawings will not normally be annotated but it is requested and recommended that some description of changes be provided to expedite the review process. The best means is to annotate the Peer Review comments with specific reference to the revised sheets or item. I recommend that these annotations be handwritten on a copy of the Peer Review comments.
Final Document Submittal
1. Once all the comments have been adjudicated the final set of drawings and calculations must be provided for Peer Review Certification prior to County submission. Depending on the construction of the drawing set all of the sheets or only a cover sheet must be sealed, signed and dated by the design professional. If the drawing set contains a COVER SHEET(S) that provides an index of the Mechanical, Plumbing, and Electrical drawings by Number, Title, and, preferably, Revision or date then only the COVER SHEET need be sealed and signed in the original. The other sheets may have the seal, signature, and date reproduced. This is in accordance with Virginia APELSCIDLA Board Regulation 18 VAC 10-20-760. It should be made clear to which discipline each seal and signature corresponds. If no cover sheet with index is used then each sheet of all submittal sets must be sealed and signed.
2. As a minimum, three final Cover Sheets and one complete set of all drawings for Mechanical, Plumbing, and Electrical areas are needed for final approval. If it is more convenient the three complete sets can be provided for certification. At the designers option one additional set may be supplied for my temporary retention and use until the County approval is completed. Having this set will better enable me to discuss and review any questions that the County may have. This set will be returned after County approval.
3. One set of mechanical and electrical calculations and forms as needed for energy conservation compliance per applicable energy code (CABO Model Energy Code 1995). Three of such sets will be submitted for County approval and need to be sealed, signed and dated on every page or one a cover page if used, the same as for drawings.
4. For food service projects requiring Health Department approval the Health Department normally requires a package of “cut sheets” for equipment. These are not reviewed as part of the Peer Review process and are not required for County approval but since the County knows that they are available for the Health Department, they sometimes choose to review them. It is recommended that a second set of the equipment package be submitted with the drawings for County use if they wish in order to prevent this from causing any delay.
5. The sets to be submitted for County approval must have the Peer Reviewer’s Certification on the Cover Sheet as required by the County requirements shown in the attachment. If the statement is placed on the cover sheet by the designer, please fill in the blanks if possible. If the statement is not added by the designer I will add it using “sticky back” film. Please provide enough blank space on the cover sheet for ALL Peer Review certifications. There will probably be two of them. Note that the County does accept reduced size certification.
6. Please note that if Health Department approval is needed the County WILL NOT approve the Plumbing design until Health Department approval is received. The County Plan Review office will directly send the drawings to the Health Department for approval during the County review period. The Peer Review can be conducted and certified without Health Department approval, but recognize that any changes required by the Health Department will require recertification for the Peer Review process.
RECOMMENDATION
STATEMENT
The Recommendation Statement below must be included on the-cover sheet of each set of drawings submitted to the county by each Peer Reviewer. The statement may be included on the cover sheet of each individual building component, i.e. architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing. The statement may not be altered in any way except to insert the information necessary for each project. All the Peer Reviewer information below the statement must also be include. Letter height may not be less than 1/8" or 3 mm.
By signing this document I certify that I have reviewed the Mechanical,
Plumbing, Electrical component(s) of the enclosed building plan identified
by Tax Map number________________ Use Group ______ Type of Construction
________ and have found such components of the plan to be in conformance with
the applicable provisions of the 2000 (or 2003) VUSBC and County Codes to the best of my
professional knowledge and belief.
Accordingly, I recommend the aforementioned components of the enclosed
plan for submission under the
Name: Robert
M. Cohen
please print
Signature:____________________________________________
Date:____________ Peer Reviewer Number: PR0022