It is required that all ferrous metal items are hot dip galvanised including wall ties and anchors. Bolts have to be made out of stainless steel where fully exposed to the weather and hot dip galvanised or cadmium plated steel elsewhere, reinforcement rods should be galvanised to a coating mass of 290g/m2, steel lintels should be galvanised to a coating mass of 600 g/m2 and reinforced lintel to coating mass of 290 g/m2. During the brick cleaning process adequate ventilation has to be provided to avoid metalware corrosion.
Some items can not be considered functional as soon as they are completed, therefore resulting in a waiting time. Those item would include, the clay bricks that need to have 14 resting days out of the kiln before being used, the lintels that should stay supported for duration of at least 7 days after they have been put in place, the slabs from which the props have to be removed before it is loaded with masonry units.
For this project the quality of the masonry work is highly rated as the blocks, fractional blocks, corner blocks, sill blocks, vent blocks, bond beams have to be purpose made for their specific use respecting the manufacturer’s range, the concrete masonry units shouldn’t exceed 80 kg/cu m of moisture content when delivered on the site, a masonry saw has to be used to cut bricks, the mortar used can not be pre-mixed off site, only methyl cellulose can be used as a water thickener, mortar mixing as to be done accurately using specifically provided bucket/box, the sand used for the concrete mix as to be made up of fine aggregate, free from sodium chloride, efflorescing salts, and posses low clay content, the iron salts content for the white cement as to be set to 1%.
Furthermore the concrete is expect to achieve a compressive strength of at least 15MPa after 28 days for the cavity of retaining walls with cement slump tested not to exceed 100mm of slump, the concrete for core filling should reveal a slump between 200mm an 260mm and have a compressive strength of 12 MPa or more after 28 days.
The waterproofing of the walls has to be such as to insure that the junctions between the waterproof and damp-proof membranes are damp proof junctions, the cavity walls are filled up with waterproof concrete up to the first course above ground level on the outer leaf and up to the second course above ground level on the inner leaf, flashing for openings are extended by 50 mm beyond lintels in cavity walls and masonry veneer construction, and a waterproof coating is applied on the soil that retains sides of bricks retaining walls.
Fire resistance is considered important for walls 150 mm thick where the bricks should have a fire resistance of two hours and suitable fire rated materials have to be used with the joints so that the fire resistance of the entire element is not diminished.
Because the appearance of the wall is important, acid shouldn’t be used to clean face work, all joints in the masonry works have to be painted, precautions have to be taken to avoid colour concentration, damp proof membrane has to be clear where it can be visible and black elsewhere, the holes and sleeves have to be built in during construction, a rotary hammer drill has to be used for all drilling purposes, and clear paint applied on masonry has to be water and graffiti resistant.
To efficiently cover the masonry section Brookings Construction should order all the masonry items well before the start of construction to allow sufficient drying-out time and sufficient time for the Superintendent to approve the samples. All the ferrous metal items have to be galvanised in good time to avoid delays. The erection of all the different sections of the building should start with a short wait between them so that the labour can work on other parts of the building that haven’t reached the same stage when they have to wait for the slabs to reach fool strength on one section or any other delays. The superintendent and the project manager should be asked to check the evolution of the construction daily to ensure that all the requirements are being met. This will insure unnecessary delays in demolition or replacement of components.