Saw this in the Syracuse Sheraton: every stringer in the stairwell had a torch-cut opening so they could bolt the flight to the landing.
I don’t know if the flights came pre-assembled (minus the concrete, I assume), but the cutouts definitely have that “WTF do we do now?” aspect about them, don’t they?
Ah, well. I’ve been there & done that, too.
Haven’t you?
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
Comments
2 responses to “Steel Stair Stringer: Just Make It Fit”
I was reading about a related situation the other day, in Atul Gawande’s book “The Checklist Manifesto”. The architects designed a building around welding the structural beams together. The construction firm changed that to bolts to reduce costs and increase quality repeatability. But it turned out that A: the bolts weren’t strong enough for the expected wind loading, and B: the bolts interfered with a subsequent attachment plan for changing the building layout, so they had to go back into the core of the building and start welding after the building was finished and occupied.
to reduce costs and increase quality repeatability
Guess which one was most important… [sigh]
That’s the trouble with separate design-and-build contracts: neither side really knows what goes on with the other, so you get problems in both directions. Alas, not that many firms can handle the complete project because, as we all know, you should stick to your core competency and outsource all the trivial stuff. [heavy sigh]