Construction and global warming

Construction is one of the industries that contribute to global warming. Why is so? . Let we take a look into what is global warming.

Global warming in actual fact is due to green house effect. Green house effect happened because there increased in greenhouse gases(GHG) concentration in our atmosphere. Some of the green house gases are Carbon dioxide (CO2), Nitrous oxide or Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), Ozone(O3), Methane(CH4) and other harmful gases which have a capability to trap heat from being radiated out from our atmosphere. Some of this green house gases have the ability to exist in our atmosphere more that 100 years.

So how does our construction industries become one of the contributor to this global issue? Before we answer this question, it is best to know activities that produce these greenhouse gases(GHG). CO2 usually being produce as one of the end product from the burning of fossil fuel, where as CFC or to be more accurate Tetrachloroethene is widely used as dry cleaning agent. May be some of the cleaning agent that we used contained CFC and we applied it in our construction method.

Another cause for the increase of CO2 in our atmosphere is deforestation. As we know,  plant need CO2 to enable them to generate their food. Hence by reducing the number of plants through deforestation activities will reduce the process of carbon sink. Construction industries especially the development of area for habitation involved land clearing(Deforestation) in a big scale.

Know, how do we relate this global warming issue with our construction industries? First what are some of the activities that contribute to the GHG? As mention earlier, Burning of fossil fuels and deforestation playing a significant role in increasing the CO2 concentration in our atmosphere. Years ago,  before laws and regulation was implemented due to the alarming issue of this global warming, Construction industries tend to cleared their debris by method of open burning. It might be the cheapest solution to cleared up all the debris compare to utilised the service from any waste treatment agency which having expertise in dealing with the controlled burning technology. However method of uncontrolled open burning can cause even more CO2 being released into our atmosphere. Therefore in construction industries this method must not being used as a way of debris disposal. Further to this, the other impact to the owner of the construction project is being at risk of being penalised for the breach of laws and regulation.


Related act.

• Clean Air Act by U.S Environmental Protection Agency.
• The Pollution Prevention and Control (Industries Emissions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2013 (Statutory Rules of Northern Ireland)
• Environmental Quality Act 1974 (ACT127) & subsidiary legislation.
• The California Environmental Quality Act

Construction project manager roles and responsibility

Construction work, regardless any type of construction, a contractor will always need a competent Project manager. A person  that had been engaged to become a project manager must be able to handle these scope of work.

1. Dealing with, client, consultants, local authority, supplier, sub contractor and local residence.
2. Preparing a master work program
3. keep and maintained all of important activities through the project.
4. Attend any meetings that required his input. eg. Site meeting, Claim meeting, coordination meeting.
5. Monitoring the overall progress to ensure timely completion of a project.
6. Prepare weekly and monthly report.
7. Monitoring and ensure that the construction work meet all the Quality requirement.
8. Ensure that the end product is as per construction drawing.
9. Dealt with any design change.
10. Ensure that accommodation, transport and site office for client and consultant is always well equipped and maintained
11. Assessing the value of the work done and submit the progress claim.
12. Preparing application of Extension of time if any is required.
13. Dealt with any matter arise with regards to the construction work.
14. Dealt with any requirement and  documentation for the purpose of closing the project upon completion. 

In the event that there is any dispute, A Project Manager need to know what is in the contract, what can and what are allowed. Some of the construction work ended up in arbitration or in court, then the knowledge of contract act and tort law might be helpful.

CONSTRUCTION METHOD STATEMENT FOR BRICKWALL

Construction of brickwall seems to be an easy component of construction work. However as usual any construction work shall come with their construction method statement. Below is a general method statement for construction of brickwall.

METHOD STATEMENT FOR CONSTRUCTION OF BRICKWALL.

Construction material.

Red clay brick, Exmet, Sand, Ordinary Portland Cement(OPC), Clean Water

Construction Tools and Equipment.

Scalfolding, Brick cutter, Trowel, spirit level, Guiding tread, Plumbob, Hammer, Hand drill and etc.

Safety Equipment.

Personal Protective Equipment, Safety Tape, Rubbish Chute, Safety Baricade, Safety Railing any practical safety equipment for the purpose of the construction of brickwall.

Construction Procedure.

1. Obtain approval for construction material.

2. Upon approval, Setting out of the wall location shall be done, inspect and approved prior to construction work.

3. Safety and health shall be submitted and approved by Superintending Officer(S.O) or his representative(S.O.R).

4. Submit request for start work to S.O, once steps above already complied.

Construction work.

1. Ensure that the working environment is safe and bricklayer is wearing PPE.

2. make sure that the guiding tread or line is visible.

3. lay a layer of damp proof sheet at the bottom of the first layer of the brick.

4. On top of the damp proof sheet spread a layer of mortar. The mortar shall be mix by hand or mixer and the composition is according to requirement specified in the construction drawing or contract specification.

5. Red brick then shall be lay according to the construction drawing position. 

6. Exmet reinforcement shall be introduce after forth course of the brick. If required a dowel bar shall be install to strengthen the ties between column and the brickwall.

7. At any time during the work, all debris shall be clean especially the excess mortar to avoid it from harden on the floor surface.

8. Upon completion of the brickwall, leave it to dry and bonded before proceed with the plastering work.

9. Upon completion a request for inspection shall be submitted to S.O or S.O.R for acceptance of the work.

Red clay masonry works

Building work consist of numbers of major work component. Four(4)  major components of building work are Structure work, Architectural Work, Mechanical Work and Electrical Work.

In this article we will discuss on building the building wall which is another small component of work which fall under Architectural work. Building Wall can be describe as External wall and Internal wall. Both of this wall can be build using various building material. Among the material used is Red clay brick. Building wall that was constructed with Red Clay brick, commonly known as common brick is a type of wall that being design not to carry any loading apart of its own weight.

What is common brick? Definition of common brick is " acceptable burned clay brick for the purpose of general usage of brickwork with no special claim for attractive value". Walls built with common brick required rendering or plastering for a fine finishing prior to any painting work or introducing of wall paper. Wall that required tiling as it finish surface usually required plastering to ensure that the built wall have a flushing surface in order to properly fixed the tiles.

*Standard size for masonry or Red clay Brick according to BS: 3921: 1985 or MS 7.6 : 1972 are as follows;

Length = 215 + 3 mm

Width  = 102.5 + 1.875 mm

Height = 65 + 1.875 mm

(* quoted from http://www.claybricks.com/more_info/brick-specifications.html )

In building a brick wall for any building we often heard of this terminology.

1. Half brick thick wall

2. One brick thick wall

3. One and a half brick thick wall.

All of those terminology is base on the measurement or the length of a standard brick. 

- Half brick thick wall = 1/2 x length of the brick,

- One brick thick wall = 1 x length of brick 

- One and a half brick thick wall = 1 length + 1/2 x brick length. 

Apart form the thickness of the wall another important part of the brick wall construction is the bond type between the brick. This bonding is to provide integrity between each of single piece of Red clay brick. Some of the type of bond are;

1. Stretcher Bond.

2. English bond

The application of those type of bond can be seen base on the wall thickness requirement. 

Half brick thick wall : stretcher bond

One brick thick wall : English bond

One and half brick thick wall : English bond and Stretcher bond.

Setting out for building wall construction.

Building wall construction required bricklayer to do a simple setting Out. How to do this setting out?

Below are steps that needed.

1. Study the Architectural construction drawing.

2. Do the measurement as specified on the drawing and mark every single point  (Both Upper and Lower Point).

3. On the lower ground Mark Continuous line from one end (earlier mark done at step 2) of the proposed wall to the other end of Proposed wall (earlier mark done at step 2).

4. By using Plumbob, Hang two (2) vertical tread for each end of the proposed wall. Make sure the tip of plumbob hang straight on top of the lower mark which is on the ground floor or lower floor where the proposed wall going to be build.

5. Tie a horizontal tread on both vertical tread. make sure that this horizontal tread is moveable and not too loose until it cannot stay on position when it is moved up and down to a new desire possition along the vertical tread.

4. Start lay your wall when all of this guide line/tread is fixed and practically working.

The tread is useful to ensure that the wall is build with a vertically Straight and horizontally straight unless the wall is designed to certain pattern.

When doing Setting out for a wall you will need this basic hand tool and consumable Material

a) Hammer 

b) Tread

c) Measuring Tape

4) Maker ( Pencil / Pen )

5) Nail

6) Chalk liner

 7) Plumbob.