Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Round 2 - Response to Building 7 owners about exterior door colors

[Philip Dowds (rpdowds]

Cohousing Friends —

As a formerly practicing architect, I can report with confidence that the low 
bid contractor almost surely does not have the same administrative 
infrastructure, or quality control protocols, or high-end subcontractors, that 
the high bidder was trying to offer.  In a properly managed job, the contractor 
will submit to the design professional detailed product descriptions for each 
door; the design professional will approve these submittals as compliant with 
the contract … or, if not compliant, reject the submittals and ask for better 
ones.  In some cases, the design professional will go back to the owner, and 
say, Hey, we’ve got a problem.

On the design and contract prep end, architects who are paid well can afford 
and retain more and better staff, who then produce more thoughtful details 
showing more exactly what and how to build.  A note on the drawing that says 
“caulk all seams” is not as reliable as a dozen typical sealant details, 
matched to a sealant schedule, coordinated with a properly edited sealant 
section of the project manual.

------------------
Thanks, RPD
Cornerstone, Cambridge MA
617.460.4549

On May 2, 2023 at 11:08:17 PM, Sharon Villines via Cohousing-L (cohousing-l 
[at] cohousing.org) wrote:

> On May 2, 2023, at 9:32 PM, DEL HOLLAND via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:

> The fact that the doors were installed without our consent seems to be common 
> practice for this contractor—that is, this is not the first time items have 
> been installed (without our consent), and then (post installation) we were 
> asked for approval and payment.

Obviously, a message that made it to the wrong list but I would like to add 
that this is the way contractors work. They have really tight deadlines and 
suppliers are not fully operative yet. They get what they can get and install 
it as fast as they can because Time is Money.

We had two of our members on site every day of construction before the 
contractors arrived at 8:00. They looked over everything. We had a consultant 
who inspected at key points. We had a grant that paid for an architectural 
student specializing in green construction who was working with the architect 
and clearly on our side.

I haven’t done the calculations but I swear that Takoma Village was built 
twice. The contractors didn’t read their contracts and used conventional glues, 
installed the wrong things in the wrong places, hired dyslexic electricians who 
had their own interpretations of wiring diagrams, etc.  

Lots of things just had to be all torn out and done again. Some things we 
negotiated about and other things we didn’t discover until we did the 
engineering study after we had moved in.

I used to live in old houses. Trust me, old houses have nothing on new houses 
for things that don’t work or look exactly right on the first day.

Don’t feel set upon — it's not personal. I think you are right to figure out 
how this happened but everyone will get through it.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org




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