A Dozen Rules for Site Engineers Regarding Artisans

1. Artisans will give their opinions, listen to them but never let them decide for you.

2. If you ever take an artisan’s opinion, don’t make it obvious or credit him to his face directly. Otherwise, he would take a wrong decision on your work in your absence thinking you’ve got his back.

3. Some are adamant, they don’t take to instructions because they think they know too much to be directed. Deal with them!

4. Irrelevant intimacy with artisans makes them forget there is a very big ocean between an engineer and an artisan.

5. Try as much as possible not to owe your workers especially the artisans, you lose your respect and command.

6. Get angry when things aren’t right on site, shake the ground and send the venom down their spines. Yes, you’re in charge! If anything goes wrong, you would be held responsible.

7. Give incentives when necessary, artisans are humans like you. Remember, Agent + Incentive = Principal. That is, if you want them to double up their work rate and put in more dedication, give incentives!

8. Let them understand your scale, rate and method of payment. Otherwise, there would be unwarranted argument at the end of the day.

9. Show them and make them feel your mental strength. Imitate the legacies of the likes of F. W. Taylor, Henri Fayol, Elton Mayo and other notable icons of construction management.

10. If you ever have to praise one of them, never do it to intimidate the others but to motivate them to act likewise.

11. Sometimes, you can pay for their lunch. This does not only appreciates them but further strengthen your hold on them. It also helps to increase work rate afterwards.

12. Remember Rule 3, after a couple of warnings and corrections, do not hesitate to lay off adamant and redundant artisans.

… spent just two months on site and I can say a dozen lines on engineer – artisan relationship…

“docendo discitur”: It is learned by teaching.

How to Tile a Floor: A pictorial, step by step guide.

The first step to laying of floor tiles is to have the floor cleared of debris and dirt as we’ve seen above.

Cement and sand are then mixed in the required ratio which could be 1:4, 1:6, or 1:8. Water is added to the mix to give the cement-sand screed.

On the clean floor, a level is taken above the floor surface and the conduit pipes containing service cables. This level is taken using a line, which is held at both ends of the room/space to be tiled. A spirit-level (bricklayers refer to it as plum) is then placed horizontally along the line to ensure a uniform level above the ground.  A sufficient amount of the prepared screed is then placed under this line, and marks are made on the screed level. (in this case with damaged tiles cut into pieces)

The above shows the previous step completed.

The leveled height is then filled with cement-sand screed as shown above.

 For easy access, 2 by 12 timbers and some tiles are placed on the screed as shown

Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) is then placed on the cement-sand screed.

Water is then applied by dipping a foam in a water bucket and squeezing it on the dry cement placed earlier.

 

When cement paste is formed, tiles are then placed on it. With the help of a metal range the tiles are placed in alignment with the others maintaining the spacing and line. A rubber mallet is used on the tiles to ensure they make a firm bond with the floor.

For tiles laid with spaced joints, the joints have to be filled up with ‘OPC’ paste as shown above.

The above is what you have at the end of this process – A finished floor with tiles.

Simple as “A, B, C”, and shining brighter than Rihanna’s Diamond, LOL.

Note:

i. Placing of tiles may start at the edge or center of the room/space depending on the design.

ii. Joints could be spaced joints or closed joints, depending on your desired result or taste.

iii. White cement can also be used to fill up spaced joints, in fact, it’s widely used but in the illustrations above, OPC was  used.

I walked bare footed on a tiled floor, I got ‘cold feet’.

okay, we have to do something about syria

gregfallis.com

       “We HAVE to do something about Syria!”
       “Okay. Why?”
       “Because the Syrian government used chemical weapons against their own people!”
       “Okay. But hasn’t the Syrian government been killing their own people for a couple of years now?”
       “Yes. But this time they used chemical weapons!”
       “Okay. Do chemical weapons kill their victims deader than conventional weapons?”
       “You don’t understand! Chemical weapons are indiscriminate!”
       “Okay. But when the Syrian government shelled neighborhoods where insurgents were suspected of hiding, wasn’t that also indiscriminate?”
       “The chemical weapons killed noncombatants! Women! Children! Old people!”
       “Okay. Didn’t the shelling also kill women and children and old…”
       “We have to do something to stop the killing of innocents!”
       “Okay. What…

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Asbestos, your Health and the Law

Are you experiencing short breath, persistent cough and pain in the lower part of your chest?, then I have a sure bet on you. Mesothelioma, asbestosis or lung cancer is what you’re suffering from.

Asbestos; strong, affordable, resistance to heat, fire, chemical and electrical damages, is a naturally occuring mineral fibre. It is known for its’ insulation power. Therefore it gained so much ground among builders and manufacturers of the 20th century due to its attractive qualities. Its’ use continued up till the end of the last century when the government considered it a life threatening substance.

“Superceil are made from cellulose, other Reinforcing fibres and high quality portland cement. It has a Plain surface on one side and a coarse grain on the reverse side. It comes in natural grey colour and a standard size of 1220mm x 1220mm ” –Nigerite

Contrary to public believe and what we used to know, Nigerite’s MD in an interview with the Nigerian Guardian Newspaper two years ago claimed they no longer use asbestos. He said they stopped its’ use since 2002 in compliance with the Federal Government and International Labour Organizations’ directive.
Up till this moment, a lot of people still refer to their ceiling tiles as asbestos even when it doesn’t contain a bit of it. However, for buildings built before the year 2002, it’s safe to say they most definitely contain asbestos. We can then infer that almost everyone at one time or the other had been in contact with this silent killer. It is a silent killer because an asbestos-related illness may not appear for years.

When it finally does, the rightful thing to do is to file a law suit or personal injury claim against the manufacturer or your  employer as the case may be, depending on how and where you got an exposure, prolonged enough to cause the injury. This personal injury claim helps to get a compensation for the victim. You need an Asbestos Attorney to file your claim. He uses precedence, medical diagnoses report and other investigations to help you win your claim. The statute of limitations for this claim is 3 years starting from the time of medical diagnose.
Lastly, else you’re talking about the Canadian city “Asbestos, Quebec”, please stop refering to your ceilings tiles as asbestos.

“docendo discitur”: It is learned by teaching.