Got stuck on a structural beam inspection in Omaha that ate up 3 full days instead of the 4 hours I quoted

Turns out the original 1972 drawings didn't match what was actually built, and the city inspector wanted us to verify every single weld point before he'd sign off, has anyone else dealt with a similar mismatch between old blueprints and real site conditions?

3 comments

3 Comments

sandragonzalez28d ago

Structural drawings from that era are basically works of fiction half the time. The contractors back then just built stuff however they wanted and nobody checked. You got unlucky with the city inspector demanding full verification though, that's brutal. Had a similar mess on a hospital remodel once where the as-built columns were 6 inches off from the plans. Took us two extra weeks to rework everything around the real layout. Always add a 50% buffer in your quotes for anything built before 1990.

wesley_fox9228d ago

Jumped into a old church renovation last year and found out the same thing. The drawings showed the main support columns in the sanctuary lined up perfect, but when we pulled down the ceiling to verify, they were all over the place. One was a full 10 inches off from where the plan said it would be. The structural engineer on site just laughed and said that's pretty standard for 1920s work. We ended up having to redesign half the steel framing on the fly to match the real column locations, cost us an extra three weeks and a lot of overtime.

keithbennett28d ago

Wait, you're telling me the columns were really 6 inches off and nobody noticed until inspection? That's like finding out your house was built by a drunk toddler with a tape measure. I swear, those old contractors just eyeballed everything and hoped for the best. But hey, at least you didn't have to tear down a whole wall because someone decided to move a load-bearing beam 2 feet to the left for "artistic reasons." Guess we're all just paying for their "creative freedom" now.