Green Building Forum - Engineers and overly safe design Sun, 19 Apr 2026 10:40:14 +0100 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/ Lussumo Vanilla 1.0.3 Engineers and overly safe design https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14848&Focus=253555#Comment_253555 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14848&Focus=253555#Comment_253555 Tue, 31 Jan 2017 17:13:10 +0000 barney
I've no problem with providing anything the client wants - but generally speaking that optimization process is expensive - and doesn't necessarily realise into a cash saving during construction - and even if it does, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a saving to the client - it may remain in the contractors pocket

I've been a consulting engineer (not structural btw) for two decades - in the same way there are engineers and engineers, there are clients and there are clients

Someone mentioned the issue of Eurocodes versus "traditional" British Standards for design earlier. Eurocode allows for a significant amount of optimisation (and consequently a lot of design effort) compared to a BS approach - and that costs a lot of money in terms of design time - something a lot of clients don't actually recognise (particularly if they are not usually involved in construction)

I'm just trying to provide the counterpoint to Tony's view on this

Regards

Barney]]> Engineers and overly safe design https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14848&Focus=253561#Comment_253561 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14848&Focus=253561#Comment_253561 Tue, 31 Jan 2017 17:59:11 +0000 djh Posted By: nigelJust provide an optimised and cost effective solution to problem but not necessarily one that provides zero risk to the PI.
I find it difficult to believe that deliberately providing a solution with a built-in risk of failure would not immediately invalidate the PI and require an extra specific policy to be bought. Especially for domestic architecture, where there's not generally a lot that's new under the sun and there are established solutions for pretty much everything.]]>