"We Just Guessed."

Good subcontractors are great to work with.

When the contractor has an array of good subs coming in and out of the site, construction proceeds smoothly and issues with the drawings or on-site conditions are addressed in a timely, civil, and sometimes even friendly manner.

As designers, we’ve spent many an afternoon on-site, working through issues with contractors and various subcontractors, and 95% of the time things go smoothly.

Every so often, though, things don’t go so well.

And, fingers get pointed.

Among the idyllic rolling hills outside Charlottesville, one of our projects has a spectacular view of the Shenandoah Mountains:

You can't deny that view from the bedroom.

The lower levels have columns, starting in the sub-basement

One column in the sub-basement....

And, continuing through the main basement to support the main floor.

...comes up to the main basement.

After a site visit in which the concrete walls were put in place and the column footers were poured, we noticed that there were five footers to accommodate all seven colu-

Wait, seven columns. Five footers.

Huh.

Maybe the mountain views distracted them, or there was a happy hour special somewhere in Charlottesville that required their attention.

Either way, five isn’t the same as seven.

After a quick phone call to the contractor, he seems confused.

Why are some footers missing?

He gives us a call back not ten minutes later. There were no dimensions shown on the floor plans, so they couldn’t pour the footers.

But, wait…some footers are in place. How did they do that without dimensions? I’m given the phone number of the concrete guy in charge, so we call him directly.

“You didn’t put dimensions on the floor plans, so we couldn’t pour the footers.”

Why are some in place?

“Well….

We just guessed.”

Did you look at the basement and sub-basement plans?

“Yes. There’s no dimensions.”

Then, why am I looking directly at them right now?

“Uh…”

Thankfully, the footers that were poured were in roughly the correct location, and this issue got resolved quickly.

However, this goes to show that open and constant communication are extremely important in making sure that what gets built matches what’s in the drawing set. No one is immune to human error, and we all rely on each other to check each other’s work.

At best, subs can build off of a perfect set of drawings, but usually there will be either questions or some kind of discrepancy.

At worst, well…

They’ll just guess.

If they do that, and they’re off, well, hopefully you have as good a view while you’re trying to find a workaround.