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4specs Discussion Forum » Archive - Specifications Discussions #4 » Product vs. Fabricated Item: e.g. Book Drops/Depositories « Previous Next »

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(Unregistered Guest)
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Posted on Monday, April 27, 2009 - 02:14 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post

How do you handle specifying products like book drops / book depositories, which can be provided as a product or locally fabricated?

I don't know how close the cost would be between shipping a unit vs. building from scratch, but say they were. Do you just indicate a manufacturer as a basis of design? (there seem to be few book drop manufacturers - I found just Kingsley and Diebold) How do you open it up and what language do you use?
J. Peter Jordan
Senior Member
Username: jpjordan

Post Number: 327
Registered: 05-2004
Posted on Monday, April 27, 2009 - 02:47 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post

This is much like a window, or toilet partitions, or any one of a number of other manufactured products that get put into buildings. A "product" can be a material, a fabrication, or a system.

I would use a basis of design specification, but make the Contractor responsible complying with "aesthetic intent" and for any redesign that is required if another product is chosen.
Phil Kabza
Senior Member
Username: phil_kabza

Post Number: 385
Registered: 12-2002


Posted on Monday, April 27, 2009 - 08:15 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post

I'd be slow to allow a local fabricator to create a book drop or depository based upon their idea of how such items should be made. Issues like watertightness, after-hours security, counterbalancing and spring closure all come to mind. Some products can be fabricated by any talented shop. Other products are best purchased from folks who make them every day.

If the contractor really really wants to substitute something his brother-in-law can whip up in his garage, and the owner really really wants to save a hundred bucks, they can always go ahead and do it against your better judgement.
Jo Drummond
Senior Member
Username: jo_drummond_fcsi

Post Number: 31
Registered: 06-2007
Posted on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 - 12:14 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post

Re: local fabricators. A client just advised me that the owner of a large chain of medical facilities has routinely allowed local manufacture of curtain walls, instead of the Arcadia, Kawneer, etc., that I specify and that the architect designs.
In the next breath, he told me of a large building that this medical developer just completed, and said, "It leaks, all their buildings leak".

All I could say was that they deserve what they are getting.

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