Construction Documentation and Communication

Compliance Requirements, Producer Statements

Install lamentated beams and posts over the deck to carry cieling joists. Bolt brackets on the ends where they meet each other, the posts and the building. Where the brackets bolt on to the wall frame, needs to be flashed properly to prevent water penetrating the building membrane.

When it came time to flash over the brackets to make them water proof we realised that the architect hadn't drawn up a detail to falsh it properly.

I think the reason for this was its hard to design a flashing for it and the architect wanted the builder to make something up, so if it didn't work properly the ownice didn't fall on the architect it fell on the builder.

To fix this my boss called an engineer to the job to design an acceptable flashing solution. We installed it correctly, took photos of it and got the engineer to write us an producer statement for it. My boss then turned around and sent the bill to the architect.

Roofing exercise

Me and my group did a roofing exercise. We drew up a pitched hip roof at a scale of 1:5. We worked out all our rafter and hip lengths, pitch, birdsmouths, overhangs, plumb cuts, seat cuts, jack rafters and ridges.

When we started building it on a full size scale our plumb and seat cuts were a little bit off and the centers for our rafters weren't working out.

I am pretty sure that the reason for these mistakes was rounding the decimal point through out the equation instead of carrying it over and rounding the final answer. Also when you are working in a group things get overlooked, its also good to check answers and not just taking it for granted.

To fix these problems we cut things to suit what we already had correct and fixed in position. The finished product was built to an acceptable standard. The roof planed correctly and was square.

GIB Handibrac

Doing a renovation on a single story dwelling and needed to slide straps under the bottom plateand up both sides of the stud for a BL1 gib bracing standard.

We couldn't slide the strap through as the wall cladding on the house was existing on the wall. The wall cladding was not part of the renovation and we just couldn't find a way to install the straps, so we booked the pre-line inspection anyway. 

When the inspector came and saw that the straps were missing we explained to him that there was no physical way of installing it without pulling off the wall cladding. He suggested we use a GIB Handibrac which is more than sufficent for a BL1 bracing standard. The handibrac has more bracing units than the strap and is easier to install, although if it doesn't have the correct amount of tek screws etc in it it wont pass inspection. The handi brac comes with a an installation and information guide that explains to you how it works.

 

TA approved Plans

Doing a re-clad on a warehouse, inspector marks with dazzel which studs, bottomplates etc that need to be replaced. Timber was ordered and work carried out ready for pre-line inspection. The building inspector came out and noticed that the timber used was H 3.1 and H 3.2 had been specified on the plan.

Due to not reading the plan correctly, then ordering the wrong timber, the pre-line inspection failed due to not complying with clause B1 structure of the building code and failure to comply with other parts of the code.

Because of this all the work that had been carried out had to be dismantled, de-nailed and stored for another job as the timber yard would not accept it back due to the state it was in. H 3.2 timber was ordered and work re-done to comply with T.A. approved plans.