This is important to proceed with drafting with the mindset over being hypocritical. There may be statements about something being complete and coordinated you should always question. One of the first examples of this I ran into within the first few months of working. I was working on an ICU and my project architect told me that all the booms are placed, coordinated, and pinned. The direction was to be very careful to make sure that I didn’t move them. I followed those orders and didn’t move any of the booms.
However, while I was finishing up the ceiling plans, I noticed that one boom differed from the others. I continued to work, did not move the boom, and didn’t mention it to the team. I can’t recall if it was a few months or weeks after. But the project manager and project architect approached me to see if I moved any of the booms because one of them was wrong and the support steel was already installed for the wrong location. I told them no, but that I had noticed one differed from the rest when I was doing the ceiling plans. Since I was told that all the booms were located correctly and coordinated, I didn’t mention it. That error became a big change order.
What I did:
I noticed something was off while doing other work. I continued to do my tasks without asking the team why this one was different. Ignoring the odd boom because of the direct orders provided.
What I SHOULD have done:
I should have brought it to the project architect’s attention or ask why one differs from the others. Especially something that is being installed during an early phase of construction. This is important because there is always human error within our models. It is always best practice to double check when you notice something wrong or off.
This means you either CATCH an error which can save time, energy, stress, money, etc. If there is a reasoning behind this unique instance, then you get to LEARN why something had to be different.
Suggested approaches:
“I was working on annotating the ceiling and I noticed this one boom differs from the others. You mentioned all the booms are coordinated. Can you show me why this one is different?”
“While working on the ceiling plans I noticed this one boom is different from the rest. I wanted to make sure with you that this is correct.”
Written by
Katelyn Rossier, AIA, LSSBB