Blog Archives

PREPARING FOR SANDING

Posted by on 25/ 11/ 15

After testing floors to determine their finish, empty rooms of all movable items (don’t forget window blinds and shades). Then use 3-mil poly­ethylene sheeting to cover the cabinets, radiators, smoke detectors, doorways, and heating or air­conditioning openings, using painter’s tape to avoid pulling paint off the walls and trim. Dust migrates through the smallest openings, so use painter’s tape to seal the perimeters of closed doors and keyholes. Because baseboards will get bumped by edgers, remove them if possible— though often that’s not possible. Alternatively, you can use a metal shield to protect such trim, as shown in the top photo on p. 493.

Подпись:Vacuum the floor so you can survey it closely for nails sticking up, and floorboards that are split or uneven...

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Productivity

Posted by on 25/ 11/ 15

Your objective is most likely to frame a quality building for the least possible cost. Wages represent the greatest percentage of the total cost, and since wages are paid for time spent working, it follows that if you lessen the time it takes to complete a building, you thereby reduce the wages paid and, thus, lower the total cost.

There are various tasks involved in framing. Some of the tasks can be done as fast, or nearly as fast, by the least experienced framer as by the most experienced framer—for example, carrying and spreading studs. Suppose that a $10/hour person can do the same job as a $20/hour person, only 20% slower. You save $8/hour by having the less expensive person do the job.

Be careful, however, because if an inexperienced framer takes on a job beyond his capabilities, t...

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Benefits of a VE Program

Posted by on 25/ 11/ 15

The main benefit of a VE program is improvement of the benefit-to-cost ratio throughout state transportation programs. Other perceived benefits are as follows:

• Design, construction, and maintenance standards are constantly being reviewed through VE team activities.

• The structured, functional approach using a job plan (see Arts. 10.3 and 10.4) provides trained employees with a new method of approaching problems.

• VE team members develop an appreciation for the concerns and issues of other functional areas or disciplines, and communications are often improved.

• Team work skills and team dynamics are enhanced in the design process.

• Designers improve or develop their skills in preparing and delivering to management logical, organized presentations supporting their views.

• Af...

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The Energy – Smart Kitchen

Posted by on 25/ 11/ 15

The Energy - Smart Kitchen
Подпись:

W

hen it comes to electricity consump­tion, the kitchen is the hungriest room in the house. Kitchen appliances— including refrigerators, freezers, ranges, and dishwashers—account for nearly 27% of household electricity use. Collectively, that’s more than 300 billion kilowatt hours (kwh) per year in the United States, or roughly the electricity output of 90 average-size coal – fired power plants.

Not all appliances are equally voracious, however. Refrigerators and freezers account

for nearly two-thirds of kitchen energy use, with ranges, ovens, and cooktops ac­counting for a little over one-quarter, and dishwashers the rest. Add in the heating, air-conditioning, hot water, and lighting used in a kitchen, and this room is clearly the energy hog of most houses...

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Techniques FITTING BASEBOARD IN IMPERFECT CORNERS

Posted by on 25/ 11/ 15

Techniques FITTING BASEBOARD IN IMPERFECT CORNERSTHE JOINTS IN BASEBOARD SHOULD BE CLOSE TO PERFECT. Minor touchups with latex caulk can be done before painting. Unfortunately, it’s not so easy to make perfect joints at corners when the drywall is not straight or a corner is not square.

On inside corners, drywall can be tipped back, caus­ing a coped or mitered baseboard joint to open.

This can be remedied by putting a shim behind the tipped trim so that it sets straight up and down.

Instead of a shim, I sometimes drive a drywall screw into the bottom plate to hold the baseboard square (see the illustration below).

I use two short pieces of baseboard with mitered

Подпись: rywall, especially in the corners, an taper inward, causing the iseboard to pull away from іе wall at the top.Подпись: To prevent this, drive a drywall screw into the bottom plate behind the baseboard to hold the baseboard plumb.Techniques FITTING BASEBOARD IN IMPERFECT CORNERS

PREVENTING BASEBOARD FROM TOEING IN

Techniques FITTING BASEBOARD IN IMPERFECT CORNERS

Drywall

Baseboard

(45-degree) ends to check outside corners for square (see the photo above)...

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AASHTO ROLE IN VALUE ENGINEERING

Posted by on 25/ 11/ 15

To assist state DOTs in the application of VE, the AASHTO Task Force on Value Engineering, originally organized in 1985, has developed the publication, Guidelines for Value Engineering, already cited. Portions of the publication[22] are summarized in Arts. 10.2.1 through 10.2.6. The AASHTO value engineering technical committee maintains a useful website, www. wsdot. wa. gov/partners/AASHTOVE. Also, a VE engineering conference is sponsored every 2 years.

AASHTO has taken the position that every member state should establish an ongoing VE program to improve design excellence and achieve cost and quality control...

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FHWA VE Policy Guide

Posted by on 25/ 11/ 15

The FHWA has developed the following federal-aid policy guide that provides much useful information for the application of VE:

1. PURPOSE. To provide policy guidance on the application of value engineering in

the federal-aid highway program.

2. AUTHORITY.

a. Section 106(e) of Title 23, United States Code provides: “For such projects as the Secretary determines advisable, plans, specifications, and estimates for proposed projects on any Federal-aid system shall be accompanied by a value engineering or other cost reduction analysis.”

b. Section 106(g) of Title 23, United States Code provides: “The Secretary shall establish a program to require States to carry out a value engineering analysis for all projects on the National Highway System [NHS] with an estimated total cost of $25,000,000...

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Resistance to Abrasion by Studded Tires

Posted by on 25/ 11/ 15

Resistance to abrasion by studded tires is determined according to EN 13108-20, Clause D.4, and testing after EN 12697-16, Procedure A. The available categories of requirements are AbrA20, AbrA24, AbrA28, AbrA32, AbrA36, AbrA40, AbrA45, AbrA50, AbrA55, AbrA60, and AbrNR, where AbrNR means no requirement.

TABLE 14.1

Test Methods of SMA Resistance to Permanent Deformation and Test parameters

device

method

Test Temperature (°С)

Number of Cycles!

Small device,

In air

45

10,000

Method B

50

10,000

60

10,000

Large device

In air

50

30,000

60

10,000

60

30,000

Source: Modified from EN 13108-20. Bituminous Mixtures—Material Specifications— Part 20: Type Testing Table D.1 of Clause D.6. a 1 cycle = 2 passes of wheel.

• Table...

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Floor-Sanding Materials*

Posted by on 25/ 11/ 15

Подпись: When sanding floors, follow the physician's creed, "First, do no harm." It can take hours to repair a trough cut by paper that's too coarse. In fact, you may have to replace the damaged section. So start with the least aggressive sandpaper grit that will do the job, whether it's removing old finish or leveling uneven boards. If that proves too gentle, you can easily switch to a more aggressive grit. llll Подпись: TYPE OF MATERIAL GRIT SIZE WHEN TO USE Sandpaper belts 36 Aggressive; use on first pass if boards cupped, uneven for large floor sander; disks for edger 36 open coat Use on first pass if floors coated with wax, paint 60 Try for first pass; switch to 36 if not enough cut 100 Second or third pass Buffer screen 100 Final screen before applying finish (use with backer pad) 220 Smooth between coats of finish Sandpaper strips 180 Smooth between coats of oil-based finish (attach to buffer backer pad) 220 Smooth between coats of water-based finish * Consult finish manufacturer's specs for sanding requirements.
Подпись: Buffer screens are held on with friction. Use them to fine sand a floor that's been stripped or to sand between finish coats.image995Подпись: Backpack vacuums are less likely to gouge flooring or bash woodwork, but their capacity is generally less than that of floor models. Empty vacuums when they're one-third full because the fuller they get, the less efficient they become.

put a lamb’s wool buffing pad on the buffer to bring up the sheen of a finish; thus it’s often used to buff out a new wax coat.

Hand scrapers and sanding blocks reach cor­ners, flooring under cabinet toekicks, and other places edgers can’t reach. Hand scraping is tedious, but it goes more quickly if you periodi­cally use a fine metal file known as a mill file (bastard file) to sharpen the scraper blade.

Other hand tools you’ll need include a nail set to sink nail heads below the surface of the wood before you begin sanding, a hammer, and wide – blade spackling knives or metal squeegees to apply wood filler. If you cut your own edger disks, you’ll need a pair of heavy scissors.

Brushes and applicators should be matched to specific finish types...

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Dispersal and Soakaways

Posted by on 25/ 11/ 15

Water that has been collected from runoff or from sub-surface drainage systems has to be disposed of. The simplest means is to route it to a naturally occurring surface waterbody (stream or lake). Often a retention pond (see Section 13.4.8.1) is interposed between the water coming out of the highway and the outflow into the surface water body. The retention pond reduces peak flow rates (therefore making the outflow easier for the environment to receive without flooding) and may have environmental benefits, too (see Chapter 12, Section 12.4 and Section 13.3.8 in this chapter). However, such surface water aspects are beyond the scope of this book and interested readers are referred to one of the many texts dealing with surface water drainage...

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