How Can Manufacturers Assist with Project Specifications?

So how exactly can this trusted advisor help during each phase? Let’s take a look:

Programming Phase: It’s all about budgets, rough ideas and dreams. We can help in this stage by providing budget numbers and explaining possibilities. Remember, when you design #showerfirst, the possibilities are endless. Why not wow your client with an option for a geometric floral pattern on the glass? Biophilia meets glass through digital printing

Schematic Design Phase: This is the time to look at how layouts flow or don’t flow. Let’s make sure we don’t put that towel bar behind the door or block the door swing with the toilet. Also, just as a heads up, hinging the door that way will double the cost of the shower doors. This is the time to discover these items before they become a nightmare later.

Design Development Phase: Remember that dream phase where we sketched out a concept for a frameless shower with the digitally printed, geometric floral pattern that seamlessly tied the color palette together? That was fun. Now let’s get the artwork and colors finalized and approved by the client and nail down the hardware finishes.

Contract Documents Phase: Specifications are the beast we talked about earlier. We can help with writing a spec that makes sense for your project. We often see multiple quote requests for the same project come across our desks that are requesting vastly different hardware options, glass options, etc. Specifications will always have some amount of interpretation required, but accurate quotes begin with accurate specs. Accurate specs reduce the need for interpretation. The four “C’s” win the day with specifications; Clear, Correct, Concise and Complete.

Permit Phase: Manufacturer: provide final lead times for material, minor tweaks to shop drawings and any last-minute documentation for permits. Designer: thank your lucky stars to be working with a domestic manufacturer and sleep easy knowing your material will not be taking an unexpected dive to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean or be held up offshore.

Project Administration Phase: We can provide contractor support throughout the project with installation questions, shipping releases, replacement parts, etc. We were here before the project began and we will be here to support our product until it is retired from use many years from now.

My name is David Corle. I am the Director of  the National Hospitality Division at HMI Glass. After spending time in the project management side of the glass industry and seeing the estimating side of the construction industry, my passion to help educate the A+D community is driven by a desire to make things easier for the professionals that design the beautiful hotel and multifamily projects that we manufacture shower doors and decorative glass for.

I can help answers these questions and more:

• What is SGCC Certified glass and why should I demand it on my project?
• Do I have options other than clear or tinted glass that will make the project stand out?
• What is digital in-glass printing and how can I use it in my project?
• How can I avoid specification conflicts and make sure glass and hardware is compatible?
• Why glass coatings are important and how to specify them.
• Where do I place the towel bar in the bathroom, and can it be integrated into the shower?
• Are shower screens (aka, splash panels) without doors a good idea?

David speaks to some of these questions in the recent Peopleverse podcast with Evan Troxel. You can find that podcast here: https://youtu.be/-oil2HjWzVw

Email David at dcorle@hmiglass.com to set up a consultation session for your existing or upcoming project.