Too often we find ourselves making important decisions based on cost, not value. Ironically value engineering has become a common term used by cost-conscious building owners and specifiers as they move away from plumbing materials with proven performance track records, toward reinvented, cheaper and, most of the time, inferior products.
This is more like cost engineering. My team out in the field is continuing to see this issue arise among municipality leaders and homeowners seeking to economically remove lead from their drinking water systems. The initial material cost always seems to play an oversized role in the decision. So, how do we as an industry lead decision makers away from the Band-Aid approach and toward the long-term solution?