Monthly Archives: February 2017

Safety of construction workers

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Accidents have become so prone in construction zones that it seems to be almost impossible to contain it. But the fact of the matter is we can contain many accidents from happening by following few safety parameters. This means that there is a severe lack of awareness amongst the construction workers when it comes to their own safety. Moreover, the effort put by the construction companies to educate the workers about the importance of wearing safety gears is negligible making things worse for the workers. The laws of US are strict enough to curb this problem but the real issue lies with the implementation at the ground level.

Other than this, due to the kind of risk involved it turns out to be a dangerous zone for the people working in it. The workers got to be careful when they are working at heights and while on the land they needs to have an eye on the heavy equipment that wanders all around the place. Though the operator stays vigilant to avoid any eventuality but still accidents happen and therefore it is the responsibility of everybody on the site to see that people around them are safe.

The construction workers also need to follow few safety parameters which will relatively bring down the incidents of accidents to a larger extent.

Wearing of safety gears:-

Safety gears starts right from wearing a belt to putting on a jacket. It largely depends on the type of work you will be doing and the site you are put into. Wearing helmets is quite common but many do not put the strap. This will let the helmet fall every now and then so it is better that the workers should tighten the helmet by putting on the strap. When they are working on heights like cleaning the glass window of a high story building, they should wear the safety belts so that in case if they lose their balance they do not hit the ground.

Check your tools before you begin to work:-

Workers are required to use a lot of tools. Right from Scaffolds to a hammer, they got to do with everything and therefore they need to ensure that all the tools that they will be working with are in perfect order. In case if they see anything to be shaky or not in order, they should immediately reach out to the officer in charge and report it to him. Resume working only if they are offered satisfactory equipment. Most of the times, there seem to be some issue with the ladder and the workers simply underestimate the issue and get on it. They are simply putting themselves at risk.

Know where the first aid box is:-

Most of the construction workers are not even aware if there is a first aid box available in the jobsite. They get to know about it only after the accident. Well, every worker should know about the location of the first aid box and how to use it. It can save their life and also the lives of their co-workers.

Buy Now on eBay [ebayfeedsforwordpress feed=”” items=”2″]

Few basic rules to follow before you rent your heavy equipment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Before you begin doing anything, you got to follow few very basic rules that will lead to its successful completion. Be it studies, sports or business, there are some rules for everything and you can only do that thing correctly if you follow those rules. Here we will be talking about what one should do while they are renting their heavy equipment. What are the rules one should follow when they are planning to put their heavy equipment on rent.

The very basic rule while you rent your heavy equipment is to identify the machine that you want to let out. Identifying the heavy equipment is done basically by knowing if the machine is being put to any use in your existing projects. If you find the machine is lying idle for months, then that is the one you should be putting on rent.

Simultaneously, you also need to check if the machine is in order or is it lying down there because it is no longer in working condition. If this is the case, then you have to firstly get it repaired by a good service guy and then look at the possibilities if it can be absorbed into any of your existing projects. If you do not see any need for it then you should think about renting it. However, if you see that the machine can be accommodated into any of your projects, then the question of renting the machine does not arise.

After having identified the heavy equipment and also finding it qualified to let it out, the next step would be search for someone who would need the heavy equipment and would be ready to pay you the rent for using it. You may find this to be little difficult. It is not easy to get hold of someone who will treat your heavy equipment like his own, service the machine at regular intervals and keep good care of it.

You need to place ads in various websites or newspaper classifieds from where you can get people interested to take it on rent. The most viable option is to place the ad in a recognized website. A website that many follow to take heavy equipment for rent should be your next target. You need to identify such a website and place the advertisement out there. The remaining process may follow swiftly. You may receive calls from people interested in your heavy equipment. If you are willing to negotiate the price, you can do that over the phone or else you can strictly state “No Negotiation”.

Once you get a person, the next process will be to draft an agreement. You can catch hold your attorney who prepares such drafts. There you need to state in all the terms and conditions and it should be agreed upon by both the parties. Once the draft is legitimized, both the parties are bound to follow the terms of the agreement. After the agreement is done, you can hand over the machine to the user.

Buy Now on eBay [ebayfeedsforwordpress feed=”” items=”2″]

Related articles across the web

How does rain affect a construction job site

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Challenges have many faces and sometimes it comes in the face of weather. If there is a hostile weather and you have strict deadlines, it is just not possible to complete the job on time. You have to stop work as your men will have a tough time to carry on with the site operations and it also not makes any sense to risk the lives of your workers when you know that it is not going to happen. Though excuses do not work in the construction sector but this does not mean that you are going to put the lives of the workers at risk. A stormy weather or heavy monsoon can be a real spoilsport for your work. Other seasons like summer and winters can still be managed but during monsoon it just becomes unmanageable. One good thing is that it does not rain heavily all throughout the monsoon. There are few days in a month when you will not see the sky pouring water and this is perhaps the time when you should work hard to try and complete the work and be ahead of schedule.

Rain has always been a major threat to the construction business. If it rains a lot it may also affect the quality of the building. The workers have nothing to do as they are instructed not to proceed with the work for a couple of days. This makes things quite difficult for the company. The delay caused due to rains has to be compensated on other days by working for extra hours. The engineers may have their own plans to sort things out but rain can turn things away from them and not all might end up as per the plan laid by them. Heavy rains also impact the digging work. Excavation work becomes riskier as the earth becomes soft and quite unpredictable. Moreover the ground is watery and this can turn really ugly for the guys employed for digging work. No number of safety equipments can be of much use when they work in a situation like this.

Industry experts believe that nothing more can have a much greater negative impact on the construction sector other than hostile weather and specifically monsoon which has after effects too. Some companies have even experienced the worst. It took them almost 3 months to place a slab of a building which ideally does not take more than a couple of weeks. It seemed to rain every day and when it did not workers could not find it convenient to work.

Heavy rains also block the supply of materials to the jobsite. Materials are all blocked for days and it becomes tougher for the company to operate in such a situation. Now one can’t control rains and therefore need to chart out a strategy by keeping these things into consideration. Rains can cause quite a havoc in the construction industry and the companies should be prepared to take on challenges that comes along with it.

Buy Now on eBay [ebayfeedsforwordpress feed=”” items=”2″]

How do construction companies make earthquake proof buildings

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

By using the best raw materials and putting in place the best design you can build real classy and strong buildings but when it comes to constructing earthquake proof buildings it is not just the design and the raw materials that can steal the show. It is perhaps the technology which is used to build earthquake proof buildings. As a matter of fact, there is nothing such as earthquake proof buildings because if there comes a powerful quake, not the strongest of so called “earthquake proof” buildings will be able to survive. They can pretty well manage a few slight strokes of quake but not a mighty one.

In fact, no building can ever survive a powerful stroke. Buildings normally carry their own weight and are firmly grounded on the earth. So if there is any shift in the plates of the earth it will eventually have its impact on all the buildings no matter how much earthquake resistant they are and if there is a huge shift in the plates it will bring down all that stands on its surface.

The primary reason why buildings made today can’t take even the slightest quake stroke is they being over-weight. People tend to add rooms inside the apartments and add stuffs that increase the overall weight of the building. This proves to be quite fatal when a major quake jilts the place. The tremor may not be that high but the disaster turns out to be lethal. So the basic question is what a construction company can do to build buildings that can take sizable tremors and can still stand strong.

The answer to this is to try to have a stronger base and use the best of materials. One must ensure that the entire weight of the building lies in its foundation and as long as the foundation is strong and healthy it can take on the strongest tremors. There are some ancient literature that talks in length of how to build earthquake resistant building. They talk in length of the kind of materials to be used and the design to be made to come up with a building that can stand strong even after a heavy tremor.

There are different schools of engineering which teaches how to make buildings that can take on the quake and still stand strong. Though it also talks about its limitations but it is certainly a possibility to construct quake resistant buildings but definitely not a quake proof one. Industry experts believe that it has to do a lot with the design and the kind of materials used while constructing a building. There are also few who think contrary to this belief and therefore there are various tests made to check which will work better in case of a quake. Many also believe that precast concrete to be used to build quake resistant buildings as it has shown satisfactory results with seismic performance. In a nutshell, one can conclude that for the time being there is nothing that we can call it as earthquake proof buildings. All that we can do is construct buildings with stronger foundation and using precast concrete to make it quake resistant.

Buy Now on eBay [ebayfeedsforwordpress feed=”” items=”2″]

Loyalty of employees is important in the construction industry

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

It is perhaps the human resource that defines the future of any company and as far as the overall industry is concerned, human resources play a significant role in shaping it up. It is the talent that every man and woman possesses that defines the destiny of the company and simultaneously of the industry. There are people who change jobs to get a hike in their package. The other company who hires them finds their credentials suiting the needs of the company and therefore they pick them by giving a higher package. But it is certainly not a wise thing to lose your efficient men to others. They are leaving your company for a reason and it is important to understand that reason do every possible thing to retain them. Now you can’t force them to quit but you can certainly offer them something that they can’t refuse. It simply does not make any sense to lose your employees who have been in the company for the last many years.

The importance of employees is largely felt in the construction sector. Competent employees are paid real well and if one gets a chance to work for a big construction house then he can definitely expect a better package. In this entire situation, there is someone who is at a loss and it is the construction company who is losing an employee. They call it attrition. There are some construction companies whose attrition rate is really high. This means that the company is either not doing well which is why people look for other prospects or they do not take good care of the employee.

Every construction company should value their employees. The loyalty of the employees really matter and if you do not give them their worth then they will search for it at some other place. You have to understand that if an employee is there with the company for many years then he has also set some expectation and it is the duty of the employer to fulfill those expectations. Don’t take their loyalty for granted. Do not ever think that they are with you because they do not have anywhere else to go. If you think this then it will only hurt you in the long run.

Treat your employees with dignity. Try to at least offer your smile and if someone wishes you reply to him. By this you are respecting them and treating them with dignity. Make them feel that they are important to the company. They should be excited to come to work every day. The day the excitement ends, they will start looking for other options.

When you have an employee who have been with you for the many years and has now offered his resignation, you should probably sit with him and try to know the reasons why he wants to quit. If he wants to start his own business, you should probably wish him all the best but if he is intending to switch to some other construction house then you should try to know what you can do to retain his loyalty. You never know he may stay with you if you offer him something wonderful.

Buy Now on eBay [ebayfeedsforwordpress feed=”” items=”5″]

Employment option for a programmer in the construction industry

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

A computer programmer has a lot to do when it comes to programming software for different companies across various sectors. They are people who are in huge demand and have to cater to people of different industries keeping into consideration their varying wants. So you have a team of software programmer who has designed new software for a retail store and now they are been approached by someone who belongs to the pharmaceutical industry and who wants them to work on his specific requirements. So the same team will now focus on a different industry and will try to build software that especially suits their needs. This shows that a software developer can work across industries and is not constraint to one particular genre of business. Similarly, their services can also be used in the construction business. As a matter of fact, there are construction companies that are ready to pay software developers good sum of money but in return they want something that is nothing less exceptional.

Not all construction company can afford to hire software developer to design unique software for their company. Some companies may even find it difficult to buy expensive software. But they all have to use one and therefore there are different levels of software developers and programmers in the market. Not all are expensive. There are some newbie who have ideas but do not have relevant experience for which they are not hired by the giants. However, they can prove to be very useful for small construction companies. The small companies can check the software they have developed and if they feel that it suits their requirements they can go for it. These new guys may not charge a bomb from the companies and are also ready to provide support if in case the program stops working.

This suggests that there is ample of opportunity for software programmers in the construction industry. You will not find the employment getting dried up. Businesses will always flow in some way or the other. Most of the time it comes in the form of upgrading the existing software. You can’t keep on working with the same version for many years. Everything has an expiration date and so does software. So it is imperative for a construction company to keep the software that they are using updated. This can be done with the help of the programmers who have designed the program in the first place or some other programmer who knows about the software and how to upgrade it.

The programmers who are associated to the construction industry should first understand the various needs that a construction company can have. This will give them an idea of the possibilities that they should work on and offer the best to the industry. Many of the time, it has been observed that after doing a in-depth study of the subject, the programmers approach the construction company and place a solution to them. If the company likes the idea they will buy the design and give the contract to service them for a couple of years. It has been therefore termed to be a rewarding business.

Buy Now on eBay [ebayfeedsforwordpress feed=”” items=”2″]

Utility Construction

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

When we talk about utility construction all that we get in our mind is the people working in a construction site, or the guys who are repairing the electricity line that is running from one pole to another through the entire area. So whenever, we experience problems relating to electricity and we see these guys working in one of the poles, we can make out that they are from a utility construction company. We also often see people working in a manhole trying to fix things. Well, they also belong to the segment of “Utility Construction”. Well, as a matter of fact, Utility construction is one of the big businesses that have given employment to thousands to youths across the country. More often when a place has suffered huge losses from a storm or a hurricane, it is the people from the Utility Construction companies that come and try to restore things. This may not be a simple task as it takes a lot of time to get things back to where it was, but they do their best to bring back normalcy in the place.

One of the areas that get severely affected by storm is the communication and electricity line. Well the job of the utility construction employees is to ensure that they rebuild the line as quickly as possible so that people living in the zone do not have to suffer much. Simultaneously, during normal occasions they have to check if things are working just fine. Therefore they pay occasional visits in the different zones that have been allotted to them and check if the lines are working fine and if they see any issues, they report it to the next level and if possible try to fix it then and there. There are also into installing fiber optic and in case of emergency restore the services immediately.

The type of work actually depends from one Utility company to another. Not every utility construction company is into restoring or maintaining electricity. They take up different genre of work and ideally do not get into multiple genres as they may find difficult to manage multiple genres at the same time. However, there are few utility construction companies that are into multiple genres. This also implies the fact that those companies are quite big to take care of multiple operations at the same time. Having said this, it has also been seen that majority of the utility construction companies are into the electric segment and if possible try to take up few small projects that is not related to their core business.

The career graph of an individual joining this segment can be immense. He can start off directly after completing his electrical engineering and start working with these guys. There is a lot to learn for a person who is indeed interested to make it big in this industry and as he gains more knowledge he can expect a rise in his package. Money is definitely not a problem for the right candidate.

Buy Now on eBay [ebayfeedsforwordpress feed=”” items=”2″]

Inexperienced mechanic can make a mess of your equipment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

A lot of difference can be seen in terms of the quality of work done by an experienced and an inexperienced person; wherein you will find the experienced guy doing lot better than the inexperienced one. This does not mean that one should never hire anybody without any experience. If that be the case, no one will ever be able to develop their skill as we all require some sort of practical training to gain expertise in the respective domain. Eventually, it is the person who will wants to get the work done needs to take the call. Ideally, one should hire few very experienced mechanic and the rest as newbie. The experienced mechanic will help train the newbie and will also guide them wherever it becomes necessary. In this fashion, the one with less skill will slowly and steadily develop their knack for their respective domain and that will help them to shape their future.

Servicing heavy equipment is the field where one requires good number of years of experience. You just can’t learn everything in heavy equipment in a short time. Other than that, there are high chances of the inexperienced mechanic spoiling the machine by trying to do things that he is not confident about and also without consulting an experienced person. Therefore, when it comes to maintenance work, it is always advisable that you assign the work to someone who has been doing this for a long time.

An inexperienced mechanic can really make a big mess of your machine. You may want to check with your peers and then give your machine to a mechanic. If you do not know how good he is, it is better that you stay away from him or try to get some information about him; like how good he is with his work, does people who gives their machine to him for servicing relies a lot on him for their work and things pertaining to his capability in resolving any issues with the machine. One you are convinced that your machine is going in safe hands you should give it for servicing.

Do not try things on your own. Going through a user manual is advisable. However, if you are not the person who understands user manual well, then don’t try to do things referring to the user manual. Though service manuals are written in the simplest language so that all can follow it without committing any errors, still we can find people who may have issues understanding what is stated in the document and can mess up things. Apart from that, if you have never worked on an equipment before, there are high chances that you may end up deteriorating it completely.

An experienced hand also comes handy when you need to replace a particular part of a machine.  They can even offer you some tips on what you can do to lengthen the life of your machine which you’ll not get from an inexperienced guy.

Buy Now on eBay [ebayfeedsforwordpress feed=”” items=”2″]

Need heavy equipment – You are never out of options

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

There are perhaps millions of ways through which you can acquire heavy equipment to meet your business needs. However, the real question is which way is the best way. You can’t just test and try each way to find out your best way. You may just ruin up everything if you wonder to take up that option. On the contrary, what is required to be done is you need to understand your requirement and on the basis of that check your resources and finally take the call on what you should be doing. Having lot of options does not mean that you are going to try them all. It simply means that you will never run out of it and will always have something that will go exactly the way you want it to.

We will be referring to few options that one can take when he sees the need to procure heavy equipment.

Buy a brand new one:-

This is perhaps the most common option that you may get. Buying brand new heavy equipment has a lot of advantages as well as disadvantages. It lasts long without much maintenance issues; is pretty high on performance, saves good deal of money when it comes to spending on maintenance and proves to be a reliable machine. Having said this, it also has few demerits, the biggest being its cost. Not many are able to afford the price of brand new heavy equipment or even afford to approve a loan for it. So you will find a good chunk of people failing to pass the preliminary prerequisite which is to have sufficient funds at their disposal. So let us move on to the next available option.

Buy a second hand machine:-

If not a new heavy equipment then the next best option would be to buy a second hand at a lower price. However, if one does buy a second hand machine, then the advantages that we spoke about for buying a new machine will act as a disadvantage in this context. It is very oblivious that a second hand machine will not deliver like a newer model and will have lot of maintenance issues. It also depends on how its previous owner used the machine and what care he took to lengthen the life and health of the machine. It is ideally this that defines your experience with a second hand machine. However, the irony will be that you will not come to know the correct history of the machine as long as you start experiencing issues with it. Therefore at times this option may the most apt one but it can’t be forever.

Take it on rent:-

The third option may be a little user friendly. Here you use a machine without owning it and pay an amount to the owner that has been agreed upon before you start using it. There are lots of people who want to let out their machine and make some money out of it. If you have a project where you require the machine during the initial phase, you can rent one and return it back once you see your job is completed.

Buy Now on eBay [ebayfeedsforwordpress feed=”” items=”2″]

 

Expect good rental income from a wheel loader

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Moving stockpiles within the construction site can be very arduous when you put people to do the work. Also, you can’t make use of big heavy equipment to just move stuffs from one place to another within the jobsite. You need something that can take care of this business and does not cost you more for it. This is when a wheel loader comes into picture and does the work for you. A wheel loader has a big bucket in the front which is used to carry the mud by dragging the bucket on the ground, fill it with the dirt and then dump it on the truck. The size of the bucket varies a lot and it starts from 1 cubic yard for smaller types of loaders to 20 cubic yard for the larger models. The bigger ones are particularly used for mining applications.

You will find a number of wheel loaders on a mining jobsite. Also they will all be big in size and not that are owned by small contractors. This also suggests that there is a wider market for selling or renting wheel loaders to such enterprises. Now if we talk about renting wheel loaders to big mining houses, you will generally see good money coming out of the deal. As long as the wheel loader is in good working condition, the mining companies are ready to pay the price you quote. They only check the quality of the machine and if they find that to be in order, they are ready to pay for its value.

This also leaves us with the question that do big mining companies take wheel loaders on rent? Well, as a matter of fact, they take most of the heavy equipment on rent. They hardly have anything that actually belongs to them. The reason they do this is every different project requires different kind of heavy equipment and they can’t afford to spend everything they have on buying machines. This is why they prefer to take equipment on rent and return it once the work is done. At times, they sub-contract the work to different contractors who are given specific responsibilities. So a contractor who is supposed to take care of one part of the job will not look into any other departments. These contractors predominantly take loaders on rent.

You can take help of any heavy equipment rental company who can crack the deal for you. These rental companies are in close nexus with different contractors and construction companies. They may know who needs what and accordingly they will create a platform where both the parties can meet each other and complete the transaction. They will charge you some fees for their service but it is really worthy. They will also take care of the agreement part and will ensure that nothing goes haywire. Conducting a smooth and fair deal is part of their responsibility. However, doing a bit of research on the rental companies always helps. It is better to be prepared from your end.

Buy Now on eBay [ebayfeedsforwordpress feed=”” items=”2″]

Related articles across the web