BLOG
1. Why specifications are
essential for quoting
21st August 2019 John Bransby
We are frequently asked by builders,
home owners and even architects to
provide a quote on the basis of
drawings that are preliminary or
concept quality only. Sometimes we are
provided with internet images or
random photos on which to base a
quote. Quite often these are
Development Application (DA)
drawings that are provided to Councils
in the DA process. They are next to
useless when sourcing quotes because
they don’t provide any details of what is
required. They may have notes that
describe a set of gates as ‘metal gates’
or something equally meaningless. It’s
a bit like ringing around 3 car dealers
and asking for a quote on a 4 door
sedan. Without details (specifications)
it’s impossible to get a meaningful
quote.
The trend in building these days seems
to be that the design costs are passed
on down the chain to the builder or
contractor, using the 'Design and
Construct' method of tendering. This
saves money initially by avoiding the
cost of architects or building designers
doing the specifications and detailing,
but it nearly always results in low
quality work.
The reason for that is simple; the
contractor doing the work quotes on
the basis of doing work he thinks will
be accepted by the client at a price that
will be the lowest. Without
specifications and details, the client has
no idea of exactly what is being quoted
on. Then, once the successful tenderer
has got the job, there is a conflict of
interest. The contractor or builder
wants to maximise profit by doing the
job at the lowest possible cost. Because
there are no specifications to say how
the job should be done, the client has
little recourse if the job is not done to
the standard expected.
The architect has been sidelined early
in the process but the job has the
appearance of being 'architect
designed'. It's one reason why there is a
near total lack of confidence now in
building work in Australia. Anyone in
the industry knows how risky it is
buying a new apartment these days.
Back to our car dealer analogy….. asking
3 car dealers for a quote on a new 4
door sedan car, without going into the
exact specifications. Even if they all
quoted on the same make and model,
one dealer may be quoting on the base
model to keep the price low while the
other dealers might be quoting on the
same model with all the optional extras.
The same car could differ in price by
40%. Metalwork is no different- 2
images of work can look identical, but
the specifications could vary
enormously, which in turn affects
pricing.
High quality specifications are very
important when quoting- whether it be
for building work or cars. This is why we
refuse to quote without a good quality
specification being provided. However,
we will create a high quality
specification for a fee and you are free
to shop around with our competitors
using the specification we created.
We direct clients to our design and
quoting process BROCHURE. Our
thorough design process can save
clients a fortune by avoiding work of
low quality that either corrodes in a few
years or doesn’t function as intended.
While designing costs a relatively small
amount at the outset, it can save a lot
of money by making sure the
metalwork is fit for the purpose and fit
for the environment. It also virtually
ensures that the new metalwork will
add value to the property. Badly
designed and specified metalwork
detracts from a property and therefore
devalues it. The devaluing effect is the
most expensive part of a job if it
happens. Our design and quoting
process is second to none and in fact
architects often engage us to do
detailing and specifying for the clients
because it is such a specialised field.
BLOG
2. Victorian Terrace
Balustrades. Meeting
Australian Standard 1170.1
4th Dec 2018 John Bransby
Victorian terraces are common in many
inner suburbs of Sydney such as
Paddington, North Sydney and
Balmain. Originally they had cast iron
lace balustrades around 800 to 900mm
height. These days the building code
(BCA) requires 1.0M minimum height
for balustrades, so using replicas of the
original casting to replace damaged or
badly corroded original work can be
problematic. We have developed
systems to deal with this but one often
overlooked aspect is compliance with
Australian Standard 1170.1
The standard requires amongst other
things, that a balustrade is able to
withstand certain loadings or forces to
be safe. Imagine if a group of people
were having a party on the balcony and
at some point a number of people were
leaning on the balustrade. As has
happened many times, the balustrade
fails and people can be badly injured or
killed if the fall was from a height. This
is especially important on shared house
rental properties where there is less
awareness of the risk by tenants and
the owners may have no knowledge of
how a balcony is being used.
From our observation, many off the
shelf balustrade systems are not tested
and are not compliant with the
Australian Standard in regard to their
ability to withstand loads. For this
reason, we only use engineer certified
balustrade systems and recommend
clients make sure anyone quoting on
new work provides that certification.
Not only must the balustrade itself be
compliant but it must be fixed to the
walls or columns securely enough to
withstand the code’s load
requirements. Old terrace walls are
notorious for being weak and
crumbling, so in many cases, the
standard brackets and fixings have no
chance of being strong enough.
It’s just another reason why we insist on
only quoting from specified drawings.
Many of our competitors seem to have
no awareness of the need to comply
with both the BCA and Australian
Standard 1170.1 when doing cast lace
balustrades on Victorian terraces. If
comparing quotes, make sure
certification and compliance is
guaranteed.
BLOG
3. Balustrades Series.
Meeting Australian Standard
1170.1
20th Dec 2018 John Bransby
A structural engineer we often engage
to certify that our balustrades will
comply with Australian Standard 1170.1
amazed us recently when he gave his
opinion about industry knowledge of
the need for balustrades to meet the
Australian Standard. He though most
builders and metal fabricators doing
domestic work were years out of date
on what the standard requires. It’s
amazing how long new information
seems to take to percolate through an
industry or profession. Apparently its no
different in the medical profession -
doctors still often believe what they
were taught in medical school decades
ago instead of what the latest literature
shows.
We frequently get asked to add height
to an existing balustrade in a strata
complex. The request usually goes
something like “we just need you to
weld on another 100mm at the top, so
the balustrade complies with the latest
codes”. If only it was so easy. Adding
height adds to the load the posts are
required to withstand. The vast majority
of old steel balustrades in strata
buildings built in the 1970’s and 80’s
had no chance of meeting the standard
at the low height. To add height only
makes it worse. We’ve never found a job
yet that was suitable to add height to
and don’t expect to.
BLOG
4. Why specifications are
necessary for conservation
and restoration work
22nd Jan 2019 John Bransby
We are frequently asked by builders,
home owners and architects to provide
a quote to ‘restore’ heritage metalwork,
without being provided with any firm
specification to define what is meant
by the term ‘restore’.
Without a specification written by
someone with expertise in that work,
the term ‘restore’ is quite meaningless.
One person’s interpretation might be to
slap on a coat of paint over all the rust,
to pretty it up to sell. Another
interpretation could be to make the
object exactly as it was when first
made. Naturally, there will be a huge
difference in the 2 quotes because we
are not comparing apples with apples
as they say.
On heritage listed metalwork, we follow
the guidelines set by the National
Heritage Ironwork Group (NHIG) which
we are proud members of. NHIG is
arguably the world’s leading authority
on architectural metalwork
conservation and restoration. They
created a handy guide to conservation
principles which we recommend
clients read before requesting any
contractor to quote on restoring or
conserving heritage metalwork.
In Australia, there is unfortunately very
little awareness of these principles and
we often see beautiful, genuine
wrought iron work that is over 130 years
old, ruined by inappropriate
‘restoration’ techniques. One of the
main mistakes we see made is the shot
blasting and galvanising of genuine
wrought iron. It is appropriate for mild
steel but should not be used on
wrought iron, which is a very different
metal. The 2nd most common mistake
we see is the use of electric welding to
repair genuine wrought iron. Nothing
devalues heritage wrought iron more
than these 2 inappropriate, irreversible
techniques.
Genuine wrought iron was used for
some of the world’s most famous
structures, including the Eiffel Tower in
Paris. It gradually fell out of use around
the mid to late 1800’s when the much
cheaper mild steel became widely
used. Genuine wrought iron gates and
fences adorn many of Sydney’s
Victorian terrace buildings in the inner
city suburbs. Unlike wrought iron, mild
steel needs protecting from rust with
galvanising or painting. Wrought iron
on the other hand, forms its own
protective layer of oxidised metal which
should not be removed. NHIG have a
very informative brochure on genuine
wrought iron and explains the
differences between it and mild steel.
The first step in the conservation or
restoration process is to have the
metalwork closely inspected by
someone with experience and
expertise, to determine what it is and its
condition. That is followed by defining
what restoration will involve and
creating a written specification for the
work. With that written specification, a
client can then obtain quotes from
suitably skilled contractors to carry out
the work, knowing all contractors are
quoting on the same basis. NHIG has a
publication on how to choose a
competent person. It’s essential
reading before choosing a contractor to
assess work or carry out conservation or
restoration work.
JB Wrought Iron have expert
blacksmiths with experience in the UK,
working on listed buildings, available to
do high quality conservation and
restoration work here. We also work
with some of the best UK based
conservation experts and can provide
condition reports and highly detailed
specifications, to ensure any
conservation or restoration work is
carried out in compliance with the
NHIG principles.
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