Job #3389

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM:

Many doors on this project were labeled to be removed and salvaged for further use.  Most of these doors were moved to new openings with new hardware sets.  One might assume that the A/E would have examined the existing doors to insure they would easily work in the new openings.  This was not the case.  Most of the doors had to be either reversed, repaired, re-machined and/or refinished.  Estimating had not budgeted for this outcome.

ROOT CAUSE:

COURSE OF ACTION:

It took quite a few meetings, but we finally convinced McCarthy & Smith, along with the owner, that these issues were beyond reasonable.  We were able to recoup much of the costs, on a door by door basis.  Although, I don't believe we ever fully captured the wasted time spent by our carpenters and the PM team.

LESSON FOR FUTURE PROJECTS:

Anytime the estimator sees that the A/E is trying to reuse anything existing, they should write a clarification.  It could be something like this, "It is assumed that all items to be removed & reinstalled are in satisfactory condition, are properly sized, and properly machined to accept their new use."