Commonalities of Construction

After visiting two construction sites on the VT campus we reported back the similarities and differences that we noticed between them. Similar things included the use of toe boards for safety consideration and fenced sites for security. Differences we noticed were between the completion of the two sites and the organization of the sites in general. When comparing these two sites with commonalities in mind we look past the noticeable similarities and differences on the sites to see that the same general practices of construction are being applied. Taking the difference in organization of the two sites, even though they are organized differently the construction practice of organizing and even laying material around the site is being used. The same practices are being applied in the fenced security for the sites, even though they are both identically fenced, in reality the thought that someone might break into the site to cause havoc was in the mind of both managers as the fence was placed.

Industry Day

Industry day is a day where members of the construction industry invite us to see examples of their work. Cranes, concrete trucks, survey equipment are a few of these examples that were present. Kiewit and American infrastructure employees helped everyone get a understanding of the trades they were viewing. One of the most impressive displays was the Crane attaching an assembly together. After we learned about rigging, crane signals, tag lines, and measuring the radius we watched the instructor attached the assembly. The first picture we see is the wall being rigged to the crane with the man in the red shirt holding the tag line so the wall doesn’t sway. Following this picture we see the wall assembly finally being attached with Professors Mills holding the plywood. The next picture we see is a Trimble GPS controller, introduced by Spectra I. S. This hand held device lets you download the sketches of the job site and be able to view and update them when work is completed. Anyone can view the plans from anywhere, which greatly organizes, managing and progress tracking across the job site. The next picture we see a new Caterpillar motor grader introduced by Will from American Infrastructure. After talking with him, were told how AI does horizontal construction and just how much he enjoys working with them. My last picture shows a sticker on the side of the cement truck which reminds us just how important it to be safe no matter where we work on the site.

This First picture shows masons beginning to lay the work to build a brick veneer.
The brick veneer is generally connected to the structural wall by "brick ties", metal strips that are attached to the structural wall as well as the mortar joints of the brick veneer. There is typically an air gap between the brick veneer and the structural wall. They have probably already placed the water-resistant surface such as tar paper so that the wall will be completely water proof.

The Second Picture shows a worker scrapping the excess mortar from the CMU blocks he just probably laid. It also appears that he is about the scrap the joint which depending on where he is will be a specific type of joint such as a vee or concave joint.

Conceptual Estimating is the process of forecasting accurate costs of a project. For the building of a house, conceptual estimating is the skills of accurately assigning a numerical value to all the processes and materials that will be used in it's construction. RS Means is one of the many tools created to make the conceptual process more efficient than ever before. One of it's useful features includes the ability to export our estimate to an Excel file and make further changes by yourself.