Smith Design Engineering

About

About SDE

Building services engineering consultancy designing mechanical, electrical and public health systems for buildings across the United Kingdom.

Smith Design Engineering Ltd is a firm of MEP consultants — a building services engineering consultancy — registered in Scotland, company number SC713846, working on projects throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

What we do

SDE designs the mechanical, electrical and public health systems in buildings — heating, ventilation and cooling; power, lighting and life safety; water, drainage and gas — at RIBA Stages 0 to 7.

All three disciplines are designed in-house. That is the reason coordination happens before drawings are issued rather than after a contractor finds the clash, and it is why a single appointment covers the whole of the building services scope.

How we work

Design is delivered remotely, with engineers attending site at the stages that genuinely need it: survey, coordination workshops, witnessing and handover. That model is what allows a practice based in East Lothian to work across the UK without carrying the overhead of offices it does not need — and the saving belongs to the client rather than to the practice.

We work to the building control regime of the relevant jurisdiction. In England and Wales that means the Building Regulations and the Approved Documents. In Scotland it means the Building (Scotland) Regulations, the Technical Handbooks, and a building warrant granted before work starts — a procedural difference that changes the design programme, not just the paperwork.

What we are investing in

A significant part of MEP design is transcription rather than judgement: the same information re-entered between calculation, drawing, schedule and specification. SDE is investing in removing that work rather than absorbing it into fees, so that engineering time goes into the decisions that actually determine how a building performs.

Every automated output is reviewed and signed by a named engineer who carries professional responsibility for it. Where a design requires chartered sign-off, that is established at appointment and the responsible engineer is named in the appointment. Automation changes how quickly a design is produced. It does not change who is accountable for it.

QUESTIONS

Common questions

What does an MEP consultant do?

An MEP consultant designs the mechanical, electrical and public health systems in a building — heating, ventilation and cooling; power, lighting, fire alarm and life safety; and water, drainage and gas. The role covers calculating the loads, sizing the plant and distribution, coordinating the services against the architecture and structure, producing the drawings and specifications the work is built from, and demonstrating compliance with the building regulations that apply where the building is. It is a design and evidence role, not an installation one.

What is the difference between an MEP consultant and an M&E contractor?

The consultant designs the systems and is appointed by the client; the contractor installs them and is appointed to build. The distinction matters because a design produced by the party installing it is written around what that party wants to install, and it is not independent evidence of compliance. On a design-and-build project the two overlap — the contractor may take the design on at Stage 4 — which is why the point at which responsibility transfers is worth settling in the appointment rather than discovering on site.

When should an MEP consultant be appointed?

Earlier than most projects appoint one. The decisions that fix plant space, riser provision, incoming supply capacity and floor-to-floor height are made at RIBA Stages 1 and 2, and they are the decisions an MEP consultant is there to inform — after that the services are being fitted into a building that has already been designed around not having them. On a Scottish project there is a second reason: a building warrant has to be granted before work starts, so the information the warrant needs has to exist earlier than an equivalent English programme would require.

Do you work across the whole of the UK?

Yes — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, from offices in Musselburgh and Newcastle upon Tyne. Design is delivered remotely with engineers attending site at the stages that need it. What changes with location is the statutory route: the Approved Documents in England and Wales, the Technical Handbooks and a building warrant in Scotland, and the Technical Booklets through a district council in Northern Ireland.