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A Charlotte Pipe survey of plumbing engineers finds 73% of value engineering changes have had a negative contribution to the quality of the finished project.
The survey of 125 plumbing engineers reveals value engineering cast-iron DWV plumbing systems to plastic may appear to be cost-effective at the beginning, but not always beneficial in the end.
The survey shows 37.5% of cast-iron soil pipe to PVC DWV value-engineering changes result in issues or failures.
When asked the primary reasons for specifying a cast-iron system, top answers include: history of positive results (82%), sound attenuation (80%), longevity/life of maintained systems (62%) and potential for water above 140° F in system (51%).
According to survey respondents, 80% advise clients which value engineering changes make sense and which might lead to negative outcomes, while 61% find most value-engineering requests are not in the client’s best interests and 60% are asked to accept value engineering changes that don’t agree with recommendations.
