A subcontractor's one-line comment saved me $14k on a steel package

Last month I was pricing out a mezzanine addition in a warehouse near Columbus, Ohio. The steel supplier's quote came back at $86,000 and I was about to forward it to the owner when the sub, an older guy named Ray who's been doing structural fab since the 80s, leaned over my shoulder at the site trailer and said, 'You're paying for 8-inch columns but you only need 6-inch with a haunch plate.' He sketched it on a napkin, showed me how the moment connection changes near the existing roof line, and honestly it cut the tonnage by almost 12%. I called the supplier back, revised the drawing set, and the new number came in around $72k. That kind of field knowledge is impossible to learn from a spec book. Has anyone else had a sub or a foreman flag something on a quote that ended up being a game changer? I'm curious how often that actually happens on bigger commercial jobs.

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charles_kim8d ago

Did Ray sign off on the revised shop drawings before you sent them back?

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