Bad Drawing and Change Orders

When a contractor bids on a set of drawings they are supposed to ask about anything they are unsure of  so there are no serious items left out.  When a set of drawing is bad it can lead to a multitude of questions from a honest contractor looking to give an honest price.  If its a low ball contractor they will willfully interpret the drawings in the cheapest way in stead of asking questions.  So if you have a bad or incomplete set of drawings you know you have a multitude of change orders coming if you go with the low ball contractor because the job is the job and  it requires what it does to finish it properly.  Or you can just not finish it properly and have a piece of shit building.  It is well worth the initial expense to pay for a good architect and a good set of drawings it makes for a lot less change orders no matter what contractor you choose.

Building in Progression

There is a certain way you build a building. Much like a tree a building has a certain order to it.  When you start doing things out of order, people and information gets lost.  Like a rotten tree or branch things start to break, and come crashing down.

Case in point you should finish you demolition and rough construction before progressing even into the only slightly more difficult field of framing and you should never be doing these things when you are doing the finer things like drywall.

Finish and taped then we put the opening!

Didn't demo for the window.. framer forgot it was needed.

Didn't Demo so framed and insulated wall.. no window in room!  gonna have to fix that.

Didn't trim back the steel, so the dry wall was cut around it, then they cam back and trimmed...

You get what you pay for.

You get what get what you pay for, on my jobs that would be shit.  It takes a certain amount of money and time to build a project right  there is no magic construction company that can do better for less.  You can talk to some clients till you are blue in the face and they will still opt for the guy 22% less than the others.  The idiot client will even stick with them when they cant get bonded.  The really dumb client will stay with them when the work is slow and crappy and at 50% through they are already half way to the full price with change orders.  makes you wonder how they have the money to be developers.  Oh wait dad's money, and got lucky buying a distressed property in a great location.  okay so they may know the market and pricing but they really need an education if how not to be a cheap ass because cheaper is not always better.

Lucky

Lets face it construction is a dangerous field.  There are dangerous tools, you are constantly working in, around and on a structure this is not complete.  Buildings and Infrastructure are built out of lots of big unwieldy parts.  Until a structure is finished and given its certificate of fitness it is a hazardous thing.

That being said it should not just fall apart.  Equipment should not fail catastrophically.  That is unless idiots are operating it or things are not maintained and inspected.

Now my current job just moved from haphazard to hazard.  There are 4 huge old elevator machines circa 1930 that need to be removed.  The have large eye hooks on them to be craned into location.  The elevator mechanics have been dismantling them,  this still leaves a motor core that ways several tons.  The first one they finagled onto a working elevator to bring to the ground floor.  The platform couldn't stop missed the first floor and crashed onto the shock springs in the elevator pit.  The second motor, well that's a whole other story.  The started lowering it through the roof hatch onto the 16th floor.  Lets just say there is now a big hole in the 16th floor elevator lobby and an elevator motor stuck part way into the 15th floor lobby.  Lucky nobody was waiting for the elevator.

14th floor ceiling

15th floor elevator lobby

16th floor elevator lobby

view looking down from roof hatch

Incompetent Architect

I don't want to blow my cover, but for the people in the know there is enough info for you to figure it out.
Big City, known for being a developers architect, design is stuck in the post modern 80's and he looks kind of like the comedian Gallagher.

Any how he is incompetent, misleads his clients, and his design is ugly to boot.  Two issues I have with his 1st on one project he convinced the client he would be able to stick this large structural frame out into the sky exposure plane.  This is ridiculousness the city is very clear on what element can stick out beyond the setback requirements.  On another job he convinced the client that he could have used the existing stair cases.  It was a gut rehab with a change in occupancy type.  The existing stair in the 1930 building were on either side of the elevator.  There would have been a new dead end corridor 65' long. NO WAY the department of buildings would allow that in a hotel!  So he locates a new stair.  What does he do he positions it in the opposite direction of the steel necessitating months of work and tons of new steel.  The original structural bays were the perfect width if he had rotated it 90 degrees.

Then there is the latest issue in the cellar of one of his buildings the door swings are in the wrong direction.  and the corridor is not wide enough to swing them in the code required direction.  Then I have the contractor thats right the CONTRACTOR calling and pointing out the ADA bathrooms don't meet code.  Now contractors are supposed to be the ones complaining why do I have to do that.. that's such a waste of space... and the architect is supposed to be saying well you know the damn blasted code this and that...

He should have his license removed.

Its Bad In Here

I went into the management bathroom on site yesterday.  The bathroom sink was on the floor.  Gee that is shitty construction.  I love the toilet paper hole filling...

Then I looked at the wall, and clearly someone was taking out their frustration with the GC which confirms things are not going well.

Then I go in today and the broken sink is on the wall. Before, I had not much respect for the GC now I know they don't even have respect for themselves.  By the way, the bracket is a piece of exit sign; I mean Really!

Lets get electrocuted

There is this sign on the bottom of the escalators in our building.  It clearly states you shouldn't drill into it...

What do the carpenters do?  Attach metal studs to the bottom using self tapping screws (which have a drill bit on the end)..

The reason not to is that there is sensitive mechanics and electrical equipment on the other side..  Oh and they screwed some in right where the electrical supply conduit enters.  I believe that it is a juicy 600 AMPS more than enough to blacken your socks...