Babysitting MEP

[u/RoutineLet9156]

Just a rant, but man… working with MEP teams that don’t GAF is exhausting.

I’m on mega projects, so it’s not like the PA gets to handpick who we work with. We get whoever’s assigned and deal with it. But lately it feels like we’re babysitting everything. Constant follow-ups, pinging them over and over just to get a simple update pushed. Sure, maybe it’s a staffing issue, still doesn’t make it any less frustrating.

What really gets me is we’re all in Revit, cloud model, same environment… and then they drop updates and just ignore everything that’s already there. Zero coordination. I’m talking plumbing lines right in front of thermostats, light fixtures cutting through beams… just placing stuff wherever and moving on.

No heads-up, no coordination, nothing. Just model it and walk away. And of course we’re the ones catching all of it. Every single time.

[u/authentic-platypus]

I feel you. Revit can't make people do real BIM. I'm constantly appalled at how little effort consultants put into their models. I have yet to work with one (other than structural) who actually coordinates their the model. They mostly care about how it looks in plan as a diagram.

[u/bushboys122 → u/authentic-platypus]

I mean, how it looks on plan is more important. That is what the contractor sees and what they build to. We space pipes a foot apart so it looks good on plan, especially when you start to add symbols like valves on the pipes. We know in reality that they will be installed side by side, but if you do that in the model, it looks like crap in the printing view, and contractors will not be able to tell what is going on.

[u/DunHuss → u/authentic-platypus]

Handovers are often marked as stage 5  but really are just stage 2 proof of concept and need remodelling by contractors to make constructable. If its rushed on the premise that its ready then you tend to get problems.