the engineering firm is very irresponsible, unreliable and unprofessional to have dragged this out this long and now start making waves. I’m so sorry. Best wishes for the best outcome.
It sounds so painful but I’m sure you can see it through. Next time, try a different firm or a different approach with this firm! They may be stressed and overworked but for them to lecture you at this late date when you’ve been asking for feedback for weeks? Terrible.
I would personally never use or recommend this firm again. They sound awful and SO unprofessional and unreliable. At this point, I’m not sure whether I’d even trust their work.
Is the desire to maintain the vaulting in the kitchen contributing to the complexity of the project? Is there a way to make “everything line up” by changing the footprint of the second story?
Is that he engineer you are dealing with the owner or principal of the firm? If not, you should take your complaints up the chain.
I’d be shopping around for a new engineer.
Let me get the facts straight –
You waited way too long (I don’t remember the exact time) to receive the plans.
You received them yesterday, finally.
You reviewed them and marked them up in one day. And of course they needed to be reviewed and marked up. Of course there would be changes. IIRC, the major changes you made were regarding the size of the doors. NBD.
Now they’re telling you at least another month? I think they are BS-ing you. I think they got in over their heads and just plain don’t want to do the job.
Does anyone else see this any differently?
I guess at the end of the day, you need to figure out some things. These would be my questions:
- Do you expect this firm will be able to deliver what you need in a reasonable time?
- If not, is there another firm you can switch to that could do what you need in a reasonable time? Even if you lose what you've already paid the first firm, switching -- if there is an alternative -- may help you to reduce your carrying costs and get you the plans you need.
- If no other firm exists that will provide the plans you need/want and have been counting on all along, what if you just finish up the house as is, as best you can? Will you still need to file plans with the city if that's all you do?
- If you just make what exists already as pretty as possible but don't add the second floor, will you be able to sell the house for enough to at least break even?
VeryHappy, I think this is the right analysis. I also suspect that they got a bigger job or two that have some incentives built into the contracts for speedy delivery… so they are giving the bogus excuses that the plans are so complex and so on!
@BunsenBurner If that is true, about the other jobs, then they are operating in bad faith. Wonder if in that case you can drop a well placed “lawsuit” reference to get them moving… I mean, at this point, they are costing coralbrook money every minute.
If someone could build this, surely your design shouldn’t be such an issue. http://www.sdlookup.com/MLS-160022249-1876_Sefton_Pl_San_Diego_CA_92107
There are a LOT of positives with this house. I hope you don’t have to compromise at all…but if you do,.its still going to be gorgeous, on a fabulous lot.
I hope this all works out…and soon.
Sorry it took so long to respond. On top of everything I arrived back to my home office to discover that I had no Internet OR Cell Service last night. Finally have Internet this morning.
My biggest issue right now is that they have had those plans in office for 2 months now and they are just now telling me this is extremely complex and very hard to do and everyone in his office is having a hard time trying to finalize plans. He is the owner. There is a draftsman assigned and I believe that he starts in a software called Chief Architect. When it is final the design transfers to some type of CAD. Then a framing person (who is located in New Mexico) creates framing specifications in CAD.
Then they hand it to the engineer to do the engineering. The engineer kept telling me he couldn’t start because he didn’t have final plans. That went on for 7 weeks. He kept claiming I was changing the plans. I wasn’t changing anything… I walked into their office March 4 and laid out 3 issues I needed help with to finalize the design; staircase to 2nd floor, roof diagramming (it was too complex and we told them they needed to come out to review) and garage structure to hold up new addition.
I did not receive anything until April 6 after 4 weeks. This was the first rendering that showed the contemporary style 2nd floor addition and I immediately went into the office and sat with the draftsman to try to finalize the design. Waited another 5 days to get those turned around so I could review them. So now we are in week 5. Next thing I know… one week later the engineer says they have to come out and see existing roof framing. Duhhh… I told you guys that 5 weeks ago!!!
Then they show up to measure exterior again. Then engineer calls and tells me nothing is lining up and he needs to come out again to finalize his review. That was on Monday and he told me they were done and plans would be ready this week. Now it appears that it is too complicated and will take longer.
And, they keep saying that I am still making changes. I explained to him that I have NEVER received any plans on paper and there was no way that I could review the window and door sizes. I am trying to use an inventory of vinyl windows that have been taken out and I would like to reuse them in the new bathrooms and other discreet locations. They then got in a pissy fight with me and said they sent the plans on April 6th. Yes, they sent some kind of small computer file. When I printed that out and took t hem to the project to try to review windows, the font was so small it was not readable. I had no way I could work with them. I then started emailing and asking for print outs. They kept saying that they couldn’t produce any print outs because ‘design was being worked on in computer’. They just didn’t understand that I needed large print outs to get the final review done.
Basically, it is obvious that they were stringing me along for about 6 weeks and they didn’t really start trying to work on this until last week. He does have preliminary structure notes hand drawn onto the plans.
On Monday I was informed that I couldn’t have the large window I want on the western wall in Living Room between the french doors for shear panel reasons. I have already purchased the 5 ft wide window. So, the main change I made to the plans on Tuesday was to size the new window in living room and utilize the purchased 5 ft window in the master bedroom. Also, the draftsman did not get my request for pocket doors correct from the email I sent 2 weeks ago, so I had to change some of the bathroom and closet doors to pocket doors. This does change his engineering a bit because the pocket enclosure is not a solid wall now. I also changed the size of two bathroom windows to a little wider in order to use a couple of vinyl windows we pulled out of the living room.
And, suddenly yesterday he started telling me that he needs detailed specifications for the HVAC systems and some other things. I gave them exact manufacturer and model nbr on March 4th but now he suddenly needs the weight of each system. And, specs for the accordion door for upstairs deck. Ugghhh!
Needless to say, I am going to have a full meeting with my agent today and call a couple of contractor friends to see if they have a gauge on how long it will take to get through City permit approval. I’m worried that the City is so busy now that I might be in for a shock. The City told me that their review time is 30 days right now. But, if they have corrections, that could turn into another 3 weeks after the 30 days
My carrying costs to hold for another month are approximately $7,500
I’m not worried about my employees because, believe it or not, there are still a lot of things we can do. We can build the deck, we are going to demolish the entire driveway and retaining wall, finish landscaping completely. Maybe I give them one week off before we start working 6 days/week.
Did I mention that he started grumbling that he needed to charge me extra because the job was so complex???
Here are the key issues at this point:
- The existing garage door is too low for modern cars to fit into the garage. So, if I kept house same footprint, it will be difficult with the existing garage
- Even if I keep existing footprint, I need to open up the walls, put in the french doors and reconfigure the bedrooms/bathrooms, move HVAC, expand deck, vault kitchen ceiling, etc. So, that would require a remodel permit because inspector has already been on project and I promised him that I was pulling a permit for all the work that he saw underway. I would normally not pull a permit for an internal remodel and I think you all can understand why after hearing all my horror stories trying to get permits.
- I would have to go to sale with a 3/2 1700 sq ft that only has views from living room.
- Right now I only have an external staircase up from garage that is not desireable.
Plans for this would take about 2 weeks to finalize because I would still need a structural engineer review to open up the walls. It would take about another $40k to make the house really nice and probably 3 months. My guess is that a sale could bring $1,150,000 to $1,200,000. Slim profit
Other alternative is to build new garage and just add bedrooms/baths above that to add 480 sq ft. If I only add 480 sq ft I can avoid about $4,000 in additional permit fees. I would try to end up with 4 bd/3 ba at 2,200 sq ft. That would still require a permit and engineering. Would take about 3 weeks because it would have to pass through a structural engineer. That would be about $90-$100k more and 4-5 months away. I think it would bring about $1.3mil
On both of these alternatives I could start work right away because I know what needs to get done to be ready for first inspection. I could call for the first inspection right away after permit approval. For the large build, I need to be extra careful about starting to dig for foundation, etc. until I am sure the foundation plan is finalized through City (would be about 4 weeks after submittal)
On the first alternative (keep same footprint) I would eliminate the need to do a full concrete demolition of the existing driveway and retaining wall and repour driveway. I have already received estimates of $4,000 for concrete demolition and removal and $12,000 to pour stem walls, new garage floor and driveway. So obviously, staying with existing footprint is the least expensive alternative for many many reasons. But, that was analyzed a long time ago and decision was that we needed a 4/3 and powder room and new garage and capture the views to get highest dollar.
Sticking with current plan is about $150 to $175k away and 7 months away. My agent is predicting $1.5 mil because of the extremely hot market right now and the $1.6mil sale on Santa Cruz. (I think somewhere in the $1.4 mil range)
I hope you get a good break on all of this soon, cb!
"The existing garage door is too low for modern cars to fit into the garage. "
that is VERY important and needs to be changed, regardless of whether you go up or not. 50% of cars these days are SUV’s.
So the diff between adding the additional story is about $75K, correct? What will be the total sq ft with the additional story?
Given the hot market there, which in my opinion is not going to suddenly disappear, I would go for the additional story if you can afford to wait.
I suggest you give up your beloved vaulted ceiling in the kitchen and go with a high flat ceiling, IF it will make it less expensive to build and engineer.
You can do a great vaulted ceiling in the next house.
One other question- what part of San Diego will be serviced by the desalinization plant?
The reason I’m asking is with the drought continuing , if I were a buyer, I’d want to locate where there is no chance of running out of H2O.
I’m not familiar with the coverage of the new desalinization plant. Believe me, no government in So Cal is going to let us run out of water. Los Angeles will do something about it and we will all just tag along.
I have not heard any major grumblings about the kitchen vaulting… just that we are going to do some reinforcing
Cannot do anything about existing garage door height, the garage ceiling height is low at 7’ and there is a big post and beam above the garage door area.
With the additional story the house will be at about 2,700 sq ft of liveable space because the balcony and deck don’t count as square footage.
Just spent a long time on the phone with my agent. She talked me down off the cliff and decision is to hang in there and stay the course. We are going to take two actions right away to keep my sanity:
We are going to hire an appraiser to do an informal appraisal on the specs of the finished house. I need reassurance of value when the project is complete - from a bank appraiser’s opinion. I need to make sure that a buyer can get a loan for the future sale price
We need to go out and absolutely ensure that I can find investment funding at a decent interest rate to finish this project and stay alive for the remainder of the year. Worst case is we do not sell and close until end of the year. I need a lot of funds to stay afloat for the next 8 months.
It doesn’t do you any good, but the entire attitude of the engineering firm smacks of flaming sexism to me.
Honestly, it sounds as if they are trying to push you to fire them so that they can pocket what you’ve paid and not have to do the job. I would never use them again.
Why don’t you ask your retired contractor friend how HE would deal with them at this point.
My retired contractor friend told me several weeks ago to keep bugging them. He recommended being the squeaky wheel. So, I started contacting every couple of days and kept getting “We’re working on it” “I’m working on Engineering tomorrow” “Plans are out at framing design”, whatever
When I go into the office I see a bunch of guys standing around bugging engineer for plan revisions. These are big contractors that have plans under review at City and the City has issued corrections that need to be turned around back to the City. My suspicion is that there have been a lot of ‘fires’ happening that are scrambling everyone. The contractors just walk right into his office and get things done.
Me… I keep asking politely if I can make an ‘appointment’ to review with them. I get push back that plans are not ready, blah blah blah
And, yes, I believe they are not used to working with a woman and, they are treating me like an average homeowner that they can bluff.
In their defense, he is horrified that I am running loose with a gutted house right now. He was really upset that we vaulted the bathroom ceiling without his review or design, we had already repaired the pier and post foundation, AND that the City inspector inspected the bathroom and is letting us close it up. He keeps repeating that a REAL contractor would wait for all designs and permits to be in place before starting work. He’s scared to death that I am just going to build whatever I want no matter what he has in the plans so he is being extra careful and extremely conservative with his structural engineering.
I am no longer going to be the nice guy.
@coralbrook - Go for it! The time for being the nice guy has long passed. You have to act like one of the contractor guys in order to move this along. Best of luck. I think everything looks great so far and can’t wait to see how it all turns out! And for the record, I’m in coastal LA and the market is hot here as well. My realtor friends expect it to continue for the remainder of 2016. I’m sure your area of San Diego is the same.
I know personally some nice and competent architects. are these engineers deferring to an architect? Or are they doing engineering for you. My experience with some architects is that they want to do,what THEY want to do…not what YOU want to do (@mathmom…please don’t take offense if you are reading this).
And this is especially true when the architect is male and the owner female. Been there done that.,actually dismissed an architect from my home who wanted the kitchen to be HIS way…and flatlynrefised to listen to me.
I hate to say it…but when dealing with chauvinistic vendors…I take my husband with me…he just stands there while I do the talking. Could you take your male contractor friend with you next time? I know that should not be necessary…but maybe they will,listen.
And I wouldn’t pay them ONE PENNY more for this very delayed project. If it was THAT difficult, they should have known it after their first site visit…which should have been immediately after you contracted with these engineers.