Sometimes, what may seem at first to be the simplest of problems turns out to be involved and complex. This is one such case. This multi-family project had been red-tagged because a contractor was installing railings without a building permit. The complicating factor is that the railing system is proprietary, meaning that it is a manufactured item, and the strength of the system was established by test, rather than by calculations, as is more normal for us.
When someone is ‘caught’ doing such un-permitted construction, the consequence is often that much closer scrutiny is given to all aspects of the construction. Even though these railings are a very good product, and had been successfully used in numerous previous projects, the developer was looking at rather large expenses to fix the problem, because no one could verify that the railings had been constructed according to their normal specifications. In order to satisfy the local building officials that the building code requirements had been met, CSES was retained to develop and supervise testing as necessary to assure the railings would not fail.
There was a good deal of negotiation and compromise involved, but in the end, we were able to provide solutions that were cost-effective and satisfied everyone involved.
