Overheard a structural guy at lunch that made me nervous about my own work

I was eating at my desk last Tuesday and this older PE was talking to a younger drafter about checking their work against field conditions. He said something like "half my redlines come from stuff that looked perfect on paper but didn't fit in the real building." It hit different because I've been sending out shop drawings without ever visiting the site. Have any of you ever caught a major mistake by actually walking a job after you drafted it?

3 comments

3 Comments

caseywalker15d agoMost Upvoted

Oh boy, that hit a little too close to home for me. I once designed a duct run that looked perfect on screen until the superintendent politely asked how I planned to get it past a support beam that wasn't on the old drawings. Now I drag myself onto every site at least once before I stamp anything.

grantnelson15d ago

Yeah @caseywalker, I used to think site visits were a waste of time but now I get why you do it every time.

garcia.wren14d ago

Just taking my laptop onsite once caught three coordination issues before they became redlines