Wednesday 10 December 2014

“Count Bricks” (Know a bit about Construction, part 2)

No, this is not about some obscure British royalty or the big dogs among developing countries. It is about the importance to be able to equate quantity to time and cost on your building project. That sounded really impressive even if I have to admit that myself and I actually understand what it means.

If you know how many bricks goes into a m2  of wall and how many bricks must an average bricklayer lay in a single day, it becomes very difficult for the builder to b-shit you. BTW the answer is 120 for a double course wall and 1000 per day. You can then check how long the bricklaying should take and how many bricklayers and labour is required on site to achieve the time frame you want. OK, you should do a little bit of math, but it is an easier math solution than most  Sudocu puzzles, especially if you know to put on formula's on EXCEL. You would also be very surprised to find out how few builders know this and can put it in practise. That is why building houses in South Africa takes forever.

Another little secret. This will help you to know how many bricks, cement, etc should go into you house and not end up in the three other houses and his own lapa, your  builder is busy with. An added bonus is when you know how to determine whether your walls are square, It is called "Pythagoras' Theorem" and can be written in one short equation:
                                                            a2 + b2 = c2

Note:
    •c is the longest side of the triangle
    •a and b are the other two sides

For simple people like me:
Example: A "3,4,5" triangle has a right angle in it.


You will also scare the hell out of your builder and impress the living daylight out the “brickies“  working on your site. I guarantee the quality of work will skyrocket, the time wasting nosedive, I can go on...
“I've been a bricklayer for 15 years now.
Surely there must be mortar life. “

(To be continued...)

* Note - If you find the Blog interesting, it makes more sense to read the Blog entries chronologically from the start.



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