Mechanical Insulation
Mechanical insulation is the majority of what we do. R&L Ohana has installed piping, ductwork and equipment insulation on commercial construction across the Hawaiian Islands since 2008, under a C-2 Mechanical Insulation contractor license, at 400 to 600 projects a year.
What the Scope Covers
Our mechanical insulation scope runs the full mechanical and plumbing package: chilled water and dual-temperature piping, heating hot water, domestic hot water and recirculation, steam and condensate, refrigerant suction and liquid lines, storm and roof drain bodies, supply and return ductwork, and equipment — air handlers, pumps, heat exchangers, chillers, boilers, breechings and tanks.
Material, thickness, vapor barrier and jacketing are installed to the specification as written. We self-perform sections 22 07 00 and 23 07 00.
How We Run the Work
Submittals
We prepare submittals to the specified manufacturer and turn them around early. Insulation submittal approval is one of the quieter items that holds up a mechanical schedule, and it does not need to.
Sequencing
Insulation follows pressure test and sign-off, and it has to land in the window between the mechanical contractor finishing and the ceiling going in. We staff to that window rather than to our own convenience, and we tell you early when the window is too narrow.
Island logistics
Material lead times to Hawaii are not mainland lead times. We order against the schedule rather than against the start date, because the fastest way to put a mechanical room behind is to discover the jacketing is on a barge.
Quality
Vapor barrier continuity is where mechanical insulation actually fails — at fittings, at hangers, at terminations. We insulate through hangers with rigid inserts and shields, seal every joint and termination, and walk the work before it is covered, because nobody is opening that ceiling again to find out.
We close out clean: as-installed documentation where the specification calls for it, punch walked and cleared, and the finish left in the condition the owner is going to live with. The general contractors who call us back have been calling us back for over a decade, and that is the reason.
Featured Projects
Bidding a project? Get R&L on it.
Send us the mechanical and plumbing insulation sections and we will price it.