Case Study #54: Fire Protection Heads-Francis Kwok

Two weeks out before turnover and the fire protection sub-contractor messes up by putting a different sprinkler head on every floor. It is the dutie of the contractor to manage their sub-contractor but without supervision; the sub-contractor did something which was not detailed on the drawings. If it is just aesthetic purpose it may be pointless to change as the inspection is happening soon and turnover is coming closer and closer but the fact that the sub-contractors put different heads on each floor without questioning the Contractor first still lies the blame on the Contractor as he has to pay for all the changes and may possible extend the turnover and inpection. The General Contractor should have caught that there was no details and asked the Architect and Engineers (if there is) about it.

Even though it is the sub-contractor’s fault; the blame will still be put onto the General Contractor as they are the ones who hire the sub-contractor. Usually if there is no details from the architect is usually because they know the General Contractor knows these common things and they hired a sub-contactor which specialists in that certain field which in this case is fire protection. The sprinkler head works according to the General Contractor and Engineers (if there is) and Architect then it is possible to not change them out at this point either as it is getting closer to inspection and turnover. The General Contractor should pay better attention and do more inspection rounds on sub-contractors work.

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