By Tom Petracca, PE, Vice President - PE’s In Private Practice

“He said he would design a new house for us and that we didn’t have to use you.”

That was the utterly surprising news my client broke to me after I had referred a contractor for a job to build a new house in an upscale (more like top-scale) area of Nassau County, L.I. The contractor had met with my client and stated that he didn’t have to install the steel beams and foundation the way it was drawn. In fact, he said, he and his company could design an entirely new house for them and they wouldn’t have to use me, the engineer, the professional who referred him on this estimated $1.5 million construction project.

I had been aware that this contractor had been designing houses for his own projects as well as building the ones I had designed previously. Let’s face it: builders, contractors, framers and other tradesmen sometimes get jobs before the architect or engineer is brought in. The prospective client sees them building a house, sees the sign on the construction fencing, walks up and talks to the guys on site or calls the posted phone number next to their name. Before you know it – voila, they’ve got the job!

Now that the contractor has been selected he usually has some leverage by recommending an architect or engineer to devise the plans. But not for some contractors, like my “friend” from the Nassau County job, who believe that they can hire a draftsman, have the building drawn the way they think it should be and then get an architect or engineer to stamp it for $500 or so.

Fortunately my client is not only level-headed and saw the treachery in the contractor’s statements but also happened to like my work and, she said, never even considered dumping me for him. She was, in fact, as shocked as I was that someone who had been referred by someone else would walk in and attempt to cut the legs out from under the referring professional.

Every day brings a new story to our office, and I’ve learned never to be too surprised at what happens.

So, if you have a good story you’d like to flash across our pages, pass it along. And, don’t be surprised if you see it in print!