Monthly Archives: March 2017

Veterans should focus on new entrants and guide them throughout

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In every industry the role of veterans in nurturing the business cannot be ruled out. They play a pivotal role in shaping up the future of the company and also the career of many individuals who learn from them. At the same time they also earn a special place in the company and if ever the company goes through a rough patch, it is the veterans in the company that secures their place in the company. They are probably the last one to be kicked out. The experienced ones however have to make this place for themselves by giving their time and paying attention on the new guys. It is the experienced lot who can train the new guns about the systems in place and the process of work along with the culture that is followed in the company. In a nutshell they have a big role to play irrespective of what industry they belong to.

Veterans have a stronger role to play when it comes to the construction sector. This sector being quite vast in nature, it takes years for a person to learn things and to master them. People commit lot of mistakes when they are new to work and with every mistake they take a step forward in learning something new. Veterans can make things a bit simple for them by providing them with proper guidance and showing them the correct way to get the assigned work done. Construction business is not only a vast one but also quite complex and the newcomers will for sure find it difficult to comprehend things in the beginning. They need someone who can walk them through the initial phases and be with them whenever they need their advice.

Try to become their mentor:-

The newbie who get into the construction sector look for people who can turn out to be their mentors. They may come across many people who will help them. The new guys will try to pick a mentor out of the many people whom they feel is able to guide them in the most appropriate manner. The work of a mentor is undoubtedly a difficult one as he will be bothered with all sorts of questions. It will be a real test of his patience and he needs to prove his credibility by being calm and answer their queries as and when it shows up. After spending anytime between 8-10 years in an industry one becomes a veteran but you need special qualities to become a mentor and not everybody can become one. It is only those who have sound knowledge about his work and can calmly impart it to their juniors and subordinates can ultimately possess the quality of becoming a mentor.

Be a problem solver:-

Day in and out the new guys will come across new things and that will indeed riddle them and compel them to ask questions. Now if they turn up to you, they come to you with believe that you have the potential to answer them. This is when you also need to do your best and try to solve the problem they are in. Try to be a problem solver. This will mean a lot to them.

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How are bridges built over water?

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Bridges are one of the most important constructions of the modern civilization. It connects distant places with each other and people can easily travel from one place to another. We all have travelled by many bridges some time or the other. But, have we ever thought how the bridges are built over water?

Not only just the river banks are connected with bridges, but even two creeks or more creeks of the oceans are also connected with magnificent bridges. Building flyovers on the concrete roads is easier than building bridges over water. Here is something interesting and knowledgeable that will stun you about the advancement of modern civilization, power of construction and technology.

Factors associated with building bridges:

Before you go into how bridges are made, there are a few things that you need to keep in mind. The bridges over water can be of two types – the floating ones and the permanent ones. Quite obviously, the floating ones are not permanent and are used only temporarily. Hence, they do not need a foundation. But the permanent bridges need a foundation and for that there are three basic factors that need to be kept in mind. These are –

  • The condition of the site
  • The technical ability and engineering capacity of the contractor
  • The technology available in the country.

The first two factors are dependent on the engineers to measure. But, the factor of availability of technological support depends entirely on the construction equipment that is available. For that matter it must be mentioned that there are various types of construction equipment available in the market that are specially designed to support bridge construction.

Steps of constructing a bridge:

When bridges are built over large water bodies such as a very deep river or even the sea, the following steps are followed.

  • Constructing the Foundation:

 

In order to build the foundation, a bed is sunk inside the waterbed from the top. It is like a frame to the pillars that will hold the bridge in place. After that, a support pier is made with the help of rigs.

  • Construction of Cofferdam:

 

Around the support pier and rigs, a Cofferdam is made. It is a special type of wall that is created surrounding the foundation. Continuous pumping removes the water from inside. The area is completely dried out and then, the foundation is made.

  • Bringing everything together:

 

After the construction of the foundation, the support piers are either cast in the yard or cast in place. Sometimes, this process is done elsewhere and then, barges are used to bring everything together.

Once this is done, the gaps are joined with segments of concrete structure.

Sometimes, the segments are supported by huge suspension cables. As they are brought into position, they are stitched together. Though these are the most common methods of constructing a bridge, there are other methods as well that are followed to construct the bridges. Certainly, the methods that are followed for bridges in shallow water are different from that in the deep water.

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Rent an excavator

For guys who has lot of heavy equipment that are lying idle for the time being and they are unsure as to when they might need them again they can rent it out to people who will make some use of it and keep the machine in working order. If you keep heavy equipment idle for a long time and then all of a sudden start using it, it will generate issues. It may just not start or might give problems for which you need the help of a mechanic to get that sorted. This is why it is always better that you rent the machine out to someone who can use the machine and also pay you the rental.

There are some companies who solely deal with renting heavy machines to contractors and other small and big sized construction companies. As a matter of fact most of the big construction companies to a certain extent depend upon rented heavy equipment. The big sized companies hire contractors for the job who in turn largely depend on rented heavy equipment. This means that as long as you have a thriving construction industry, the parallel business of renting heavy equipment will never run dry. One of the most common heavy equipment that is used in almost every construction jobsite is an excavator. So you will normally find the demand for excavators on an increasing trend and if you have them in plenty then you can for sure make good sum of money by not doing anything.

All you got to do is simply rent them out to contractors or construction companies and ensure that they do not misuse it or overload it with work. Normally people have the tendency to get more work done on heavy equipment that are rented. They know that they do not have to keep the machine with them forever and therefore do not have to bother about the maintenance and service costs. Since it belongs to you, you are supposed to make sure that the excavator is not overloaded with work and is also serviced at regular intervals.

You can rent your excavator by listing the machine on an online portal. Portals that are meant for renting heavy equipment should be used for this purpose. Register on one such website and take few pictures of the excavator to post it on the listing. Please mention the model number of the excavator on the title of the listing and be a little descriptive about the machine. You may want to add things like the age of the machine and few of its features that will attract the attention of the prospect. The pictures that you add should be clear for the prospect to make out if at all the machine is worthy to be taken on rent.

Leave your number on the listing for interested people to contact you and if they want to inspect the machine you should not have any problem with that. The website will charge you some fees to list the item but that will be too nominal and should not be an issue.

Why do airport runways cost so much to build

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To construct an apartment or a townhouse, it requires good amount of investment on the part of the construction company. They also need to be well prepared when it comes to the investment part and can’t just enter in a project without considering the ups and downs and other monetary challenges that the company may experience in the short or in the long run. A lot of heads need to come together to decide the viability of the project and the amount of money that might come as an expenditure on the project. Once they all come to a common consensus they give their nod for the commencement of the project. Well constructing a township is not as expensive as constructing an airport. When you are in the process of building a new airport you got to think of lot many factors that does not play any role while constructing a condominium or for that matter a one unit family.

Constructing airport is a different ballgame altogether. There you got to understand many things and keep into mind every small stuff as you also will be dealing with the safety and security of the passengers. So you just can’t afford to go wrong at any point in time either with the design or with the construction. Moving our focus from the airport to the runway, it is believed that the runways cost more than building an entire airport. The reason is simple. The runways are the major load takers. On a daily basis there are countless of planes that takes off and lands on the runway. Now the weights of the plane are not less than 100,000 pounds and some are even heavier than that. So one can imagine what the runway has to go through on a daily basis. Million pounds of weight taking off and landing over it only suggests the quality of the runway and the kind of material one has to put to construct a runway.

Other than that, it also has to take the wrath of the monsoon and other extreme weathers and still has to continue to perform. You can’t have a runway with potholes. The plane will just not be able to fly and therefore the maintenance is also crucial. You need to put in a lot of concrete materials and can’t think of saving any money in terms of exercising low cost raw materials during the making of the runway. You have to use the best materials and the best does not come at a cheap rate. You also need to be ready to pay the right price for it which eventually makes the entire process of constructing airport runways an expensive affair.

It is not only about expensive raw materials that one puts in to construct a runway. It also involves people who have the required experience to build such a massive project. These guys will undoubtedly demand higher package which also impacts the cost of the construction.

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Second hand machines are better alternative to newer heavy equipment

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If you have a start-up business and are aware that you will always have the need of funds to function, then it makes little sense to buy new heavy equipment which will cost thousands of dollars. On the other hand, you should focus on buying used heavy equipment which has the potential to function if not like a brand new machine but no less than that. Second hand machines are always a safer bet for young construction companies. They need not spend a fortune in procuring machines that will perhaps be a bit faster than a second hand machine.

We will speak about few advantages of buying second hand heavy equipment over a brand new one.

Functions may be user friendly to the operator:-

One of the major disadvantage of new heavy equipment is that the functions involved in the machine are completely new and the operator may take few days’ time to learn the stuff and set its hand on it. For the first few days he will experience a bit of uneasiness on the new machine. This can happen with a highly experienced operator as well. He will be bound to make few mistakes while operating the equipment. They feel at home to work on machines that they have already worked on in the past.

The functions of the second hand machine will be quite familiar to an experienced guy and he will not take much time to begin the work. Simultaneously, if the machine breaks down, he may have some idea on the probable issue and might give some advice to get it back and running but if he is working on a new machine and is having a hard time to operate it; you got to call the technician of the company to fix a problem.

Second hand machines are pretty economical:-

Money plays a vital role in the construction business. A contractor will be happy to invest his money in machines that cost less to him and are highly productive. He will not want to compare it with newly manufactured heavy equipment with advanced technology attached with it. It hardly matters to him as far as he is able to make sizable profit and run his business after paying all his debts to the stakeholders. In a situation like this, the contractor will certainly want to invest his money in buying used machines as that will help him to save a lot which can be utilized for other operational expenses.

Procuring second hand heavy equipment is no tough job:-

Buying second hand machines have become relatively simpler than what it was a few years ago. Now one need not depend on newspaper classifieds to know about the person selling used machines. All he needs to do is type the kind of machine he wants on the internet and he will find a number of sellers who are willing to let go their machines at a reasonable amount. Establish contact with them and make the deal.

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For beginners – Don’t buy heavy equipment. Rent them

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Beginners joining any profession have to be really careful on the expenses they are making on their business. They might have extremely no control on their expenses as they may not understand how to block the flow of expense. They have to take care of a lot of recurring and non-recurring expenses and while they do so, they may completely lose track of the money left in their bank account. One fine day, they may find their bank account showing very less balance and may foresee lot of expenses to clear. They may find themselves to be in a very tight position and therefore it is important that they refrain from doing any expenses that is not much needed for the smooth running of the business.

To be more precise, if you are in the construction business, you got to be more cautious than ever. For timely completion of projects, you got to possess heavy equipment that are very expensive and if you do that then you tend to spend a good portion of your money for procuring the machine. This may leave you with very little money to meet other business obligations. Hence, it is advisable that if you are a beginner in the construction industry, do not spend your money in buying heavy equipment. On the contrary, you can take them on rent. That will turn out to be a good deal for you where you do not have to spend a bounty and things will be very much in your control.

Identify the heavy equipment you may need for your project:-

It is very crucial to know what type of heavy equipment is required for your business. As long as you do not know that, moving ahead will be difficult. Take guidance from people in the industry if you have any or join some blogs where you can put your questions about heavy equipment to them and you might get real good replies which will prove to be very helpful to you. Once you have identified the heavy equipment, the next goal will be to check the rental price of the machine. Not every owner of the equipment will rent it at the same price. The rental price of the machine may vary keeping into consideration the quality of the machine, the period for which it has been used. In other words, if the machine is not much older then you may have to pay more rent. However, if it is an old piece then you supposedly have to pay less for it.

Go to online portals to check the machine:-

Owners list the heavy equipment on websites that deals with selling and renting of construction machineries. Going to such websites will be really helpful to you as you will get to see a lot of options at different prices. You can then select the one that you seek to have and speak with the owner. If possible you can negotiate the price and try to bring it lower. You will end up getting a good deal at a considerably lesser price.

 

Rent a compaction roller (Sheep Foot or Smooth)

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Rent heavy equipment and make good money out of it rather than keeping it idle should be the intention of a person who has a construction machine and does not make any use of it. By renting heavy equipment people they not only make money by literally doing nothing but also ensure the machine does not go dead. If a construction machine has not been working for days there are higher chances that it will not even take a start on the day you need it. Therefore it is a must for one to make sure that the machine does not catch rust by sitting idle. So the best alternative is to let-it out in case you will not need it for the next few months. If you have a compaction roller it will not at all be a problem to rent it because there are whole lot of people who wants compaction rollers (Sheep Foot or Smooth) for road building work.

Compaction rollers play a pivotal role in road construction and for leveling the ground. The Sheep Foot or Smooth rollers are used on the basis of the soil that they have to work on. So if you ever find a person who is looking for a compaction roller, do let them know the type of soil your machine can work on.

Take help of a Rental Salesman:-

You will find a lot of small companies and rental yard that deals into renting heavy equipment. You can approach one of them and check the rental price that you may get. You need to tell them the model number and what type of soil does the equipment compacts. The agent will be a big help to you to understand the price that you may expect and also if they know anybody who is looking for a compaction roller then they can pitch in your item. They will charge some percentage of the rental price as their commission but the entire affair will be an easy one for you. You will not be bothered with calls from prospects as they all will be calling the rental salesman to inquire about the roller.

Listing the roller online:-

If you are a tech savvy person and know how to list items on websites then you can register yourself on an online portal and list the compaction rollers out there. Try to be as descriptive as you can and also post some good pictures of the rollers. The prospects have no other way to understand the real worth of the machine other than going through the description. If the machine has any issues try to get that sorted before you have listed the item and also do mention about it in the description. Also if you have changed any parts of the machine, please describe that as well out there. The prospects if they like the rollers will get in touch with you and may want to inspect the machine before going ahead to take it on rent.

Do not just jump into construction business without prior experience

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Getting into a new business is never an easy task. It takes lots of guts and encouragement from others to take such a mammoth step. When you get into a business you will get to see how difficult it is to sustain in a competitive environment where everybody is running to make profits. Well there are few who are not only there in a business for money but they sincerely like that part of work which is why they got themselves into it so that they can pursue their dream work and can make good money from it. This means that they will love every part of their job and will never feel agonized by the pressure that they will probably feel coming from outside. People who are in a business solely for money will not be able to take it for long and there will be a time when they will feel saturated and will want to end it up there.

Other than love for what you do the next most important part is how experienced you are in what you are doing. Your experience will matter a lot when it comes to generating profit out of your business. If you see yourself to be a part of the construction business then having prior experience in this stream is of utter importance. You have to know about stuffs that are important for your business and that will help you to take correct business decisions. A person who has absolutely no experience in the construction sector will be completely dependent on advices coming from others. He will not have even the slightest of ideas if the advices are correct or not. He might take implement those ideas at face value and the repercussions could be drastic.

No doubt that one learns from his mistakes but simultaneously it is also important that they should gather some information on the subject that they would be starting their business. When you are in the construction business you are required to know a lot of things concerning to the business. For instance, you need to know how much to pay to whom. You have to know the industry standards and simultaneously should pay your employees. This is perhaps the most basic thing that one must know before he gets into any form of business.

It is advisable that you should first work in a construction company for few years and try to learn the tricks of the trade. You should have a fair deal of knowledge about how various department functions in tandem with each other. Other than that, heavy equipment play a crucial role in any construction jobsite. Learning few tricks of the machine will also help you a long way. People who get a construction business as legacy are also expected to learn the business first and then be a part of the tenured guys. First he needs to get some experience and learn the business well to make his place amongst the big names in the company.

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Not getting enough business should not be the reason to wind your company

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Every business has both ups and downs and so one must ensure that he takes all possible measure to try to keep his business afloat during the downs and try to save as much as he can during the ups. This is perhaps the most common phenomenon of probably every successful businessman all around the world. This phenomenon is not limited to just one particular industry but is accepted in any kind of business. We have witnessed the same instance in the construction industry many times.

People belonging to this industry often see it to be the ever blooming one and does not pay much attention to the fact that it can also have a downward trend which can appear anytime sooner. So they simply lack to take any precaution and happy making more expenses. But there also comes a time when you stop getting business. This could be due to several reasons. There has been a sudden increase in the price of raw materials or the policies of the government as such that it does not favor the construction segment. These could be few reasons why the business may take a dip and it becomes imperative for the business owner to take necessary steps in advance so that he can eventually save his business from completely winding up.

There are few tips that one should follow to keep his business floating and not think about winding it up.

Maintain a contingency fund:-

Maintaining a contingency fund is quite crucial when you are part of a business that is highly volatile. While you have set up the contingency fund, it is also imperative that you add some amount on a monthly basis and increase its corpus. At the same time, you should invest that amount is some debt funds where you averse from taking risks and are also content with the little returns that it is able to give you. What is important for you is to accumulate funds for the bad time keeping aside the intention to achieve good returns. So when you see the business is on its down, you can depend on the money that you have in the emergency kitty. Likewise you can also maintain a separate fund for business expansion which can be used for purposes related to the expansion of your business.

Cut down your operational costs:-

Cutting down your operational costs will help you big deal at times when the business is not doing to its potential. You have to give a clear instruction to the various levels of departments that they need to reduce the operational cost or they may have to face expulsion. Construction business being a volatile one does not stay put at one juncture for a long time and therefore there is every chance for it to bounce back real soon. If at all things get worse, then you might even take the decision to do away with assets that are no longer worthy to the company. These are few things that can be done to keep your business alive.

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Heavy equipment mechanics are paid well in foreign nations

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The demand for skilled labor exists in every country around the globe. Industries are in search of people who know their work well and can complete the task given to them with complete sincerity. If we can inculcate this in our lives, we will never go out of demand. Industries faces bad phases but they all come and go. Bad phases do not stay for long and definitely not forever. Therefore, one needs to understand what they want to become in life and accordingly master the stuff they want to do. It is only when they are master at it that they will be recognized by others and also they can expect volume of money flowing in. Other than that, they can also expect a good career. It is very crucial to give a good start to your career and once you have given that start, you will not find short of takers who will be willing to absorb you in their companies.

Construction business is a quite a thriving one these days. Industry experts believe that the year 2017 has great prospects for this industry and it will grow by all means. This also means that the businesses that are attached to the construction industry will also have its day in the sun. They will equally thrive along with this industry and so do the people who are connected with it. There is a lot of opportunity for heavy equipment mechanics in the US and also worldwide. Competent mechanics are in huge demand in the overseas market and are also paid in good sum. All they have to do is contact the company directly and talk to them about the requirements and also the remuneration that will be given to them. After you are done with the preliminary talks you can take some time and decide if you want to take the jump.

People should be mobile:-

For heavy equipment mechanics who are looking for a great career in the industry can go overseas. However, prior to this, they first need to be sure if they really want to go abroad. For a person who is quite attached to his family and friends, it will be very difficult for him to work in a foreign land. He will just not be able to adjust himself there. People who do not have problem being mobile and can easily get adjusted with people of different culture can think to move to a foreign land. They will not have much problem to adjust themselves there and can easily make some local friends. So before you start looking for opportunities abroad, give a thought to the fact that will you be able to survive in a place that you have never visited before.

Mechanics should be experienced:-

Since the foreign construction companies are in search of skilled workmen, heavy equipment mechanic should be experienced and should know his work well. Just by hearing the sound of the issue, one must realize the real cause of the problem and if you feel that you are that experienced then you can certainly give a shot in an overseas construction company.

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