Serious question, has anyone else had a client insist on a design that just won't hold up?

I was framing a sunroom addition in Portland last fall for a homeowner who wanted a massive, unsupported glass corner. I explained that the header we planned needed to be a specific size to carry the load. He pointed to a picture in a magazine and said, 'Just make it look like that, the engineers are too conservative.' I had to lay it out with a chalk line on the subfloor, showing exactly where the point load would land without proper support. He kept arguing that the visual was more important. I finally told him I wouldn't sign off on the permit if we built it his way. It stuck with me because it wasn't about cutting corners to save cash, it was pure aesthetics over basic physics. How do you handle a client when their dream design is structurally a bad idea?

2 comments

2 Comments

tarag283d ago

My last architect client in Seattle had a similar fight over a cantilevered deck. Sometimes you have to show them the math, not just the chalk lines, to make the risk real. A good visual can still follow the rules if you get creative with the engineering.

gray63d ago

Math always wins over style. Creative engineering solves both problems. You just need the right drawings to prove it.