Saturday Concrete, No Cylinders, Extra Water
You are the architect's part-time field representative on a six-story cast-in-place parking structure, on site twice a week. On a Monday walk you notice that 180 cubic yards of slab-on-grade concrete were placed the previous Saturday. The contractor gave none of the 48-hour notice the specifications require. The special inspector's daily report shows no cylinders were cast for that placement, and the batch tickets show 9 gallons per yard of water added at the site against a mix design that permits 5. The structural engineer of record is on leave until Thursday. The contractor has already submitted a request to pour the next slab on Wednesday.
1. What do you do in the next 48 hours, and who has authority to do what?
Read the worked answer
Act Monday, not Thursday.
- Do not stop the work yourself unless the contract's general conditions give the architect that authority - most give stop-work authority to the owner, exercised on the architect's recommendation. Issue a written recommendation to the owner immediately.
- Notify the contractor in writing that the Saturday placement is an unresolved nonconformance and that the Wednesday pour should not proceed until it is resolved. Copy the owner and the SEOR's office (do not wait for the SEOR's return to send notice).
- Collect the record now, while it exists: batch tickets, delivery tickets, placement and finishing records, curing records, the special inspector's report, and any photos.
- Request the contractor's position in writing: what it proposes for evaluation and remediation, and at whose cost. Nonconforming work is the contractor's risk and cost until accepted.
Nothing here is a judgment about structural adequacy. That call belongs to the SEOR, and the sequence - notice, evidence preservation, engineer evaluation, disposition - is what protects the owner.
2. How do you document this, and what do you deliberately not say?
Read the worked answer
Write two documents, not one.
A field observation report - factual, dated, no diagnosis: the placement occurred, notice was not given, cylinders were not cast, the batch tickets show 9 gal/yd against a 5 gal/yd limit. Cite the specification sections (48-hour notice, cylinder sampling, water-cement ratio limits).
A separate nonconformance notice - identifies the work as nonconforming pending disposition, assigns a tracking number, sets a response date, and stays open until the SEOR's disposition and the contractor's corrective action are closed out.
What you do not say: that the concrete is defective, that it must be removed, or that it is acceptable. You are not the structural engineer and the architect's periodic observation is not supervision or a guarantee of quality. Overstating creates liability; understating (saying nothing, or burying it in a routine report) creates a worse liability - the owner later argues you saw it and stayed silent. Also resist the contractor's request for a verbal 'OK to pour Wednesday.' Verbal approvals are unrecorded and unenforceable.
3. The contractor argues that 9 gallons of site-added water is normal practice and that cylinders were 'probably' taken by the batch plant. How do you handle the argument?
Read the worked answer
Treat it as an argument to be answered with documents, not a debate to be won in the trailer.
- Site-added water: the batch tickets are contemporaneous records. If they show 9 gal/yd against a 5 gal/yd mix-design limit, the w/cm ratio at placement differs from the design basis, and that is a documented deviation regardless of custom. 'Normal practice' is not a defense to a specification limit. Ask for the mix design submittal and any approved field adjustment.
- 'Probably' cylinders: ask for the cylinder log and the lab's chain of custody. If none exists, the placement has no acceptance testing record, and the SEOR will need to decide whether cores (or another evaluation method) are required. That cost sits with the contractor.
- Keep the burden where it belongs: the contractor must demonstrate compliance, not the architect demonstrate noncompliance.
Escalate to the SEOR in writing with the evidence package on the day they return. Confirm every phone conversation by email the same day - this is exactly the situation where the undocumented call becomes the disputed call.