A while back I shared a photo of a borrowed light frame with a 4-inch head, installed sideways in a masonry wall.  I had the idea of sharing mistakes we’ve made, to help others avoid similar problems, and several people suggested that the series be called “Lessons Learned (LL).  Larry Gallagher immediately sent me one of his lessons from The School of Hard Knocks, which I am sharing in today’s post.  If you have a lesson to share, feel free to send me an email!

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From Larry:

The borrowed lite frame brought back an old memory about an after-hours life safety inspection I was doing many years ago on a hospital emergency room expansion and remodel project when I was still a little wet behind the ears myself.

During the walk-through I came across an experienced carpenter (who was decades older than I) working alone, on overtime, and just starting to install a new single door frame in a corridor wall opening.  That door was intended to serve as the entrance to a new exit discharge corridor that would lead to an exterior grade level exit door.  As part of the means of egress, that door should open in the direction of exiting traffic but the frame was being installed to open against the flow of traffic.

I double checked the blueprint and sure enough that door was drawn opening in the wrong direction and the mistake had not been caught during any of the earlier plan reviews.  The door schedule was also wrong so a whole new assembly would need to be ordered.

Trying to be helpful, I approached the carpenter and started discussing the door opening direction.  The carpenter immediately acknowledged it was being hung wrong and said something along the lines of, “I know it is wrong, you know it is wrong, but the white hats don’t pay me to think or question what they put on paper, just to install as shown.  As long as I install as shown nobody can blame me for their mistake.  So it will get installed wrong, someone will eventually figure it out, I will be called back to tear it out, and then I will have to install the correct door.  This will be more guaranteed overtime for me so I’m not complaining or stopping what I’m doing.  Have a good evening!”

The eye-opening lesson I learned that evening was not everyone associated with a project is necessarily working in the same direction with similar goals, objectives, or priorities nor do they expect the same outcomes or see benefits the same as others.

This experience also reminded me of an expression for poorly done plan reviews:  “erasers are cheaper than bulldozers!”

~ LarryG.

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