Letter of Intent in lieu of submittals

Log Out | Topics | Search Moderators | Register | Edit Profile

Author Message Dale Hurttgam, NCARB, AIA,LEED AP, CSI Senior Member Username: dwhurttgam Post Number: 120 Registered: 10-2005 Posted on Friday, April 17, 2015 - 09:56 am:    Years ago we explored requiring a letter of intent in lieu of submittals. The idea was that the contractor would submit a letter for each Section certifying that they were providing the specified products in lieu of actually providing the submittals. The idea was to save time and raise the level of expectation that the specified product would be the ones used. Was not actually implemented at the time and the idea was to limit this to certain items. The topic of exploring this has come up again. I was curious if anyone practices this approach and how it has worked. Michael Chusid Senior Member Username: michael_chusid Post Number: 16 Registered: 10-2003 Posted on Friday, April 17, 2015 - 11:08 am:    Interesting idea. Clearly some submittals are required - such as shop drawings and samples for verification. But if there is only one product and specified, then requesting product data sheets is a wasted effort. Consider, instead: The specifier builds a folder of the product data sheets, published installation instructions, maintenance instructions, etc. at the time he/she is researching the product. That folder is turned over to the contractor as an appendix to the specs. No further submittals of standard documents are required. Michael Chusid, RA FCSI CCS www.chusid.com www.buildingproduct.guru Lisa Goodwin Robbins, RA, CCS, LEED ap Senior Member Username: lgoodrob Post Number: 267 Registered: 08-2004 Posted on Friday, April 17, 2015 - 11:49 am:    I have some retail projects, with standardized materials and finishes, that are on very fast schedules. The Architect and Owner don't want to spend time collecting submittals for standard products that they use on many locations, especially when national accounts are involved. Perhaps the Contractor's agreement includes some language about submittals? In practice, everyone seems happy with the arrangement. Well, maybe everyone except me. It still makes me kind of nervous. - Nathan Woods, CSI, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: nwoods Post Number: 645 Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Friday, April 17, 2015 - 11:49 am:    I do this fairly often on projects of the following nature: 1. Repeat projects. If there a phase two expansion, we often "adopt" the submittals from phase 1, assuming same GC and trade contractors. 2. Design-assist/design-build hybrids, where the trade partners are producing their own design drawings and the submittals are essentially the same thing as their design drawings. No need to review it twice. We don't do it carte blanch. We always carefully review the submittal list and determine what we (the AEOR's) really must review in our efforts to endeavor to protect the Owner against inferior quality. John Hunter Senior Member Username: johnhunter Post Number: 118 Registered: 12-2005 Posted on Friday, April 17, 2015 - 01:37 pm:    We do a great deal of TI work that tends to be very fast-paced. We treat this as an informational submittal and allow it only when the Contractor is using the named or basis of design product. Samples for selection or verification are still required. We do not allow it in situations where Shop Drawings or Delegated Design are required.