Twenty-three years of Colorado commercial plumbing — hospitals, water treatment plants, airports, hotels and high-rises — is the background this company was built on. Ground-up commercial is the work it came from.
AT A GLANCE
- Background
- Hospitals, water treatment plants, airports, hotels, high-rises
- Scope
- Bid through closeout, including submittals and as-builts
- Coordination
- Drawing-based, with RFIs answered in writing
- Delivery
- Comfortable on hard bid, negotiated or design-assist
Where this company came from
Allen and Sons exists because Clayton Allen spent twenty-three years doing commercial and institutional plumbing across Colorado and then decided to bring that standard to residential work. Ground-up commercial is not a diversification for us. It is the original trade.
Hospitals in particular teach a specific discipline, because a hospital cannot have a leak, cannot have an unplanned shutdown, and is inspected by people whose job is to find problems. Water treatment plants teach you about materials and testing. Airports and high-rises teach you about coordination at a scale where nobody can hold the whole job in their head, so it has to be on paper.
What that looks like on your project
Bids that state their exclusions plainly, so you are comparing like with like rather than discovering the gap after award.
Submittals produced on time, because a late submittal delays procurement and procurement delays everything downstream.
Coordination drawings agreed with the mechanical and electrical trades before anyone installs anything overhead, because a ceiling cavity is always tighter in reality than on a plan set.
Inspection sequencing planned against the schedule rather than requested at the last moment, since an inspector who cannot come for four days is a four-day delay if nobody planned for it.
Testing and commissioning as specified
Potable systems get pressure tested, flushed and disinfected where the specification calls for it, with documentation. Sanitary gets tested before cover. Gas gets tested and witnessed.
None of this is optional and none of it is remarkable. What varies between contractors is whether it happens on schedule and gets documented properly, or whether it becomes a scramble during closeout that holds up substantial completion.
WHAT'S INCLUDED
- Bid against drawings with an explicit scope and explicit exclusions
- Submittals produced and tracked, not improvised
- Coordination drawings with the other mechanical trades
- Inspection sequencing planned against the construction schedule
- Testing, flushing, disinfection and commissioning as the spec requires
- Complete closeout package — as-builts, warranties, test reports, O and M
COMMON QUESTIONS
What size commercial projects do you take?
The background is large institutional work, but the company is deliberately sized for projects where the owner gets direct attention from people who have done complex work. Tell us the scope and the schedule and we will give you a straight answer about whether we are the right contractor for it, including when we are not.
Do you work on hard bid, negotiated or design-assist?
All three. Design-assist is where the commercial background pays for itself most, because catching a coordination problem during design costs a drawing revision and catching it during construction costs a change order and a schedule impact. On hard bid we will tell you clearly what is in and what is out rather than leaving the exclusions vague.
What does your closeout package include?
As-built drawings reflecting what was actually installed, manufacturer warranties, test and inspection reports, disinfection certificates where potable systems require them, and operations and maintenance documentation. It gets assembled as the job proceeds rather than reconstructed at the end, which is why it is complete when it is needed.
How do you handle changes and RFIs?
In writing, promptly, and priced before the work is built. The pattern that damages projects is verbal direction, work performed on the strength of it, and a pricing argument at the end when nobody agrees what was said. We would rather spend the twenty minutes writing it down.
Can you take medical or food service work?
Yes. Both have requirements beyond ordinary commercial plumbing — medical gas where it applies, specific backflow protection, grease interception, sanitation-driven fixture and finish requirements, and health department inspection on top of building inspection. Those are known quantities from the institutional background rather than new territory.