Part 4: Preconstruction: Orientation and Workpoint

(Introduction, Syllabus, 1.Prelims, 1-4Precon, 2. Excavation, 3.Foundation, 4.Framing, 5.Roof, 6.Close, 7.MEP, 8.Finish)

A building permit is issued directly to the builder and not the owner or designer. That means from the start of construction until the final certificate of occupancy, the area bounded by the property lines is the direct responsibility of the builder.

These property lines are drawn from recorded legal descriptions onto survey maps and civil engineering documents and staked out in the field by licensed surveyors using instruments that precisely locate the corners that will orient the construction. These corners are calculated according to sight lines and tangents from permanent benchmarks in the area.

Site orientation

Staking the property corners is important because anything that happens during construction, along with any equipment, drainage, noise, smoke, dust, or debris that crosses the property boundaries is governed by neighboring property rights and local building codes.

An experienced builder then starts construction by first meeting with neighbors and code officials to coordinate access points onto the site, staging areas for equipment, drainage and sediment controls for storm water erosion, and requirements for the protection of pedestrians and vehicular traffic during construction.

These preconstruction preparations are especially important when sidewalk and utility easements are within the property lines, and therefore part of the jobsite, because the builder is responsible for all private and public property damage and safety.

Code violations

Height limits and setbacks from the property lines are set by the zoning codes that regulate land use. Even the slightest violation of height limits or misplacement into the setbacks will be cited as a code violation that could then trigger a stop work order, lengthy public review, and denial of a final certificate of occupancy for the completed building.

This means the completed building must fit within a three-dimensional box defined by the code. Liability for compliance makes it important that the setback lines, sea level elevations, and the footprint of the foundation be accurately located on the jobsite prior to construction. This includes the location and dimension of fence lines, driveways, curb cuts, roof overhangs, decks and stairs.

The Workpoint

As a reference during the construction, a temporary workpoint is located somewhere on the jobsite. The workpoint is a three-dimensional point in space that is measured parallel to the earth’s latitude and longitudes, and vertically calculated according to sea level elevations determined by the surveyors.

In this way, the workpoint is available as a reference for the depth of the excavation, corners of the foundation, height of the building’s frame, the location and elevations of roads and driveways, and all underground utilities.

Builders also use the workpoint to locate borings to test and analyze the strength of the soil. These borings determine the type of soil and its bearing capacity in order to verify the size of the footings for buildings with special foundation requirements.

Here then is an overview of the jobsite.

(To be continued…)

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The material presented in this series has been taken from our book, “How a House is Built: With 3D Construction Models” The book includes annotated illustrations, captioned text, videos, models, and the 2D Preliminaries.

Part 3: Preliminaries: Thinking in nD

(Introduction, Syllabus, 1.Prelims, 2. Excavation, 3.Foundation, 4.Framing, 5.Roof, 6.Close, 7.MEP, 8.Finish)

The Preliminaries are a set of scaled plans, elevations, and sections – refined from conceptual sketches and schematics – that become the first drawings in a set of construction documents. These construction documents include details and specifications that become attachments to a legally binding contract and the basis of the building permit authorizing construction. In other words, the documents are drawn for lenders, attorneys, and code officials.

These drawings are drafted to a scale and format required by local building officials so that they can be referenced in a series of site inspections leading to a Certificate of Occupancy (CO). The CO is necessary to register the building as legal property, close loan agreements, and transfer the project as property to the local tax rolls.

The challenge for designers and builders on both sides of these contract documents is that a multidimensional process must be reduced to a collection of two-dimensional diagrams, symbols, signs, and notes. This limits the designer’s ability to suggest operational details for the construction and forces builders to translate abstract images into actions that are much more involved than two or even three-dimensional interpretations.

It’s not rocket science

Shape and form may have a place for some, but what’s most important to a builder is process. In construction, process is “means and method.” It’s how a particular builder intends to actually put the building together and what makes one builder more competitive than another.

What’s important here is that seasoned builders can estimate the cost of construction by simply looking at the Preliminaries without carefully thinking through either means or method. To do this, builders apply a rule of thumb, or unit cost based on current market conditions and their own experience with similar buildings. If there’s anything unusual they simply adjust their prices intuitively.

Estimating by unit cost is only possible because every trade on the project uses their own rule of thumb. Carpenters and finish workers count square footages, masons yards, cabinet makers linear feet, plumbers fixtures, and electricians count outlets.

This seemingly relaxed approach to estimating the cost of construction follows a time not long ago when builders worked without the formalities of plans and specifications. Castles were built from oil paintings, high-rises from inked linen, and builders as designers were confident that they could figure things out as they went along. Today of course, this openended approach sets the stage for trial and error, conflicts and conditions, and corresponding cost overruns and delays.

But the point is that the cost of construction can be determined from the Preliminaries without carefully considering either means or method because the details, notes, and specifications in the contract documents for most buildings follow standard practices. That’s why CAD files, boiler plates, and sticky-backs can be cut and pasted from one set of drawings to another. Construction is not rocket science.

Self-evident simulations

What you’ll see in this house then is not that its construction is so difficult, but that it’s so far removed from the norm. I designed the house to combine a number of different construction practices. This includes a variety of field conditions that are similar on many projects – residential or commercial, wood or steel, but the building itself is atypical and would be a challenge for most builders to build.

Because the process drifts so far from previous experience, it enters unfamiliar territory for each of the trades involved in its construction, requiring additional management and attention that cannot be easily broken down into a unit cost.

What’s interesting is that a quick glance at the illustrations shown here are also sufficient for us to start a virtual construction once a few dimensions are clarified in the field (next article).

What this means is that process can be simulated when we think through the assembly of this house in a piece-based construction model in almost the same way it was once done by early masterbuilders.

As such, construction models suggest an interactive document that might better serve builders working with the variables of the real world. What such a document might look like as a contract remains to be discovered, but the idea of using multidimensional programs like SketchUp to represent each step in the construction of a building is exactly the point of this series of articles.

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The material presented in this series has been taken from our book, “How a House is Built: With 3D Construction Models” The book includes annotated illustrations, captioned text, videos, models, and the 2D Preliminaries.

(To be continued…)

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Hands-On Construction 101: Syllabus

(Introduction, Syllabus, 1.Prelims, 2. Excavation, 3. Foundation, 4.Framing, 5.Roof, 6.Close, 7.MEP, 8.Finish)

WARNING: Working With Codes
There are at least two distinct regulatory codes that govern the construction of even the smallest and simplest house. The first is the planning and zoning code and the second is a local variation of the international building code. Both are enforced by police powers.

The planning code is the product of a land use plan that attempts to project growth and anticipate the needs of the people in a community. Zoning maps are part of this code. They set the conditions for construction on every piece of land within the local jurisdiction. This includes setbacks for the buildings on the property, density and use, height limits for the construction, off-street parking, and land-use requirements.

Once a project is approved by the planning department, a building department issues a building permit according to ordinances specified in the local building code. Building codes are technical ordinances that govern materials, methods, structure, fire safety, and the energy performance of a building. The mandate of this code is to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of current and future occupants of the building.

There’s a lot more information on codes and the permit process in our book: A Small Home of Your Own: Plan Permit Pay in 3D.

What’s important for constructors is that once a permit is issued, the responsibility for code conformance remains with the contractor (long after the project is finished). That means, the construction process actually begins with the preliminary plans – though few understand the importance of these early reviews.

Eight Construction Phases to Cover in this Series
The trick to working with these codes is therefore to thoroughly understand their requirements before beginning construction. This means early reviews by building officials, identifying areas of concern, and detailing the criteria for inspections and approvals.

1. Preliminaries: The postings in this phase will introduce the small, simple, and sustainable house that will be constructed in the next seven phases. This house is specifically designed to incorporate as many alternatives in construction detailing as possible. It is built on a raised foundation with open ceilings that encourage access for modification and maximize the use of interior space.

2. Excavation: Excavation begins with a series of postings beginning with a surveyed layout of the setbacks and footprint of the house. A SUP for the house includes locating utilities and making connections to the building services. A workpoint and batterboards are then placed to reference boundaries, depth of the excavation, and guide the equipment that will prepare the site for the foundation.

3. Foundation: The batterboards are used to layout the formwork for foundation footings and stem walls. Reinforcing is placed in the formwork before concrete is poured. Fabric footings are shown as a simple alternative to traditional methods. Masonry stem walls are tied to the footings with steel reinforcing. The concrete block is laid in courses up to the bottom of the framing sill plate.

4. Wall Framing: The wall framing postings will begin with sill plates bolted to the top of the stem walls. These plates anchor the raised floor framing with structural connections that run to the wall and roof framing above. The exterior walls are installed using wider studs for thicker insulation.  Non-bearing interior walls divide the house into usable spaces. Top plates tie the wall framing together.

5. Roof Framing: Open roof framing is the critical part of this house not only because it presents the greatest risk for falls and injury, it also lifts the profile of the structure into winds that will impose the strongest lateral loads on the house during construction. This chapter details the placement of rafters and ridge beams using structural connectors that are integral parts of the structural system.

6. Close-In: As soon as the roof framing is complete, the race is on to close-in the house and minimize exposure to the weather. With careful scheduling and management, a number of interrelated tasks must be completed at the same time. These include finalizing framing, installing vapor barriers, doors and windows, siding, and the flashing and roofing.

7. Building Systems: MEP building systems are the heart and soul of the house. Plumbing systems supply gas and water and remove waste; heating, ventilating, and air conditioning equipment provide warmth and cooling comfort; and the electrical systems deliver the power necessary to support the receptacles, lights, appliances and security for the house.

8. Interior Finishes: The last chapter in our book “How a House is Built” uses a variety of electronic formats to illustrate the installation of sitework, insulation, drywall, cabinets, and system finishes. This is one of our earliest eBooks and is accessed online through the book’s CD. Some of the content will be reproduced here to demonstrate how we Export and use animations and illustrations from SketchUp models.

Except for scattered notes and comments, almost all of the material to be presented in this series has been taken from our book, “How a House is Built: With 3D Construction Models,” including a few of the book’s illustrations, captioned text, videos, and models.

See also the last pages of the April 2013 issue of the CatchUp Newsletter 18

< http://srv.ezinedirector.net/?n=6507149&s=127254939 >

(To be continued…)

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Hands-On Construction 101: Introduction

As most in this business already know — either as students or teachers — the challenge to construction (and design) education at the college or university level is finding the time in a curriculum to cover the basics of hands-on construction.

There are electives and workshops of course, usually taught by energetic but technically inexperienced professors, where students gain some understanding of construction technology, but with so much to learn, the rigors of hands-on assembly are lost to more mundane and largely predictable academic subjects.

How a House is Put Together

As a result, it remains for most constructors (and a few designers) to find out for themselves how buildings actually go together. A lucky few find sympathetic mentors or leaders with the patience to pass on the things that they cannot believe weren’t already taught in school — but most entry level professionals wind up picking things up in snatches and glimpses while being paid to do some other narrowly defined task.

At the same time, few construction managers (and fewer designers) have any desire to get down and dirty and actually “work” on a jobsite. Especially to devote the years it takes to appreciate what it’s like to actually build a building efficiently.

It stands to reason though, if one is expected to manage (or design) a technical process, it is only logical to have a deep understanding of how buildings actually go together – if for no other reason than to be able to anticipate the scope of the work, resolve problems in the field, and continually consider cost effective alternatives.

Construction is Color Blind

An important premise to understanding hands-on construction is the fact that to builders, anything that can be imagined can be built — as long as someone is willing to pay for the time, materials, and resources necessary to build and maintain the finished product. On the other hand, construction both expands and restricts the possibilities of a design. And it’s only when design and construction work together that the resulting effort is efficient, purposeful, and sensitive to the needs of our shared environment.

The goal in this series of articles is to therefore bring about some understanding of hands-on construction methods. The objective is to demonstrate the basics without fear of confusing an aesthetic of color and form with the nuts and bolts of a technical process that deals strictly in black and white.

Click to Zoom

Except for scattered notes and comments, almost all of the material to be presented in this series has been taken from our book, “How a House is Built: With 3D Construction Models,” including a few of the book’s illustrations, captioned text, videos, and models.

These articles will cover eight distinct phases of the construction of a simple house, beginning with how the house is actually located on the lot, then to excavation, foundations, framing, roofing, close-in, and MEP installations. Sidebars include a buzzword index, construction safety, and tips and tricks about the process.

SketchUp will of course be the construction modeler, giving you some idea of how we use construction models in our books and business. As most who read our books already know, none of this comes easy, so click the images to zoom, and feel free to interact with the information.

(To be continued…)

Twitter as a Construction Management Tool

Some might think social media is only good for constructors (and designers) with nothing better to do than shift through the self-promoting babble found in the constant banter of marketing information on Facebook or MySpace. But they have it wrong.

For many project managers, social media is a way to see both the big picture of what’s happening in the industry and eavesdrop on what their competitors are doing. In practice, they are able to mine public information by reading posts and searching keywords to build competitive strategies in an ever changing construction industry.

Twitter is simple and spontaneous
In particular, the simplicity and off-handed comments found in apps like Twitter bring out unguarded exchanges that are telling when seen in the context of a stream of related tweets. This includes inadvertent security breaches by marketing staff and employees about current or pending projects.

You might think nothing substantive can be said in 140 characters, but add a consistent presence in a Twitter timeline along with links and pictures and these seemingly innocuous little posts begin to reflect not only a broad view of the industry, but a particular company’s way of thinking. As such, it doesn’t take long to read, recognize, and evaluate the collective thoughts found in the underlying messages that are exposed by this media.

This deeper understanding of a group’s thinking is in fact what makes Twitter valuable as a collaborative tool. In fact, any idea that Twitter is just for sending, sorting, and searching messages misses the power of this new media to visually direct a team’s collective consciousness toward a single minded focus.

Twitter as a management tool
The key to using Twitter as a management tool is to harness this interaction in a carefully controlled Twitter list or account. The objective is literally to crowd source the project from its inception, deeply embedding “buy-in” for team members as they are invited to join as followers. Important is that as followers, they are invited into the group and remain only as long as they add value to the team as a whole. In other words, their tweets become a measure of the value they bring to the collaborative efforts of the team as a whole.

In these exchanges, the concise nature of a tweet means project communications are no longer delayed or distorted by staged meetings, reports, proposals, or carefully rendered models. Instead spontaneous messages are sent immediately as part of a continuous flow of input, ideas, and second screen comments that shape the ongoing communications between active team members.

The value of Twitter is therefore the immediacy of the media itself. Participating in the conversation is like feeling the pulse of the entire project team, mashed together into a project long stream of consciousness that is visible in the flow of tweets, retweets, replies, hashtags, and comments, supplemented by photos, video, illustrations, and model images that carry their own perceptive insights.

SketchUp and Twitter
SketchUp adds to these interactions with site scans, photographs, videos, and illustrations from construction models that reinforce content with an immediate visual context for each tweet.

Collaboration begins between principals using site utilization models and overlays to establish scope, later in massing studies, simplified design models, and engineering as early images are gradually mixed by select followers with line item specific content from spreadsheets and schedules.

Like the tweets themselves, cumbersome documents are reduced to real time snapshots, visually gif-ifying content by clarifying collaborative exchanges from concept, through construction, and into facilities management.

Twitter apps are tools
The apps used to contribute and maintain this content are an ever changing collection of programs that were once used to send simple quick posts to a public forum, but have now advanced into sophisticated tools that incorporate multi-project administration. These include:

Short message service (SMS), still the fastest way to tweet images and video into a project account. Twitter uses short codes to sync text messages and images directly into an account from any cell phone with a camera.

Twitter also has an app that makes tweeting a little more complicated. The app has four icons: Home for your current timeline, Connect to track Interactions/Mentions, Discover as the search menu, and Me for settings and profiles. Click the New Tweet icon in the upper right corner to tweet and add a picture, video, or a library image.

Tweetdeck works pretty much the same way as the Twitter app, except it categorizes tweets into separate timelines. Image attachments are currently limited to Library Photos and Take Photo, but no videos, which eliminates motion captures (except via YouTube). Names have been changed to Home, Me, Inbox, and Search as you swipe horizontally to access adjacent screens.

HootSuite adds menu features to manage lists as categories of followers. It has a Compose menu for tweets, with images limited to Take Photo and Choose From Library, again no video, except through YouTube. Hootsuite’s menus also include Streams instead of Home, a Search function, Stats, and Contacts.

Posterous is one of the most comprehensive of the Twitter apps. Instead of lists, Posterous uses Spaces to divide content. Each Space is actually a micro-blog/website where any member in the Space can contribute longer descriptive text along with a range of photos, videos, and illustrations. Text and images are posted through tweets, emails, or directly within the Posterous program.

In the end, each of these apps has its limitations, with some, like GroupTweets, fading with obsolescence and inattention. At the same time, to maintain the value of immediate and unguarded collaborative exchanges, a Twitter app should be simple and fast enough to serve its purpose as an immediately useable multimedia messaging tool.

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Twitter and Construction Modeling

Multidimensional images extracted from piece-based construction models have found a new home in rapid project related communications. As part of a catalogue of 3D illustrations and process animations for an ongoing project, they are used to clarify and communicate ideas in immediate exchanges using shorter, almost haiku like Tweets that adapt to the growing complexity and speed of modern construction management methods.

BIM vs. SketchUp Construction Models

While BIM models may have a place in coordinating the production of 2D bid documents, they are way too cumbersome for real-time collaboration and are often quickly dated by changes and program upgrades – sometimes before a project is even finished.

On the other hand, SketchUp construction models are life-cycle models, generating 3D illustrations and videos available for use from concept to facilities management simply because they are built with an uncomplicated, intuitive, and freely available modeling program.

Builders who are able to anticipate benchmarks and key frames in their construction models use these images to coordinate critical phases in the production process. This includes clarifications, change orders, and RFIs during construction, but also field photos and videos that are now part of hourly, if not minute by minute, image transfers from the jobsite.

Mobility is the New Management Norm

Because 4G and wireless networks are now found on almost all jobsites, its become routine for a technically proficient project team to not only download files and communicate directly with team members anywhere in the world, but also to capture snapshots and video of project activity in real-time. Mobile apps send these images immediately from smart phones and other hand held devices via e-mail or direct messaging along with labels and comments, where they are archived for later searches.

However, while these apps are great for generating a continuous flow of instant communications, the information they carry is quickly buried in unsorted and remote data files after only a few days of jobsite activity. As a result, the latest challenge for project managers is to organize the increasing flow of graphic information into an information resource that works to inform team members.

Real-time communications

In response to this challenge, a variety of social networks are available to visually support project production. These include project specific blogs, webpages, collaborative Wikis, and sites like Linked In, MySpace, Tumblr, and Flickr.

At the same time, by definition these programs are social sites and not easily adapted to project management. For example, now antiquated project webpages that were once used to regularly post schedule and budget details along with other project information, are now confused by a range of different formats, broken links, and duplicated reports that make the web much too slow for real time interaction.

Even Facebook, used by some companies for project communications, finds its pages tangled in tagged photos and follower comments after a few days on a scrolling timeline, leaving even the simplest single family residential project overwhelmed by the clunky Facebook interface and any Friends still bothering to follow its linear format.

Twitter as a Construction Model Management Tool

In practice, Twitter is the most promising new tool for continuous construction communications and process management. First, because it allows project managers to interact quickly with very short messages that by their very nature are limited to specific comments, leaving the image itself to relay the information.

In addition, the program is able to automatically organize comments, model images, field photos, and process videos according to phase, dates, and locations in ways that virtually stream visual information to the project team.

Twitter is also able to organize teams of followers into groups and lists, transferring comments, images, and links while sorting and categorizing exchanges into archives that can then be searched and accessed as an integral part of project documentation.

Along with apps like Tweetdeck, GroupTweets, and Posterous, Twitter becomes a short-form messaging tool, as a micro-blogger, with a growing potential to be at the heart of a real time network for team members.

TweetDeck is an old-time Twitter favorite that has been used by project managers to create groups and manage Twitter communications almost from the beginning of twitter-time. Now owned by Twitter, TweetDeck was one of the first project organizers to use a dashboard as a kind of dedicated webpage that allows users to receive and send tweets, view profiles, and photo attachments.

GroupTweet is a simpler tweet organizer that works well for short term projects, especially for complex interior remodels like hospital or mechanical equipment installations, where it’s important to keep both users and suppliers informed of current project activity. GroupTweets uses a homepage as a group messaging board, helping team members to interact while making it easier for everyone to keep up with the production process.

Posterous is probably Twitter’s best team management app (at least for now) because it has controls that correlate project information into separate galleries for specific groups of users. The app uses Posterous Spaces to make sharing and searching the images, photos, videos, comments, and ideas simpler and more intuitive for replies or retweets to non-members.

We’ll look at Twitter basics and these programs next.

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Mobile Construction Modeling

It’s hard to believe but the first commercially available email programs didn’t appear until the late 1980’s, and though the communication benefits of electronic messaging were clear by the mid 90’s, many construction companies didn’t use email until the very late 1990’s and early 2000’s.

2D Techs or Construction Managers
In fact, it took a new generation of project managers to introduce this simple technology to reluctant old-timers – and as most would admit, the fight goes on.

For example, now that cell phones and voice mail have become standards for project communications, some offices actually still take messages on hand written note pads, while senior managers without keyboard skills have assistants write memos and handle emails for them, finding computers intrusive, distracting, and perhaps a little frightening.

At the same time, according to a recent tweet from The Mortensen Company, more contractors now use BIM software than designers. Of course, it goes without saying that the average builder has no idea who Mortensen is, and though construction companies may claim to own some version of BIM software, complex 3D modeling is largely ignored for spreadsheets, print outs, and face to face fieldwork during actual construction.  Even at Mortensen’s.

BIM in the Real World
It’s no secret then that BIM software requires trained technicians, anchored to software and graphic workstations that require constant updates and attention. In practice, working with this kind of technology is simply not practical on most jobsites, especially when a rolled out set of printed 2d contract documents are the basis for the actual scope of the work.

It’s also important to point out that design, including BIM and its 2D documents are only a very small part of the real world of construction management. Based on the value and cost of services, barely 10% of the entire process is design, permitting, and preconstruction, and of that, perhaps half of the effort falls into actual BIM production.

90% of Construction is Communications
Following the money, the focus should be on what is happening on the jobsite and finding ways to communicate more efficiently with the real world that surrounds it.

Especially considering that today, computer programs like SketchUp transfer files over the internet, send emails from menu selections, and automatically upload images, cost and schedule data, and daily reports to the cloud as a common way of storing, cataloging, and accessing construction information.

For a new generation of managers, communications between team members now occurs on PDAs (personal data assistants), immediately using smart phones to photo, scan, text, and tweet annotated images and video exported from SketchUp to coordinate project activities.

Mobility is the New Norm
The mobility of these new devices and their ability to access an unlimited combination of resources has become a fundamental part of a continuous and instantaneous flow of project communications.

All of which is broadcasted wirelessly via satellite, cells, or broadband routers, giving managers immediate access to project information, the web for searches and bookmarks, networking platforms like Linked In and Facebook for market and background information, and graphical tools like You-Tube, image reference libraries, and animations for process control.

Today, the challenge is to understand how to use these new technologies effectively for construction communications, waiting again for a new generation of builders to demonstrate their competitive value in the real world.

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