Request for Substitute
Request for Substitute
(OP)
I am in MEP field, and although it's not a technical question, I know a lot of you guys know the answer, which is greatly appreciated. When a contractor sends a submittal to an engineer for approval and the item submitted is not in the list of acceptable manufactures then how should the contractor provide the Request for Substitute. Should it go through GC then to PM, or GC to the engineer directly?





RE: Request for Substitute
The contractor may be providing a submittal on a product that is quite a bit cheaper, he may have included that price in the bid expecting to get it accepted. It may be an unfair advantage to that contractor in the bidding process. If the product is cheaper you may want to issue a proposed change and ask for a credit for the revision. If there is no credit then there is no reason to change products (unless the specified product and approved products are unavailable).
Just my $0.02
RE: Request for Substitute
If it's not, there is probably at least a contract clause to the effect of "unless it's written and signed by the PM it don't mean squat."
So, depending on how paper-centric the project is, and how anal the PM is, either:
Send the request officially through the correct project channel.
or
The GC and the engineer can has things out between themselves, and once they reach an agreement somebody writes a letter to document it.
RE: Request for Substitute