WestCon Tribune

January 1999

JANUARY BULLETIN BOARD

The next Westcon Meeting will be on
Wednesday, January 20, 1999
The Encinal Yacht Club, Alameda
Time: 6:15 - 7:00pm Social Hour
7:00pm Dinner
Reservation Deadline: Friday, January 15th, 1999

 
FEATURES

UPCOMMING SPEAKERS

CODE COMMITEE MEETING

 

FEATURES

By James Chung

The New Industry of Construction Defect Litigation

Information obtained from: Fowler, Pete. "Common Construction Defects", The Journal of Light Construction. October 1998, pages 57-66.

The shoddy sub-standard construction that took place during the building boom of the 1980’s gave birth to a new industry: construction defect litigation. For this type of litigation, attorneys hire architects, engineers, and former building contractors on behalf of homeowners to confirm the inferior workmanship that is responsible for the rapid deterioration of their homes. On the other hand, the home building industry is put on the defense and is claiming the problems are derived from the exploitation of the legal system by the attorneys, rather from their own incompetence. Thus it seems the true culprit resides somewhere in the middle. The problems still exist, however, especially with the increased scrutiny given to building inspections throughout Southern California. Typical erroneous building issues include:

  • structural and framing defect

  • waterproof deck problems

  • plumbing defects

  • chipped sinks

  • ponding in bath tubs

  • HVAC

  • Flues too close to combustibles

  • Breaches in firestops

  • Unsealed gas line penetration in fire box

  • Diaphragms and shear walls

  • Connector problems

  • Roofing

  • Rake and eaves details

  • Windows

  • Painting wood windows

  • Poorly flashed penetrations in stucco

  • Buried weep screed

The following table illustrates the top ten defect items, ranked by the number of instances cited in the repair estimates reviewed. The number in the right-hand column is the average percentage by item of the total estimated cost of repair.

Rank by of Number Instances

Defect Description

Average % of Total Estimate

1

Structural/Rough Carpentry

14.7%

2

Roofing

8.4%

3

Windows

7.8%

4

Plumbing

5.4%

5

HVAC

2.9%

6

Lath &Plaster (Stucco)

3.5%

7

Fireplaces & Chimneys

0.9%

8

Waterproof Decks

3.4%

9

Fire-Resistive Assemblies

7.5%

10

Civil/Site Drainage/Fine Grading

5.6%

 

UPCOMING SPEAKERS

 

FEBRUARY

Construction Law Update
Presented by Alan J. Wilhelmy, Esq.
Field, Richardson & Wilhelmy, Attorneys at Law in Walnut Creek

Mr. Wilhelmy is developing a presentation which will give us a brief overview of new legislation, legal decisions, and consequences of construction law in the local practice emphasized in the firm’s practice of real estate, development and construction law and related litigation and arbitration.

MARCH


Windows
Presented by James O’Bannon, Richard Heath and Associates

This will be an overview of the A.I.A. certified High Performance Window Course sponsored by PG & E with A.I.A. Educational course credits available featuring new technologies in high performance windows. An essential windows workshop for design professionals.

APRIL

Lathing & Plastering
Presented by John Bucholtz

Although John Bucholtz is a charter member of Westcon, it will be a rare appearance at our April meeting that has John attending. Be sure to circle Wednesday, the 21st of April in your calander and bring your questions about lath, plaster, stucco, EIFS, drywall and fireproofing.

 

CODE COMMITTEE MEETING

WEDNESDAY, JAN 20TH, 1999

6:30PM

AGENDA:

Vote on recommending to Board to proceed with May 1999, one day symposium on "Water resistance, Structure and Soil / foundations — Framed building."

Thank you to Walt Gloskowski for submitting the following article regarding ASTM Standards:

‘The American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) recently unveiled a new way to access its standards: the ASTM Standards Source Online Subscription Service. Now, through the Internet and with a password from ASTM, companies and individuals can access the entire collection of ASTM standards, which are updated weekly. This new service enables visitors to view, print or download the full text of ASTM’s standards in PDF files.

Two service options are available. Full Service offers access to the index and the full text of all 10,000 ASTM standards for a 12-month subscription period and costs $5,900. The 50-Standard Subset Service, which costs $299, allows access to the titles and scopes of all 10,000 standards, but users can download the full text of only 50 standards during a 12-month subscription period.

A demonstration site featuring five standards will be online at http://demo.astm.org.’

 

MEETING, NOVEMBER REVIEW, PAST ISSUES

Published monthly by WESTCON (Westcon Consultants Association) for general membership and friends. Publication of original articles or reprinted material does not imply approval or endorsement. Submitted material becomes property of WESTCON. Not responsible for accuracy of content. Views and opinions expressed are not necessarily those of editors of WESTCON.
Send submittals to Rikki Field at Box 305, Ross, CA 94957: (415) 451-4897