Building 2900 HVAC Renovations — Pay Application No. 6

Delaware Air National Guard · DEANG #JLWS202120 / 22P233 · Engineer: DEDC, LLC · Period to June 30, 2026 · Audit run July 8, 2026

Audit verdict

REJECT

Hold the application until the equipment substitution on line 08 is reconciled with a credit change order.

Estimated recovery

$26,000across 2 findings · conservative · against $190,880 current payment due

Executive summary. Line 08 bills $88,000 for a premium York/Johnson Controls central-station DX system with a hot water coil and AHRI 430/435 rating. The approved submittal shows a budget Goodman residential single-stage unit with electric strip heat and no hot water coil, and no credit change order reconciles the downgrade. Line 09 bills $22,000 that includes hot water coil connections at a unit whose approved submittal has no coil. Eleven of thirteen billed lines are clear.

1 Documents audited

Document	What it establishes	Size
Project specification — DEANG Building 2900 HVAC Renovations project manual (real, public record, Delaware bid portal)	What the contract requires. Sections 23 73 14 (Indoor Air Handling Units) and 23 73 15 (Outdoor Condensing Units) audited, manual pages 389–402.	492 pp.
Application & Certificate for Payment No. 6 with G703 continuation sheet	What the contractor billed: 13 line items, $948,400 completed to date, $190,880 requested this period.	2 pp.
Approved submittal log with product data, submittal 23-73-14-A	What was actually approved for installation, with reviewer actions and dates.	1 p.

2 How the audit reads a package

STEP 1 · EXTRACTPage-tagged text, deterministically. Every page of every document is extracted with its page number attached. A page that yields no text is reported, never silently skipped.

STEP 2 · THREE-WAY MATCHEvery billed line, three documents. Each pay-app line is checked against what the spec requires and what the submittal record shows was approved — the check that catches material substitution.

STEP 3 · CITE OR DROPNo finding without a citation. Every finding names the document, line, and page it rests on, so it can be verified in minutes. Uncitable suspicions are dropped. An empty report is a valid, honest result.

TALOS · Three-way match forensic auditing for owner's representatives · Benlloyd Goldstein, M.Arch (SCI-Arc).
Demonstration audit: the specification is the real, public DEANG Building 2900 project manual. The pay application and submittal log are a constructed scenario (public bid sets contain no executed fraud). Verdict, findings, severities, and amounts are the engine's unedited output from the July 8, 2026 run; document excerpts on the following pages are reproduced verbatim from the cited pages.

SAMPLE

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TALOS Finding walkthrough

FINDING 01 · LINE 08 HIGHSUBSTITUTION Commercial central-station system billed; residential unit approved $22,000

What the spec requires "Section includes Direct explansion [sic] split systems (air handlers and condensing units) with hot water coils."Spec 23 73 14 §1.01 · manual p.389 "…shall be certified in accordance with the central station air handling units certification program, which is based on AHRI Standard 430."Spec 23 73 14 §1.04.D · manual p.390 "2.01 MANUFACTURERS — A. York/Johnson Controls (Basis of Design) B. Daikin C. Carrier D. Lennox. Substitutions: See Section 01 60 00."Spec 23 73 14 §2.01 · manual p.391

What was approved "Goodman GSX13 outdoor condensing unit (residential, single-stage) with Goodman ARUF air handler and 10 kW electric strip heat kit. No hot water coil section."Submittal log 23-73-14-A · p.1 · "No Exceptions Taken," 02/18/2025 "AHRI 210/240 (unitary residential). Not listed under AHRI 430/435 central-station program."Approved product data, sheet 2 Goodman is not among the four specified manufacturers, and no Section 01 60 00 substitution is on record.

What the pay app bills "Decentralized DX split system — indoor air handling unit with hot water coil and outdoor condensing unit, York/Johnson Controls Basis of Design, AHRI 430/435 central-station rated, per Sections 23 73 14 and 23 73 15."G703 line 08 · pay app p.1 $88,000 · billed 100% complete. The line bills the specified premium system, word for word — not the equipment that was approved and installed.

→ How the engine caught it

Matched line 08 to its governing spec sections. The line cites Sections 23 73 14 / 23 73 15; the engine located both in the 492-page manual and extracted the requirements: York/JCI basis of design, AHRI 430/435 central-station certification, hot water coil.
Pulled the approved record for the same equipment tag. Submittal 23-73-14-A covers AHU-1/CU-1 — the only approved equipment for this line — and shows a residential-class Goodman with electric strip heat, listed under AHRI 210/240, not 430/435.
Checked for a reconciling change order. G702 line 2, "Net change by Change Orders: $0.00" (pay app p.1). The downgrade was never credited back to the owner.
Priced the consequence conservatively. Commercial central-station equipment per the spec against installed residential-grade product: $22,000 estimated recovery on an $88,000 line, recoverable by credit change order.

Every quotation above is verbatim from the cited page. Verification path for the owner's rep: open manual p.391, submittal log p.1, and pay app p.1 side by side — under three minutes.

SAMPLE

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TALOS Finding walkthrough · full review

FINDING 02 · LINE 09 LOWSUBSTITUTION Hot water coil connections billed on a unit that has no coil $4,000

What the spec requires "The hot water coil accessory shall be provided in a galvanized steel casing with two rows, 12 fins per inch, coil tubes shall be 1/2 inch OD seamless copper…"Spec 23 73 14 §2.02 · manual p.393 The coil is a real, physical scope item with specified piping connections.

What was approved "Electric resistance strip heat kit, 10 kW (HKSC10XC). No hydronic (hot water) coil provided."Approved product data 23-73-14-A, sheet 2 The approved AHU-1 heats with electric strips. There is no coil to pipe.

What the pay app bills "Refrigerant piping, specialties, and hot water coil connections at AHU-1."G703 line 09 · pay app p.2 $22,000 · billed 100% complete — including connection scope that cannot exist on the approved equipment.

Cross-referenced line 09's scope against the approved equipment, not just the spec: the billed "hot water coil connections at AHU-1" require a coil that submittal 23-73-14-A explicitly excludes.
Flagged the portion, not the line. Refrigerant piping is real scope; only the coil-connection share is unsupportable — $4,000 estimated recovery, severity LOW. This is multi-cue reasoning across documents, not keyword matching.

3 Full review — every billed line, checked

Line	Description	Billed to date	Status	Basis
01	General conditions, mobilization	$88,000	CLEAR	Administrative line; no product scope to match
02	Selective demolition — mech & elec	$64,000	CLEAR	No submittal-governed product; billed within schedule
03	Ductwork, dampers, accessories	$176,400	CLEAR	Consistent with approved 23-31-00-B (SMACNA)
04	Energy recovery units	$214,000	CLEAR	Billed equipment matches approved 23-72-23-A, basis of design
05	Hydronic piping mains & runouts	$136,800	CLEAR	Consistent with approved 23-21-13-A
06	Pipe insulation & jacketing	$46,400	CLEAR	Partial billing; no approved-document conflict
07	Vibration isolation, seismic	$24,000	CLEAR	No conflict on documents provided
08	DX split system AHU-1 / CU-1	$88,000	FINDING 01	Billed York/AHRI 430-435 spec unit; approved record is residential Goodman
09	Refrigerant piping + coil connections	$22,000	FINDING 02	Coil-connection scope absent from approved equipment
10	BAS / BACnet controls integration	$60,800	CLEAR	Progress billing consistent with approved 26-05-83-A
11	Condensing unit pad, 4500 PSI	$9,000	CLEAR	Matches approved mix design 03-30-00-A
12	Testing, adjusting, balancing	$19,000	CLEAR	50% progress billing; no conflict
13	Closeout, O&M, training	$0	CLEAR	Not yet billed

Clean lines are reported as clear on the documents provided — the audit never invents a finding to look thorough, and never buries one to look agreeable. Findings, severities, and amounts are the engine's unedited output (run July 8, 2026; two findings, $26,000 total, verdict REJECT).
TALOS · talos.build · Benlloyd Goldstein · benlloyd@aeonik.ai