Assignment work

Today i worked on the Stakeholders question of the assignment, carrying on from my previous work. Reasearching the roles and responsibilities of these people, i found information from various sites giving job descriptions of each one which helped me understand more than what i previously knew. I also went to moodle and looked at the house plans we were given and the details on the drawings were great, informing me of the responsibilities of the stackholders that work from the plans that the architect provide- such as drain layers on foundation drawings. I couldn't open the critical pathplan doccument from home, hopefully it will work soon. I started on a word doccument for it and i'm thinking i'll just imput the work i've done at a later stage.

Prelims 1st blog

As I haven’t completed any work experience on excavation, footings etc, I will talk about my experience on campus during our exercise on plotting out the points of a house plan and working out the heights of the contours the field. This exercise gave us the figures to calculate the excavations that will be needed before we begin digging footings.

First we had to measure out the boundary of our section.

We had to start with a datum which is a fixed height that we can relate measurements to, for this we used a manhole cover on the campus field.

We used a dumpy and E staff to measure the heights at different points on our section of a house plan we were given.

At four points along a side of a house we took a backsight, 2 intermediate sights and a foresight. We changed station which we did as an exercise to show us that we may need to change the position of the dumpy if a mark we need to take may be obstructed.

This exercise refreshed my memory of how to use the dumpy again; I haven’t used one since the profiling we did on the unitec house on the CAT course. The exercise taught me how to record different heights of a piece of uneven land which I could then use work out the amount of excavation that will need to take place to level that piece of land.

I did some research on site preparation. My findings were that a soil test of a section is recommended to be taken before a piece of land is to be built on. This determines the how well the soil will cope with a structure as well as drainage capabilities.

A site plan design is important in finding the best place for the building, best position for septic tank/sewer connections. Access for vehicles, driveway and protected trees and wetlands recognised. I found excavation can be very expensive so you only want to remove only as much as you need to, plus excavation can lead to erosion which can affect other pieces of the property.

Finishings

Lining the walls with Gib plasterboard we fixed all the main walls horizontally.

The standard Gib (GS) we fix at 300 centres around the perimeter and every stud that crosses, at the T/E joint.

When fixing horizontally, the top piece of Gib always goes on first. With the bottom piece, a 5-10mm gap needs to be left at the bottom, between the floor and where the Gib starts, a 10mm off-cut of Gib can be placed along the floor to give a guide or to rest the sheet on while fixing.

When fitting Gib around a doorway, the sheet gets placed and fixed over the doorway, the doorway is then cut out. Standing on the face side that your fixing, run a tape measure up to the head of the door frame behind the sheet, bring it round to the side you are on and with a pencil, mark along the plasterboard where the head is and continue the fixings above that mark. 

A saw is used to cut the Gib at the either side of the doorway. Stand on the side of the doorway the sheet that is getting fixed is on, and use the framing either side as a guide. This will prevent a bad edge on the face side.

When cut to the top of the frame, switch over to the other side and run your knife along the top joining the two cuts. Crack the plasterboard at the cut and cut through the rest of the sheet.

When cutting plasterboard around doors and windows it is important to remember when marking out to make a slightly bigger gap, like 5mm to allow for adjustment when fitting, this is also important at the two sides. The Architrave will cover any gaps.

On the Unitec house we have fitted Braceline Gib; this is blue in colour and has a different fixing pattern to the Standard Gib (unless the standard Gib requires bracing), the fixings are 50mm, 100mm, 150mm and 150mm thereafter from corners with Braceline nails. Adhesive is required at areas where fixings are not present on intermediate studs only (not perimeters).

Aqualine plasterboard is applied in areas where water and moisture will be present. For the bathroom where tiles may go over the plasterboard adhesive is not applied, the fixings required are 100mm centres.

The laundry has the mains power box that needed fabrication to the Gib sheet. The hole was cut tightly and a channel chiselled out.

 

 

Hanging Pre Hung Doors:

First we measure the hinge heights against the wall frame and mark. Two braces at either side of the doorway frame can be temporarily installed to help with alignment of the frame with the plasterboard; the temporary fixings should be where the Architrave will later cover.

Firstly we measured the gap in the wall for the pre hung door frame. We measured the door frame we received from the manufacturer, then worked out the difference between the two, and halved it. We made packers for the top of the frame at this measurement, at the top hinge mark.

We put our pre hung door frame in against the packer. With the level we work out where the frame would sit plumb, and measured the distance at the bottom for another packer to go. Once this packer was in, and the pre hung door frame was plumb on that side we put another packer in at the middle hinge.

We used Fox wedges to plumb up the opposite side. Fixing below or above these wedges allows for adjustments. The wedges then get sawn off for architrave to be applied over the top.

Fixing Architraves:

Firstly the quirk needs to be marked out; this is marked out at 2-5mm at the doorframe corners, and intervals in-between.

Always start with the head Architraves. The quirk is measured, then the width of the Architrave (X 2) is added to find the length at which to cut each end at 45⁰.

This same process is repeated around the rest of the window or door.

The fixings are 250mm centres, and not to be put close to ends as splits can occur.

When fixing the following Architrave to the header, a nail can be put in allowing the architrave to swivel so to get glue in the join and fitted tight.

A nail is fixed at an angle to hold the join together. All nails are then taken home and punched.

Scribers:

Firstly the scriber gets pinned beside the window or door to be scribed.

Next process is marking out of the scriber against the weatherboards.

We used a 25mm X 25mm block to mark out on the scriber what needs to be cut away. We use the block in both directions to get these lines.

Before the scriber gets fixed, the scriber gets placed against the window or door frame where it will sit and marked 10mm from the bottom of the joinery, and then a 45⁰ cut is made to finish.