The 6 am site meeting that made me question our whole bidding process

Last Tuesday I showed up at a commercial reno in downtown Portland and the GC had already marked up my print with what he called 'standard practice' for electrical rough-in. He wanted every outlet at 48 inches, even the kitchen prep areas. I've been doing this for 14 years and never once had a customer complain about the typical 42 inch height. It added 3 extra hours of labor and $180 in material to hit his spec, and when I asked why, he said 'the owner likes consistency.' I pushed back respectfully, but he wouldn't budge. Is it just me, or are some of these higher-end specs just arbitrary rules that nobody questions, even when they cost real money and offer no practical benefit to the end user?

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abby_brown1d ago

Whoa wait, 48 inches for every outlet?! That's insane. Even the kitchen counters where you practically need a step stool to reach the plug? I've never seen that outside of some weird ADA thing gone wrong.