THE DANGERS OF BAD DESIGN DRAWINGS
One of the biggest headaches for contractors is bad design drawings. When architects make a mistake in the blueprints, serious consequences can transpire which can throw off the entire project. The use of technology and purchasing CAD services can combat receiving bad drawings. At ECI, our VCES are highly qualified, we can identify problems before any ramifications take place. Thus, saving contractors time and money. Keep reading to learn more about how bad design drawings can affect contractors and how to identify and try to avoid such errors!
It is ideal to catch an error before construction commences. You should be aware of what to look for to identify a poorly designed drawing plan.
Over the years our experienced engineers identified the following discrepancies as the most common problems with drawings:
Incorrect spot grades can cause puddles, as well as cause water to pitch back into buildings
Incorrect rim elevations
Discrepancies between profiles, spot grades, and cross sections on road projects
Building footprints don’t match structural walls and structural linework doesn’t align with civil linework
Numbers transposed
Control points are missing, don’t exist, or aren’t in the same coordinate system as CAD
Northing and eastings are flipped
The footer number of the structure doesn’t match the size displayed on the plans and is inconsistent or has incorrect BOF and TOF elevations
PDFs are not updated with changes
Incorrect scaling
Not considering environmental factors, potential limits, and structural loads
Noncompatible formats
The drawing doesn’t include existing utilities
Impractical spacing
If each of these errors are not found early they will negatively impact the construction, leading to delays, budget overruns, safety hazards, reduced quality, legal disputes, and client dissatisfaction.
Why is it so important to ensure your designs are accurate?
Aside from wasting your time and money, legal implications can arise from construction failures. Figuring out liability can be complex and lead to legal action taking place from negligence, breach of contract, code violations, defect claims, injury/property damages, reconstruction orders, and insurance issues. This can lead to the pursuit of mediation or litigation.
If you have already started construction and discovered an error in the original drawing plans, it's not too late to make corrections. Ensure that the design firm makes revisions to the original plans and that your data services firm revises models with the updates.
To avoid bad planning, you should hire reputable designers with specific qualifications and experience. Not only should designers have obtained a four-year degree in civil engineering, but also research their years of experience and portfolios. Once your top candidates are selected, narrow it down with a questionnaire to see if they are aware of common design errors and pursue reference checks to make sure you hire the best designer for the job.
Prior to having boots and machines hit the ground, there are some other preliminary prevention actions to help you avoid this dilemma. First, you must work closely with the designer and ensure you have a clear line of communication. Gather and share detailed information with the designer. Verify the site conditions, guarantee code compliance, and purchase a 3D model. The combination of software and technology aids in identifying and preventing bad designs. Between the use of CAD and modeling, clashes can be detected and can provide a visualization that ensures accurate measurements.
At ECI our VCE’s (Virtual Construction Engineer) spend all day looking at design plans. Aside from the technology’s ability to identify bad designs our engineers’ level of experience has saved the day countless times for many of our clients.
If you are dissatisfied and feel you could be facing less-than-optimal design drawings, reach out to our team to discuss some options!