Details about low cost housing

Low Cost Housing is gaining popularity in recent times. This type of housing is based on productive budgeting and useful methods which facilitate decreasing the construction cost through the application of locally obtainable materials together with superior skills and technology devoid of comprising the strength, performance and longevity of the structure.

The low cost housing is performed by managing all the resources perfectly. The cost reduction is possible by suspending finishing works or utilizing them in phases.

Building Cost - The building construction cost is segregated as follow:

Building material cost : 65 to 70 %

Labour cost : 65 to 70 %

In low cost housing, building material cost is reduced due to application of the locally obtainable materials. Besides, the labour cost is also decreased by correctly making the time schedule of the work. The cost is decreased with the selection of more efficient material or by a superior design.

The cost can be decreased in the following areas :-

1) Minimize the plinth area with the use of thinner wall concept. As for instance 15 cms thick solid concrete block wall.
2) The locally obtainable material should be employed in a untraditional form like soil cement blocks instead of burnt brick.
3) Apply energy efficient materials so that less energy is consumed, as for instance, concrete block instead of burnt brick.
4) Apply eco-friendly materials in place of traditional building constituents, as for instance R.C.C. Door and window frames instead of wooden frames.
5) Plan in advance each constituent of a house and streamline the design method for minimizing the size of the constituent in the building.
6) By planning every constituent of a house the wastage of materials caused by demolition of the unplanned component of the house is bypassed.
7) Each constituent of the house should be verified whether if it’s necessary, if it is unnecessary, then that constituent should not be applied.



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Published By
Rajib Dey
www.constructioncost.co
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How to set up formwork in high rise structures

Aluminum formwork is very effective for both high and low-rise concrete construction projects. Aluminum formwork technology can significantly minimize the labor costs as well as makes the project cycles shorter.

WTF aluminum formwork is a highly recognized construction system for building up cast in place concrete structures. WTF offers aluminum formwork for reinforced concrete construction ranging from single and multi-story buildings and facilitates the walls and slab to be positioned monolithically in the similar operation. It enhances efficiency and builds up an extremely robust structure with superb concrete finish.

The WTF Aluminum Formwork System is excellent since it builds all of the components in the structure along with walls, floor slabs, columns, beams, stairs, window details, balconies, and different decorative features with adherence to the architect's design.

WTF aluminum formwork technology is a complete system that can be employed for simple column, beam and slab constructions through to more complicated features like curved structures, staircases, and all architectural features.

Go through the following video tutorial to learn how WTF aluminum form is set up in high rise structure.

Video Source: Civil Engineering

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Published By
Rajib Dey
www.constructioncost.co
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Construction Project Scheduling

It is generally a mechanism for communicating about the tasks has to do and the organizational resources that will be assigned to complete all those tasks in the given time.

In simple words, a project schedule is a kind of document that gathers all the important works so that project can be delivered on time. A project is a collection of many tasks where each task has a fixed start and end to complete it in time though people have different schedules and their every detail need to be documented in order to successfully plan those tasks.

In past time, the project schedules were printed on calendars on a shared wall in the water-cooler room or shared spreadsheets via email buy in today’s scenario, most of the teams use online project scheduling tools.

As in the current scenario, most of the projects have many moving parts and they are continuously changing; so project scheduling software automatically upgrades tasks which are dependable and can’t completed on time. Besides that, it also provides automated email alerts so that team members can be aware about their scheduled tasks’ time and manager will know when someone’s availability has changed.

Methods to schedule a project: The following steps will discuss how a project is scheduled -

• Specifying Activities: there are lot of activities in every project and at first the important ones need to be listed, here a Work Breakdown Structure or WBS and a deliverable diagram will help to start these activities and to arrange them by projecting the necessary tasks to fulfill them in a right order.

• Make the estimates: After having the defined activities and dividing them into tasks, the project manager has to decide the time and effort to complete them in order to calculate the right schedule.
• Design dependencies: Tasks should be only started after completing the existed ones and it is the task dependency that is reflected in the schedule through these linked tasks. So make sure that the important ones should be on the top of the schedule to complete the project on time.

• Assign resources: At last, the project manager has to finalize the planned schedule as per the needed resources to complete those tasks on time. Make a team; assign them in the project so that all the tasks will be completed together on time.
Maintaining the schedule after the project is started: After scheduling every little object in a project, they need to be manually punched into an Excel Spreadsheet and any project management software can automate much of the process for the manager. There are some programs on the market that are useful for easy scheduling duties and while a project; the managers often need a tool that can fit with the variety of scheduling issues that need to track.

• Scheduling tasks: The project manager has to know about smart software that help to give enough flexibility for controlling many responsibilities attached with every tasks in the project. He can either add tasks and dates into the Gantt chart to keep a visual image of each task’s duration and if the dates change, they can be automated by simple drag and drop with the changes. The email notifications are a great way to keep the track of completing task and the update will be done automatically.
• Scheduling people: To complete all the tasks on time a project manager should assemble all the tasks at first and assemble a team which must be scheduled as per the task list to manage the project. A manager should be aware that team members may take holidays, personal vacation or days and he should schedule the project’s task list so that other team members can pick up the slow in their absence so that the schedule will not suffer. He can keep the task scheduling view on the Gantt chart with resource and workload scheduling features.
• Scheduling projects: Making a project dashboard will help to manage the tasks to be completed in a clean and easy way without any interruption or problems, in addition that he can also use the graphs and charts the dashboard that generate to drill down deeper and customize the results to provide the right information on the right time.

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.constructioncost.co

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Construction Equipments and their various usages

The site managers and construction planners should have clear ideas on the features of the leading construction equipments which are extensively utilized in various construction projects. The on-site productivity mainly depends on the amount of time needed and effort which can be significantly affected by the improper selection of type and size of construction equipments.

Excavation and Loading: One family of construction machines intended for excavation is generally categorized as a crane-shovel.

The crane-shovel consists of three most important components:

• A carrier or mounting which offers mobility and stability for the machine.

• A revolving deck or turntable which includes the power and control units.

• An attachment located forepart that provides the special functions in an operation.

The crawler mounting is specifically useful for crawling over comparatively rugged surfaces at a construction site. Other types of mounting range from truck mounting and wheel mounting offering superior mobility amid job sites, but superior surfaces are needed for functioning efficiently. The revolving deck contains a cab to accommodate the person responsible for operating the mounting and/or the revolving deck. Here in figure 2, the types of front end attachments might contain a crane with hook, claim shell, dragline, backhoe, shovel and piledriver.

Typical Machines in the Crane-Shovel Family: Here a tractor contains a crawler mounting and a non-revolving cab. If an earth moving blade is connected to the forepart of a tractor, the assembly is termed as a bulldozer. If a bucket is connected to its forepart, the assembly is called as a loader or bucket loader. There exist various types of loaders which caterer to most competently deal with materials containing diverse weights and moisture contents.

Scrapers refer to multiple-units of tractor-truck and blade-bucket groups with different combinations to allow the loading and hauling of earthwork. Most important types of scrapers consist of single engine two-axle or three axle scrapers, twin-engine all-wheel-drive scrapers, elevating scrapers, and push-pull scrapers. Every type contains dissimilar characteristics of rolling resistance, maneuverability stability, and speed in operation.

For more information visit, theconstructor.org

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.quantity-takeoff.com

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30-story building built in 15 days

The Chinese sustainable building company, Broad Group, has yet attempted another impossible feat, building a 30-story tall hotel prototype in 360 hours, after building a 15-story building in a week earlier in 2011.

You may ask why in a hurry, and is it safe? The statistics in the video can put you in good faith. Prefabricated modular buildings has many advantages over conventional buildings.

The building was built over last Christmas time and finished before New Years Eve of 2012.

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Published By

Arka Roy

www.quantity-takeoff.com

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The world’s most leading Construction Projects awaiting to be completed in near future

Project: Puerto La Cruz Refinery Expansion and Upgrade

Location: Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela

Capacity: 214 Mbpd

Cost: $6 Billion

Status: Engineering

Completion: 2016

Scope: The project was undertaken for enlarging the Puerto La Cruz refinery from 180 Mbpd to 214 Mbpd, and reform the units to generate unleaded gasoline and diesel fuel from heavy crude. Technip Claremount will take the responsibility for designing and engineering of the hydrogen reformers.

Project: Sabine Pass LNG terminal

Location: Sabine Pass, Louisiana

Capacity: 25 MMtpy

Cost: $18 Billion

Status: Under Construction

Completion: 2019

Scope: At present the Project is under Phase 1 which involves the construction of 4 LNG trains (out of 6 total). The trains 5 and 6 will be constructed under Phase II. This phase is still under assessment by the US DOE. The initial LNG exports are anticipated to be launched along with completion of Train 1 in mid-2015. It is projected that in 2019 all 6 LNG trains will be ready for use.

Project: Garabogaz Chemical Plant

Location: Garabogaz, Turkmenistan

Capacity: 800 Mtpy

Cost: $10 Billion

Status: Planning

Completion: Undetermined

Scope: Japanese Toyo Engineering Corporation and the consortium of LG International Corporation - Hyundai Engineering Corp. Ltd will be liable for the construction of a gas-chemical complex producing polyethylene and polypropylene.

Project: Socar Turkey Aegean Refinery (STAR) Project

Location: Garabogaz, Turkmenistan

Capacity: 800 Mtpy

Cost: $10 Billion

Status: Engineering

Completion: 2017

Scope: The Azerbaijan's state oil fund will spend $475 MM as a financial aid towards the construction of the STAR oil refinery. The design for STAR Refinery will facilitate the progression of various kinds of crude oil like Urals, Azeri Light Crude Oil and Kirkuk.

Project: Coal-to-Olefin (CTO) Project

Location: Ordos, China

Capacity: 800 Mtpy

Cost: $4 Billion

Status: Study

Completion: 2018

Scope: The project was undertaken to obtain the huge amounts of coal China produces and transform the plentiful resource into precious petrochemicals, primarily polyethylene and polypropylene. Besides, the scope of the project is to minimize the amount of imported oil that is utilized as the raw material for producing such products.

Project: Mina Al Ahmadi Refinery Clean Fuels Project 2020

Location: Mina Al Ahmadi, Kuwait

Capacity: 50 Mbpd

Cost: $5 Billion

Status: Feed

Completion: 2017

Scope: The project was initiated to focus and raise refining capacities, enhance the operating performances and the energy efficiency of the refineries, upgrade KNPC's hydrocarbon products production amid the refineries, generate transportation fuels involving small sulfur content and corresponding to Euro 4 standards, decrease the carbon dioxide discharges, broaden Kuwait petrochemical portfolio involving new and high added value by-products and close/disassemble the obtainable Shuaiba refinery.

Project: Kitimat LNG Terminal Project

Location: Kitimat, British Columbia (Canada)

Capacity: 10 MMtpy

Cost: $15 Billion

Status: Feed

Completion: 2017

Scope: Kitimat LNG awarded the EPC contract to a joint venture comprised of Fluor and JGC in January 2014. Project includes natural gas liquefaction, LNG storage and marine on-loading facilities. Feed natural gas will be provided by Apache's Horn River and Liard fields in British Columbia. Environmental approvals are in place, as is a 20-year export license from Canada's Government. Apache has spoken of a $US7.9 billion start-up cost for Kitimat's first processing train, with a first production target of 2016.

Project: Ingleside Ethylene Project

Location: Ingleside, Texas

Capacity: 550 Mtpy

Cost: $1.5 Billion

Status: Engineering

Completion: 2017

Scope: The plant is situated at Oxychem's site. The two companies each contain a 50% share in the joint venture. Most of the ethylene formed by the cracker would be utilized by Oxychem to generate vinyl chloride monomer, or VCM, one kind of raw material useful for the production of PVC plastic, which it then would supply to Mexichem.

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published by

Tuhin Maity

www.quantity-takeoff.com

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Reed Construction Data introduced Intelligent leads to redefine construction project leads

Reed Construction Data recently unveiled the introduction of Intelligent Leads. It is a new system to monitor the movements concerning a construction project all through the United States. Intelligent Leads amalgamate the authentic database of construction projects from Reed Construction with RSMeans’ analytical cost models and provides supreme clarity into project opportunities.

With Intelligent Leads the building product manufacturers will be able to get exact ideas well in advance to utilize their endeavors in the most superior way for maximizing their revenues. RSMeans-backed Material Demand can easily quantify the value of any projects with completely searchable plans, specs and schedules for the manufacturer before time in the project life cycle prior to the formation of the specifications.

Intelligent Leads comes up with an insightful and customizable dashboard that gathers all information at the users’ fingertips. There are also other exclusive features like saved- searches, automatic company activity alerts and powerful exports which provide a superior user interface.

Intelligent Leads is accessible now and it will be demonstrated at the Greenbuild 2013 Convention in Philadelphia, November 20-21 at the Reed Construction Data Booth 3107.

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Published by 
Rajib Dey
Content Writer
www.quantity-takeoff.com (Get all types of estimating sheets, softwares, directory, news, building codes)

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