brad's blog

Sustainability Tree Protection

Preservation of trees on and around the construction site may require appropriate protection against harm that may affect their health. Propping, supporting and fencing are some ways to ensure that the tree survives construction. Fencing a tree is a good way to preserve a tree, fencing is usually done around the drip line of the tree. Visibility of the fence needs to stand out to ensure tree is not hit by trucks, diggers etc. Tree roots can spread a vast distance from the trunk itself so care also needs to be taken during the excavation stage. Signage is another good way to raise awareness of a preserved tree. Cutting and pruning of any branches is allowed on some trees, although native species needs an application to be submitted to council. 

Failing to protect trees on site can result in very large fines and even halt construction. Therefore protecting trees has to be correctly done to ensure a smooth running of the job.

Building Consent

Removal of a load bearing wall and installation of a lamenated beam to support load over the opening.

When the council came to do the final inspection, he saw the wall was missing and failed it as it needed to be on the building consent and an ammendment made to the house plan.

The builder was not aware that removing a wall had to go through the building consent process.

Building consent had to be re-submitted for the removal of the wall, house plans had to be ammended and an engineers report filed to ensure that the beam could support the load bearing on it.

 

Building consent application (example) -  http://www.wellington.govt.nz/services/buildserv/pdfs/pimbldgconsentapp.pdf

 

 

Order Forms for Building Materials

A truck load of materials was supposed to arrive on site with our building materials for a job.

On the morning the job started, the truck turned up and was missing some materials.

I wrote out an order form and took it down to the building suppliers and submitted it to them, listing the things we wanted and when we wanted them. Following a few changes made by the owner of the job we were doing, I increased the order I made over the phone. When the truck came out short I then realised I should of made a new order form and faxed it through to the supplier instead of doing it verbally.

To fix this problem i quickly wrote out a new order form with the remainder of the materials on it and faxed it through to the supplier. Additionally this process put us behind on the job and I had to pay for an extra delivery.

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Construction Documents

A proper geotech report of the land, to see if rock was below the surface and how far down, was needed to determine this.

The geotech hand drilled 4 meters down and found there was no rock. After the land was excavated down to the correct level we started drilling 4.5 metre pile holes and struck rock at roughly 2 meters.

The reason for this is because the project manager had the geotech do a cheap report to try and save money.

To fix the problem we had to get the geotech back with an engineer to evaluate how far we had to drill into the rock. The geotech wrote out a new report and the engineer provided a certificate to clarify what had happened and what needed to be done to fix it. This ended up costing the project manager more money and set the job back by numerous weeks.

An example of a geotech report - Geotech report example

Campbell’s blog - Vox

Campbell’s blog - Vox

http://campbell380.vox.com/

This is an Example:The Learnings1. What was meant to happen?e.g. A building consent for a retaining wall2. What did happen?e.g. We started to build the retaining wall and the council came and ordered us to stop work andobtain a building consent.3. Why did it happen?e.g. We thought because the retaining wall was under 1.5 meters high it would not need a buildingconsent or engineer design. We were ignorant of the law as I discovered.4. What did we do to fix it, or how did we fix it?e.g. We applied for a building consent and discovered from talking to the council, that the wallneeded a building consent because there was a driveway above it. I have since learned that this partof the Building Act. There is a section called Schedule 1 which lists all building work that does notneed a building consent. Part (C) of schedule 1 states "construction or alteration of any retainingwall that retains not more than 1.5 metres depth of ground and that does not support any surchargeor any load additional to the load of that ground (for example, the load of vehicles on a road)". It is part of being a builder to understand the laws that are relevant to what I do. This experience is part of my learning. I will now know where to look, to see if the work I am undertaking is legalSurcharge on retaining walls