Laboratory & Cleanroom HVAC for Life-Science Facilities
Fume hood exhaust, 100% outside air systems, pressure cascades and ISO-classified cleanrooms for biotech, GMP and vivarium spaces.
San Diego runs on life science, and life-science buildings run on mechanical systems that never get a break. A research or therapeutic facility is mostly exhaust, make-up air and pressure control: fume hoods and biosafety cabinets pulling conditioned air out of the building, 100% outside air units replacing it, and a pressure cascade that has to hold from corridor to gowning room to processing suite regardless of how many hoods are open.
CMI builds and services those systems. We install and replace lab exhaust fans and manifolded exhaust systems, energy-recovery make-up air units, reheat and humidification, ISO-classified cleanroom envelopes with HEPA ceiling systems, vivarium ventilation, and the controls that tie hood position, room pressure and supply airflow together into one stable sequence. We also do the unglamorous half — welded process piping, chilled and hot water distribution, and stainless work — with in-house crews.
Life-science tenants live and die by schedule and by qualification. We plan lab and cleanroom work around research calendars and production runs, coordinate closely with validation consultants, and support IQ/OQ efforts with the air balance data, filter certification records, pressure mapping and as-built documentation those protocols require. Whether you are a startup taking down 8,000 square feet of shell space or an established therapeutic company expanding GMP capacity, the mechanical scope is what drives your occupancy date.
Scope & capabilities
- Fume hood, biosafety cabinet and manifolded lab exhaust systems
- ISO Class 5–8 cleanroom HVAC, HEPA ceiling systems and terminal filtration
- Vivarium and animal-holding ventilation, cage-wash and high-ACH spaces
- Stainless and welded process piping, WFI/USP water and clean utilities support
- Certification support: air balance, HEPA leak testing coordination, pressure mapping, as-builts
- 100% outside air make-up units with energy recovery, reheat and humidification
- Pressure cascade design-assist, airflow tracking and room differential control
- GMP process suites, gowning rooms, airlocks and material transfer airlocks
- Lab-specific controls: hood sash tracking, variable exhaust, emergency purge sequences
The technical envelope
- Cleanroom classes
- ISO Class 5 through ISO Class 8 (Class 100 – 100,000)
- Air changes
- 6 – 60+ ACH depending on classification and program
- Pressure control
- Cascade differentials typically 0.02 – 0.05 in. w.c. per boundary
- Exhaust
- Constant and variable volume, manifolded or dedicated, with redundancy
- Documentation
- TAB report, pressure mapping, filter certifications, sequences, as-builts
Facility types
Lab & Cleanroom HVAC — straight answers
- Can you work in an operating GMP suite or an active lab?
- Yes, with the same discipline we use in hospitals: containment, HEPA-filtered work zones, negative-pressure enclosures, change control coordination and work windows that respect production runs. In classified space we plan around your cleaning and requalification requirements so you are not stuck re-certifying more area than necessary.
- Do you perform the validation and certification itself?
- We perform and document the mechanical side — air balance, airflow verification, pressure differentials, sequence functional testing — and we coordinate with your validation firm or certifier for HEPA leak testing, particle counts and IQ/OQ execution. Independent certification should stay independent; our job is to make the system pass it and to hand over the data behind it.
- Our building is a shell. How early should a mechanical contractor be involved?
- As early as possible. Shell buildings frequently do not have the exhaust risers, roof structure, make-up air capacity or chilled water available for the lab program a tenant has in mind. Getting us in during programming usually saves more money than any value engineering exercise later, and it prevents a mid-project discovery that resets your occupancy date.
Get a number you can budget against
We walk the plant before we price it. You get equipment condition, options, phasing and a schedule — not a guess with a contingency wrapped around it.