Hey you guys who think it is dumb to buy into conservation and that it is too expensive, how does it feel to take a cold shower and read by candle light. Remember progress is always on the winning side, it is dumb to do things the same old way just because you know it works and your afraid of the future. I work with jack asses who are all afraid of high efficiency water closets, oh they will clog, they don't work... Bull Shit the only W.C. in my parents house that doesn't clog is the tank-less pressure flush high efficiency model they bough when they first came out. more than a decade later it is still going still flushing.
When the power goes out, or the gas main breaks. The PV panels keep you in the light and your electric car charged. The solar collectors keep your shower steamy. Its not just conservation its innovation and its better to move forward that get blasted to the past every so often.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Hurricane Sandy Teaches Us About Sandbars.
Urban planning has a lot to do with anthropology and anthropology has a lot to do with where we live. Some of us chose to live on large sandbars often called barrier islands and Hurricane Sandy showed us how stupid it can be to do that.
There are two reasons to live on a barrier island or low lying coastal property. The first and original reason is it was close to work. You were a fisherman, factory or dock worker; commerce was centered around shipping and ports. Most often these were not where you found wealthy people nobody wants to live in marshes or near the docks; you caught yellow fever and had your house washed away, these were the poor the workers. The captains lived up the shore on the hills with the view not in a place to be washed out of the view. The Second reason is the newer reason which started in the late 1800s and that is for pleasure. To play on the beach to "own" the beach the view and the "cleansing" sea air. This new reason has taken over much of the waterfront building trend.
So a Barrier Island is just that an object in the path of the oncoming force of storms. Just like the sand bars they are they shift and move with the tides. Man has thought they could tame this by driving piles and moving sand and sticking jetties every so often. Sandy showed us that these are mere temporal devices and that mother nature can easily overcome these obstacles. The best way to fight nature is with nature, by building on these island we have destroyed most of the natural dunes, these are the best ways to keep the sand from moving as the plants slow the wind and water swept sand. To do this it means we need more natural space and less built environment on the barrier island.
Sandy should teach us it is better to have a view of the barrier island than to live on it. As we rebuild we should rebuild with the idea that nature cannot be tamed and nobody who puts a house up on a pile of sand should expect it to stand forever.
There are two reasons to live on a barrier island or low lying coastal property. The first and original reason is it was close to work. You were a fisherman, factory or dock worker; commerce was centered around shipping and ports. Most often these were not where you found wealthy people nobody wants to live in marshes or near the docks; you caught yellow fever and had your house washed away, these were the poor the workers. The captains lived up the shore on the hills with the view not in a place to be washed out of the view. The Second reason is the newer reason which started in the late 1800s and that is for pleasure. To play on the beach to "own" the beach the view and the "cleansing" sea air. This new reason has taken over much of the waterfront building trend.
So a Barrier Island is just that an object in the path of the oncoming force of storms. Just like the sand bars they are they shift and move with the tides. Man has thought they could tame this by driving piles and moving sand and sticking jetties every so often. Sandy showed us that these are mere temporal devices and that mother nature can easily overcome these obstacles. The best way to fight nature is with nature, by building on these island we have destroyed most of the natural dunes, these are the best ways to keep the sand from moving as the plants slow the wind and water swept sand. To do this it means we need more natural space and less built environment on the barrier island.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Clean Site Clean Work.
You can usually tell the quality of work being performed by a general contractor by the cleanliness of the site. I have never seen good work on a messy site, you can find bad work on a clean site but it is guaranteed on a dirty site.
Piles of garbage make it hard to work. Things lying around make for tripping hazards. Tools and product get damaged and lost. Below are pictures from a site I deal with. The General Contractor or Construction Manager low lid the job and spend all day trying to find change orders. The work performed is shoddy, and there is constant damage.
Garbage brings mice and rats. This site has them frolicking on it!
Piles of garbage make it hard to work. Things lying around make for tripping hazards. Tools and product get damaged and lost. Below are pictures from a site I deal with. The General Contractor or Construction Manager low lid the job and spend all day trying to find change orders. The work performed is shoddy, and there is constant damage.
Garbage brings mice and rats. This site has them frolicking on it!
Friday, May 4, 2012
Why Roofs Are Important
Roofs are important because they keep out the weather. Often times contractors are slow to do the roof, they are hard and prone to damage. Because you build from the ground up the bottom is further along than the top. Some people make the mistake of proceeding with weather sensitive items before the roof and this is what happens.
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| It's Not Finished Expect Rain Puddles It's Fine Here |
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| But Please Hold Off On The Drywall |
Friday, April 27, 2012
Reusing Equipment
When doing a renovation sometimes an owner decides to reuse existing equipment especially if it expensive and/or new. This then requires the contractor to take care not to destroy it and to make sure it is kept in good working order. Not dump garbage over it and let construction dust cover it. Of course if your an idiot contractor you will use the room the equipment is in as the garbage storage!
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Drywall, Gypsum Wall Board; Its Not All The Same!
So there are four large players in the North American Drywall market. They are National Gypsum, Georgia Pacific, USG, and Lafarge. Now you may be saying wait are you talking about Sheetrock? Well yes but that is a trade mark name and there in lies the confusion.
National Gypsum calls their drywall Gold Bond NOT to be confused with "gold board" a misnomer for the yellow colored board produced under the name DensGlass by Georgia Pacific.
Georgia Pacific calls their drywall ToughRock.
USG produces drywall under the name Sheetrock
Lafarge calls their drywall.. wait for it.. drywall no special brand name must be because they are Canadian.
All these companies also produce FireRated Gypsum Board under special names.. Fire-shield, Fireguard, Firecode, and Firecheck.
They all also produce moisture/mold resistant panels, the paper on these is usually colored green, blue or purple depending on brand.
They all also produce a glass fiber mat covered board for exterior sheeting usually used as a backer for an EIFS or other veneer or weather barrier system. Georgia Pacific originated the product under the Densglass name. Nat Gyp calls it e2xp sor extended exposure. USG produces is under the sheetrock name as Securock it is bright green. Lafarge call is Weather Defense and it is grey in color. CertainTeed also makes exterior Gypsum sheeting under the names Proroc and Glasroc.
Okay now I had a contractor I had just paid an extra 4 grand to install Densglass. instead I get a purple mold resistant drywall. He insisted it was the same saying its Gold Bond its the same as Densglass. Number one Gold Bond sounds nothing like Densglass and I paid for that specific product. Number two I don't really care what the color or the name of the product is what I want is a glass fiber mat covered gypsum board. He says well its better that what we were going to originally put. So! Its not as good as what I fucking paid for! He still insisted it was the same quality the next day.. Un-fucking believable that a GC doesn't know the different kinds of Gypsum Board available.
Needless to say he will be even more confused when it comes to to all the variants of cement board or tile backed board.
National Gypsum calls their drywall Gold Bond NOT to be confused with "gold board" a misnomer for the yellow colored board produced under the name DensGlass by Georgia Pacific.
Georgia Pacific calls their drywall ToughRock.
USG produces drywall under the name Sheetrock
Lafarge calls their drywall.. wait for it.. drywall no special brand name must be because they are Canadian.
All these companies also produce FireRated Gypsum Board under special names.. Fire-shield, Fireguard, Firecode, and Firecheck.
They all also produce moisture/mold resistant panels, the paper on these is usually colored green, blue or purple depending on brand.
They all also produce a glass fiber mat covered board for exterior sheeting usually used as a backer for an EIFS or other veneer or weather barrier system. Georgia Pacific originated the product under the Densglass name. Nat Gyp calls it e2xp sor extended exposure. USG produces is under the sheetrock name as Securock it is bright green. Lafarge call is Weather Defense and it is grey in color. CertainTeed also makes exterior Gypsum sheeting under the names Proroc and Glasroc.
Okay now I had a contractor I had just paid an extra 4 grand to install Densglass. instead I get a purple mold resistant drywall. He insisted it was the same saying its Gold Bond its the same as Densglass. Number one Gold Bond sounds nothing like Densglass and I paid for that specific product. Number two I don't really care what the color or the name of the product is what I want is a glass fiber mat covered gypsum board. He says well its better that what we were going to originally put. So! Its not as good as what I fucking paid for! He still insisted it was the same quality the next day.. Un-fucking believable that a GC doesn't know the different kinds of Gypsum Board available.
NOT GLASS MAT FACED!!! NOT DENSGLASS!!!
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Bad Drawing and Change Orders
When a contractor bids on a set of drawings they are supposed to ask about anything they are unsure of so there are no serious items left out. When a set of drawing is bad it can lead to a multitude of questions from a honest contractor looking to give an honest price. If its a low ball contractor they will willfully interpret the drawings in the cheapest way in stead of asking questions. So if you have a bad or incomplete set of drawings you know you have a multitude of change orders coming if you go with the low ball contractor because the job is the job and it requires what it does to finish it properly. Or you can just not finish it properly and have a piece of shit building. It is well worth the initial expense to pay for a good architect and a good set of drawings it makes for a lot less change orders no matter what contractor you choose.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Building in Progression
There is a certain way you build a building. Much like a tree a building has a certain order to it. When you start doing things out of order, people and information gets lost. Like a rotten tree or branch things start to break, and come crashing down.
Case in point you should finish you demolition and rough construction before progressing even into the only slightly more difficult field of framing and you should never be doing these things when you are doing the finer things like drywall.
Finish and taped then we put the opening!
Didn't demo for the window.. framer forgot it was needed.
Didn't Demo so framed and insulated wall.. no window in room! gonna have to fix that.
Didn't trim back the steel, so the dry wall was cut around it, then they cam back and trimmed...
Sunday, March 18, 2012
You get what you pay for.
You get what get what you pay for, on my jobs that would be shit. It takes a certain amount of money and time to build a project right there is no magic construction company that can do better for less. You can talk to some clients till you are blue in the face and they will still opt for the guy 22% less than the others. The idiot client will even stick with them when they cant get bonded. The really dumb client will stay with them when the work is slow and crappy and at 50% through they are already half way to the full price with change orders. makes you wonder how they have the money to be developers. Oh wait dad's money, and got lucky buying a distressed property in a great location. okay so they may know the market and pricing but they really need an education if how not to be a cheap ass because cheaper is not always better.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Lucky
Lets face it construction is a dangerous field. There are dangerous tools, you are constantly working in, around and on a structure this is not complete. Buildings and Infrastructure are built out of lots of big unwieldy parts. Until a structure is finished and given its certificate of fitness it is a hazardous thing.
That being said it should not just fall apart. Equipment should not fail catastrophically. That is unless idiots are operating it or things are not maintained and inspected.
Now my current job just moved from haphazard to hazard. There are 4 huge old elevator machines circa 1930 that need to be removed. The have large eye hooks on them to be craned into location. The elevator mechanics have been dismantling them, this still leaves a motor core that ways several tons. The first one they finagled onto a working elevator to bring to the ground floor. The platform couldn't stop missed the first floor and crashed onto the shock springs in the elevator pit. The second motor, well that's a whole other story. The started lowering it through the roof hatch onto the 16th floor. Lets just say there is now a big hole in the 16th floor elevator lobby and an elevator motor stuck part way into the 15th floor lobby. Lucky nobody was waiting for the elevator.
That being said it should not just fall apart. Equipment should not fail catastrophically. That is unless idiots are operating it or things are not maintained and inspected.
Now my current job just moved from haphazard to hazard. There are 4 huge old elevator machines circa 1930 that need to be removed. The have large eye hooks on them to be craned into location. The elevator mechanics have been dismantling them, this still leaves a motor core that ways several tons. The first one they finagled onto a working elevator to bring to the ground floor. The platform couldn't stop missed the first floor and crashed onto the shock springs in the elevator pit. The second motor, well that's a whole other story. The started lowering it through the roof hatch onto the 16th floor. Lets just say there is now a big hole in the 16th floor elevator lobby and an elevator motor stuck part way into the 15th floor lobby. Lucky nobody was waiting for the elevator.
14th floor ceiling
15th floor elevator lobby
16th floor elevator lobby
view looking down from roof hatch
Friday, March 9, 2012
Incompetent Architect
I don't want to blow my cover, but for the people in the know there is enough info for you to figure it out.
Big City, known for being a developers architect, design is stuck in the post modern 80's and he looks kind of like the comedian Gallagher.
Any how he is incompetent, misleads his clients, and his design is ugly to boot. Two issues I have with his 1st on one project he convinced the client he would be able to stick this large structural frame out into the sky exposure plane. This is ridiculousness the city is very clear on what element can stick out beyond the setback requirements. On another job he convinced the client that he could have used the existing stair cases. It was a gut rehab with a change in occupancy type. The existing stair in the 1930 building were on either side of the elevator. There would have been a new dead end corridor 65' long. NO WAY the department of buildings would allow that in a hotel! So he locates a new stair. What does he do he positions it in the opposite direction of the steel necessitating months of work and tons of new steel. The original structural bays were the perfect width if he had rotated it 90 degrees.
Then there is the latest issue in the cellar of one of his buildings the door swings are in the wrong direction. and the corridor is not wide enough to swing them in the code required direction. Then I have the contractor thats right the CONTRACTOR calling and pointing out the ADA bathrooms don't meet code. Now contractors are supposed to be the ones complaining why do I have to do that.. that's such a waste of space... and the architect is supposed to be saying well you know the damn blasted code this and that...
He should have his license removed.
Big City, known for being a developers architect, design is stuck in the post modern 80's and he looks kind of like the comedian Gallagher.
Any how he is incompetent, misleads his clients, and his design is ugly to boot. Two issues I have with his 1st on one project he convinced the client he would be able to stick this large structural frame out into the sky exposure plane. This is ridiculousness the city is very clear on what element can stick out beyond the setback requirements. On another job he convinced the client that he could have used the existing stair cases. It was a gut rehab with a change in occupancy type. The existing stair in the 1930 building were on either side of the elevator. There would have been a new dead end corridor 65' long. NO WAY the department of buildings would allow that in a hotel! So he locates a new stair. What does he do he positions it in the opposite direction of the steel necessitating months of work and tons of new steel. The original structural bays were the perfect width if he had rotated it 90 degrees.
Then there is the latest issue in the cellar of one of his buildings the door swings are in the wrong direction. and the corridor is not wide enough to swing them in the code required direction. Then I have the contractor thats right the CONTRACTOR calling and pointing out the ADA bathrooms don't meet code. Now contractors are supposed to be the ones complaining why do I have to do that.. that's such a waste of space... and the architect is supposed to be saying well you know the damn blasted code this and that...
He should have his license removed.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Its Bad In Here
I went into the management bathroom on site yesterday. The bathroom sink was on the floor. Gee that is shitty construction. I love the toilet paper hole filling...
Then I looked at the wall, and clearly someone was taking out their frustration with the GC which confirms things are not going well.
Then I go in today and the broken sink is on the wall. Before, I had not much respect for the GC now I know they don't even have respect for themselves. By the way, the bracket is a piece of exit sign; I mean Really!
Lets get electrocuted
There is this sign on the bottom of the escalators in our building. It clearly states you shouldn't drill into it...
What do the carpenters do? Attach metal studs to the bottom using self tapping screws (which have a drill bit on the end)..
The reason not to is that there is sensitive mechanics and electrical equipment on the other side.. Oh and they screwed some in right where the electrical supply conduit enters. I believe that it is a juicy 600 AMPS more than enough to blacken your socks...
The reason not to is that there is sensitive mechanics and electrical equipment on the other side.. Oh and they screwed some in right where the electrical supply conduit enters. I believe that it is a juicy 600 AMPS more than enough to blacken your socks...
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
How not to frame a steel stud wall
First don't lay down the track before the floor is finished. That means don't put it down before the old tile has been removed. don't put it down before the holes in the floor have been patched. Don't layout track on your staging floor just to show progress.
Second, if resilient furring strips are required read the directions before you install them if you have never seen them before. They put them in upside down first on my project. Of course the architect had the drawn upside down too, because he is a dumb ass.
Third. used the right size studs - 2 5/8" 20 gauge studs are not meant to span a 20 foot ceiling height; and they are definitely not made to withstand the load of a stone clad wall.
Four Shaft wall line goes on the INSIDE of the shaft!!! idiots!
Finish the MEP work before you close the walls! When you do start to dry wall make sure the edges butt together! Don't sequence work so you remove the roof after you put up the dry wall! We don't live in the desert, it's gonna rain!
Oh and you shouldn't be able to see light through the fire stair wall!
Friday, February 24, 2012
Nice Faucet!
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Which Way Does The Elevator Go
So the contractor stripped down the furred out wall around the elevator core. That left the Elevator button dangling on the wall. So they went back a month later and screwed them to the terracotta elevator shaft wall. That's a good idea better than leaving them dangling.
No the problem. They didn't exactly put them up the right way. As you can see in the image an elevator buttons installed side by side and with no up or down or color kind of makes it hard to tell what button to push. So you always have to hit both. Not bad you know an elevator is coming but you don't know what direction it is going in until you take the ride. Why? well all the direction indicators disappeared months ago because they had nice brass fittings. But why stop there; some were actually put back upside down! So you get in thinking your going up and you end up in the cellar.
I am going to start taking bets at the door 50/50 up or down. that is if the elevator ever comes...
No the problem. They didn't exactly put them up the right way. As you can see in the image an elevator buttons installed side by side and with no up or down or color kind of makes it hard to tell what button to push. So you always have to hit both. Not bad you know an elevator is coming but you don't know what direction it is going in until you take the ride. Why? well all the direction indicators disappeared months ago because they had nice brass fittings. But why stop there; some were actually put back upside down! So you get in thinking your going up and you end up in the cellar.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
I know they are not in control but are they even watching
Oh our general contractor has no clue what is going on around him. In this project we are replacing one stair well and leaving the other pretty much as is. So the other day the Architect is walking through with us and says "hey where did the hand rails go?"
We said "ask the GC I guess they are replacing them."
"Why, they were perfectly good?"
So we go in and ask hey whats going on with the hand rails, they were existing to remain. The GC didn't even know they were gone! They had been gone for weeks!
Then there was the disappearance of a large mushroom exhaust fan from a set back roof. They said oh we were not working area. What does that mean you have keys and control of the whole site. Then they blame a couple of painters that were using the are to work from to paint a neighboring building. First of all the fan was 10 years old, secondly probably 3 feet tall and a 5' diameter and several hundred pounds. in addition you mean to tell me you security didn't notice the painters walking out with it? I mean there is only one way in and out!
All that is nothing compare to the vault incident. A bank is moving back into the first floor "the building was originally a bank headquarters... in the cellar there was a bank vault with a custom vault door 28" thick. The banks interior fit out contractor did a walk through and noticed someone had taken a cutting torch to the door and had started to dismantle it's inner workings.. when we told the contractor they said hey that area is out of our contract are we are not responsible for it. Dude you are doing work everywhere in the building your the base GC! you had to replace the walls around it! how do you figure you are not responsible. they said they would look into it.
A week later we ask if they find out who did it?
the response was "No." then it got weird
"So the person who did it could still be working here?"
"No."
"So you do know did it?"
"No"
"but you said they are not working here?"
"yes"
"so then you you know who did it"
"I just told you we don't know who did it"
"I am confused how do you know they are not here if you don't know who did it"
"right"
That is not word for word because this happened weeks ago but it is very close.
Who ever did it spent hours of time and left all the pieces too. (I assume they wanted the metal to sell as scrap) These people are so incompetent! Just good at fucking everything up!
There lawyer took it even farther. He sent a letter saying they couldn't be responsible because they didn't know it existed. Didn't even know it had been a bank or that there was a vault. We had a few of our job meetings in the room with the vault and the building has Hanover Bank written in big letters right across the front! I guess they are just deaf dumb and blind!
We said "ask the GC I guess they are replacing them."
"Why, they were perfectly good?"
So we go in and ask hey whats going on with the hand rails, they were existing to remain. The GC didn't even know they were gone! They had been gone for weeks!
Then there was the disappearance of a large mushroom exhaust fan from a set back roof. They said oh we were not working area. What does that mean you have keys and control of the whole site. Then they blame a couple of painters that were using the are to work from to paint a neighboring building. First of all the fan was 10 years old, secondly probably 3 feet tall and a 5' diameter and several hundred pounds. in addition you mean to tell me you security didn't notice the painters walking out with it? I mean there is only one way in and out!
All that is nothing compare to the vault incident. A bank is moving back into the first floor "the building was originally a bank headquarters... in the cellar there was a bank vault with a custom vault door 28" thick. The banks interior fit out contractor did a walk through and noticed someone had taken a cutting torch to the door and had started to dismantle it's inner workings.. when we told the contractor they said hey that area is out of our contract are we are not responsible for it. Dude you are doing work everywhere in the building your the base GC! you had to replace the walls around it! how do you figure you are not responsible. they said they would look into it.
A week later we ask if they find out who did it?
the response was "No." then it got weird
"So the person who did it could still be working here?"
"No."
"So you do know did it?"
"No"
"but you said they are not working here?"
"yes"
"so then you you know who did it"
"I just told you we don't know who did it"
"I am confused how do you know they are not here if you don't know who did it"
"right"
That is not word for word because this happened weeks ago but it is very close.
Who ever did it spent hours of time and left all the pieces too. (I assume they wanted the metal to sell as scrap) These people are so incompetent! Just good at fucking everything up!
There lawyer took it even farther. He sent a letter saying they couldn't be responsible because they didn't know it existed. Didn't even know it had been a bank or that there was a vault. We had a few of our job meetings in the room with the vault and the building has Hanover Bank written in big letters right across the front! I guess they are just deaf dumb and blind!
Friday, February 17, 2012
Water Fall
Well lets see today on site the plumber was testing his lines. I think he should get his air pressure gauge tested because he seemed to think the initial pass was good and we ended up with a water fall.
When the plumber charged his new 8" condenser riser he managed to fill it up to the 18th floor when one of his connections failed on the 3rd floor and now there is lake on the third floor a pond on second floor, rain showers on the ground floor and drips in the cellar. Good thing they haven't managed to get any wallboard done on those floors. No gyp. board because no stud layout because GC is months behind.
Ah the silver lining you couldn't fuck up more shit with your fuck up because your so fucked up you don't have shit to fuck up.
Oh wait the pipe did burst right on top of the floors temporary electric panel so we had no power for an hour! They should pipe and stand in the puddle, morons.
When the plumber charged his new 8" condenser riser he managed to fill it up to the 18th floor when one of his connections failed on the 3rd floor and now there is lake on the third floor a pond on second floor, rain showers on the ground floor and drips in the cellar. Good thing they haven't managed to get any wallboard done on those floors. No gyp. board because no stud layout because GC is months behind.
Ah the silver lining you couldn't fuck up more shit with your fuck up because your so fucked up you don't have shit to fuck up.
Oh wait the pipe did burst right on top of the floors temporary electric panel so we had no power for an hour! They should pipe and stand in the puddle, morons.
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