Shoddy school construction

[Sayen]

Putting up a show is hard enough. Tracing problems for five years through a 'new' and 'state of the art' building is stupid.

Audio board keeps shutting off randomly. I have a team tracing wires. Might be the sequencer. Or bad wiring leading to the rack. Or the breakers. Electricians might come today to help out. Or tomorrow. Show opened last night.

Lighting keeps losing control. I've changed the cables from the console, and the console, twice now. Monitored those brand new snazzy Leviton piece of junk dimmers. I have no idea why we're losing control. Electricians for the district don't even know what DMX is, and I'm not sure they understand 3-Phase either, so they're not much help. Maybe I'll have the crew sit in the catwalks with flashlights?

Backstage work lights keep flickering. And turning off. My running crew, while very close to being able to see in the dark, can't actually see in the dark. Actors can barely manage when the lights aren't off. Contractor swears they checked the ballasts, so it can't be their fault, of course.

AC was full on all week, so it's been in the 60's during rehearsal. They finally 'fixed' the AC, opening night was 85 degrees in the house. I didn't go backstage, but I sent my poor actors water.

The worst my old building had to deal with was rats and a few roof leaks. Can we trade back?

 

[ruinexplorer]

Ah, the joys of non-theater experienced architects and contractors.

 

[mstaylor]

We have a HS that bought an Expression and ETC dimmers some years back. They were supposed to bring me in to consult but they chose not to. They had a local electrical contractor do the work. They took a bunch of circuits away from the theatre lighting and hooked them to the house lights. I can give you a bazillion looks in the house lights but I can't light the flipping stage because I don't have enough circuits.

 

[acoppsa]

Ahh I can't wait!
I'm going in to school tomorrow to look at our new 'state of the art' performing arts centre. I'm expecting that our extremely low budget will mean that I am destined for many problems like this in the near future.

 

[Soxred93]

I can give you a bazillion looks in the house lights but I can't light the flipping stage because I don't have enough circuits.

Ah yes... one of the things I hate about my theatre..

At our theatre, house lights are controlled by 7 dimmers. 7. I'm since soft-patched them so they only are controlled by channel 48 (we have an express 24/48), but that still doesn't give us back the 6 dimmers which could be used for something more productive.

 

[len]

Well, the ship has sailed, but you should be putting this in writing to the school district. If you discovered this stuff when the building or work was new, something may have been fixable. But now, the builder can argue the mistakes were done by someone else. Most new construction/remodeling work comes with a warranty. And certainly anybody big enough to do construction on a school should be willing to stand by their work, but now is too late. Either way, you should still document everything to the higher ups so that:

a. they'll give a closer look to using the same contractor next time;
b. they'll include end users in the process more;
c. it's easier for you to negotiate for more $$ for repairs

 

[Sayen]

It's been a five year battle, and I have stacks of documentation several feet high. Literally, since I like to carry my stack into meetings to prove points. I've won a few battles, like the one over our lightboard. We started with a GMA Light, which is great but grossly inappropriate for a high school like ours. They agreed to swap it after much bellyaching from me, and I assumed we would get the spec'd board, which was either a Strand 520i at the time or (Expression? Don't recall). Instead we received the much cheaper and much hated Innovator. A few years later, with more documentation and hate mail from parents we have our Element, so I can cross one item off the list.

I mentioned, conversationally once, that I would never hire that contractor again. The response was, and I quote, "Well, we like them, so we're going to."

Facility manager got the AC working right for us, there's some blessing. I'd much rather troubleshoot systems in a comfortable environment.

 

[Footer]

It's been a five year battle, and I have stacks of documentation several feet high. Literally, since I like to carry my stack into meetings to prove points. I've won a few battles, like the one over our lightboard. We started with a GMA Light, which is great but grossly inappropriate for a high school like ours. They agreed to swap it after much bellyaching from me, and I assumed we would get the spec'd board, which was either a Strand 520i at the time or (Expression? Don't recall). Instead we received the much cheaper and much hated Innovator. A few years later, with more documentation and hate mail from parents we have our Element, so I can cross one item off the list.

I mentioned, conversationally once, that I would never hire that contractor again. The response was, and I quote, "Well, we like them, so we're going to."

Facility manager got the AC working right for us, there's some blessing. I'd much rather troubleshoot systems in a comfortable environment.

You had a grandMA Light and the swapped it for an innovator? Hopefully you also got a 15k reimbursement! If not... I know plenty of people that would have met you in a back alley with an expression 3 or a 500 series strand.

 

[museav]

You may still have some leverage. Installed systems often come with a one year 'system warranty' and it is pretty common to keep 10% or so of the construction cost as retainage that is not released until everything is complete, including receiving system documentation, etc. Of course if those with authority have released full payment or don't ask for or enforce the warranty, then you are pretty much out of luck.

The problems in all this typically boil down to two things. One is that when the work is 'complete' and 'acceptable' depends greatly upon what is defined in the Contract Documents (the drawings and specifications) as those documents define the expectations for the Contractor's work. Documents that reflect a great design can still be poor in how they address the related contracting issues. The second factor is that schools are often limited to hiring the 'lowest, qualified bidder' or they only look at the qualifications of the General Contractor and not at the subcontractors or even both, potentially giving you the lowest G.C. bid with no consideration of their sub's qualifications.

I'll also bring up another point. New buildings take some shaking out. And stuff happens during construction. One common situation is that on one side people take the perspective that if construction is scheduled to be complete a certain day then they can start having regular use the next day. At the same time, the Construction Team is often being pushed to compact the construction schedule. The result is a recipe for an unfinished, poorly tested and problem filled building. Always try to leave some time in the schedule for thorough testing and some accommodation for delays. The projects that I've worked on that were most successful had from a week to a month or more that was sort of a 'shake out' period before regular events or use were scheduled.

 

[chris325]

Instead we received the much cheaper and much hated Innovator. A few years later, with more documentation and hate mail from parents we have our Element, so I can cross one item off the list.

The Innovator? I'm surprised they switched out a GMA to Colortran. As for the hate mail, did the board freeze in the middle of a show? I've had too much experience with that. I hope that my school will also soon recieve an Element to replace our purple, green and yellow paperweight. Not to completely blast Colortran, but I've gotten too many battle scars from their lekos, and too many headaches from their consoles.

 

[photoatdv]

While a GMA is a little much for a school, I would have LOVED that at our high school. We had an express and my last 2 years I felt quite limited by it.

 

[Sayen]

You had a grandMA Light and the swapped it for an innovator? Hopefully you also got a 15k reimbursement! If not... I know plenty of people that would have met you in a back alley with an expression 3 or a 500 series strand.

You would think, and I made that argument many, many, many times. My local dealer offered to help, but as a teacher I'm at the bottom of the bottom, and it's against state law to buy used gear with state funds. I thought we were swapping a GMA Light for a smaller board plus additional equipment. Where the Innovator came from I never learned. In hindsight, I REALLY wish I'd kept my mouth shut and kept the GMA. I wound up buying my own ION anyhow.

The fun continued tonight. Some sort of failure in the power sequencer (I think) nixed two amps and the digital EQ I argued against. I had to raid my personal studio for gear and another EQ half an hour before show. Oh - and I'm not making this up - after intermission one row of chairs actually broke free from the floor and started tipping back. The handle came off the door of one dressing room, so my crew had the fun of tactically removing the door the old fashioned way. We did have fun, and I have to admit I need to use my sawzall more often.

Hate mail from parents was at my request, to document the damage done to the experiences of their children. I also learned tonight that the contractor hired a specialist to do quality control, and the district fired him for being too critical. I'm not sure how that works.

This isn't shakedown, this is five years into a building. The only things that are reliable are the bits of equipment I've purchased myself and installed. I'm just summarizing the disaster, because in many ways it's funny. We've actually taken plenty of steps to document problems, submit work orders and punchlists (they admitted they throw out punchlists!), and consulted legal specialists on more than one occasion. Unfortunately nothing will get done, and the kids get screwed, but at least none of it can be pegged on me - except requesting the GMA be replaced, I suppose. Well, and the door I cut apart tonight.

 

[Sayen]

Oooh, you'll enjoy this. When the Innovator first came, and later with the Element, I was forbidden to install them or unbox them, because the district had to pay to fly out a specialist from the company. I was told they needed to be programmed to work with our special system and I wouldn't know how to hook it up (it's fancy, something called DMX-512). Oh, and I'm not supposed to use the new DMX outputs onstage - they originally supplied three universes, but no outputs - until they are 'programmed.' It's possible the powers above have some control issues.

 

[photoatdv]

Just tell um you have a degree in "Plugging in DMX Cables"...

 

[Sayen]

Can I count that as my training?

 

[epimetheus]

Sayen, I feel for you, I really do. I'd be so frustrated... Shoot, I'm getting riled up just thinking about it. I'd have a real hard time not telling somebody to shove it, but then you've always got to consider keeping your job.

 

[photoatdv]

Sure! Want a fancy degree from "The University for Teachers with Stupid Administrations"?

 

[museav]

Or it could be that they had some issues regarding maintaining warranty or getting what they contracted or constraints related to liability or any of a number of legitimate reasons for prohibiting your installing it. You really have to understand the different perspectives and all the factors involved in order to assess why some things are done the way they are, there may or may not be good reasons for it that are not clear to everyone.

The "quality control specialist" mentioned may have been a third party commissioning agent. The problem is that using that approach probably meant the original designer and installer were not kept in the loop during construction so if the Commissioning Agent was let go there was then likely no one with the experience and qualifications to assess the work or any issues that came up. The bottom line in many of these situations is that someone with the authority approved the work and released the Contractors from further responsibility. At that point you lose most of your leverage and recourse.

Chairs breaking free, door handles coming off, etc. five years after the facility opened sounds like they might be maintenance and operations issues rather than installation issues. It would be difficult to tie them back to the original installation unless there was a recurring history of such problems.

You had not previously noted that it was five years but my comment on the 'shakedown' period may still be applicable, if that was not allowed during the initial construction then many things may not have been tested and adjusted as they should and thus can later become long term headaches. I have multiple times seen corners cut and long term reliability compromised in order to meet some short term goals.

 

[photoatdv]

We had a door handle break 5 minutes before curtain once. Didn't break off (at least until it had some assistance) just was no longer moving the lock thingy (what's that called?). So our very stressed out student TD (who was possibly also altered at the time) went up there to try to get our crew off the catwalk and freaked that they were stuck (forgetting the 2 other doors...) and decided he had to break the door down. Now instead of getting tools to do so, he insisted upon breaking down a metal FIRE DOOR using just his body. Watching him pretty much body slam/ kick/ bash it for about 3 minutes was quite fun other than dodging the flying bits of metal! When he gave up there were several large dents in the door and the handle was in MANY MANY pieces. Never did get it open though! At some point amidst calling for a drill it occured to him to just go another way

 

[Sayen]

Sayen, I feel for you, I really do. I'd be so frustrated... Shoot, I'm getting riled up just thinking about it. I'd have a real hard time not telling somebody to shove it, but then you've always got to consider keeping your job.

It was frustrating and depressing for the first two years. I can point to over 100K wasted in the auditorium alone. Now, five years in, it's funny. The chairs haven't worked since they were installed, and the person in charge deletes emails. I've had rows taped off for ever show since we opened, although this is the first time an entire row has tipped over during a show, with audience in them. Just picture it - and no one was hurt, so it's okay to laugh.

Most doors don't latch in the building - often the latches were either installed backwards so the door won't engage, or the latch is installed using the wrong hardware, so they fall off every couple of weeks. I keep a screwdriver hidden in the booth, the lobby, and backstage to facilitate quick door repairs. I've started using locktite on them, but I'll catch hell if anyone finds out.

It took four years of asking, followed by angry parents demanding, to get audio schematics. When they finally delivered they only gave me ClearCom wiring. It was a very funny meeting, with tons of important people. The contractor made a big speech about how we just need to give them time and ask nicely, and they'll supply what we want...then handed me the wrong plans.

Neither the general contractor, subs, or district trusts us with keys to the equipment, including storage drawers in the audio racks, or the racks themselves. Fortunately most of those keys are universal. Best conversation I've had was where I explained we were having volume problems with the ClearCom and couldn't hear some lines. The contractor countered that it was an easy fix, just had to adjust the knob on the back of the unit. I asked for the key, and was told I couldn't have it - I might mess something up!

I turned a light switch off the other day, and the wall plate fell off. Turns out the hole in the masonry was cut too big, and the screws were held in with bits of metal taped into place. It's just funny now - you can't make this kind of stuff up.

No one can find the circuit breaker panel for my blackbox. No one.

If you wear a wireless mic and touch the walls, you can actually hear the phase shifting. It's actually very cool for class demos.

Contract finished the landscaping, district signed off at the head shed, and no one told the school. Since maintenance didn't know, no one took care of the landscaping watering system which consequently froze, broke, flooded, and then dried out all of the plants - underground, where no one knew about it.

I have all but physical evidence that some of the people in charge hired friends from other companies, without state bids. The parents filed a freedom of information request for budgets, and are still being stonewalled. Someone is very worried at the top.

When it came to lighting, the contractor and lighting dealer questioned the purchase of equipment going into a high school. They were both under a gag order not to talk to school employees like me. Someone at the top compared written specs, and made decisions based on that. Our gear ranges from purchases like the GMA - a great console - to what looks like some homemade architectural controls that have never worked.

Instead of fixing a ground issue with lighting, the contractor actually supplied, as an official solution, a bent piece of wiring and some metal to jimmy a cabinet. System not working? Short it out yourself to restart.

All of this really is funny, at least now. It's fun to share too, only because no one quite believes it at first.