SNAFU: What are some of the snafues or screw-ups that you had to fix and deal with?

[George McNair]

 

 

Anytime we design and have contractors build what we design, there are bound to be screw-ups that may or may not be our fault, but they sure add stress to the job. What are some examples of this happening to you?

Do you know what SNAFU stands for?  I’m shocked!

 

[mark foster]

Great question.  

Wow, where to start?  The screw ups that really bug me usually revolve around a choice of material or process which do not hold up over time, or cause maintenance headaches.    

I’m in design/build and we are usually the first to find and use a new thing., which means a lot of thin ice.  For example:

1.  The early trex type of decking.  It would swell so badly that it would pop through the screws.

2.  Pond filtration.  It took decades to get decent pumps and filters which actually did what they were supposed to do.

3.  Patterned concrete.  It is a great looking and cost effective idea, but must be sealed regularly.  Most clients don’t keep up with it, and it ages poorly.

4.  Synthetic stucco.  The material itself is good but the early manufacturer’s installation guidelines produced great mold farms.

5.  Pine straw mulch.  It catches fire REALLY easily.  Trust me on this one.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

Yesterday, it was the landscape contractor and or site project manager who did not communicate that the Special Permit that allowed the addition to the Doctor’s office required that the existing trees were to stay and that the hedge row in front of them was to supplement the screening for the residences that border the property.

 

The landscaper opted for the clean slate approach.

 

…. how many notes are too many?

[Jason T. Radice]

90% Civil problems. It got so bad that every single project I was involved with, I had to review the civil drawings and send them back redlines to fix. Some of them were greatly offended. I didn’t care.  These were both within the past few years.

 

1. One retail project, not a single sidewalk met either ADA or IBC codes for egress. There were curbs that were over 1′ high between TOC and BOC. I had to redesign and regrade the enttire site keeping in mind that the drain elevs were already set because they were installed. Ended up ripping out a bunch of curbing and sidewalk that was already poured. I was to spend 3 days redoing it, that turned into three straight weeks. It was my first “holy crap, we have to fix this” job with my previous firm. It became one of my specialties, unfortunately.

 

2. On a mixed use project, the site was coastal and prefectly flat. The owner suggested to the engineer that they wanted some grade change for the site to make it interesting (failed). Anyway, the firm I was working with was designing ROR buildings that were over 300′ long for the “downtown”. 1. The drains were placed along the curb of the building side, instead of along the curb of the large median (which would become park space). So the elevation changes needed to drain the site were to be along the building facade, where the buiding had a flat FFE. So, putting the building at the FFE designated by the Civil meant having severely excessive cross slopes (more than 8%). I brought this up as soon as I saw it, as the curbs were to be poured the next week. Well, the message never got to the site. Same holds true to some of the utilites, which were placed in the front of the building under the sidewalk (where junctions and meters would be stickin gup in the MIDDLE of curb ramps and the sidewalk). If the buildings were placed to meet ADA at the corners, the center of the buildings would be below curb elevation with steep cross slope towards the storefront. If the buildings were placed so they met ADA in the center, at the corners, the cross slopes would have been more than 12%. I had ended up having to have meeting after meeting with the engineers to try to salvage this. Ended  having to take out over a MILE of curb to rectify the problem. The market crashed and project halted, so it is still the way it was. But the new owners want to scrap the current design out and start over as nothing has been built there. BTW – when I brought up the ADA with the senior engineer on the project, his exact quote was “what’s the ADA?”

 

I have about 100 others, but these were the two worst offenders. How these engineers still have their license is beyond me.

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