Kevin, Don't let that one hit close to home, because when you ask questions and look for assistance you're steps ahead of many PE's who are operating well outside their area of experience and training.
As for the "making bank" I agree, and I don't. I've heard the old saw "bid it low and extra them into the land of profit" for many years as an approach to the bidding process, and that bothers me to no end. However, I'm involved with a sprinkler contractor here in California who's run afoul of a PE who has made last minute demands on the contractor for seismic bracing which is well beyond the scope of NFPA-13, and wasn't a part of the bid documents that they or their competitors used when estimating the job costs. The number of braces on the system if you follow NFPA-13 requirements is approximately 18-20, however the demands made by the structural PE will increase that number to over 190 braces (such as all branch lines regardless of size or length to be provided with two lateral and two longitudinal braces, braces to be located and 1/4 or 1/3 points of pipe - not ZOI but pipe - for all mains, etc.). None of that could have been anticipated or known because he just made it up, and I don't want to do that to the owner, but I don't want to do that to the sprinkler contractor either because it definitely isn't his fault. The hostility is the result of surprises, which "someone else" is expected to pay for because "they should have known". I will say this - I've yet to meet a sprinkler contractor who refused to do something beyond the standard if it was made clear to them on bid documents what was expected. Just my thoughts. -- PARSLEY CONSULTING Ken Wagoner, SET 760.745.6181 voice 760.745.0537 fax [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> e-mail www.ParsleyConsulting.com <http://www.ParsleyConsulting.com> website _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
