Automotive
Auto facilities run two MEP worlds under one roof: a brand-quality showroom out front and an equipment-dense, heavily ventilated service shop in back — lifts, compressors, exhaust extraction, wash bays, and EV loads that grow every year. We deliver MEP design, prepared for your engineer of record’s review, that is engineered around the bay layout.
Showroom Comfort, Shop-Floor Engineering.
A repair garage isn't an ordinary building: the floor can be a classified location, the air carries CO and NO2, and the electrical service has to absorb EV chargers that can push it over its limit. We engineer code-compliant repair-garage exhaust and ventilation to IMC Section 403 (Table 403.3.1.1) and the Section 502.14 source-capture requirement, classified-area wiring to NEC 511, and EV infrastructure to NEC 625 — while the showroom out front reads as a brand-quality retail space. The result is one coordinated set, sealed by the licensed engineer of record on your project.
Service-Bay Ventilation & Exhaust
Air engineering for a safe, correctly classified repair shop, prepared for plan-check review.
- Repair-garage mechanical exhaust sized to the adopted mechanical code — 0.75 cfm/sf under IMC Table 403.3.1.1, or 1.5 cfm/sf for auto repair rooms under UMC-based codes such as the California CMC Table 403.7 — with CO/NO2 demand control where the AHJ approves it for the repair area
- UL 2075-listed CO and NO2 sensors interlocked to stage and modulate the exhaust fans
- Vehicle source-capture: tailpipe extraction and overhead-rail exhaust drops at the bays
- Ventilation sized to support de-classifying service areas where the NEC 511.3 ventilation criteria are met
- Make-up air tempered and balanced to the exhaust so doors don't whistle in winter
- Showroom and office comfort zoning kept independent of shop air
Shop Electrical & Classified Wiring
Power, lighting, and code-classified wiring built around the bay layout and NEC 511.
- Classified-location electrical around fuel dispensers and canopies per NEC Article 514 where the site dispenses fuel — the tank and piping scope stays with the NFPA 30A specialist
- Classified-location wiring per NEC 511 — service floor up to 18 in. and pits below grade, where NEC 511.3 classifies them
- Wiring methods and GFCI protection for service receptacles, tools, and droplights
- Lift, compressor, tire-machine, and shop-equipment power coordinated to the equipment list
- Showroom and display lighting designed to brand illuminance standards
- Site, canopy, and pylon-sign lighting and circuiting
- Power and motor controls for vendor-supplied car-wash equipment
EV Charging Infrastructure
Charging capacity sized to NEC 625 and planned with the utility before the service maxes out.
- Level 2 and DC fast-charge sizing with EVSE treated as continuous load (125%) per NEC 625
- EV load calculations per NEC 220.57 reconciled against the existing service
- Automatic load management (ALMS) to add chargers without upsizing the service where available capacity permits
- Utility-coordinated service, transformer, and switchgear capacity for fast-charge plazas
- Make-ready conduit and stub-outs for the chargers you'll add later
- Customer-charging and fleet-depot layouts with metering
Service Plumbing & Car-Wash Water
Compressed air, shop drainage, and reclaim connections designed for the waste stream.
- Compressed-air distribution to the bays and tool drops
- Oil/sand interceptors and trench drains sized to the shop and AHJ
- Wash-tunnel pit drainage, reclaim pump pits, and fresh-water make-up
- Lube and fluid-distribution piping coordination
- RPZ backflow protection on make-up and equipment connections
Coordination & Specialty Scope
Clear lines around the true specialty scope, with the conventional MEP designed cleanly around it.
- Conventional MEP coordinated tightly to the shop, wash, and bay layouts
- Spray booths and paint-mix rooms: the booth vendor designs the booth package, including its NEC Article 516 classified wiring; we coordinate its power, gas, and roof duct connections
- Fuel-dispensing hardware and NFPA 30A tank/piping scope by the fuel-system specialist; we design the balance of systems
- BIM coordination of vehicle exhaust, compressed air, lift foundations, and EV conduit
- Energy compliance to IECC / ASHRAE 90.1 across the conditioned showroom, office, and shop zones
- Input we need up front differs by project type — the manufacturer's brand standards for a showroom, the shop equipment list for service bays, the wash-equipment vendor package for a tunnel, and utility capacity plus charger counts for an EV plaza
Yes — this is core scope. We design repair-garage exhaust to the adopted mechanical code (0.75 cfm/sf under IMC Table 403.3.1.1, or 1.5 cfm/sf for auto repair rooms under UMC-based codes such as the California CMC Table 403.7), with CO/NO2 demand control where the AHJ approves it for the repair area, and we treat the classified locations per NEC 511 — the service floor up to 18 inches and below-grade pits, where NEC 511.3 classifies them. Where mechanical ventilation meeting NEC 511.3 can make an area unclassified, we design the ventilation to support that, which can simplify the wiring methods and lower cost.
Yes. We design Level 2 and DC fast-charge infrastructure to NEC Article 625, treating EVSE as a continuous load at 125% and running the EV load calculation per the adopted NEC (220.57 in the 2023 edition) against your existing service. Where chargers would exceed the existing service capacity, we can apply automatic load management (ALMS, NEC 625.42) to cap the EV load so more chargers fit within that capacity, and we coordinate transformer and switchgear capacity with the utility for fast-charge plazas.
Those carry genuine specialty scope. The spray booth and paint-mix room are designed by the booth vendor, including their NEC Article 516 classified wiring, and the fuel-dispensing tanks and piping fall under NFPA 30A and a fuel-system specialist. We design the conventional MEP around both — general power, lighting, shop exhaust and make-up air, gas piping, drainage, and equipment connections — so their packages integrate cleanly into our set behind your seal.
Yes. The reclaim and water-treatment train is a vendor package; we design the wash-tunnel pit drainage and reclaim pump pits, and the fresh-water make-up, plus the power and motor controls for the vendor-supplied wash equipment. We also handle wash-bay humidity and exhaust so the building doesn't sweat.
That's the point of the package. The showroom is a brand-quality retail environment — comfort zoning, display lighting to the manufacturer's standards, and a clean envelope — while the shop behind it is an exhaust-driven industrial space, classified under NEC Article 511 only where fuels, pits, or ventilation levels call for it. We design them as one coordinated MEP set so the two worlds don't fight each other, under the direction of the licensed engineer of record on your project, who reviews and seals the whole set.