What plans should the builder follow?

Deladuro

Evenin' all,

I believe that our builders have put the northern wall of our extension in the wrong place - they're not out by much, but it does mean that we'll have about 20cm less room than we could have had in an already narrow space.

This occurred because they followed the architect's dimensions (which were out by about 20cm over 3.4.m) rather than his drawings, or those of the structural engineer.

My question is...should they have followed the drawings - which showed quite clearly that the northern wall should be in exactly the same place as the one they removed or should they follow the dimensions the architect had on his drawings?

Do dimensions trump the drawings/plans?

ab7167

My drawings always state the following "Do not scale, use written dimensions only. If discrepancies between plans and dimensions are noted, please inform Engineer immediately and do not proceed without written instruction"

Is there any such text on any of your drawings? If so, the exact wording is important.

Deladuro

Aah....

Although the Engineer's drawings do say

4. Any discrepancies noted between architect's and engineer's details regarding any materials, form or dimensions shall be brought to the notice of the architect and engineer

it then goes on to add

5. All building and setting out dimensions to be taken from the architect's drawings.

So, does that mean that they were right to follow the architect's dimensions, even though that meant the wall ended up being short of where indicated on the drawings?

I had, perhaps naively, assumed that if the plans didn't quite add up then the builders would have double checked (measure twice......).

leveller2911

With architechs you have to remember they are always covering their own a rses. I would go on to say my comments are formed from over 25 years in the industry........

MX5huggy

Is the architect still involved? i.e doing contract administration ? What do they say?

ab7167

It is normal for setting out to be the Architects end of things. As a Strucutral Engineer, I wouldn't expect to deal with setting issues, except where there was an obvious discrepancy. Was your Architect involved on site at all? Should s/he have noticed also? And how obvious an error is it? You say that it was meant to line up with something and now doesn't?

I would speak to your Architect first thing. Architects are regulated and insured, so there may be recourse available if you can't resolve it to your satisfaction.

The final question is what do you want done about it? Rebuilt? Something else? It helps to know what you want as a resolution before making a complaint.

System

Deladuro wrote: »

Aah....

Although the Engineer's drawings do say

4. Any discrepancies noted between architect's and engineer's details regarding any materials, form or dimensions shall be brought to the notice of the architect and engineer

it then goes on to add

5. All building and setting out dimensions to be taken from the architect's drawings.

So, does that mean that they were right to follow the architect's dimensions, even though that meant the wall ended up being short of where indicated on the drawings?

I had, perhaps naively, assumed that if the plans didn't quite add up then the builders would have double checked (measure twice......).

it doesn't mean they were right to follow either of the drawings as there was clearly a discrepancy which has not been reported the either the architect or engineer - this should have been reported and the issue dealt with before building started

Deladuro

the_r_sole wrote: »

it doesn't mean they were right to follow either of the drawings as there was clearly a discrepancy which has not been reported the either the architect or engineer - this should have been reported and the issue dealt with before building started

That's what I thought should happen.

I'm meeting the builder this afternoon to try to ensure that there are no more discrepancies - and that if there are then they don't make any decisions until I'm consulted.

It looks as though we'll just have to put up with the wall being short of where we wanted it - the founds have already been built up to floor level.

Maybe we'll get over it - but I have the feeling that I'll rue this for the next 20 years - everytime I need to squeeze past the end of the table - or bump a chair off the wall etc.
I know it's only about 20 cm - but I would have rather had it than not.