Test, Adjust & Balance (TAB)
Air and water balancing with documented readings — including the pressure relationships hospitals and labs have to prove.
A system that has not been balanced is a system nobody can defend. TAB is how you turn design intent into measured performance: airflow at every diffuser and terminal, water flow through every coil, fan and pump curves verified, and — in healthcare and laboratory work — pressure relationships and air changes documented room by room.
CMI performs air and hydronic balancing to NEBB and AABC procedures on new construction, renovations, tenant improvements and existing systems that have drifted. We measure and adjust rather than estimate: pitot traverses, flow hoods, differential pressure across coils and circuit setters, ultrasonic flow verification, amp and static readings, and calibrated instruments with current certificates.
Because balancing is usually where somebody else's shortcuts surface, our reports say what we found — a fan that cannot make design, a closed balancing valve behind drywall, a duct branch that was never connected — with a recommended correction. On our own installations, TAB is included, and the report is part of the closeout package with as-builts and O&Ms.
Scope & capabilities
- Air balancing: supply, return, exhaust, outside air, terminal and diffuser level
- Fan and pump performance verification, curve plotting, amp and static readings
- Fume hood face velocity and containment airflow testing
- Existing-system rebalancing after TI, re-zoning or equipment replacement
- Hydronic balancing: chilled, condenser, heating hot water and process loops
- Pressure relationship and air change verification for critical spaces
- Duct leakage testing and pressure-class verification
- Certified TAB reports for AHJ, commissioning agent and LEED submittals
The technical envelope
- Standards
- NEBB / AABC procedures, ASHRAE 111, ASHRAE 170 for healthcare
- Instruments
- Calibrated flow hoods, micromanometers, ultrasonic and pitot
- Report contents
- Design vs. measured, deficiency log, instrument certificates
- Scale
- Single tenant floor to full hospital tower
- Retest
- Post-correction retest and verification included
Facility types
Test, Adjust & Balance — straight answers
- Do you provide a stamped or certified TAB report?
- We provide reports prepared to NEBB/AABC procedures with instrument calibration records, suitable for AHJ, commissioning agent and LEED submittal. Where an independent third-party agency is required by spec, we coordinate with them and correct the mechanical deficiencies they find.
- Our building has never been balanced — where do you start?
- At the air handlers and pumps. Until the central equipment can make design flow and pressure, zone-level balancing is wasted effort. We verify the plant, then work outward to terminals.
- Can you verify OR and isolation room pressure relationships?
- Yes, including air changes per hour, differential pressures, filter integrity coordination and documentation formatted for CDPH and Joint Commission review.
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.