Acrow Props - Using Them Safely in Construction

There may come a time when you want to undertake a structural alteration to your home, to perhaps make better use of your living space, or maybe to make a window larger for example. Before carrying out an alteration, you will need to ensure that any part of the structure you are taking away, does not require support. If it does, then using acrow props will be required.

Acrow props are strong steel tubular like instruments that consist of a 4 part system; A male section, female section, a winding collar and a small stout pin. The way acrow props essentially work is by the female section accepting the male, allowing the 2 sections to be fully adjustable to a suitable height. The sections have holes in them so that the stout pin can be inserted to keep them fixed at your chosen height. The props can then further be adjusted by turning the winding collar.

At each end of the male and female sections will be a steel plate which is usually about 150 mm x 150 mm. The plate is there to help the acrow props find a suitable bearing on both the ground and the force to be supported.

Acrow Props - Using Them Safely in Construction

Putting The Acrow Props To Use

There are a number of ways to use acrow props but probably the most common methods are by using them in conjunction with either timber needles or strongboys. Needles in construction are short stout timber beams, and an acrow prop would be placed towards each end, where the load being supported is in the middle. Strongboys are a more modern method where only 1 prop is needed to fix to the strongboy, which in turn would then be placed in position to support the load.

Needles

If you need to support a wall and you have chosen to use needles, then the method would be to knock a couple of bricks through the wall large enough to put the needles through, and then at each end an acrow prop would be placed and tightened up until it is tight between the brick and ground level. This is a two man job and can be very trick to get the needles to balance whist setting them correctly in place.

Strongboys

Using strongboys is a far easier method as it is usually only a case of hacking out a mortar joint where the load is to be supported, and then inserting the long, thin arm of the strongboy in. As with the needles method, the acrow props are them tightened up securely. The benefits of using strongboys with the acrow props however, is that the load only needs to be supported by putting the props at one side of the wall.

You will also need to check the ground that you are placing the props on to ensure it is strong enough to take the additional loads you will be placing on it. If the ground is a timber suspended floor for example, then you would need to spread the load by placing stout board/s at right angles to the floor joists. This is assuming that the floor joists are sound themselves. Where the ground level is concrete and sound, the props can be placed directly onto the concrete, however, I feel it is always good practice to use a stout board to place them on.

Supporting any load bearing structure should only be undertaken by competent persons and should never be done without the advice and guidance of a structural engineer, professional builder and the local building officer.

Acrow Props - Using Them Safely in Construction
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Please also visit http://www.5kc.co.uk for further reading and more about the Merseyside Builders.

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Garage Cost - Garage Building Cost Estimating

Now that you have your garage plans picked out and you know pretty much what you want, you're probably going to want to know if you can afford to build that new garage. That's a dilemma many people contemplating garage building have got. The question about what your garage cost will be isn't always an easy one to answer and can vary dramatically depending on your situation.

There are several variables you need to think about when building a garage:

how complicated are the garage plans you selected are you planning on doing any of the garage building work yourself the cost of living in your area how many bays your garage plans have are there living quarters in your garage plans

Garage Cost - Garage Building Cost Estimating

In addition to that, garage building material prices can fluctuate quite a bit depending on seasonal influences and other variables. There's quite a difference between building a basic one car garage with no living space and building a 3 car garage with a studio apartment. In the first case there aren't any fixtures or utility hookups required and in the latter case there are some expensive fixtures plus finishing materials needed, such as light fixtures, trim, carpeting, etc. Trying to create a one size fits all garage building cost estimator is not an easy thing to do to ensure an accurate value of garage cost for every situation.

Garage builders charge differently in nearly every area of the country. Our research did not turn up any reliable values in the U.S. Government statistics for the cost of building a garage, but there is good data on the cost of building a new home in various regions of the country. Comparing the home building cost data gives us some relative values that can be used for comparisons. This data is from the U.S. Census Bureau for home building cost through 2008. The average cost per square foot to build a new home in 2008:

South .64 Midwest .99 Northeast 7.91 West 1.72

Since the cost of building in the South is the least, that will be the baseline for this analysis. Compared to the cost of building in the South:

Midwest is 10% more expensive Northeast is 48% more expensive West is 40% more expensive

So right off the bat it is pretty obvious that the region you live in will have a dramatic effect on your garage cost. For example the cost to build a ,000 garage in the South would cost you ,800 in the Northeast. And this doesn't take into account the differences between building a garage in a rural area versus an urban area.In surveying the other articles we could find on garage cost, the consensus seems to be that a garage should cost somewhere between and per square foot to build, but those numbers are pretty old. Another interesting little bit of information from the U.S. Government Census data - in the 45 years from 1965-2009, home building price increases have outpaced the Consumer Price Index in 26 of those years. Over the last 10 years:

(HPI is the Housing Price Index, CPI is the Consumer Price Index)
In 2000 the HPI increased 4.40%, the CPI increased 3.4%, the HPI increased 29.4% more than the CPI
In 2001 the HPI increased 5.00%, the CPI increased 1.6%, the HPI increased 212.5% more than the CPI
In 2002 the HPI increased 2.50%, the CPI increased 2.4%, the HPI increased 4.2% more than the CPI
In 2003 the HPI increased 5.10%, the CPI increased 1.9%, the HPI increased 168.4% more than the CPI
In 2004 the HPI increased 8.40%, the CPI increased 3.3%, the HPI increased 154.5% more than the CPI
In 2005 the HPI increased 7.40%, the CPI increased 3.4%, the HPI increased 117.6% more than the CPI
In 2006 the HPI increased 6.00%, the CPI increased 2.5%, the HPI increased 140.0% more than the CPI
In 2007 the HPI increased 0.90%, the CPI increased 4.1%, the HPI decreased -78.0% versus the CPI
In 2008 the HPI decreased 3.50%, the CPI increased 0.1%, the HPI decreased -3600.0% versus the CPI
In 2009 the HPI decreased 5.00%, the CPI increased 2.7%, the HPI decreased -285.2% versus the CPI

In the construction industry it is either feast or famine. During the boom building years of the mid-2000's housing prices handily trounced the CPI, but when the housing market fell apart in 2007-2008 the Housing Price Index took a big hit.

The cost to build a detached garage is not going to be in perfect lock step with the Housing Price Index, and the cost per square foot to build a home isn't going to be in perfect alignment with the Housing Price Index, but together they give us an overall feel for the relative 'Garage Price Index' (we just made that up).

The presumption is that the - per square foot garage cost is for a garage without any living quarters, just your basic garage plans. If the garage plans include living quarters then it is safe to say that the garage cost per square foot is going to approach the cost per square foot to build a home. The more your garage plans resemble a house, the closer the garage building cost per square foot will be to that of a house. Another presumption in these numbers is that a building contractor is building the garage for you. You will obviously save quite a bit on your garage cost if you do some or all of the labor yourself.

Conclusion - Using the Southern region of the U.S. as the baseline, the garage cost to have a builder construct a garage for you should be between /square foot for basic garage plans and /square foot for top of the line garage plans with living quarters and all of the amenities. On the other end of the scale is the Northeast, where it should cost you between /square foot and 8/square foot to build a garage. There is no substitute for getting real quotes from garage builders, but hopefully this information will give you some guidance. Always get a minimum of 3 quotes! In a future article we'll address the garage cost of just the materials.

Garage Cost - Garage Building Cost Estimating
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My Garage Plans by TRC - Garage Cost/Garage Building Cost Estimator - http://www.my-garage-plans.com/Garage-Build-Cost-Estimator

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Offshore Oil & Gas Safety Officer: The Roles & Responsibilities and Qualifications

Toolbox meeting is part of daily routine for Offshore Oil & Gas Workers. Main reason is to identify hazard and to ensure all safety pre-cautions are in place before and during execution of works. This toolbox meeting is monitored and supervised by Safety Officer. Safety officer is also another interesting jobs. For those who are interested to become one, below are the safety officer roles, responsibilities and qualifications.

There is a popular saying among Offshore Oil and Gas personnel about safety. It is "Come in One Piece & Back in One Piece"

Offshore Oil & Gas Safety Officer: The Roles & Responsibilities and Qualifications

Offshore Oil & Gas Safety Officer: The Roles & Responsibilities and Qualifications
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Visit Oil and Gas Industry Websites for complete web resources about the Industry.

Sulaiman Sabur is a Registered Engineer. Work as an Offshore Field Engineer mainly in Construction of Offshore Facilities for the Oil and Gas Industry.

Visit his personal blog about his career as an Offshore Construction Field Engineer. Oil & Gas Jobs Blog

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6G Welding: What Is It? It Is The Highest Paying Of All Welding Positions - Make $100K A Year!

What Kind of welding job pays that kind of money? About 5% of welders are certified 6G code welders. 6G is pipe welding - in fact it is the test for: "All-position pipe welding." The skill test is to weld two pieces of pipe together which are mounted in a fixed position, at 45 degrees. Because you are welding a round object set at 45 degrees, you are proving your ability in every conceivable position. The weld quality must be very high, because replacing poorly welded pipe joints in a power plant (for example) is very expensive.

How much CAN a 6G Pipe Welder make?

Wages have gone down during the slow down. Not that long ago a "rig welder" (a welder with a welding machine on a truck) in Alberta, Canada would average 0,000 a year, but times are hard, so it is roughly half that much now. Off-shore oil rigs employing 6G welders are paying about 0k a year right now.

6G Welding: What Is It? It Is The Highest Paying Of All Welding Positions - Make 0K A Year!

There are very few trades in life which are purely "skill based." In other words, the possessor of the skill is highly paid simply because they can perform the skill (think of a tight-rope walker in a circus). Most high paying trades or skills require specific schooling, plus proof that you can actually "do the skill", and rarely will the skill require hand-eye-brain coordination to the degree of a tight-rope walker. 6G pipe welding IS a skill like tight rope walking - it requires dedicated, correct practice. Like tight-rope walking, 6G pipe welding also does not require any specific education or graduation certificate in the USA. No one cares where you went to school, or IF you went to school, as long as you show up and you really can weld that pipe joint like walking a tight rope! If you are good at this ONE position, you'll be put to work. No one CARES where or how you learned the skill and no one cares if you don't know another thing in this world!

Can imagine this? Imagine a room of 100 of the most highly skilled structural welders (typically union iron workers, working on large building frames) and 100 CWI Welding Inspectors (the best of the welding inspectors, with vast welding book knowledge) and ONE uneducated, illiterate but certified and very capable 6G pipe welder... And there is an urgent need for someone to weld a high pressure pipe joint on a 6" schedule 40 carbon steel pipe - guess who would be the ONLY person in a room of 201 people who could do it? That's right, the pipe welder, even though the pipe welder can't READ!

Anything worth having requires focused work. What do you think a heart surgeon concentrated on learning while in school? That's right, heart surgery. Focus on the one thing that will make you money and burn it up like a laser beam! OTS! "Own The Skill!" Be careful NOT to waste time, money and effort on things which will not ever make you money, or which will make you very little money! DO what others are unwilling to put out the effort to master.

Is getting really good at 6G pipe welding as hard as walking a tight-rope in the circus? Most people who fail to learn 6G fail because they think they can do it with very little practice. Intense, concentrated and coordinated practice is the biggest secret, just like with learning to walk a tight-rope. There are a few other secrets.

Welding school may be fun, but here's what happens to 95% of welding school graduates: They learn all the basics in a year or two of school. They NEVER get to where "The Powers That Be" will allow them to learn to weld pipe. They run out of money and time. They end up running a MIG machine in a trailer factory for very little money, or at BEST, they end up as an iron worker on big-building construction. However, not many big building are being built these days, are they?

What IS happening? Shale gas and oil has been discovered and is being developed all over the USA. The first of 40 new Nuclear Power Plants is under construction. What will soon be in super high demand? 6G pipe welders, that's what! You can find schools for 6G Welding. You may be able to government help to get your training. Get started! Just Google "6G pipe welding schools."

What should you do next?

6G Welding: What Is It? It Is The Highest Paying Of All Welding Positions - Make 0K A Year!
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You can SKIP welding school and teach yourself to be a 6G pipe welder at home, in eight weeks or less! Discover the secrets revealed in: "The 0K Welder" - teach yourself to weld 6G pipe in eight weeks even if you have never welded in your life! "The 0K Welder" ebook and course will give you step by step instructions. Check out here: http://100KWelder.com.

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Florida Construction Contracts Need More Than Two Pages to Be Legal

I'm asked occasionally to recommend a simple 2-page construction contract for states like Florida.

Where can I get a contract like that?

If you see one of these two-page wonders, you can be sure it's junk - at least in the State of Florida. The legislators in Tallahassee have seen to that. Every valid Florida construction contract will include several pages of notices and disclosures required by Florida law.

Florida Construction Contracts Need More Than Two Pages to Be Legal

If you've been using a two-page contract for residential construction in Florida, here's a handy guide to what you're missing.

Opportunity to Repair (Florida Statures Chapter 558.005)

Every construction contract in Florida (except public transportation projects) must include the "notice of claim" statement. The contract is still valid if you omit this statement. But the fine for leaving it out is 0 under Florida Statutes - 775.08(3).

Buyer's Right to Cancel (Florida Statutes - 501.031)

Unless the deal was closed at a state fair, at your office or after an express invitation to visit your client at home, residential contracts have to give notice of the buyer's right to cancel.

If the deal was closed, for example, over lunch in a restaurant, on the phone, by email, on a golf course or at an architect's office, it's a home solicitation sale. I know that doesn't make much sense. But it's Florida law. The notice is required. Omission of the notice is a first degree misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison and a ,000 fine under Florida Statutes - 775.082 and - 775.083.

Florida Construction Lien Notice (Florida Statutes - 713.015)

This notice has to appear in all residential prime contracts valued at ,500 or more if work is either new construction or improvement of a building with four units or less. The notice has to be in 12-point bold caps and either on the front page of the contract or on a separate page. If the notice is on a separate page, this statement has to be signed by the owner and dated. Omitting this notice is a non-criminal violation punishable by a fine of up to 0 under Florida Statutes - 775.08(3) and may make it difficult for a prime contractor to enforce lien rights.

Construction Industry Recovery Fund Notice (Florida Statutes - 489.1425)

Omission of this notice is punishable by a fine of up to 0 for the first offense and up to ,000 for a second or subsequent offense.

The Home Improvement Sales and Finance Act. (Florida Statutes - 520.73)

If a home improvement contract includes a finance charge, Florida law requires a statement in 10-point bold type directly above the owner's signature. Omission of this notice requires a credit of all delinquency fees charged, plus attorney fees and costs.

If your Florida contracts fudge on these notices, you have an excuse. Some of these required notices are new. The right to repair notice became effective October 1, 2006. The lien notice law became effective in the present form on July 1, 2007.

This checklist covers only notices required by Florida law. Of course, all Florida contracts have to comply with Federal law - the 3-day right to cancel (12 C.F.R. 226.15 ), Federal Truth in Lending (15 U.S.C. 1601) and insulation disclosures (16 C.F.R. 460). If you do home improvement work in zips between 33010 and 34141, Miami-Dade Municipal Code - 10-33 requires additional disclosures.

Even if you're not concerned about the threat of fines and jail time, there are good reasons to keep your contracts legal under Florida law. Get into a dispute on any job and the attorney for the other side will hammer away at every little flaw and blemish in your contract. You could be left with no way to collect.

So while a two-page construction contract may be easy to get the owner to sign, it may not be completely legal under Florida law. It certainly offers little or no protection should something go wrong. Unfortunately, most forms available on the Internet today do not cover the provisions required by Florida contract law.

Florida Construction Contracts Need More Than Two Pages to Be Legal
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Gary Moselle is an attorney specializing in construction contracts. Mr. Moselle writes a blog at http://garywmoselle.blogspot.com and offers free construction contracts which meet the statues of state requirements at http://www.construction-contract.net Just pick the state, then pick the contract, download and customize in your word processor.

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