Balancing construction realities with ideal fenestration design
Providing a comfortable and attractive interior space for the building’s inhabitants is a primary concern of the design team. A large component of this is preventing water leaks to the interior of the building. The recommendations and considerations in The Construction Specifier feature, “Key considerations for designing fenestration systems for success” serve as Part 1 of this article, and they discuss what will help prevent water leakage into new buildings. This article will discuss what can happen when some of those recommendations are not followed due to the nature of construction.
Sometimes these changes may be due to value-engineering decisions communicated between the owner and contractor to reduce the project budget, which, unfortunately, the design team may not know about until construction is underway. Other times, changes may occur due to incomplete shop drawings, unknown or unforeseen site conditions, construction sequencing, or supply chain issues which can lead to the construction team figuring it out and making changes at the time of installation.
Publisher
Construction Specifier