QA_HD_Dryer_Vent_20180320.pdf

Questions & Answers

Hood Cleaning

Q1: There were very few if any duct doors on any of the horizontal plane of the ducts.

This leads me to believe that the current hood cleaners have not been cleaning any of these areas. Are you going to give a grace period on the cleaning of these areas if they cannot get to bare metal for the first few cleanings? Most of the duct doors that I did see were also not to code - they were not fire proof to 2500 degrees nor sealed doors.

A1A (grace period cleaning): Government will work with contractor to obtain bare metal hood cleaning.

A1B (fire proof door): Fire Department has been notified, is aware of the fire doors issue, and is working to ensure that fire doors are in compliance with standard codes.

Q2: Arctic conditions. We do get below zero and quite often -10 or less. At this temperature it is extremely difficult to use a pressure sprayer on the roofs. It makes a huge safety hazard, both in ice and weight load on the roof. Also, the grease tends to freeze quickly and is not removable with pressure spraying only. In Fairbanks, we tend to get a waiver on the fans and upper duct area and are allowed to scrap as much as possible off. Is this a possibility for November through February?

A2: If the temperature does go below zero, maintenance will be rescheduled when temperature is above zero.

Q3: Heat Recovery Units (HRU)s. These have also not been touched as part of the regular hood cleanings. Are these going to be required? These are huge, complicated and time consuming pieces of equipment, that if not maintained and cleaned properly will cause significant problems to the ability of the equipment.

A3: Government will process this as a project to bring the equipment up to standard.

Q4: Should the HRU's be a completely separate line item due to the complexity of cleaning them?

A4: Government will process to get this equipment cleaned and PM on a special maintenance project.

Q5: how are contractors to dispose of "reclaimed water" or is that something that the government would take care of themselves?

A5: Contractor will dispose any reclaimed water into the drain.

Water Wash Cleaning

Q6: the Gaylord water wash systems are a very integral part of your hood system. To inspect, service and maintain them should require a technician that has been certified in them. I have been to the Gaylord tech school in Oregon. As such, I am a trained tech, though the certification stays with the company that you worked for while attending the school. I believe that this is one item that we should have to show that we have at least been trained in the maintenance of them, or show that we have the technical manual to service them.

A6: Contractor shall provide one certification from any of three organization (MOA – Municipality of Anchorage; ASSE – American Sanitary Survey Engineering; or ABPA – American Backflow Prevention Association).

Q7: Are you going to require weekly checks on the fluid level of the degreaser that Gaylord requires (G510)? Also will you allow Encompass (Gaylord requires that G510 be used)?

A7: Government inspects the degreaser fluid weekly on Gaylord equipment and refill as needed.

Q8: Do the fusible links need to be replaced? If so a tech that has a current State of Alaska license to work on UL300 (NFPA17A) fire systems must be used to disable the system. This will take liability off of the DOD and put it on the technician. Also if we are concluding that the fire system is part of the water wash systems, the technicians will need to do a full function test on the system to include shutdowns of make-up air units (MAU), building fire alarms, gas valve trips, shunt trips operate as well as replacing the fusible links. There should be a reference to this in the solicitation.

A8: This will not be a contractor’s requirement. This maintenance will be performed by the government. Repair/replacement of fusible link has been removed from the PWS.

Back Flow Preventers

Q9: Back flow preventers are an extremely integral piece of the water system. This does not allow contaminated water to flow into the potable drinking water in the building.

The anchorage municipality requires a training course with a rigorous test. I suggest that part of the solicitation requires a current certification at the AMMU to inspect, service and maintain the backflow preventers.

A9: Contractor shall provide one certification from any of three organization (MOA – Municipality of Anchorage; ASSE – American Sanitary Survey Engineering; or ABPA – American Backflow Prevention Association).

Dryer Vent Cleaning

Q10: I know that one person brought up the idea of power washing the exterior of the building instead of removing the caps and cleaning them. I do not believe this is a good idea. There are several things that could go horrible wrong. If using a pressure washer as he was suggesting, the exterior flaps could be broken off and no one would know, allowing outside moisture and cold air into the building. There would be no verification that all the lint had been removed out of the exit hole - there was major lint buildup in the ones that I examined right at the exit.

A10: PWS para 3.1(d) states: Remove lint up to the exterior termination, exterior wall, and exit hole.

Q11: As we saw in some of the areas, there was lint buildup not just on the floors and walls, but also the ceiling. Is this to be cleaned also and how far up the wall should we go?

A11: PWS para 3.1(c) states: Remove lint from walls up to the ceiling to include ceiling, floors under, and dryers.

Q12: Many of the places we inspected had duct tape on the tubing which is against mechanical code. Can you put in there that the correct tape shall be used (ie: 3M flue tape, 3M HVAC Tape, Reflectix tape)

A12: PWS para 3.1(g) is added to read: Correct tape (i.e., 3M flue tape, 3M HVAC tape, Reflectix tape, etc.) shall be used on tubing per mechanical code.

Q13: Should the repair/replacement of dryer vents be included in the PWS?

A13: PWS para 3.2 is added to read “3.2 Reimbursable Parts. Contractor is responsible for the procurement of parts and materials that total a cost of $100 or less.

All parts and materials that cost more than $100 must have a quote, approved by the COR, prior to installation. Contractor will then be reimbursed 100% for these items.”

Wage Determinations

Q14: The wage determination is not reflected with the technical requirements of the solicitation. In fairness, what is the government's determination of the correct wage determination to be used?

A14: The wage determination is located on FBO, posted with the original solicitation as Attachment 2.