ANALYZING CONTRACT DOCUMENTS FOR CHANGE ORDERS
ANALYZING CONTRACT DOCUMENTS
The Holloway Consulting Group, LLC is an expert in analyzing contract documents for change orders. This expert work is part of most of our assignments, whether on the owner’s or contractor’s behalf. Holloway has found that, while analyzing contract documents for change orders, the answer to the contractor’s requests for information (RFI) can often be found in the contract documents.
This post continues our series on the issues in contract documents that have led to approved or denied change orders and disputes.
LIGHT FIXTURE LOCATIONS
It is common for light fixtures to conflict with various other trade installations and designs, because fixtures:
a. Compete for room in confined ceiling spaces.
b. Must allow all other constructions in the ceiling areas to be located in their required manner (sprinkler heads, registers, diffusers, smoke detectors, etc.).
c. Must be located to conform to function, building code, and aesthetic requirements.
The first area where the light fixture locations should be coordinated is between the electrical lighting plans and the architectural reflected ceiling plans. The reflected ceiling plans are prepared in the architect’s office, while the electrical engineer typically prepares the lighting plans. The lighting plans include light fixtures, emergency lights, exit lights, switch locations, and related work.
Reflected Ceiling Plans
Meanwhile, the mechanical engineer designed HVAC registers, grilles, and diffusers, as shown on the respective mechanical plans. They are typically schematic, incorporating some reference to coordinate their locations with those indicated again on the reflected ceiling plans.
Suppose the architect preparing the reflected ceiling plan took proper precautions to ensure the actual physical dimensions of each piece of equipment. In that case, there is a good chance that the conflicts will be minimal. However, sprinkler heads, smoke detectors, architectural shapes (soffits, recesses, etc.), and the ceiling grid pattern are added.
One can understand how a design coordination problem can develop.
Ceiling space conflicts are likely to occur. These include conflicts among light fixture locations and surrounding architectural, plumbing, HVAC, structural, and architectural equipment. The contractor might use a light table to overlay the lighting plans and check each location of
a. Ceiling light fixtures.
b. Emergency lights.
c. Soffit lights.
d. Exit lights.
e. Under-cabinet lights.
The contractor can then overlay the architectural plans and check for discrepancies in the locations of walls, soffits, and cabinets that will affect light locations, ceiling patterns, and exit light layouts. The contractor can then overlay the HVAC plans and check that each register, grille, and diffuser location is consistent. A check should be made to ensure that the equipment’s actual sizes are accommodated in the layout and that everything misses the lights. The contractor can then overlay the sprinkler layout to see if the heads miss the lights. The heads should fall in the center or quarter-center of the ceiling tile in each instance (if specified as such).
MATCH LINES AND PLAN ORIENTATIONS
Match lines are necessary on some types of projects. However, divided plans are difficult to read, check, and coordinate and provide one more possibility for errors and omissions. Fortunately, designers tend to minimize their use for a few reasons, including decreased drafting time and design coordination.
Good design practice dictates that match lines should be placed precisely in the same location on each drawing. If not, the plans may become confusing. This is true not only for the contractors who must work with them, but also for the various design sub-consultants as well. Match lines placed in varying locations may be an indication of a general state of carelessness in the preparation of the overall plan set.
Plan Orientations
The plan orientations of all drawings should be identical. The north arrow should be in the same place, and the building outline should be consistent on each drawing. Again, it can confuse the contractor to have different orientations among the mechanical, electrical, structural, and architectural plans. If the contractor observes a casual attitude on the part of the designers toward this most basic design procedure, he can expect problems in other areas. Not only will it be likely that errors will be caused by careless match line and plan orientation practices, but that design attitude will be likely to permeate other design aspects as well. In other words, if the designers need to adequately handle the most basic design/layout considerations, one can expect that the more complicated responsibilities were likewise improperly completed.
The contractor can analyze the plans to determine if they really were necessary and to compare the match lines of all floors and of all drawings (architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, etc.) to determine:
a. Are they in the same location every time?
b. Do they include the same information?
c. Is anything missing?
d. Are they complete to the same extent on every drawing?
Negative answers to any of the foregoing considerations may expose improper use of match lines and/or otherwise deficient drafting practices. The contractor should reserve time to perform a detailed analysis of the plans to expose any other areas in which the design process has been similarly compromised.