Utilizing Consultants

The title of this week’s e-bits is pretty straight forward. For the most part, everyone knows what a consultant is, but not everyone knows how to utilize one properly. We at PDMi consider ourselves a consulting firm and we consult on many things from building design to project management to building code studies to master planning. We consider ourselves quite good at many things, that’s why you hire us! However, there are times when we need to bring in more specialized consultants to assist in the design process.   

We are currently working with a manufacturing client in the Ft. Wayne area that is looking to add 10,000 s.f. of woodworking shop area to their existing facility that is well over 70,000 s.f. They hired us in the fall of 2024 to produce state submittal documents for the addition. What we found after a few weeks of working with them on the planning portion (planning is very important) is that they really need to have the addition open to the rest of the building due to product flow issues within the woodworking shop. This posed a problem, as the code requires a fire separation wall between the new addition and the existing facility. PDMi has a great working knowledge of the building codes, but this particular situation brought up a much larger issue relating to filing for a variance with the State of Indiana. We referred the client to a consultant that specializes in the area of building code variances and had them work with the consultant to obtain a variance for the fire separation. Once that got resolved, we were able to finish up our state submittal documents so that the building owner could proceed this spring with getting his building addition started.       

Many times specialized consultants are not needed, but it sure is nice to have them when you need them. PDMi has the relationships and knowledge to take your project from planning to completion using all the tools at our disposal. If you run into a situation where you need added guidance from a consultant, give us a call and we can get you connected with the right people to keep your project on schedule.