No such person

After sending my latest newsletter article to my distribution list, I got the usual half dozen or so "undeliverable" messages. One of them stood out as an example of what such messages should be. Rather than the typical cryptic message:

xl4mhibx02.myunbelievablesite.com rejected your message to the following e-mail addresses:
Joe Blow (joeb@somewhere.com)
xl4mhibx02.myunbelievablesite.com gave this error:
... User unknown

I got this:

24/7; gone fishing

My, how things have changed! The brave new world of 24/7 interconnectivity certainly is marvelous; each day brings new ways to learn more about everything, sometimes too many. I'm not going to give you the old line about "When I was a kid, we had to walk two miles to school, through the snow, uphill both ways!" And I'm not going to rail against progress. I am fascinated by new technology and new products, and I still enjoy learning about everything possible.

But I do wonder if we're giving up much of the adventure and fun of life in favor of trying to do as much as possible.

Do what with the Owner?

Drawings and specifications often have many references requiring coordination with the owner. While that makes sense for some things, for example, location of grommets or selection of paint color (as long as it doesn't include non-standard colors), it doesn't work for quantities. The reason, of course, is that during bidding, the bidders have no direct contact with the owner, and even if they did, I'm sure owners would not appreciate a barrage of calls from various contractors and subcontractors, all trying to obtain information that should have been in the documents. If I were the owner, I'd be on the phone, asking the architect why in blue blazes those questions had not been addressed in the bidding documents.

Directions to the contractor, requiring coordination of various items, appear to make more sense, except for the fact that the AIA conditions of the contract make the contractor responsible for coordination of the entire project,

Loose products and equipment should be NIC

While it may seem like a good idea to specify every last item necessary for a complete, ready-to-use building, specifying loose items - those that are merely set in place - in the construction contract incurs needless expense for the owner. 

In most cases, the owner is better off buying loose items directly from suppliers, with installation provided either by the supplier or by the owner's employees. Going through a contractor adds labor cost and at least one markup for overhead and profit; additional markups will be added by each subcontractor involved.

National Engineers Week, CSI style

The Minneapolis –St. Paul Chapter, CSI, is participating in National Engineer’s Week by hosting a “Teach In” at Robbinsdale Middle School in Robbinsdale, Minnesota.

On February 20, CSI members will enter the 6th grade classroom of Robbinsdale Middle School teacher Todd Norholm to give interactive presentations on basic engineering principles and how they apply to construction. Students will receive instruction and build small structures using gumdrops and toothpicks. When completed, the students will have constructed their own geodesic spheres.

Product information "security"

Among the specifier's most common frustrations is the requirement to login before getting product information. Just this morning, I tried to get information about metal panels from a well-known manufacturer's website, and was kicked out. Apparently, I had registered some time in the past, because when I went through the registration process, I was told that my e-mail address already was in use. That forced me to either set up a new account, and risk forgetting yet another password, or to go through the "forgot my password" routine. I chose the latter option, with the intent of using a simple, non-secure password I use for all such websites, something like "password".

I was surprised when an e-mail popped into my inbox almost instantly, as most websites have some delay, and some can take a day or more. Do you think all those requests get sent to some poor soul who has to validate them? The response from this manufacturer did offer bring bit of levity to an otherwise dreary morning of grinding out specs for two projects. The temporary password was - get this - x=H=)Xarq%+z+U. Good grief, that looks good enough to protect nuclear launch codes!

Comments to Clients; the project manual

What are specifications? Why are they important?

Most people have some understanding of what drawings are, and how they are used in construction. However, it takes more than drawings to build a building. Along with the drawings, on nearly every project, we issue a project manual. Many people are unaware of the project manual, and I suspect most who have seen one don't pay much attention to it, for a couple of reasons. First, the project manual for a typical project will have two volumes, each one being two to four inches thick - enough to scare off all but the most curious. Second, it is not light reading, with countless pages of what appears to be highly technical mumbo-jumbo, full of strange acronyms and unknown terms, written in a style clearly not meant for entertainment. Obviously, few would be interested in the project manual!

But without it, the building can't be built. The project manual and the drawings are complementary - that is, they work together. Each needs the other, each serves a specific purpose, and each is used to show specific information that is not shown in the other. In the construction contract, they are treated as a single document.