Architectural Technologist – Foundation setting out

When I draw a new extension plan, I invariably set the foundation line in a green dotted line, just to make sure every one knows just where it is, the width of the foundations and the excavation. I also put my general note on saying the min dept to the top of the completed concrete. I know full well the actual depth of the dig is dependant on the building inspector, looking for firm ground, the presence of roots and type of soil. But I like to set the number of brick or block courses to top of slab, so the contractor has a level line of the top course to tamp the concrete on. In most cases in my area of the planet it's 5 blocks. I so often get calls asking to full fill the trench with concrete, I hate this but sometimes it inevitable. It not cheaper to do,it's just a quick fix to speed the job up.

Foul and storm pipes are also part of this, supporting and bridging with lintels. But the point of this blog is to remind the technologist that the CPD required for this area is most important, once the foundations are set it controls the job, so CPD involves setting out with profile boards, setting the top of foundations again checking and controlling with the profile board, shoring, pipe positions, oh and you might not know what's there until you dig !, soil types, and on older buildings existing coursing dimensions.

Several time in the older parts of Birmingham, we have excavated to find no foundations at all, the house was built on two or three courses of bricks, it's not a problem most of these houses have been up for over 100 years so it's just a detail that must be dealt with, by not disturbing the bricks and if needed underpinning, which inevitably involves more work, and if it's a neighbouring wall, the party wall act.

So CPD for foundations has quite a bit to cover, from old to new, I use an engineer to do my calcs, but so often he goes for the simple, so having some knowledge of what's possible is important, otherwise you might get caught with some meaty concrete being poured.

I have saved to my Evernote account several documents relating to foundations, mostly party wall act reminders, access, foundation designs I have used, I have my brick dims tables there to. Which reminded me about a great little video from screencasts online showing some great tricks for storing notes, I particularly like the email trick for sensing emails to the right folder and attaching tabs.

 

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Architectural Technologist – How wide is this wall

I don’t know about you, but I only have to look at a wall and I know more or less how wide it is, well in the UK I can, that is until I was surveying a farm house we are planning to extend, now about the time I started in Architecture, The first job was to determine the size of the brick to be used, generally is was not far of 9″ x 41/2 ” x 3″ note I use imperial measurements here not metric, so looking at the coursing and bricks on the farm house we are measuring up, it became clear that we had a problem, the bricks were of the lower end of the scale, and we need to check out all the brick manufacturers to see if they are still available and in the right colour and texture match.

But back to the imperial and metric sizes, just as I started work in 1969 metric became legal and we started to use metric equivalent bricks, there was a move to use a specifically designed metric brick, but it never came through. The clever amongst you might work out that imperial bricks are, mostly, not co-ordinated, but metric equivalent bricks are 215mm x 102mm x 65mm, 3 bricks, and two joints of 10mm make 215mm, not so with early imperial bricks, so the discovery of imperial bricks on my farmhouse has implications, not just in supply, but in co-ordination of coursing. We await the findings of our friendly brick man.

Architectural Technologist – Door set and fitting

Image by Scays via Flickr

I might have blogged this before, but as it’s currently in my mind, I thought I might just mention it as part of the CPD process. When putting plans together, I often stop and just reflect on the internal door size I should be using. In the UK we have a mixture of both Imperial and Metric sizes. If I am doing work on an existing job ie an extension I measure the doors just to check what they are, My local suppliers all stock old imperial doors so thats what I specify, and just to make sure I make a bold general note in the top right of my drawings that the doors used are Imperial size doors. otherwise I use Metric.

Next its a general note to say just what the structural open size will be, I always use a system that has stood mw well over the years, that is to use 7mm grounds on either side, 32mm thick door jambs and 3mm for the door gap, this adds up to a 910mm opening size for a 826mm door.

Why 826mm wide doors for a domestic house, well it because of the number of times I have tried to get furniture and the like through a 726 wide door, that 100mm makes all the difference, its as simple as that. Obviously if the existing doors in an extension are smaller, I stick to the general size used, or if disabled use is relavant I wil use a 926 or special door width, but I prefer to specify wider if at all possible.

Now I hear you saying what are grounds, well they are the packing pieces either side of the door frame, that we fit to allow for site inaccuracies, but most of all, they allow the door to be fitted with ease, you try sliding a pre made door into an opening thats only just big enough for the  frame, hammers and a little force come to mind, but if you have made the structural opening 14mm wider than the frame, you can add packing pieces or grounds, it also allow the carpenter a little slack to get the frame upright, and the architrave will cover the gap.

Next we need to look at brick sizes it just so happens that 4 stretcher bricks (215+10) plus an extra joint = 910 so another good reason to use this method of thinking. Internaly were plaster and block are used, this might not be such a problem, but where  exposed brickwork is ised or the door is to an external wall then its something you should think about.

So the CPD here is quite large, door types, existing old and new door sizes, fitting, brick co-ordination, and I have not covered ironmongery at all. For UK readers we have the DDA to contend with so there is just a little light reading to conform with on access. Plus a little surveying, ie recognising door widths and thicknesses.

 

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