New House Build, Costs+ on engineering

deerpark

Hi,

Via full service from an architect we tendered for construction of our house that is now stage 2 complete. Engineering drawings were not supplied at tender stage. During stage 1 the engineer drove a number of unanticipated requirements, some of which were not progressed and others which were.

- Steel lintels over the windows were not progressed because it was proven that the concrete ones were certified to take the weight asked of them.
- 2 corner floor to ceiling door sliders external to our kitchen which were originally expected to be supported by a single steel post with the rest supported by load bearing walls changed to requiring 3 posts, 3 concrete support pads in the foundation
- steel was introduced at room entrances where the builder would have thought a concrete lintel would have sufficed.

The sense I have is that the engineer over specced by default, the architect and builder won a pushback on some items and failed at others leaving us exposed to cost we did not anticipate.

We think:

- the architect should have known to get the engineering done before tender so the drawings could be published with tender. This would have avoided unanticipated costs.
- the engineer has still likely overspecced


We are thinking of getting a retrospective second option on the engineering gone into this. I think the architect has a case to answer here too. What do you think? Comments appreciated.

Regards,
Adrian

BryanF

What’s was the contract sum?

And what is the extra over for structural elements ?

Assume this is a new build?

What was/is the contingency sum ?