Tag Archives: construction works

Wide-ranging cranes are available for construction works

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Construction cranes are valuable and essential properties for the construction industry. Cranes have some vital jobs on construction sites, especially when tall buildings, bridges, skyscrapers, etc. are constructed. Nowadays different types of constructions are done in odd places like in the middle of a river, or in a busy traffic area, where works can be smooth-sailing with the help of construction cranes.

Utility of construction cranes

Before cranes, construction industry worked differently as everything required human labor. Lifting, loading, unloading and shifting were done by laborers. It required lots of time and labor. The process was expensive too. The construction industry in many places needed to restrict their imagination and design due to lack of labor or expertise. These problems are readily solved ever since construction cranes were invented. It saves much time, labor and money of contractors or owners of buildings. Modern day construction cranes possess a huge capacity and a great many utilities.

Types of construction cranes

Various types of cranes are used depending on the requirements of the work and site location. Here are the mostly used construction cranes:

  • Tower cranes – These cranes are required in building skyscrapers, bridges, and tall buildings. Tower cranes are normally fixed on the construction site with a strong base as long as construction works proceeds. They rise hundreds of feet above and can also reach out hundreds of feet horizontally. Tower cranespossess18-20 tons lifting capacity.
  • Truck-mounted cranes – As the name suggests, these cranes are mounted on a vehicle and easily movable from one location to another. These cranes have two parts: the carrier where the crane is fixed which is also called lower, and the lifting component called upper. A truck-mounted crane possesses 13-14.5 tons capacity.
  • Rough terrain cranes – It is a specialized form of thetruck-mounted crane where the tiers of the carrier are specially built for moving on an uneven surface. Outriggers are used in these cranes so that the system remains firm while loading and unloading. These cranes generally possess 35-80 tons lifting capacity.
  • Crawler Cranes – A crawler crane is almost like rough terrain crane but it possesses crawlers or tracks for movement. The crawlers provide sufficient stability to this cranes, hence, they don’t come with outriggers. Crawler cranes possess high lifting capacity which starts from 40 tons.
  • Railroad cranes – As the name suggest, these cranes are mobile but only on the railway tracks. They possess flanged when suitable for movement on the track. The lifting capacity of these cranes generally varies from 15-250 tons.
  • Aerial cranes – These are the most modern addition to this product line. Aerial cranes are actually helicopters that carry loads to a great height or in an odd site like is a mountain site or in the middle of a river.

Besides, telescopic cranes, floating cranes, level luffing cranes, etc. are also used in different construction sites. Again, contractors may require more than one types of cranes to work simultaneously. Cranes make any construction work rather easy and inexpensive than manual or semi-manual works. However, proper training for operation and safety is required while working with the cranes.

Construction brooms are mandatory for all types of construction works

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Construction brooms have a wide-ranging use in all types of construction works at all levels. These brooms have various purposes, especially in traditional finish of concrete slabs and road construction. Contractors use brooms to prepare a new concrete surface of a newly cast slab and polishing the bream of a slab for placing another one side by side. Brooms used in construction sites are specially made with metal fibers or hard plastic fibers. However, other types of brooms are also used in traditional construction methods. Construction jobs normally require hard bristle brooms, but in many situations, soft fiber brooms are also used for cleaning and washing purposes of the finished construction works.

Kinds of construction site brooms

Depending on the surface on which a broom is to be applied different types of brooms are used. Due to variances in the bristle size, material used, and bristle strength some types of brooms are not suitable on a comparatively soft surface, on the other hand, the hard surfaces always require hard bristle for cleaning or polishing. Inflexible brooms may form scratches on the hardwood, rubber, or other kinds of floors, while easy-going, synthetic bristles may not be robust enough on a concrete or metal setting. These days, machine driven brooms are also used in the large construction sites like in road or bridge construction.

Here are some manual brooms that are regularly used on construction sites:

  • Push broom: a push broom is used to clean a large area like a floor, or roof after the completion of construction work. Push brooms contain a long and flat head attached to a long wooden handle. The bristles are 3-4 inches long covered with a wooden or metal head that is generally 18-24 inches long.
  • Amish broom – These brooms are made with strong corn-straw and generally bound and sewn manually. These brooms are the most traditional ones, low cost, and enduring. It is often used in a traditional finish for a concrete slab which is also called “broom finish”. It is used across the surface of a semi-dried concrete slab to create artistic patterns.
  • Warehouse broom – These brooms consist of an oversize head with longer bristles. The head is specially designed to sweep heavy debris and fine dust from the concrete surface. These brooms work excellently on theuneven surface also.
  • Whisk broom – These brooms have an extensive use in construction sites. They contain small handle not more than 6 inches but with a long bristle. Whisk brooms are used in dusting surfaces where construction work will take place.

Broom construction

Textures of the surfaces and types of dirt vary throughout a construction site, so selecting the exact broom construction is imperative for maximum dusting and cleaning effectiveness. Different kinds of bristles and designs are used in manufacturing brooms, like structural foam block, wood block, horsehair, Tampico, Palmyra, polystyrene, polypropylene, nylon etc. In road construction, rotary brooms are mostly used for fast and accurate works. Experts are adding many new features in the construction brooms these days to enhance their utility, ergonomics, and practicality.

Lime is a natural stabilizer: It prepares the soil for construction works

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Soil stabilizers convert apparently less bearing ground into highly suitable one for starting construction work like pavements, road beds, basement of canals, water reservoir, etc. Soil stabilizationis the method of strengthening the ground through pulverization and moisture conditioning. This job is efficiently done with different forms of lime and then compaction and trimming as necessary. This process improves the basic characteristics of soil that makes it suitable for a construction project. Lime is used in different percentage depending on the soil condition to adjust the parameters like moisture, density, plasticity, permeability, strength, etc.

Benefits of soil stabilization

Soil stabilization with lime before starting any construction work has the following benefits:

  • Apparently wet soil that is not suitable for construction work can be made suitable within one or two days.
  • Treatment with lime ensures production of long-lasting stable jobs comparable with graded aggregates.
  • The soil becomes hard wearing with greater toughness and strength that make it extremely suitable for a construction process.
  • It enables recycling ofinsitu materials and existing soil that ultimately provides financial benefits to the contractor or owner of the land. It takes less time to prepare the soil as also saves expenses in labor, transportation, and import of aggregates.
  • Soil stabilization with lime also reduces PI (Plasticity Index) of the existing soil significantly.
  • The ground gains strength significantly that is found to be more than 15% as per CBR test.
  • This process of soil stabilization is environmental-friendly too. The process requires very small quantities of other additives making less transportation of materials, less disturbance in busy areas, and lesser use of factory made binders.

 

Lime efficiently stabilizes weak soil

Use of lime as a stabilizer for road beds has been in practice over the century. Modern research works have proved behind doubt that lime can also be used for stabilizing the soil in the large construction sites. Lime is especially useful when expansive clay is present is a construction site. Expansive clays destabilize the base work and change the orientation of the concrete slabs with time. Whereas the soil treated with lime can solve the issue permanently. Lime actually performs a chemical stabilization process where the added lime compound reacts with the clay present in a ground in the following ways:

  • When lime is mixed with the soil, the clay particles come together forming stiffer silt, and reducing plasticity of the soil.
  • After the compaction job, life further reacts with the soil particles binding them firmly and increasing their strength.

Quicklime for soil stabilization in construction works

Many types of lime compounds are available, but quick lime or calcium oxide is mainly used for this work. Quicklime reacts with soil water forming calcium hydroxide which again reacts with some existing minerals like silica and alumina initiating an ionic exchange reaction forming a cement-like product naturally. In this reaction, called pozzolanic reaction, cannot retain water particles anymore and with the passage of time, it hardens like cement. Thus, quicklime provides the required stability to the soil.