All Forum Posts by: Eric Teran

@Danielle Polen I do a lot of design and permitting work for Blue Star as I'm their Architect of record. They are a good Design Build firm if you want to go that route. They have a good interior designer as well so you get the entire package. I also have my own firm and you can find the link in my bio. BP sometimes deletes my posts if I include it in the forum. Flamenco is great! My wife and I spent lots of nights watching them dance up close as we drank too much wine and tapas. Good times! 

I'm glad you are not in a rush. You will have a lot less stress. If you have any questions just reach out and I'm happy to explain the process. Good luck with your PG project.  

@Danielle Polen I'm an Architect in DC and do at least 10 of these projects a year. I'm actually doing the permitting process for underpinning, an addition, and going to the BZA for an investment property I bought in the Trinidad neighborhood. There is a lot to do. There are two ways to get a permit. 

1. No major structural items and the renovation is under 1,000 SF. DCRA will give a permit for these types of projects within a week of the application. 

2. Everything else. Additions, dropping the basement slab, underpinning, converting a single-family residence to a two dwelling flat, a pop-up, and so on. This is what your project will fall under. The review process for this is between 2 - 4 months. Once an application is made the intake technicians will take a day or two to approve that the application correct. Then all the plans are uploaded online and then the intake technician reviews it again to make sure all the plans are there. If they are they send it to the different reviewers (zoning, structural, mechanical, DC Water, etc.). The reviewers have 30 business days (6 weeks) to provide initial comments. There is almost always one reviewer who takes the full 30 days. They tell me that they review the projects in the order they get them. If there are any comments it may take a day or a week to submit them back to DCRA. Now the reviewers have 15 business days to approve or provide more comments. As you can see this adds up quickly. This doesn't take into account if you have to submit to other agencies such as DC Water, DDOT, HPRB, DOEE, and so on. 

Of course, before submitting plans to DCRA you have to do the design and prepare the construction documents to submit. The design phase can take anywhere from a week to many weeks. It depends how fast you can make up your mind and how good your architect is. The projects I complete in a week are usually for developers. They know exactly what they want and they don't care about the minutiae. Homeowners take much longer as it is a personal decision. They normally take 4 - 10 weeks. 

Once the design is settled then the construction document phase beings. This is between 2 - 6 weeks. It depends on how complicated your project is and the availability of the other engineers. You will definitely need a structural engineer and maybe an MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing) engineer. This is also the phase all the forms need to be prepared and there are a few for rowhouse underpinning. You need the neighbor notification letter (within this letter there are three things to do), special inspection for underpinning (another two forms to fill), construction estimate, DC Water form to reuse the existing water meter and service line (if you add too many fixtures and you don't have a 1" meter you may have to upsize which then will require submitting more plans to DC Water), possibly an energy verification sheet (if there is an addition), a zoning data form, and a plat that is requested from the surveyor's office showing the existing structure and any proposed work. 

On the fast track, a permit can be obtained in a little more than three months. However, as you know everyone has a project right now. For example, I don't have the bandwidth to start bigger projects until May. A lot of my colleagues are in the same situation. On the slow end, obtaining a permit can easily take six to eight months. I think you may be a little behind if you want to start construction in the summer. Maybe at the end of summer. 

There is a lot to do however, it isn't really that hard. DCRA is not that bad and I like their online system. It is better than other jurisdictions in the DMV.  

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Good luck. 

@Jack Ha I use Jason Osser, https://ossercpa.com/ who is in Annandale. He has a few investment properties as well. good luck.

@Chari Nash-Cannaday I have two or maybe three builders I can recommend in DC. It depends where in DC, the budget, and schedule. Can you PM me and send me the plans? I can then ask them if they are interested. I have worked with all of them on multiple projects that I have designed so I trust them to do good work. At least they haven’t let me or my clients down.

I agree with @Nik Moushon in that the design wasn't necessarily wrong. There are multiple ways to do the same thing. What was wrong is that it did not conform to the construction documents. Look over your contract with the general contractor and make sure that the contract between the two of you was to build and provide a finished product according to the construction documents. Hopefully, it references a permit number. If this is the case then he provided something that was not agreed to. The only legal way a contractor can change the plans is to submit a change order or construction change directive and have the owner and usually, the Architect sign it. Then that change may move forward. This is what you can use as your legal argument. If the contractor comes back with, "but the design wasn't going to work" then you tell them you never agreed to this change. Even if the original design did not work they are not allowed to do something different than the contract plans without your permission. As Nik and I mentioned and as you found out there are many possible options. 

I also want to ask if there is a footing under each steel post?

@Olga Applegate if you are changing the occupancy you will need to get a building permit stating that and show relevant information like egress plans, fire proofing, plumbing fixtures and so on. Once those plans are approved you can do any necessary work and after the final inspection is approved you can file for a certificate of occupancy.

FYI an office space is a B occupancy.

@Jeff Sadosky I’ve used Jason Osser for the last four years. So far so good, his office is in Fairfax and he owns multiple investment properties for short and long term rentals. https://ossercpa.com/

@Leland S. were you able to get the shop drawings from the steel contractor? Be sure you share with him the stair information. I would make sure the steel contractor is on board before you order the stairs.  

@Leland Smith you need 80” clear from the top of the tread to the ceiling. If you don’t have it you can slope part of the ceiling. Doesn’t look great but it’s an option. The other option is to move the stair slightly but I don’t know if that works with your floor layout. Everything with the stair itself looks fine and good catch on the thicker treads.

@Robert Carpenter the building owner has a few options on how much they want to be involved. I have some clients who pay me more during construction and I only report to them when needed if the schedule or budget will be affected. For example, the steel I-beam has a long lead time. They can either wait for it but it may affect the construction schedule or we can determine if there is another option that may affect the schedule and/or budget. If it doesn't affect the schedule or budget then they are usually not notified. I take care of it before it becomes a problem. During construction issues always come up. The majority of them are easily handled and not a big deal. Take this case, for example, I hope I would have caught this during the shop drawings or when the 1st-floor framing was being done. I would fix the issue with the GC and framer and the owner would have never known unless the schedule or budget were affected.  

I have other clients that want to be involved in every decision. I had one client rent the house next door (he was a pain) to see everything that went on. It is either because they want to learn or have a personality that they need to be involved in all aspects of their projects. This is fine but they do tend to be more stressed because they take small issues and blow them out of proportion because they don't have the experience. 

If the owner lives far from the construction hopefully they let the Architect be their representative or hires a project manager to be their eyes and ears. We have contracts with the owner and we act on their behalf. We have no loyalty to the GC so if something is not built accordingly we tell the owner and it is the owner's decision to accept a deviation from the plans. We also document everything so that if something goes wrong there is a paper trail if a lawsuit is ever brought. A lot of small architecture and construction firms don't do this because it takes time and they are not used to it. I only learned the correct way when I worked in a firm with 150 Architects and we documented everything for moments like Lelands. 

If the owner doesn't want to hire a representative during construction then I would think they have a great relationship with the GC and trusts them to get it done correctly or they are much more involved. Even if they are more involved it doesn't mean they understand all the codes and regulations and why something was coordinated a certain way. For example, maybe @Leland S. choose to do floor trusses for the mechanical ducts to go through and have no drop-down ceilings? If someone didn't know this they might think to use regular floor joists and build drop-downs for the ductwork which may save $10k. Saving money sounds good but it goes against what the owner wanted.  

Lastly, it also depends on how big and what type of project it is. I have clients who build a deck or powder room addition. They don't need me to be there that often. Usually, once at the beginning and end. However, for a high-end modern home, I need to be there every week and during critical times of construction. For a traditional home where molding can cover up mistakes, I can go less often because builders are used to building a traditional home, and like I said it is easier to hide mistakes. 

There you go. Lots of options and if you really want go ahead and rent an RV, preferably an Airstream.