Safety tips on construction sites

A construction site

Work becomes more interesting, and more energetic, when a site, where such a work, is being carried out is accident free, but, on the contrary, it is always enervating, when it is full of energy sapping, and pain aggravating accidents.
These health hazards, which  cause  retardation  to the rapid  pace of site  works,  and at times, make contractors lose money, are often  caused  by mistakes  and  negligence.  Meanwhile, for the purpose of those who care about safety, here are some safety tips that enhance safety;

Boots – As a worker on a site, always put your boots on,  your work   might not be related to  nails,  but,  never  can tell,  you may want to  take  a trek,  a nail will not inform you about its intent to  give you a long, sleepless night of pain. But, if you tread on a nail, quickly make twenty hits on it,  with a hammer

Tuck in your trouser – Do not  hesitate to always tuck your hard jean trouser  into your boots, this  actually concerns  site managers, surveyors, and  architects,  going on a reconnaissance survey – a new site with  fresh  vegetation may be breeding high venom reptiles.

Wear glasses when welding – taking a closer look at the type of materials used to weld, you need to shield your eyes away from those strands of sharp flames.

Helmet – in a case of stories, or hoisting works generally, you need a helmet to shield your head from dropping items, dropping items, ranging from 2” nails, to a hammer, to steel sections. It sounds funny, but, many people have died because of dropping items.

Do not trust  temporary structures wholeheartedly – as  it sounds, they are temporary, and workers in charge, especially carpenters, try to make them temporary as they can, so, do not trust those structures by leaning on them, you might just  see yourself  kissing the floor afterwards.

Do not joke with delivery trucks – putting up a “hard-man” mode, or acting like “jet li” when delivery trucks are moving around might be a real deal of catastrophe, especially, when the unexpected occurs. The gist is, move away from them when they are performing their duties.

Watch heights – the essence of this is to let you know that heights can be deceiving, although, some do not have phobia for heights, nonetheless, you have to be extra careful when mounting.

Use your eyes well – in everything you do, use your sense of sight effectively.
Thank you.

Laying of Wall Tiles and Skirting

Before thinking about laying of your wall tiles, you must have tested all your water pipes against leakage. Since wall tiles are used majorly at kitchens, toilets and bathrooms where water outlets are, water pipes should be tested before tiling.
Unlike floor tiles, the processes involved in laying wall tiles successfully are quite different from that of floor tiles. Taking the picture below as a a case-study:

The processes are explained in the following steps :

i. Sock the tiles in a drum of water. This is a necessity when using ceramic tiles. Why so? Ceramic wall tiles can be so porous that they absorb the moisture content of the cement paste between them and the wall, thereby causing a weak bond between the wall and the tiles.

ii. Take the measurements of the wall to determine if you’ll be needing a cut at the bottom and top or not. If you’ll be needing a cut, then the cut must be equal at both top and bottom. Take your measurements as regards this and take a level at the bottom where you’d start your tiling with whole sized tiles.
However, if you don’t need a cut, then start tiling with whole sized tiles from the bottom to the top as shown above.
Please note that this depends on the design given.

iii. Unlike floor tiles, we don’t need and obviously we can’t use cement-sand screed on the wall. A mixture of cement and water is prepared in a head pan to form a moderate paste. This paste is then placed on the back of the tiles and slapped gently on the wall.

iv. Continue by repeating step iii. If you are using a spacing arrangement, ensure equal spacing otherwise, close up the gaps perfectly.

v. For a spaced arrangement, fill up spaces at the end of tiling with the paste earlier prepared, tilers call this putty filing.
That’s it! You’ve successfully laid your wall tiles!

Skirting; has a similar process with wall tiles because it’s laid on the wall too. It is done to cover up the edges of the floor tiles, moreso, for aesthetic reasons. However it is important to do the skirting after floor tiles. Some people use seasoned and polished timber in lieu of ceramic tiles, it all boils down to personal choices.

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” — Nelson Mandela

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

Ego kills

To be candid with you, picking up a pen at this time of the day to write is really drab, but, it seems I will not have a good day if I do not express my humble mind, and add this to my corpus. Anyway, do not mind me.
“Religion is the opium of the people”, so i heard from a friend of mine studying law in the same university where i am. But, i do not understand, is it because he’s an atheist? I can’t say really.
Then, that reminds me of EGO, ego, ego, ego… This rings a bell in the ears of many, both young and old, it sounds like an everyday radio topic. Going by definition, “ego” is simply a sense of self importance, when one attaches too much importance to oneself. But wait, is everybody not important? Yes, of course, everybody is, but, that should be objective, that should be a reflection of oneself to the public, it should be people’s definition about oneself, not subjective, not trying to show it off to the whole world that you are, not trying to pressurize others, not making others suffer because you want them to feel your importance, we all know that you are important,  of course, you are, if you are not, nobody will respect you to that extent,  nobody will bow when your presence is underway. Everybody knows you are important, so do not let them fear you.
Many superiors today want their inferior to fear them, because, they believe only fear can bring forth the importance in them, that should not be, for crying out loud, these inferiors also want to see you smile with them, wine and dine with them, they want to secure their safety with you, they don’t want to be fugitives, they don’t want to leave for a reason being you.
Once, I was told by a colleague of mine, “guy, when you see that man, do not try to hide, just run”, is that supposed to be? No, it should not be, people running away when they hear your voice will not pay you, this is not about you maintaining a good standard, it is what they know about you, people already know that you are not capable, so you want them to think you are, that is overkilling, it is more that you trying to immortalize yourself.
Many people have died! That does not absolutely mean “demise, in the real sense”, ordinarily losing one’s self-respect and love connotes death at times. Simple courtesy promotes good human relations, I have met men, men of honour and respect, men with vision, men of accomplishments, men that work so hard to make organizations places of harmony, they are able to do all these with “simplicity, competence, and coordination” simply put, “s.c.c” that’s what you need, as a man, to reach a state of objective importance,
Mr. and Mrs., drop ego, it will not help, many people lost their way a long time ago without knowing, they came back to realize, but it was just too late. Simplify yourself, let others relate with you. Don’t be a hard-nut to crack, that does not mean you are stupid. Be flexible, and stay cool. This is my delivery.