Outsourcing Plan Review Poll

[ADAguy]

Past experience has shown that the standard of care of consultants (given their for profit motives) requires constant QC by staff, negating any cost savings. Moving to electronic review is seen as a more cost effective solution.

 

[CityKin]

All reviewed in-house. We have a contract back up plan examiner but have only used him when I am out of the office for more than a week at a time.

 

[Darren Emery]

I think this topic is worth a bump - given likely tight budgets and reduced staff in the next few years due to COVID-19. We've been 100% in house as long as I've been here, but we're considering outsourcing now.

 

[jar546]

Yes, this is always worth a bump.

 

[jj1289]

As with everything some projects make sense to review in-house and others to out-source. If you do outsource, make sure you are specific on what you expect. I have seen some plan reviews that they only glossed over the documents and not compare with other disciplines.

 

[jar546]

Yes, I agree; you do have to set clear expectations with the plans examiner. There is the glance over and there is the detailed breakdown.

 

[Min&Max]

We do plan review in-house and do not charge for it. Each inspector reviews their area. Did I mention we do not charge? Well you also get what you pay for. So if you are expecting your poor design to get caught at plan review you are very much mistaken and you better have a huge pile of money set aside for corrections because we do exceptionally good at the actual inspections.

 

[jar546]

We do plan review in-house and do not charge for it. Each inspector reviews their area. Did I mention we do not charge? Well you also get what you pay for. So if you are expecting your poor design to get caught at plan review you are very much mistaken and you better have a huge pile of money set aside for corrections because we do exceptionally good at the actual inspections.

I don't agree with that type of workflow.

 

[classicT]

I don't agree with that type of workflow.

I was struggling with it too....

If an inspector is unaware of a requirement, there is no cross check from a plans examiner. Beyond that, it really sets up a situation where corruption and bribery can run rampant and unchecked.

 

[fatboy]

I thought I had voted once on this, but a quick scan and I don't see a comment from me, which is so unlike me.

I posted we do 100% in-house, but then I have to qualify that, I did sub out the electrical review on our first ground up hospital/medical office building a couple years ago. My "Senior" Electrical Inspector, got cold feet about doing it.

But, in 23 years with te Division, that was the only one.

 

[jar546]

I thought I had voted once on this, but a quick scan and I don't see a comment from me, which is so unlike me.

I posted we do 100% in-house, but then I have to qualify that, I did sub out the electrical review on our first ground up hospital/medical office building a couple years ago. My "Senior" Electrical Inspector, got cold feet about doing it.

But, in 23 years with te Division, that was the only one.

You need to do that more often...............

 

[steveray]

I was struggling with it too....

If an inspector is unaware of a requirement, there is no cross check from a plans examiner. Beyond that, it really sets up a situation where corruption and bribery can run rampant and unchecked.

I don't agree with it either, from a customer service standpoint, but I wouldn't go straight to " sets up bribery and corruption".....Ethics are ethics and a bad plan review is not going to make me act any differently on an inspection....

 

[tmurray]

We place a lot of emphasis on plan review. We ask for details and information up front for things that we have seen go wrong in the field. I like being proactive and fixing problems before they happen. I question the quality of plan review of not only 3rd party reviews, but plan reviewers without any field inspection experience.

I went to a course on plan review when I was in my second year as a building inspector. I brought along my code book and my personal copy of NFPA 13 (office did not have one). I sat down next to the plan reviewer for one of the larger cities in my province and he picked up my NFPA 13, states thumbing through it, and said "I should look at this one of these days". He had been doing plan review for about 13 years at the time. I was shocked. I had a total of 1 sprinklered building that I had seen at that time. He would see dozens of sprinklered buildings a year. All without any knowledge of NFPA 13.

 

[mtlogcabin]

Plan reviewers are similar to inspectors most do not review all aspects of the plans. We have separate plan reviewers for fire sprinkler/alarms and electrical. Our building plans examiner covers building, plumbing, mechanical, accessibility and energy codes.

 

[jar546]

Mechanical should be stand alone plan review just like electrical and fire. I can see building doing accessibility. When you get a really good, mechanical plans examiner with experience in inspection who was a licensed mechanical contractor, you really see the difference.

 

[mtlogcabin]

I would love to have a plans examiner for each discipline unfortunately small jurisdictions usually cannot afford or justify that level of staffing.
Then again small jurisdictions normally do not experience the size and scope of projects larger jurisdictions see and therefore that level of expertise may never be needed on our smaller projects.

 

[tmurray]

Electrical and plumbing are handled by the province here. There is no plan review. They just pull a permit and get to work. Everything else is done by the building inspector. The fire marshal also does a plan review of the fire items though.

 

[jar546]

I would love to have a plans examiner for each discipline unfortunately small jurisdictions usually cannot afford or justify that level of staffing.
Then again small jurisdictions normally do not experience the size and scope of projects larger jurisdictions see and therefore that level of expertise may never be needed on our smaller projects.

That is why there are 3rd party agencies with specialists that cover multiple municipalities