Commercial division
Commercial Plumbing, From Tenant Improvements to Ground-Up Builds
Tenant improvements, commercial additions and ground-up buildings for schools, health care facilities, municipal buildings, food processing plants and stores in malls, run by plumbers licensed by the State of Wisconsin.
Chapter 01
Tenant improvement, addition, or ground up
Commercial plumbing work comes in three shapes, and each one changes how the job gets planned. A tenant improvement means working inside a suite that already has service running to it, tying new fixtures and drain lines into what is already live without shutting the rest of the building down. A commercial addition means extending that same system into new square footage, matching pipe sizing and slope to what is already in the ground. A ground-up building means there is nothing to tie into yet, so the rough-in has to be laid out from the main before the slab or the walls are poured.
Karlsen Plumbing has run all three since 1978, working out of the shop at 1951 Grove Ave in Racine. Since 1978, Karlsen Plumbing focused on residential style projects. That same crew now takes on commercial work across Southeast Wisconsin, on plan and spec jobs handed down from an architect and on design and build projects worked out directly with the owner or general contractor.
Completed tub and shower valve and spout installation from a Karlsen Plumbing commercial job.
Schools, health care, municipal buildings, and more
Karlsen Plumbing has performed these services and more for schools, health care facilities, municipal buildings and food processing plants. Each of those buildings runs plumbing differently. A school needs fixture counts built around a schedule of passing periods, not steady traffic. A food processing plant needs drain lines and floor sinks that can take a wash down without letting anything back up into a process line. A municipal building answers to whoever manages the facility, not one tenant, so schedules and access get worked around staff and the public both.
The same crews also handle individual stores in malls, where the work has to fit inside somebody else's mall hours and somebody else's corridor, without the store next door ever knowing plumbers were in the building that day.
Chapter 03
Institutional and medical work carries its own requirements
Institutional and medical plumbing does not forgive a shortcut the way some commercial work can. A medical gas line has to be installed and tested by someone Medical Gas Certified, and Karlsen Plumbing carries that certification. Backflow prevention gets checked closely in these buildings too, since a cross connection in a health care facility is a different level of risk than one in an office break room, and Karlsen is Certified in Backflow testing to handle it.
Every plumber on the crew is licensed by the State of Wisconsin and trained and OSHA certified, and the company is a member of Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 118. None of that changes what the finished work looks like from a business owner's side. It means the crew showing up already carries what an inspector on an institutional or medical job is going to ask for. Questions about a specific building go to (262) 633-1951.
Karlsen Plumbing, Plumbers licensed by the State of Wisconsin and OSHA certified. Call (262) 633-1951.
What the commercial division handles
- Plumbing installations
- Plumbing replacement
- Drain and sewer cleaning
- Individual stores in malls
- Commercial buildings
- Institutional
- Medical
- Plan and spec
- Design and Build