Masonry Magazine October 1999 Page. 12
No real attempt was made to establish any genuine understanding or empathy for the other's situation - none exists. There is no bond or trust. There is no partnership or camaraderie. The construction project becomes a clinical, antiseptic, business transaction and if one party suffers in relation to another's good fortune, then it's justifiable in the minds of all the players as "protecting one's own interest."
If the project goes smoothly (few errors and change orders) than the relationship may well stay civil - even friendly. But the hierarchy of need (and greed) never waivers: money first-trust, loyalty, and empathy last.
The Bid Documents
Another problem (and a huge misconception to the man on the street) are the bid documents themselves. In my opinion when discussing CB- the quality of the architectural plans and specifications is the single biggest obstacle to the competitive bid process ever being universally accepted. Throughout my career, the majority of my experience in construction has been as an estimator. I've worked and bid with scores of architectural firms and compiled hundreds of estimates. Over that time, I've come to realize a tremendous disparity between the best and the worst in the architectural field. Even more unsettling is that this trend towards mediocrity appears to be getting worse rather than better.
The problem is real. Ever more frequently, I find myself involved in competitive bids where due to the absolute incoherent and/or incomplete state of the bid documents, the only avenue left to me to arrive at my bid number was through my own experience (and intuition) in determining the "intended" scope of work. Now, I'm no genius, so assuming the other estimators are doing the same thing, what do you suppose the odds are that we all interpret the documents the same way? Ever heard of comparing "apples and oranges?"
Now yes, I'm well aware that somewhere in the cacophonous specification it says that we should notify the architect of any mistakes, omissions, or discrepancies that we find (or something of the sort). I'm sure this passage sounded wonderful to the optimistic soul who created it, but the reality is that there are just way too many errors and omissions on many plans and specs. Even if the builder were so inclined (or allowed) to make the corrections, it would require an additional full-time draftsman/estimator (which we can't afford) to adequately detail and address the faulty and missing information.
But suppose we do make the call to the architect. Well, in a classic case of "damned if you do damned if you don't" - when we do call the architect (and we call a lot) with questions or request for clarification, the odds are evenly spread that we'll receive any one of the following:
The right answer to our question
■The wrong answer to our question
The architect's voice mail (he will not call back)
The receptionist - who will tell us the architect in question isn't in today (the bid is due at 2 pm today)
Or (my personal favorite) where I (finally) get an answer to my question, but not before I'm made well aware (through the nasal, condescending tone at the other end of the line) that I am nowhere-near qualified and have no
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12 MASONRY-SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER, 1999