Reviewing Non-Compliant Inspections and Testings 1

[VTSE]

I'm wondering how other firms handle what seems like a common situation in our office:

Concrete truck is measured with not enough air entertainment. The contractor is informed, but decides to pour anyways. Now the owners rep/inspector is looking to us (EOR) for our "blessing". Of course telling them to redo it would make us seem like the bad guy and would impact cost, scheduling, etc. Plus the next time they find an error/omission on our drawings, they're coming after us.

This seems to happen a lot, especially with concrete with improper slump, air, strength, ambient temperatures, etc.

Thanks in advance for any insight you can give.

 

[lemmiwinksownz]

See if the Contractor is willing to write a letter of guarantee or warranty that the concrete will perform as specified. They'd rather get the project done and "deal" with it later. Without knowing what the pour is for, it can be tough to decide. You need to look at these issues on a case by case basis. As you've alluded to in your post, this industry is all about horse-trading .

 

[Ron]

VTSE....contractors think if they meet compressive strength they're done....no so. Consider durability of the concrete.

Specifications are there for a reason. When you write a specification, understand why you are requiring each item. Learn the differences between strength and durability in concrete. When you do these things, you'll have an argument against the failure to meet specifications.

Hold a pre-placement conference for all concrete placement so that they know the rules before they start. Remember, it's rare that a contractor carefully reads the specifications. At a pre-placement conference you go over each item and let them know you expect compliance and if they don't meet it, you will have them remove and replace it all.

Don't accept the contractor's failures as your liability. Keep it where it belongs...on the contractor.

Use pre-cons for every major aspect of the project...soils, concrete, structure, roofing, waterproofing, etc.

 

[Settingsun]

Case by case as stated above. Was it one truck out of many? How far did it miss by? Was there a bit of margin built into the specification? What is the consequence?

In any case, give the client enough information to decide. Tell them the risks and likelihood. They paid the contractor to build what was specified; they should decide if the departure is acceptable. They're who has knowledge of the whole project including effect of construction delays.

 

[dhengr]

VTSE:
I’ve always been a firm believer that you be tough at first, at the start of a project, to show that you mean business. You can always back off a bit, once you see that they understand that you are not going to let them walk all over you. This applies to shop drawings, various approvals, test reports and values, general inspections/observations, missing or poorly installed components, etc., etc. If the first thing you do in the way of interacting with the contractor is allow them not to follow the plans and specs., that’s the way the whole damn job will go. And, you’ll be spending a bunch of uncompensated time justifying that their not doing their job, not following plans and stds., always looking for the cheapest way out of a problem they have made for themselves, by not paying attention to details…, that’s all o.k. with you and you’ll even assume some of their liability for not doing a good job, by helping them cover their butts. You gotta know that your signing off on (justifying) some of this stuff will come back to bite you if anything really goes wrong. He said we could, he allowed us to do it. Tell the owner’s rep/inspector, through the owner, to send a few trucks back, that will get their attention. You shouldn’t be the goat on something like this, that’s his job in rep’ing the best interests of owner on the job. If your plans and specs. weren’t important you could have saved the owner a lot of money by not bothering to produce them. This isn’t a fun part of the job, but for self preservation it is important.