Whether it is your first animal care facility or your hundredth, construction professionals know that engineers design animal care facilities with complex systems because of their unique use. Think about animal hospitals, veterinary clinics, dog daycares, groomers and animal shelters, among others. Given the complexity and unique requirements, cost is a crucial element. However, with such complex systems, contractors and construction professionals must understand which areas of construction are well-suited for value engineering and which areas to reconsider when making value engineering decisions.
Value engineering is a practice that contractors and construction professionals use when they need to meet budget requirements and make real-time decisions regarding products or systems before or during construction. The idea is to maximize the value derived from the cost realities encountered during construction. Value engineering is a critical practice that helps construction stay on time and within budget. Without a thorough understanding of animal care facilities, a contractor’s effort to value engineer an aspect of a project can sometimes lead to a problem—or a set of problems. Here are the top five problems animal care experts and building engineers encounter when value engineering for animal care facilities specifically:
Dehumidification
As a best practice, engineers often design animal care facilities with extensive dehumidification in mind. In other facility types, engineers typically rely on rooftop units to handle dehumidification needs themselves. However, animal care facilities are extremely wet environments with high fresh-air requirements, along with frequent odor and disease issues—regardless of geography. With that in mind, engineers often specify a series of independent units to handle the unique dehumidification needs within the facility.
The Susquehanna SPCA is an excellent example of an animal shelter that utilizes independent units within its building.
Animal care and building engineers experts strongly recommend against attempting to value engineer dehumidification systems during the construction phase under any circumstances.
Exhibit A: Value engineering dehumidification systems is the number one issue animal care engineers at Design Learned encounter when conducting expert witness services for construction litigation and remediation.
Flooring
The everyday wear and tear on typical flooring uses is nothing compared to what flooring in animal care facilities experience. Animals can be everywhere within animal care facilities depending on the need and circumstance—even in spaces labeled ‘non-animal’ such as offices and break rooms. Due to constant use by animals, flooring decisions are crucial. As a best practice, designers will specify flooring that can withstand water, humidity, dog claws and cleaning chemicals (such as accelerated hydrogen peroxide).
For dog-holding areas, building engineers regularly specify fluid-applied epoxy or urethane flooring with a flake and double polyurethane topcoat that has an integral cove. In more public spaces, they often specify porcelain tile with epoxy grout for aesthetic purposes.
At times, contractors and construction professionals substitute flooring specifications with products like polished concrete or luxury vinyl tile; however, these products often present lasting issues in animal care facilities. Odor and mold issues usually arise with water exposure and urine contamination that seeps through the flooring. These issues require extensive upkeep after installation and costly remediation expenses.
Franklin County Humane Society is an excellent example of an animal care facility that uses animal-smart flooring selections throughout the facility.
Wall Substrates
Another way that contractors and construction professionals sometimes attempt to value engineer is by reducing the wall substrate to gypsum board from a more durable cementitious product. In other facility types, this may be a solution that works; however, in animal care facilities, this welcomes accelerated mold growth and odor issues due to the constant use of water and humidity within the buildings. Due to the presence of water and moisture, the substrates must be strong. Engineers often specify a cement board product or masonry in animal care facilities, particularly for dog areas where staff will spray down the walls. If a reduction in wall substrate is necessary, a possible option may be to retain the lower four feet of cement board and explore other options for the area above the four feet or the drop ceiling. Wall substrates are crucial to the longevity of an animal care facility.
The SPCA of Texas is an excellent example of an animal care facility that utilizes cement board as a solution to mold issues.
Plumbing System Sizing
There is a lot of plumbing that goes into an animal care facility. In addition to typical drainage fixtures used in commercial office buildings, animal care facilities use trench drains, wet tables, flush fixtures and floor drains. That means that simply meeting minimum code requirements, as opposed to utilizing the specified plumbing systems, will likely cause those systems to be massively undersized for the building’s use.
Designing a plumbing system to the code minimum for this building type will lead to issues such as clogging, which in turn will cause odor and disease issues. These undersized plumbing systems will cause significant problems. Companies like Design Learned can collaborate with animal care facilities on their remediation efforts, and the contractors are held accountable for correcting the plumbing issues.
Fairfax County Animal Shelter is an excellent example of an animal care facility that utilizes properly sized plumbing systems.
Floor Plan Reductions
When construction is underway and budgets are tight, contractors and construction professionals may consider reducing the floor plan and square footage of the facility. Again, with other facility types, that may be a logical option. However, due to the unique nature of all the systems and space requirements within an animal care facility, it is not that simple.
Over the years, animal care experts and engineers have observed contractors reducing the entire floor plan by a percentage during the construction phase to meet a lower budget target. The problem with reducing the overall floor plan by a percentage is that all the spaces become too small and unusable for the unique functions of an animal care facility.
If contractors and construction professionals must make reductions to the floor plan, engineers recommend working with the project’s design team to remove one or two functions completely from the building. For instance, contractors may choose to collaborate with the project’s design team to reduce office capacity or decrease animal capacity throughout the building.
The last function that contractors should remove is storage. Animal care facilities are often undersized when it comes to storage to begin with.
The Austin Animal Center is an excellent example of an animal care facility that features an efficient floor plan, maximizing animal capacity within its square footage.
Animal care facilities demand specialized design and construction due to their distinct operational and environmental requirements. While value engineering can be a powerful tool for managing budgets and streamlining construction, contractors and construction professionals must ensure they understand the complexity of animal care facilities. Missteps in areas such as dehumidification, flooring, wall substrates, plumbing and floor planning can lead to costly, long-term issues that compromise the facility’s effectiveness, quality and longevity. By collaborating closely with experienced design engineers and respecting the critical infrastructure needs of animal care environments, contractors and construction professionals can make informed decisions that balance cost with performance.
SEE ALSO: SEEING THE LIGHT: UPPERROOM DALLAS AND THE FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY
