Practice Exam question on non-conforming work
In regards to the CE practice exam question below, the explanation for answer E states that the architect is responsible for determining the causes of non-conforming work. Is this stated somewhere in the contract documents?
Seems like it'd be a big endeavor for the architect to find the causes of all the issues mentioned in the question, when it wasn't the architect who built/installed these items.
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Remember that the architect acts as an agent for the owner. The owner is an innocent party busy doing other things when construction is happening. When we make site visits we are responsible for informing the owner of Deviations from the contract documents(drawings/specs). Also, report Defects and Defiecneys in the work to the owner. So remember the 3-Ds!
The explanation on the practice exam I think makes sense. If we make a site visit and see non-conforming work (3-Ds). We will document it in writing in our G711 Field Report and ALSO try to find out how this occurred so that we can inform the owner of this non-conforming work.
When you read "determine the cause" I don't think it's as intensive as you think. It's about asking questions. Did the Contractor install it properly? Was there an actual manufacturer defect? Is a portion of the work covered to determine these questions? Asking questions is crucial in construction observation so that the relevant parties pay for the correction of the work.
For your selected answer E think if you were the owner. Your architect comes to you and says yeah they observed non-conforming work so here is how much the cost is to fix it all and how our schedule is now impacted / F'ed. If I were in the owner's shoes I'd think "what the heck, how did this happen! No $$$ until we find the SOURCE"
Hope this helped! Good Luck!
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For this question, the best way to do it is to exclude the wrong answers:
A is not correct because the current contractor need to be notified of the rejection of the non-conforming work first, and be give a chance to fix them first.
B is in correct because it is the contractor’s responsibilities to perform the work per the construction documents, an architect has NO obligation to tell the contractor how to fix his/her mess.
D is incorrect because the architect never has the authority to stop the work, the owner does.
E is not correct because this is not in the scope of the architect’s work.
Gang Chen, Author, AIA, LEED AP BD+C (GreenExamEducation.com)
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