Case 54: Fire Protection Head
This case starts at the substantial completion part of a three-story build-to-suit office building project. The situation is that the building completed many city inspections and has achieved a certificate of occupancy (C of O) that is obtained on time. But the only problem is that the fire protection and life safety inspections remain, and the sub-contractor has placed the wrong sprinkler head throughout each of the three floors, but the function of the sprinkler head is perfectly fine. So, in this case we concluded that the general contractor (GC) who oversees checking up on his sub-contractor takes the fall for this mistake. Plus, due to the timing of this scenery there is no point in changing the sprinkler head if it is an aesthetic problem since there is clearly no problem with the function and it will pass inspection. The GC should have been paying close attention to the assembly of this part of fire protection sprinkler head but it comes down to a lack of supervision by the General Contractor to the sub-contractor for not asking ahead to an Architect or Engineer for a detail on this problem and noticing a little earlier.
