Building construction

Building construction

Building construction for several apartment blocks. The blue material is insulation cladding, which will be covered later.

-A large unfinished building.
Building construction is the process of adding structure to real property. The vast majority of building construction projects are small renovations, such as addition of a room, or renovation of a bathroom. Often, the owner of the property acts as laborer, paymaster, and design team for the entire project.
-However, all building construction projects include some elements in common - design, financial, and legal considerations. Many projects of varying sizes reach undesirable end results, such as structural collapse, cost overruns, and/or litigatios reason, those with experience in the field make detailed plans and maintain careful oversight during the project to ensure a positive outcome.
-Building construction is procured privately or publicly utilizing various delivery methodologies, including hard bid, negotiated price, traditional, management contracting, construction management-at-risk, design & build and design-build bridging.



Procurement
Procurement describes the merging of activities undertaken by the client to obtain a building. There are many different methods of construction procurement; however the three most common types of procurement are:
Traditional (Design-bid-build)
Design and Build
Management Contraction
- Traditional
Main article: Design-bid-build
This is the most common method of construction procurement and is well established and recognised. In this arrangement, the architect or engineer acts as the project coordinator.
- His or her role is to design the works, prepare the specifications and produce construction drawings, administer the contract, tender the works, and manage the works from inception to completion. There are direct contractual links between the architect's client and the main contractor.
-Any subcontractor will have a direct contractual relationship with the main contractor. it is a stipulated price contract type of method.here, design risk is allocated to owner and cost risk is allocated to contractor

- Design and build
Main article: Design-build
This approach has become more common in recent years and includes an entire completed package, including fixtures, fittings and equipment where necessary, to produce a completed fully functional building.
- In some cases, the Design and Build (D & B) package can also include finding the site, arranging funding and applying for all necessary statutory consents.
The owner produces a list of requirements for a project, giving an overall view of the project's goals. Several D&B contractors present different ideas about how to accomplish these goals. The owner selects the ideas (s)he likes best and hires the appropriate contractor.
- Often, it is not just one contractor, but a consortium of several contractors working together. Once a contractor (or a consortium) has been hired, they begin building the first phase of the project. As they build phase 1, they design phase 2. This is in contrast to a design-bid-build contract, where the project is completely designed by the owner, then bid on, then completed.
-Kent Hansen, director of engineering for the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA), pointed out that state departments of transportation (DOTs) usually use design build contracts as a way of getting projects done when states don't have the resources. In DOTs, design build contracts are usually used for very large projects. [1]

[edit] Management procurement systems
Main article: Construction management
In this arrangement the client plays an active role in the procurement system by entering into separate contracts with the designer (architect or engineer), the construction manager, and individual trade contractors.
-The client takes on the contractual role, while the construction or project manager provides the active role of managing the separate trade contracts, and ensuring that they all work smoothly and effectively together.
Management procurement systems are often used to speed up the procurement processes, allow the client greater flexibility in design variation throughout the contract, the ability to appoint individual work contractors, separate contractual responsibility on each individual throughout the contract, and to provide greater client control.

-Residential construction
More and more families are looking into building their own homes, or contracting to have them built. Construction practices, technologies, and resources conform to state and local building codes.

-Heavy/Civil construction
Heavy/Civil construction is the process adding infrastructure to our built environment. Owners of these projects are usually government agencies, either at the national or local level. As in building construction, heavy/civil construction has design, financial, and legal considerations, however these projects are not usually undertaken for-profit, but to service the public interest.
-However, heavy/civil construction projects are also undertaken by large private corporations, including, among others, the golf courses, harbors, power companies, railroads, and mines, who undertake the construction of access roads, dams, railroads, general site grading, and massive earthwork projects. As in building construction, the owner will assemble a team to create an overall plan to ensure that the goals of the project are met.

- Authority having jurisdiction
In construction, the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) is the governmental agency or subagency which regulates the construction process. In most cases, this is the municipality in which the building is located. However, construction performed for supra-municipal authorities are usually regulated directly by the owning authority, which becomes the AHJ.
-During the planning of a building, the zoning and planning boards of the AHJ will review the overall compliance of the proposed building with the municipal General Plan and zoning regulations.
-Once the proposed building has been approved, detailed civil, architectural, and structural plans must be submitted to the municipal building department (and sometimes the public works department) to determine compliance with the building code and sometimes for fit with existing infrastructure.
- Often, the municipal fire department will review the plans for compliance with fire-safety ordinances and regulations.

Construction on a building in Kansas City
Before the foundation can be dug, contractors are typically required to notify utility companies, either directly or through a company such as Dig Safe to ensure that underground utility lines can be marked.
-This lessens the likelihood of damage to the existing electrical, water, sewage, phone, and cable facilities, which could cause outages and potentially hazardous situations. During the construction of a building, the municipal building inspector inspects the building periodically to ensure that the construction adheres to the approved plans and the local building code. Once construction is complete and a final inspection has been passed, an occupancy permit may be issued.
-An operating building must remain in compliance with the fire code. The fire code is enforced by the local fire department.
Any changes made to a building including its use, expansion, its structural integrity, and fire protection items, require acceptance by the AHJ. Anything affecting basic safety functions, no matter how small they may appear, may require the owner to apply for a building permit, to ensure proper review of the contemplated changes against the building code.

- Routes into construction careers
There are several routes to the different careers within the construction industry. Craft industries offer jobs where employees train while they work through apprenticeships and other training schemes. Another way, where many construction staff have found success, is through recruitment agencies.
Technical occupations in the UK require GCSE qualifications or vocational equivalents, either initially or through on the job apprenticeship training.
-One example is that of Quantity Surveying. Quantity Surveyors are effectively cost managers within the construction industry and may be: (1) employed by Chartered Surveyor practices (referred to often as "PQS" derived from the term Private Quantity Surveyor) who normally represent the client's interest and liaise with the Architect on the client's team, preparing cost plans, preparing tender documentation, giving cost advice on variations, preparing monthly valuation payments to the contractor, agreeing the final account with the contractor, generally looking after the client's interests (although the role can be referred to within some standard forms of contract as being a neutral role to value 'the' costs of the project), in practice it tends to be looking after the client's interests primarily; or (2) employed by Main Contractors, in which role they manage the contractor's costs, place subcontract orders, make payments to subcontractors, claim monthly valuations from the client's surveyor (Private QS or "PQS"), cost manage variations, prepare internal cost reports to senior management and directors, generally managing the project commercially and protect the contractor's interests contractually. Contractual aspects such as delays and extensions of time issues are also within the remit of the Quantity Surveyor (QS); or (3) employed by Subcontractors, in which role they carry out a similar function to Main Contractor's QS's.
-The main difference is that they are normally submitting monthly valuation claims for payment to the Main Contractor, whereas the Manin Contractor claims from the client's Surveyor (usually a Chartered Surveyor practice or Private QS "PQS"). Large subcontractors may also employ sub-subcontractors, thereby making the QS role similar in the cost management role, including placing sub-contract orders (to sub-subcontractors), valuing and claiming variations, preparing cost reports to senior management, etc; or (4) employed by Local Authorities (local Councils, etc), whereby the role is broadly similar to that of private practice surveyors in cost managing project from the funding client's perspective (in this case the Local Authority council within which they are employed), dealing usually with main contractors; or (5) employed by Developers; whereby the role may be a mixture of the role of a client's surveyor (the funding client being the developer in this case) mixed with that of a main contractor in possibly employing package sub-contractors directly Other information: The most recognised body for surveyors in construction is the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (the 'RICS'). It is more common for a private practice surveyor or local authority employed surveyor to be a member of the RICS, though RICS qualified surveyors do work within main contractors and sub-contractors (the writer of this Quantity Surveyor segment qualified RICS within private practice working on the client's side, then migrated over to work for a large sub-contractor. Such cross-overs are quite common between client's side and contracting). Quantity Surveying offers a great diversity of roles and in career path, working on a variety of projects and within different areas and facets of the construction industry. The qualification of "Chartered Quantity Surveyor" has been superseded as the RICS rules have replaced this with simply "Chartered Surveyor" (except those existing Chartered QS's who registered to keep the Chartered QS title by a date now passed), and Chartered Quantity Surveyor practices have now largely adopted the title of "Construction Cost Consultants" and having the right to call themselves simply "Chartered Surveyors" - though still often referred to in the UK construction industry as "PQS's". It is also possible for Construction Cost Consultant practices to be occasionally employed by local authorities, contractors or subcontractors, on a particular construction project although not if they are already employed as surveyors for the same construction project.
-As well as the role of Quantity Surveyor, other professions within the UK construction industry are for example: Architect, Engineer, Project Manager, Planner, Safety Officer. These roles may be in 'Building' (buildings such as Offices, Shopping Centres, Housing); or 'Civil Engineering' (structures such as Bridges, Dams, Motorways/Roads/Highways, Harbours/Ferry Terminals).
- While projects such as construction of new Power Stations or Naval Bases may comprise a combination of both 'building' and 'civil engineering'.
Graduate roles in the construction industry are filled by people with at least a foundation degree in subjects such as civil engineering, building and construction management.
-Graduates often receive specialised positions and gain qualifications such as chartered status.