joint or seperate contractor & engineer contracts

[Maria Teo]

I've heard it is preferable to have separate contracts with each building professional (architect, engineer, contractor), but why?

I received a contractor proposal including both the contractor fees and the engineering fees. The engineer doesn't work for the contractor, but they worked together a lot. Is this arrangement common? What are the possible risks? What are the advantages?

[Chris Seveney]

@Maria Teo

For consultants - my preference is to have them together. Why, because say you change the window glazing and it effects the exterior wall value. Low and behold the hvac engineer was designing off the original window. Year later room never cools you find out why? Shame on you in most instances because you didn’t properly coordinate

If it was under architect they are typically responsible for coordination of ALL work.

Now related to having them under the GC, there are pluses and minuses to this. One is there should be NO change orders unless it is unforeseen conditions (recommend design/build GMP contract), downside is if they are buddy buddy then that can lead to problems down the road on quality issues