Charge for Engineer Review - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

Chris Johnson · 05-13-2007, 06:14 PM

I am currently bidding a project. The customer is cheap, as most like to shop and shop until they get the best price. I like to warn people upfront I am not going to be the cheapest, and may even be the most expensive. My reputation is I cover any things I foresee from past experiences and just allow for them as we all know things are going to come up and we will be charging for a change order, so my attitude is build it in to the quote and when it comes to a certain point of unclarity I have it covered and can just do it without arguing over a change order with money involved, it's just an acknowledgment between the owner/GC and myself of the change from specification.

With all that being said, this customer has sent me the plans including the Structural Engineer stamped drawings, they want me to review and see now if everything is good or if I can suggest changes or improvements (Value Engineer). For what I do (ICF's) the main thing I see is usually incorrect lintels or unnecessary amounts of rebar. Without a contract with these people I have to figure out how to do this and be compensated for doing so.

I have two thoughts come to mind A) Sign a construction contract and I will review and send suggestions/RFI's to the engineer or B) Charge a flat fee ($ 500?) to review and send suggestions/RFI's to the the engineer.

What would you do or have you done in this situation? I am not an engineer at all, I have 21 years working in the trades and a vast amount of experience involving ICF's. Most of what I do is repetative from job to job in the way of rebar and then every once in a while a engineer who is not familiar with ICF's either misses a lot of items or overkills what we do. All of which I take care of after I have a contract.

Chris

Gordo · 05-13-2007, 06:52 PM

Charge them the flat $500 to be credited towards a signed contract. Get the the money first while picking up the plans. Your selling point is you most likely will be saving them money by doing things correctly/efficently the first time.

ch0mpie · 05-13-2007, 07:05 PM

Chris,
The way I ussually seen it done is that the contractor bids the job the way the plans/specs are written by the design engineer. With the bid the contractor also includes his own design with the cost to construct the new design (always cheaper). If this contractor is hired, the contractor's engineer provides the owners engineer with the new design for review. However the contractor's engineer must stamp the new plans, the owners engineer only signs off that he checked them.

I understand why the owner things he will save money by hiring you to review the plans, but if you review and make suggestions, why would the engineer change his design? Would you submitt calculatoins to support your suggestions? Even if you did, he is still the PE and would be liable if you are wrong.

concretemasonry · 05-13-2007, 07:15 PM

Be very careful if you do suggest changes and they are made - especially if you do the work. This is even if you send the suggestions to the engineer.

You are the contractor and the risk is not worth the few dollars. You may even be better off if you gave free "suggestions" directly to the builder and request in writing that they be approved by the engineer AND the ICF forms supplier before you implement them. Many of the ICF suppliers know more about making trays for the meat department at Walmart than they do know about engineering and construction, but they do have installation suggestions and requirments that must be followed.