Archive for the ‘builder’ Category

Who should handle or supervise your project? Architect,builder civil or structural engineer

Monday, October 25th, 2010

There is always a confusion in choosing who to handle or supervise a project especially for a newbie property developer.
Questions have been raised severally on who should handle individual projects, however building types will determine who you should use as an arrowhead onsite.
The larger your project, the more the numbers of professionals and technical people you are expected to have on your building site.
For smaller projects like 2 bedroom bungallow any of these professionals are okay for it, there is no need to have more than one professional on site for small projects.
A young architect, builder or structural/civil engineeer can on their own supervise any bungallow with little or no supervision. But when it is a storey building especially a multistorey building or duplex, then you need the input of the architect not only as the designer but also on site as the overall
supervisory officer, in some cases they may supervise on secondary role basis.
The builder is trained to execute every line of command represented on sheets of paper by the other building professionals, therefore a builder is more at home on a building site more than any other professionals, because that is his major occupation. He can enter the roughest parts of site and see to it that job is done properly and he likes to be physically involves most time.
An architect has very strong ability to detect an error, he is trained to be a perrennial critic, he sees the building as his baby and ready to protect the baby jealously, the pride of an architect is to see his design come out well executed and beautiful.
Now take the architect as the mother of the child (the building), the builder as the nanny. The nanny does all the dirty works, work hardest and may be closer to the baby than the mother. But the mother happens to be the one that conceived and bore the child, so she is more protective of
the child, she has a vision of how the baby should look like in the process of growing, she monitors her and anything shot of her expectations will not be welcomed. she may have to shout at the nanny when the baby is not well fed or taken care of.
The architect surely did the work of conceiving and drawing plan of the building, but he may not neccessarily have much physical impact but technical in actual construction, but he knows exactly how the building should look like and what he wants, so he won’t settle for less.
The structural engineers job concerns the stability of the building, so we may take the structural or civil engineer as  the peadiatric doctor that monitors the health of the baby and prescribed drugs to sustain his or her life. This is also the function of a structural engineer to the building. Architects likes to fantasize and come up with out of the world designs, it takes the engineer to look at the design and relate with the architect about the structural disposition of the building, if its possible to build with the technology and expertise available or not.
An Engineer makes sure the building is healthy by prescribing the right reinforcements/iron rods to stabilise the building and stop it from eventual collapse.
From the illustrations above it is important to have at least two of the major three building professionals mentioned above on your site especially when your building is a storey building or more complex structure, afterall two heads are better than one.
The structural engineer and the architect could take a supervisory role whereby they come to site to make sure their designs are followed strictly and give them opportunities to pass down further instructions and incase of adjustments or redesign, they will be in best position to know what to do.
Whatever case, one of them should be on site preferrably a builder.
For higher storeys and more complex structures, the architect,the building engineer/builder, the structural/civil engineer, the electrical engineer and the mechanical engineer are suppose to be on site. (the mechanical engineer deals with the plumbing works).

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Why Asbestos is Used only in poor countries.

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

Asbestos was derived from the greek word (a-not; “sbestos,” extinguishable) is a form of some minerals and hydrous silicate of magnesium.
Asbestos is still very much used in Nigerian out of ignorance or poverty.
In developed countries asbestos usage has been banned out rightly or relatively reduced to a very small usage due to the facts that some diseases were contacted because of the exposure of it’s fiber to human beings, especially in high volume .
The fibers are light and can easily be carried by air , the three major diseases related with it are ‘asbestosis’, a disease of the lungs caused by inhalation of asbestos particles , ‘mesothelioma’ and lung cancer.
There are two major classes-‘amphiboles & serpentines’ the serpentines constituting 95% of major world supplies.
On several occasions employees directly earning a living by selling asbestos products have always come out to defend it especially in less informed countries, it was noted that the first case of its harmful nature was discovered a long while ago after some group of underground miners were exposed to raw fibers. This has led to the western countries banning the use especially in homes.
Uses
Asbestos usage is wide from fabrics, textiles molded goods (pipes and gaskets), building construction materials (missile and jet parts, paints, brake lining,fibro cement, insulation product, fire proofing product, floor covering, ceiling tiles and roofing materials which is mostly used in Nigeria. (asbestos cement, corrugated and flat sheets and for thermal (heat) and acoustic insulation).
In Nigeria 95% of the population still make use of asbestos, all though there have not really been reported cases of the effects of these fibres on peoples health ,but countries that directly do the mining have had more negative stories about the product .
We may have been drinking rainwater channeled into our tanks from asbestos roof for years and notice no negative effects on our health but it was reported that the effect can be noticed at times after 30 years of its infection.
Hence the rate of infection and when it is going to show depends on the rate at which you inhale the fibers to your lungs.
Asbestos can also be contacted through renovation, demolition of building and roofing works.

Alternatives
In Nigeria is mainly used for ceiling and roof, it may be difficult to fully replace it in every homes due to the cost of the alternatives.
The mineral fiber board for suspended ceiling , the P.O.P or finished plywood are way too expensive as a substitute for common man. The aluminium roof is also on the very high side as well and the traditional zinc materials are just too unappealing and outdated for a lot of people to consider .
But there are products that are now been worked on that are cheaper to acquire like painted galvanized zinc and others will also be brought to your notice later.

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