Paint Shop Planning—From Floor Plan to First Spray | Article 19 of 28
Who Is Responsible for What?
The most expensive sentence in a construction meeting may be, “I thought they were doing that.”
A new paint shop involves more than a booth manufacturer and an electrician. It may require architects, engineers, general contractors, mechanical contractors, roofers, fire-protection specialists, gas installers, control programmers, environmental consultants, coating suppliers, equipment technicians, inspectors, and the owner’s production team.
Each party may assume someone else is handling a particular piece of work. The booth vendor assumes the electrician will provide the interlock wiring. The electrician assumes the booth controls are factory-complete. The general contractor assumes the equipment installer will seal the roof penetrations. The installer assumes the roofer is doing it.
Then installation day arrives, and the building is full of people pointing at one another.
A responsibility matrix prevents this problem by identifying who designs, furnishes, approves, installs, connects, tests, documents, and accepts every part of the project.
The workman’s rule: If a task belongs to “somebody,” it usually belongs to nobody. Put a company name beside it.
1. Responsibility Is More Than Furnishing Equipment
One task may involve several separate responsibilities. The party that supplies a fan may not install it. The installer may not provide its electrical connection. The electrician may not program the control sequence. The controls technician may not perform the final airflow test.
Design
Determines requirements, capacity, arrangement, materials, calculations, and performance.
Furnish
Purchases, manufactures, and delivers the equipment or material.
Install and connect
Unloads, assembles, supports, wires, pipes, ducts, and integrates the equipment.
Test and accept
Starts, balances, demonstrates, documents, reviews, and approves performance.
These responsibilities should be listed separately. Writing “booth by vendor” does not tell the project team who handles permits, roof openings, wiring, gas piping, fire protection, or commissioning.
2. Establish One Owner’s Project Manager
The owner should appoint one person with authority to coordinate decisions, maintain records, control changes, and communicate with the project team.
The owner’s project manager should:
- Maintain the current project scope and drawings
- Coordinate owner decisions
- Issue information consistently
- Track questions and answers
- Maintain the responsibility matrix
- Control changes to scope, price, and schedule
- Track submittals and approvals
- Coordinate shutdowns and site access
- Schedule inspections and testing
- Track deficiencies and corrective actions
- Collect final documentation
Multiple people can contribute, but one person should maintain the official record and final decision path.
3. Define the Owner’s Responsibilities
The owner cannot transfer every project responsibility to a supplier. The owner provides the business, production, facility, and operating information upon which the system is designed.
Owner responsibilities commonly include:
- Defining products and production requirements
- Selecting coating technologies
- Providing accurate facility information
- Establishing finish-quality requirements
- Providing utility information
- Identifying future expansion plans
- Hiring qualified design professionals
- Reviewing and approving submittals
- Providing site access and operating restrictions
- Coordinating existing production
- Assigning operators and maintenance personnel for training
- Providing required maintenance after turnover
- Operating the system within its approved limits
The owner should also identify who has authority to approve technical changes, financial changes, and schedule changes.
4. Define the Architect’s Role
The architect commonly coordinates the equipment with the building design, occupancy, construction, access, egress, fire separation, and permitting documents.
Architectural responsibilities may include:
- Building layout and equipment location
- Occupancy and use classification
- Required fire-resistance-rated construction
- Exit access and egress
- Door and wall modifications
- Accessibility requirements
- Roof and wall assemblies
- Coordination of permit drawings
- Coordination among engineering disciplines
The contract should state whether the architect is responsible for the equipment permit package or only the surrounding building work.
5. Define the Process or Finishing Engineer’s Role
The process engineer translates production and coating requirements into an integrated finishing process.
Responsibilities may include:
- Process-flow development
- Equipment-capacity requirements
- Coating and application-system coordination
- Surface-preparation requirements
- Flash-off and cure requirements
- Material-balance information
- Process-control requirements
- Performance specifications
- Proposal technical evaluation
- Production acceptance testing
On smaller projects, some of this work may be performed by the equipment supplier or another engineering discipline. If so, document the responsibility and required deliverables.
6. Define the Mechanical Engineer’s Role
Mechanical systems may include exhaust, replacement air, heating, cooling, gas service, compressed air, and building-pressure control.
Mechanical-engineering responsibilities may include:
- Air-makeup and exhaust coordination
- Building air balance
- Gas-load calculations
- Gas-pipe sizing and pressure requirements
- Heating and cooling loads
- Compressed-air demand and distribution
- Duct routing and pressure-loss calculations
- Roof equipment and penetrations
- Combustion-air and venting requirements
- Mechanical-code compliance
- Testing and balancing requirements
Clarify where the booth manufacturer’s design ends and the building mechanical engineer’s design begins.
7. Define the Electrical Engineer’s Role
The electrical engineer coordinates facility power with equipment loads, hazardous locations, controls, safety systems, and required wiring methods.
Responsibilities may include:
- Electrical-load calculations
- Utility and transformer coordination
- Feeders, panels, disconnects, and protection
- Hazardous-location classification drawings
- Grounding and bonding design
- Emergency-power requirements
- Lighting and receptacles
- Fire-alarm interfaces
- Control-system power and communication
- Electrical permit drawings
- Electrical inspection coordination
The specification should state whether the equipment vendor or electrical engineer defines the final control interlocks and field-wiring requirements.
8. Define the Fire-Protection Engineer’s Role
The fire-protection engineer evaluates the process hazards and coordinates suppression, detection, alarms, emergency controls, and building fire protection.
Responsibilities may include:
- Fire-hazard evaluation
- Suppression-system selection
- Water-supply evaluation
- Protection of booths, ducts, plenums, and storage
- Detection-system requirements
- Alarm and notification requirements
- Fire-system sequence of operation
- Equipment-shutdown requirements
- Coordination with the building fire-alarm system
- Fire-protection permit documents
- Integrated acceptance testing
Clarify whether the booth supplier includes a complete suppression system, rough-in provisions only, or no fire-protection scope.
9. Define the Environmental Consultant’s Role
Environmental requirements can affect equipment selection, coating usage, exhaust design, operating limits, recordkeeping, and project schedule.
Responsibilities may include:
- Air-permit applicability
- Emission calculations
- Coating and solvent usage limits
- Control-device requirements
- Stack and exhaust information
- Hazardous-waste requirements
- Industrial-wastewater requirements
- Stormwater and spill-prevention coordination
- Required monitoring and records
- Permit application and agency communication
The project schedule should identify environmental approvals that must be received before construction or operation begins.
10. Define the General Contractor’s Role
The general contractor often coordinates site construction, schedules, trades, safety, access, and building modifications.
Responsibilities may include:
- Site preparation
- Demolition
- Foundations, slabs, and pits
- Structural supports
- Walls, doors, and roof work
- Equipment unloading and rigging
- Trade coordination
- Temporary utilities
- Construction safety and housekeeping
- Inspection scheduling
- Punch-list coordination
- Final cleanup and restoration
State whether the general contractor or equipment vendor has final responsibility for equipment assembly and installation supervision.
11. Define the Booth or Equipment Vendor’s Role
The vendor’s scope varies widely. Some provide equipment only. Others provide engineering, installation, startup, and complete project coordination.
Vendor responsibilities may include:
- Equipment design and fabrication
- Listing and certification documentation
- General arrangement drawings
- Equipment utility requirements
- Fan and airflow calculations
- Control panels and factory wiring
- Equipment freight
- Installation supervision
- Startup and adjustment
- Operator and maintenance training
- Warranty service
- Final equipment documentation
Require the vendor to identify where its equipment scope physically and functionally begins and ends.
12. Define the Equipment Installer’s Role
The equipment installer may assemble components, set equipment, install panels, connect ducts, align doors, and prepare the system for other trades.
Clarify responsibility for:
- Receiving inspection
- Unloading and storage
- Rigging and equipment placement
- Booth-panel assembly
- Door and hardware installation
- Fan and air-makeup-unit placement
- Duct assembly
- Sealants and weatherproofing
- Protection of equipment during construction
- Correction of shipping damage
- Final cleanup
The installer should follow approved drawings and manufacturer instructions. Field changes should not be made without documented review.
13. Define the Electrical Contractor’s Role
The electrical contractor may provide equipment feeders, disconnects, final connections, hazardous-location wiring, grounding, controls wiring, and testing.
Clarify who provides:
- Main feeders and branch circuits
- Disconnect switches
- Motor starters and variable-frequency drives
- Field wiring between equipment components
- Fire-system interface wiring
- Airflow and pressure-switch wiring
- Emergency-stop circuits
- Hazardous-location seals and fittings
- Grounding and bonding
- Control-programming assistance
- Electrical testing and inspection
- Final as-built drawings
A factory-wired control panel does not mean the complete installed system is wired.
14. Define the Mechanical Contractor’s Role
The mechanical contractor may install ducts, gas piping, compressed air, drains, process water, heating connections, and building HVAC modifications.
Clarify responsibility for:
- Exhaust and supply ductwork
- Duct supports and roof penetrations
- Natural-gas piping
- Gas regulators and shutoff valves
- Compressed-air distribution
- Process-water and drain connections
- Air-makeup connections
- Building HVAC modifications
- Pipe testing and inspection
- Insulation and weather protection
- System identification and labeling
Define the exact connection point for each utility. “Gas by others” does not identify whether the other contractor stops at the equipment room, burner fuel train, or building wall.
15. Define the Fire-Suppression Contractor’s Role
The suppression contractor may provide design, equipment, piping, detection, releasing controls, alarm interfaces, inspection, and acceptance testing.
Clarify:
- System design responsibility
- Hydraulic calculations where applicable
- Permit drawings and submission
- Suppression nozzles or sprinklers
- Detection and manual release
- Releasing control panel
- Equipment-shutdown contacts
- Building fire-alarm connection
- Inspection and acceptance testing
- Employee instruction
- Ongoing inspection and maintenance
Coordinate the suppression contractor’s field devices with booth panels, ductwork, filters, lights, products, and maintenance access.
16. Define the Roofer’s Role
Roof leaks often appear after new ducts, curbs, gas lines, electrical conduits, and equipment supports are installed.
Define responsibility for:
- Locating and approving penetrations
- Cutting roof openings
- Installing curbs and flashing
- Restoring insulation and membrane
- Maintaining the roof warranty
- Weatherproofing penetrations
- Final leak inspection
Use a roofing contractor approved by the roof-system manufacturer when required to protect the existing warranty.
17. Define Structural Responsibilities
Roof-mounted fans, air-makeup units, ducts, platforms, ovens, booths, pits, and conveyors can impose substantial loads.
Clarify who will:
- Verify existing building capacity
- Design equipment supports
- Review roof and mezzanine loading
- Design foundations and pits
- Address wind, snow, and seismic loads
- Provide stamped structural calculations
- Inspect anchors and supports
Equipment weight shown on a vendor drawing is not a structural design.
18. Define the Coating Supplier’s Role
The coating supplier should provide technical information needed to design and verify the process.
Responsibilities may include:
- Current technical and safety data
- Mixing and reduction requirements
- Application-viscosity range
- Recommended application equipment
- Film-thickness range
- Flash and recoat requirements
- Cure schedule
- Maximum temperature limitations
- Quality-control test recommendations
- Startup and production-trial support
Confirm whether coating-supplier participation during commissioning is included, separately purchased, or provided as technical support.
19. Include Operators and Maintenance Personnel
The people who will operate and maintain the system should review the layout, controls, access, filter arrangement, cleaning method, and spare-parts plan.
Operators can evaluate:
- Product movement
- Gun and hose access
- Visibility and lighting
- Control-station location
- Color-change workflow
- Cleaning and housekeeping
- Ergonomics
Maintenance personnel can evaluate:
- Motor and fan access
- Filter replacement
- Burner and fuel-train service
- Safe roof access
- Electrical-panel clearance
- Lockout/tagout provisions
- Replacement-component availability
A design can look excellent in a conference room and still make daily work unnecessarily difficult. Bring the people who do the work into the review.
20. Use a Responsibility Matrix
Build the matrix early and update it as the project develops. Every major task should identify the responsible organization.
Recommended matrix columns
- Task or system
- Design responsibility
- Furnishing responsibility
- Installation responsibility
- Connection responsibility
- Permit responsibility
- Inspection responsibility
- Testing responsibility
- Acceptance responsibility
- Required deliverable
- Required completion date
Do not rely only on initials that new team members cannot understand. Identify the company and, where appropriate, the responsible person.
21. Define the Physical Connection Points
Written responsibilities should identify exact connection points.
Examples include:
- Electrical feeder terminates at the booth control-panel disconnect.
- Gas piping terminates at the inlet connection of the vendor-supplied fuel train.
- Compressed-air piping terminates at a specified regulator or isolation valve.
- Exhaust duct begins at the booth fan outlet and ends at the approved discharge point.
- Fire-alarm wiring terminates at identified contacts in the suppression control panel.
- Drain piping terminates at an approved waste connection.
A marked connection drawing is often clearer than several paragraphs of contract language.
22. Assign Permit and Inspection Responsibilities
A project may require building, mechanical, electrical, fire-protection, fuel-gas, environmental, plumbing, and operational approvals.
For every permit, assign responsibility for:
- Preparing drawings and calculations
- Signing and sealing documents
- Submitting the application
- Paying fees
- Responding to plan-review comments
- Revising drawings
- Scheduling inspections
- Correcting deficiencies
- Obtaining final approval
- Providing records to the owner
“Permit by owner” should not mean the owner must prepare technical documents that only the vendor or engineer can provide.
23. Assign Startup and Commissioning Responsibilities
Startup, testing, balancing, process trials, and acceptance are separate tasks.
Identify who will:
- Perform pre-startup inspection
- Energize equipment
- Start and adjust fans
- Commission burners
- Test alarms and interlocks
- Balance supply and exhaust air
- Profile oven temperatures
- Test fire-system interfaces
- Provide representative products and coatings
- Operate application equipment
- Inspect finished test parts
- Record test results
- Approve final acceptance
The project schedule should allow these parties to be onsite at the same time when integrated testing is required.
24. Assign Training Responsibilities
Training must cover the complete system, not just individual pieces of equipment.
Assign responsibility for training on:
- Booth operation
- Ventilation and filter monitoring
- Burner and oven controls
- Application equipment
- Coating preparation
- Fire protection and emergency response
- Routine maintenance
- Alarm response
- Quality-control checks
- Process documentation
Record attendees, subjects, instructors, and training dates.
25. Assign Final Documentation Responsibilities
Every contractor and supplier should deliver the documents associated with its work.
Required documents may include:
- Final as-built drawings
- Equipment manuals
- Electrical schematics
- Control-program backups
- Sequence of operation
- Inspection reports
- Test and balance reports
- Temperature profiles
- Fire-system acceptance records
- Equipment listings and certifications
- Warranties
- Spare-parts lists
- Training records
- Permit and approval records
Tie document delivery to project closeout and final payment.
26. Control Changes to Responsibility
Responsibilities may change as the design develops. A vendor may remove installation from its scope. The general contractor may assign ductwork to another subcontractor. The owner may purchase application equipment separately.
Every change should identify:
- Responsibility being transferred
- Party accepting the responsibility
- Price effect
- Schedule effect
- Design and permit effect
- Warranty effect
- New connection points
- Required document revisions
Update the responsibility matrix immediately. Do not wait until project closeout to reconstruct what happened.
27. Hold Regular Coordination Meetings
Responsibility documents work only when the project team uses them.
Regular coordination meetings should review:
- Current drawings and revisions
- Open technical questions
- Submittal status
- Permit status
- Utility requirements
- Connection points
- Site readiness
- Schedule conflicts
- Safety concerns
- Changes and potential change orders
- Upcoming inspections and tests
Record decisions, responsible parties, and due dates in meeting minutes.
Questions to Ask at Every Scope Boundary
- Who designs it?
- Who furnishes it?
- Who unloads and installs it?
- Who provides the final connection?
- Who provides permits and engineering?
- Who inspects and tests it?
- Who corrects a failed test?
- Who provides the final documents?
- Where does one contractor’s responsibility end?
- Has the next contractor accepted responsibility in writing?
Knowledge Check
- Why is “furnished by the vendor” an incomplete assignment of responsibility?
- What information belongs in a responsibility matrix?
- Why should exact utility connection points be identified?
- Who should maintain the official project record?
- Why should operators and maintenance personnel review the design?
- What should happen when a responsibility is transferred?
Planning and contractual notice: This article provides general educational information and does not establish contractual, engineering, legal, safety, or code responsibility for a particular project. Responsibilities must be assigned through clear contracts, specifications, drawings, purchase orders, and approved project documents prepared or reviewed by qualified professionals. Requirements must reflect the actual project, applicable laws, locally adopted codes, permit conditions, insurer requirements, and decisions of the Authority Having Jurisdiction.
Next in the series: Article 20 of 28—Site Preparation and Construction Coordination
Once responsibilities are assigned, the building must be made ready. Article 20 explains how to coordinate foundations, pits, roof openings, utilities, structural supports, delivery access, temporary protection, trade sequencing, and the details that determine whether installation day runs smoothly.
