Work Follies
So I'm working on a project with some architects that I swear the moment you tell them not to do something, they decide that they must do the thing you told them not to do. This is a residential project and one of the cardinal rules on residential projects is don't run the services for one flat through the adjacent flat.
An example of why - I once lived in an apartment where the phone line connection actually came from the adjacent building's box. My line ran outside that building and into my flat. The owner of the building next door was having some work done and the contractor "tidied up" and cut my phone line because it didn't serve anything in that building.
Another example is the disaster it would be if a pipe started leaking. Who's responsible for the water damage? Who has to pay to get it fixed? What if the person in the flat with the busted pipe doesn't want to allow the workmen access?
There are enough above and below boundary issues - why make more? Even after explaining this to the architects, they keep trying to shove stuff into the adjacent flats because they think it will make things "efficient."
They also have a really bad habit of saying they are going to do X, and when they finally send through the drawings, X is nowhere to be seen. Then after you query, they say "oops, we forgot to turn that layer on, we'll send it right through." Then time passes while they really do X and then finally you get it a week after they said they would send it and too late for you to actually utilize so it becomes an outstanding item for the next phase.
My British Museum project is just finishing up (after six and a half years) and the MEP contractor is "protesting" some of our snags. They keep trying to argue that things are fine the way they are and we keep arguing back that they don't comply with the project specification. It is very tiresome.
Though I did win a victory this weekend as we snagged that some of the vibration mounts were not right NINE MONTHS AGO and the contractor kept not fixing them and the construction manager kept letting them get away with it and we would raise it again and again. Then the trade contractor started lying and saying that the vibration consultant said they were fine. But last week the vibration consultant did his final measurements and one of the snags he picked up as well was that mounts were not right. Maybe now they will finally get fixed.
An example of why - I once lived in an apartment where the phone line connection actually came from the adjacent building's box. My line ran outside that building and into my flat. The owner of the building next door was having some work done and the contractor "tidied up" and cut my phone line because it didn't serve anything in that building.
Another example is the disaster it would be if a pipe started leaking. Who's responsible for the water damage? Who has to pay to get it fixed? What if the person in the flat with the busted pipe doesn't want to allow the workmen access?
There are enough above and below boundary issues - why make more? Even after explaining this to the architects, they keep trying to shove stuff into the adjacent flats because they think it will make things "efficient."
They also have a really bad habit of saying they are going to do X, and when they finally send through the drawings, X is nowhere to be seen. Then after you query, they say "oops, we forgot to turn that layer on, we'll send it right through." Then time passes while they really do X and then finally you get it a week after they said they would send it and too late for you to actually utilize so it becomes an outstanding item for the next phase.
My British Museum project is just finishing up (after six and a half years) and the MEP contractor is "protesting" some of our snags. They keep trying to argue that things are fine the way they are and we keep arguing back that they don't comply with the project specification. It is very tiresome.
Though I did win a victory this weekend as we snagged that some of the vibration mounts were not right NINE MONTHS AGO and the contractor kept not fixing them and the construction manager kept letting them get away with it and we would raise it again and again. Then the trade contractor started lying and saying that the vibration consultant said they were fine. But last week the vibration consultant did his final measurements and one of the snags he picked up as well was that mounts were not right. Maybe now they will finally get fixed.