“Approved for design intent” – I’ve come across this particular phrase twice now in the last month. We do commercial woodwork and are doing 22 medical office suites for a good customer who pays on time and gives us descent lead times with no “hassles” on demanding “major last minute changes” during and even after the furniture and cabinets have been made.
But while working on designing the interior fixtures for this customer and then revising the drawings and making shop drawings I’ve come across a particular item from this customer that leaves me wondering if I’m leaving us open to some problems.
After we have submitted drawings to the customer for their senior operations manager to sign off on, we are getting them back signed but attached to the signature is the phrase “Approved for design intent.” As this is obviously only a “qualified or limited” approval I’m leery of what is coming down the pike with these people. I cannot get out to Tucson, Tulsa, San Diego, etc. to measure the dimensions of the walls and so forth and we don’t even hear back from whom ever the customer eventually contracts with to do the install until the very end of our production run.
I’ve spent most of my construction life out in the field and am new to the “office and design” phase and I’m wondering if a “limited” authorization is standard practice and you just have to live with it while being extra diligent to quickly identify and hammer out any problems, or is this fellow being “extra sneaky” with us.
I figured BT folks might have experience in this area and give me a “heads up” on their take on this.
Thanks,
Cork in Chicago
Replies
seems meaningless without a letter or ontract from him defining the phrase.
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As part of my job, I do shop drawing reviews for an architectural firm. Our stamp does not have the word "Approved" anywhere on it except maybe in the legal disclaimer. On day one, I was told to never sign a supplier / subcontractor's approval section of a set of shops. It opens our office to too much liability. "Reviewed" is as close as you get out of our office unless a client signs an approval statement which does happen from time to time (It happened this past week for custom carpet on a bank project). Other statements are: "Make corrections noted", "Revise and Resubmit", "Rejected", "Submit Specified Item", and "For your use" if we are attaching a revised / supplemental drawing.
When we review shops, we are looking for a few things:
1. Code compliance such as fire ratings, stair requirements, ADA/Illinois Accessibility compliance, etc.
2. Design intent - Does it look like what we designed? In the case of wood trim, is the size / profile similar to what the client wants?
3. Overall performance / spec compliance - Is this item going to meet or exceed what the client is asking for?
Here's what we don't do:
1. Review for Quantity - Contractor / subcontractor are responsible for knowing how many of which items they need for the job. If we know that something is wrong we will mark that quantity is wrong and point them in the right direction if we can tell what was missed.
2. Dimensions - We will mark shop drawings with drawings from the architectural or structural drawings for field verification.
Photocopies of contract documents are automatically rejected upon receipt. Reason being that if we have a design / dimensional error on our drawings, the shop drawing matches and the error doesn't get caught (personal experience on that one).
Everything here is based on information / directions from our Errors and Omissions Insurance company and lawyers. Our company has been sued in the past (and won) and it will more than likely happen sometime in the future. We do everything we can to minimize that exposure.
Hope this helps.
"Approved for design intent" is standard.
It means that some dimensions may need to be changed to fit the remainder of the construction. (Perhaps someone poured some concrete in the wrong place.)
You should be told what those dinension changes are before you start your work.
It means that drawing is what they kinda sorta think the finished thing should be like.
Seriously.
Architects drawings are merely to convey the intent of the architect in creating the ambience, or style, or idea that that particular struture is supposed to represent or invoke.They are not to be relied on for any structural, mechanical, or other purposes.
When they approve a drawing, it's their drawing. See above para.