All Forum Posts by: Kevin Martin

Stumbled upon this post and thought it was interesting. We have this language in our standard agreement but I haven't had anyone ask to remove it yet. Even if so, I believe our E&O insurance requires this to be in our contracts. Typically with our larger clients we have to sign thier agreement not the other way around and I know for a fact it usually heavily favors them. So it goes both ways. In my opinion I think you should be focusing on the construction agreement more because that is where most of the money is spent with the highest liabilty. When the owner isn't happy with a project for whatever reason he gets a lawyer and the lawyer names all parties involved. Hence why we try to limit our liability regardless and obtain insurance.

Break it out in into two main categories...Horizontal and Vertical. You can then come up with all the costs and requirements for each. Horizontal being the infrastructure land, roads, untilies, zoning, stormwater, Ect and vertical being anything to do with the actual structures like ADA requirements, mean of egress, life safety, fire protection, energy conservation, etc. You will have a design phase and construction phase for each of these two components. Just remember every city/county can be drastically different even if they are right next to each other. Hire local professionals and go talk to the city/county to tell them what you want to do. Believe me they like telling people what they can't do and it's free to get there feedback. 

Did you hire an engineer/professional to look at this and give you recommendations or did you go straight to a foundation company? I am bias but going to an engineer (3rd party) who doesn't benefit on if you do the repairs or not is your best bet to give you options on how to move forward. If it's completely obvious cracked to hell, and crumbling then save the few hundred dollars you would spend on an engineer and go straight to a contractor but just remember they are in the business of doing repairs (sometimes not the most cost effective either) not giving you the best advice. Good luck! 

I don't know what part of the world you are in but you will more than likely need to add framing to be in accoradance with today's minimum codes. If it was just attic space before and you want to make it a livable space then 2x4's will not fly. Also, he will have to look at the entire structure including the foundations. I've seen some scary stuff built back in the early 1900's and as soon an engineer puts his name on it he is responsible for everything.  

Don’t give him anymore money and tell him he needs to finish his work. Give him a chance to make it right but if he stutters then that will be your answer. He will drag his azz or turn into a ghost so it’s better to find someone else to finish it up. Is this guy a licensed contractor? 

Sounds like a typical  "taking from Peter to pay Paul type of situation". A majority of contractors are guilty of this and get into the weeds if they don't know how to deal with cash flow problems. (Not your problem!) The only time a contractor should be asking you for more money is due to a change order which would be for something outside his scope of work. If you don't stop giving him more money the next thing he will ask for is gas money to get to and from your job. (I'm serious this stuff happens) He needs to eat his mess up, finish the job, learn from his mistakes and move on. 

Burn the boats and just go for it!...you will be miles ahead of a majority of the people who dont have the OO's to pull the trigger. Good luck!

Hey @Joey Hamaoui. Right now we do mostly residential and some small commercial site specific engineering. Is there something I can help you with?

Hey Michael, what area are you comparing jax taxes and insurance to? Im from south Florida I know the taxes and insurance there are way more than here in jax. 

Hey @Gary Booth! I know I’m about 11 months late but I am a liscensed PE here in Jax FL and do this type of work quite often. If you run into anything similar down the road don’t hesitate to reach out.