Site Visit 090709

Monday September 7th, 2009
Partly Cloudy


Construction of new basketball practice facility is complete. Some minor site work is being completed and the construction enclosure has been reduced to a single trailer, parking, and utility hook-up. They appeared to be taking down a notification board. The trailer looked as if they were packing up to move to the next job. There were some excavators at the rear of the site, but that work seemed connected to a new project down the hill.



Below are two photos taken from a similar perspective. The first shows construction in progress in December. The next shows the finished product.

Construction is where the action is. The 'under construction' photo and phase of the basketball facility has so much more going on. Several months ago a crane was in the middle of leveled area of soil. After the rat slab was poured and the metal decking was installed it was used as a large storage area for various trades. Now it serves a single purpose.

Construction in Calabria, Italy (Part Two)

Having travelled to this part of Italy several times since I was 6 years old, this visit to the hilltown of Maiera was different. There is a new project in this sleepy hilltown - a 4-star hotel. The town dates back to the 1100s and the hotel occupies a old palazzo (or palace) which is several hundred years old. The Hotel has four levels. The upper most two will contain rooms with private baths, the second level will hold a restaurant and the first level will have the kitchen. An adjacent building will also have rooms and office space.

Above is the entry to the second level. The scaffolding is set up infront of the entry. A hoist is mounted to the upper portion of the scaffold to assist with material transfer. There is a mortar mixing station on the ground level and the upper level adjacent to the scaffolding.

The metal decking is a modular floring which snaps into place providing flooring, a toe-guard, and an access hatch. There are stairs within the structure, but to access the scaffolding an internal ladder and hatch are used. Inside the building existing floors were reconstructed - terracotta forms the deck and concrete with a steel mesh wire provide the compressive strength.

Walls are composed of terracotta or concrete block. Above is an image showing a concrete block wall with electrical chases installed. To understand the process correctly. A mason lays the block and mortar for the wall. The electrician then comes through and chips aways at the block to insert plastic pipe which forms the conduit chase. Then either the mason or electrician come back through and patch the wall. Eventually which wall will have a stucco finish and no wiring will be seen. The wall does not appear to be load bearing.

With a masonry based system with no false or acoustical ceiling, all conduit is run on the floor. The ridges shown in the photo above are conduit runs along the floor of the upper level. These contain electrical lines. Once the plastic tubes are placed they are covered with concrete. Eventually a topping coat of concrete will be placed to level the floor before tile is placed. When I observed this I couldn't help wonder what it is like to work on this type of surface?

I did not learn to exact finish date or other details of the project. I was mainly trying to understand construction techniques and practices. Another entry will explain some bit of the regulations that were posted and practices I observed.

Construction in Calabria, Italy (Part One)

From June 15th to July 24th, my wife and I spent 6 weeks in Calabria Italy. Starting from New York we travelled to London then on to Rome where we took a train south to Scalea, Italia. We spent most of the time with family in Maiera, exploring the hill towns of Maiera, Grisolia, and the surrounding area. During the trip I noticed some construction projects and practices in and around the area we stayed. The next couple of blog entries are set to describe some of the encounters and experiences from this trip.

Above is the new Heathrow Terminal 5 in London, UK. It is essential an emmense roof with several layers of functional space (security, check-in, shops, bars, etc.). The supporting structure is only visible in pieces from other locations. Only when boarding the flight (shown above) can one see the entire structure.

The vernacular architecture of Maiera is agricultural (Much like to barns that dot the American landscape). Buildings are small and located at the very edges of the property. In a society where everyone's livelihood depends on farming, every square meter of space is essential. The introduction of roads (during the 1950s) developed along existing pedestrian pathways.

The structures of the region, as the one shown above, are composed of local stone which are set in locally produced mortar. The striations in the facade show the varied composition of the mortar. The dark spots in the photo are places where scaffolding was tied to the wall during construction. Almost every structure in the area shows these marks of construction. Due to the scarcity of material and the labor involved in providing a finishing coat of stucco, the scaffold voids were left exposed to the elements. The pergola shown on the left-hand side of the building is supported within the scaffold voids. The beautiful women in the center of the photo is my wife. The precise date of construction is unknown, but the approximate age of the structure is said to be over a hundred years.

In Grisolia, a neighboring hilltop town, we came upon this simple structure. In the upper left-hand corner one can see the roof structure without the terracotta tiles. The roof rafters were composed of dry bundled cane, an abundant product which is generally used for agricultural planting (supporting beans, trellises, training tomatoes, etc.). Here the bundles are placed close enough together to support the valley of cupped terracotta tiles. Once two valleys of tile are in place a ridge of terracotta was placed which simultaneously covers the bundled cane rafter and shed water into the terracotta valleys. (Insert Sketch).

The observations on this trip were not limited to historic or vernacular building. Other entries will include a ruined hilltown (Cirella Vecchia), a 4-star construction project in the hilltown of Maiera, and other observations of construction practices.

Backyard Renovation - Phase III

Friday
Mostly Cloudy & Rain

Some photos of the backyard at 98%. There are some pockets here and there that need some gravel infill, but will have to wait. I could not find river stone so I purchased about 25 bags of crushed marble. They were originally all white and covered in powder, but after the rains of the last couple of days several shades of gray have appeared.

Some new Lessons learned have arisen. Having the garden adjacent to the prestine crushed stone with only a thin barrier shows that it will be hard to maintain cleanliness at that edge. In the future I would go with a wider barrier - like a railroad tie or small cement block to widen the distance between dirt and clean stone.

Also you always need more stone then you can estimate. The garden is doing great. We finished up the area near the house with a small curved planting area with some Irish Moss.

To finish up I just have a couple of small pockets to fill in with stone - nothing visible in these photos. Afterward there should be some suttle white lines along the fence and the shed.

Backyard Renovation - Phase II

Wednesday - 80 degrees

Today I spent most of the day on Phase II of the backyard renovation. This phase involved 16" gray paving stones that lead from the 12" pavers, along the shed, and to the fence gate.


The installation of paving stone in this phase went much faster. The larger pavers align well with the smaller red pavers. I worked straight through from 8:00 am. During this time I made several trips to the hardware store for stones. One major mistake I made was to try a different hardware chain. I found the "same" 16" paver for $0.30 less so I thought I had it made, but the pavers were slightly smaller and a slightly different shade of gray. I only noticed this once I started to install the second batch of pavers. At first I thought I could incorporate the new pavers, but the gap and color issue was too obvious, so I made yet another trip to get some more pavers and return the smaller pavers. The return ate up 1/2 an hour.

Next, I leveled out the rest of the yard and installed some more of the geotextile fabric. This will provide the base for Phase III - gravel fill. The rest of the yard will be filled with stone and ground covers.

Finally, I incorporated some of the existing bricks and pavers into the new layout. Two large pavers are placed in front of the red pavers and between the gray pavers and deck. The third large reused paver is in the corner near the house (Phase IV - rainwater barrel connected to roof downspout).

I am going to try for Phase III on Friday or Saturday. I want a smooth stone that can be walked upon barefoot. Not sure if I can get that in bags from the chain hardware stores or if I have to shop around and get large pile delivered - I have the next day or so to figure out the logistics. I found the work-a-day, rest-a-day to work well to keep myself motivated.

Some things I learned:
1. The geotextile fabric should be run in the direction of the pavers. Controlling the fabric joints during leveling is difficult.
2. Stick with one material suppliers - they have their own suppliers so there is no way to really guarantee uniform quality.
3. Level a large area of base sand. I was leveling small areas as I went and the smaller pavers have a slight rises and dips.
4. Get a truck. I handled the material sevearl times. I had to load it at the hardware store from the pallete to the cart. From the cart to the trunk. From the trunk to the backyard. From the pile to its final location. Four moves.
5. When stockpiling pavers stagger each one 45 degrees. This small move means easier handling of material from the stockpile to final installation point.
6. Provide temporary shelter. I used a beach umbrella to shade the areas I was working on. This allowed me to keep cool while leveling the base and placing stone. While it did interupt the flow a little, it provided a great relief from the heat.

This was a small exercise. But it has touched on several principles that can be applied to a larder construction scenario. Scheduling, budget control, quality control, delivery and storage of materials, installation methods, material handling, and working conditions.

Phase III to follow.

Backyard renovation- Phase I

Monday I started Phase I of the backyard renovation of our townhouse. The backyard was comprised of a deck, a garden, a loosely laid block storage area and spotty grass. I started with measuring and sketching the backyard to identify major features and begin to estimate materials. The design of the yard was composed of two L-shaped walk ways of different size pavers. The first L-shape path is composed of 12" red pavers and the next L-shape will be made of 16" gray stone.

Next I dug up the grass and started to level the backyard. I had originally thought this would take a single day, but it took several days to dig up the grass and loosen the soil.

Monday morning I bought some material from a chain Hardware Store and began a test of my productivity. I started by laying a geotextile fabric to keep weeds from growing up among the paver stones. Next I placed a layer of sand over the fabric. I leveled the sand by eye using a strip of pressure treated lumber. I was supposed to purchase two pipes and run them parallel in order to lay a uniform level of sand, but decided against it at the last moment. With the sand in place I laid the first six 12" pavers.

After several more trips to the hardware store and some work in the evening with my wife assisting we were able to wrap up phase in a single day. In addition to the pavers I purchased some plastic border strips and stakes to keep a clean separation between the pavers and the adjacent areas.
Phase II involves the installation of the larger - 16" - pavers along the shed and backyard gate. Phase III involves placing stone and installing ground cover to complete the yard.

Email Blog Post

Trial post via email. Going to see if attached image will show up in blog.

This was my first attempt at mobile blogging. I just composed the two sentence fragments above, attached a photo and sent it to my blog. Then it appeared in the format above. It seems good for short and quick entries. If more photos were attached they would all be grouped on the top of the post. But, that is where editing can come in. If nothing else I have found a way to cut the post time down by a bit. The photo is of me (small blue object on the right) next to a massive mining dump truck out in Arizona.