Purpose of learning

- So that when you have a conversation/meeting with your technical team, you will know what
they are talking about even if your just in-charge of the design. When they say “architect this
part of the design needs to be modified because it can’t be done” you’ll understand why

Construction Phase
1. After the bidding stage and the contractor has been awarded, construction work begins.
2. The primary role of the architect is to ensure that the construction drawings and the specifications
are transformed into reality just as it was conceived by the design architect – the design architect
and project architect may be two separate professionals
3. The architect provides periodic observation and evaluation of the contractor’s work and notifies
the owner if the work is not in compliance with the intent of the contract documents.

Specifications

1. Buildings cannot be constructed from drawings alone because there is a great deal of information
that cannot be included in the drawings. They are the technical descriptions of the design intent
whereas drawings provide graphic description.
2. For instance, the drawings will give the locations of columns, their dimensions, and the material
used (such as reinforced concrete), but the quality of materials, their properties (the strength of
concrete for example), and the test methods required to confirm compliance cannot be furnished
on the drawings. This information is included in the document called specifications.
3. Another example is the information of the door. The drawings show the size and location of the
door but do not show the hardware, such as hinges, locks, handles, etc.
4. Should there be any conflict between Specifications and Construction Drawings – the
Specifications usually prevail, meaning, the Specifications govern the project unless otherwise
stated in the contract.
5. CSI Masterformat was developed by the Construction Specifications Institute to serve as a
guideline for specifications writing. All in all, there are 50 Divisions
6. Specifications should be developed alongside the design, increasing in level of detail as the design
progresses.
7. Used as the basis for the contractor’s bid or price so the more detailed the specs sheet is the more
accurate the tender (submission by a prospective supplier) is.

Rough Sitework
1. Before any work is done
a. Important to check municipal zoning ordinances which establish requirements such as
setbacks
b. Locate the utilities that will support the site, such as power, water, gas, and telephone
lines, sewage line – if there isn’t a sewage line then you will need to provide a septic tank
c. If the ability of the soil to support the weight of a building is in doubt, a soil engineer
should be consulted
d. Investigate any other local ordinances, such as tree-cutting restrictions, setbacks, parking
requirements, etc.
e. Access routes and storage locations need to be planned strategically
f. Waste piles, temporary utilities and facilities, parking areas for workers, office space for
on-site meetings should be located in places that will not disrupt construction activity
2. Site Preparation
 a. One of the first activities at the building site is a survey to establish the locations of the
property lines
b. This is done by a licensed surveyor, who marks the corners of the property and notes
relative elevations to be used for determining the floor levels of the house and
establishing slopes of future site features such as driveways and drainage piping.
c. Site is cleared of major vegetation and debris where the portion is used for the building
d. Staking-out
i. Once the property lines have been located and site is cleared, the corners of the
building are roughly situated and marked on the property through a process
known as staking out.
ii. Small stakes are driven to mark approximately the corners of the building’s
foundation and the placing of batter boards as reference marks for the builder
iii. Steps in staking out
• Corner stakes for the foundations are located and squared accurately
with surveying instructions or 3:4:5 right triangles
• Because the corner stakes will be lost during excavation, batter boards
are erected just beyond the area to be excavated. A saw kerf or nail is
placed on the batter boards in the plane for each wall, so strings may be
stretched to define each plan after excavation is completed
• A plumb bob is used to align the marks on the batter boards with the
stakes. Later a plumb bob is suspended again from the intersecting strings
to locate the corners of the walls
Primary function of a foundation is to transfer the structural loads from a building to the ground.
- Example: your legs and feet need won’t be able to carry your weight on unstable ground no
matter how fit/strong they are
Think of a building as consisting of three major parts:
- Superstructure
o Which is the above ground portion of the building
- Substructure
o Which is the habitable below-ground portion
- Foundations
o Which are the components of the building that transfer its loads into the soil
Characteristics of a satisfactory foundation for a building:
1. The foundation, including the underlying soil and rock, must be safe against a structural failure
that could result in a collapse.
2. During the life of the building, the foundation must not settle in such a way as to damage the
structure or impair its function.
3. The foundation must be feasible, both technically and economically, and practical to build
without adverse effects on surrounding property.
Foundation Settlement
- All foundations settle to some extent as the earth materials around and beneath them adjust
to the loads of the building.
o Foundations on bedrock settle a negligible amount
o Foundations in other types of soil may settle much more
- Uniform Settlement
o Where foundation settlement occurs at roughly the same rate throughout all portions
of a building
- Differential Settlement
 o Settlement that occurs at differing rates between different portions of a building
o Usually occurs where soils, loads, or structural systems differ between parts of a
building structure
o Most foundation failures are attributable to excessive differential settlement
- Best Example:
o Leaning Tower of Pisa
▪ An Architectural feat that actually caused from an engineering failure
Site Works
- Site investigation
o Covers every aspect of the site under investigation
- Soil Investigation
o Specifically related to the subsoil beneath the site under investigation
▪ Purpose
 Determine suitability of the site for proposed project
 Determine an adequate and economic foundation design
 Determine the difficulties which may arise during the construction
process
 Determine the occurrence and/or cause of all change in subsoil
conditions
Earth Materials
- Soil Classification
o Rock
▪ Granite, slate, sandstone and limestone
▪ A continuous mass of solid mineral materials
o Soil
▪ Any earth material that is particulate
o Boulder
▪ Detached rock masses larger than gravel
o Gravel
▪ Detached rock particles rounded and intermediate in size between sand
particles and boulders
o Sand
▪ Soil particles too small to be picked up individually
▪ Non-coherent rock particles smaller than ¼” in maximum dimension
o Clay
▪ Made up of miniscule particles that form a hard, concrete-like consistency
when dry, and a sticky mixture when wet
o Organic Soils
▪ Peat, topsoil, and other organic soils are not suitable for the support of
building foundations
▪ Compress easily and their properties change over time
- Soil Horizons
o Organic
o Topsoil
o Subsoil
o Parent Material
o Bedrock
- Properties of Soil
 o Coarse-grained
▪ Gravel & Sand
▪ The ability of a coarse-grained soil to support the weight of a building
depends primarily on the strength of the individual soil particles and the
friction between them.
▪ More desirable for supporting building foundations than fine-grained soils
▪ Greater load-bearing capacity, more stable, and react less to changes in
moisture content
o Fine-grained
▪ Silts & Clay
▪ More sensitive to the amount of water in the soil swelling considerably as
they absorb water and shrinking as they dry
▪ In highly expansive clay soils, a foundation may need to be designed with
underlying void spaces into which clay can expand to prevent structural
damage to the foundation itself
▪ In terms of drainage, fine-grained soils tend to drain water less efficiently
o The Unified Soil Classification System, from ASTM. The group symbols are a universal
set of abbreviations for soil types.
- Subsurface Exploration and Soil Testing
o Test Pits
▪ Useful when the foundation is not expected to extend deeper that roughly
about 3m (which is the maximum practical reach of small excavating
machines)
o Test Borings
▪ When foundation is expected to be more than 3m deep
▪ Borings with standard penetration tests can give an indication of the bearing
capacity of the soil by a number of blows of a standard driving hammer
required to advance a sampling tube into the soil by a fixed amount
▪ Usually a number of holes are drilled across the site

AASHTO Soil Classification System

a. Classifies inorganic soils for suitability as subgrade materials in terms of good drainage
and bearing capacity
b. Particle sizes definition
i. Boulders – above 75mm
ii. Gravel – 75mm to No. 10 Sieve (over 2mm)
iii. Coarse Sand – No. 10 to No. 40 sieve (between 2mm and 0.06mm)
iv. Fine Sand – No. 40 to No. 200 sieve (between 2mm and 0.06mm)
v. Silt-Clay Particles – Passing No. 200 Sieve (less than 0.002mm)
c. Atterberg Limits
i. Tests performed on soils passing the No. 40 sieve or any type of earth material
usable in construction

Excavation
- After the site has been cleared and the approximate location of the corners of the building
has been established, excavation can begin
 - Topsoil is excellent for growing lawns and landscape plants but unsuitable for supporting
buildings because it is subject to decomposition and high moisture content that can cause
shrinking and swelling which could damage your foundation
- Foundation needs to be protected from wind and water erosion
- Excavation is also done so that one or more levels of basement space can be added to a
building
- Depth of excavation for foundation, set by the designer, usually corresponds to the level at
which the bottom of the buildings footing will be located
o Footing – concrete base that the building foundation will rest on
- If the soil under the proposed house is not sufficiently strong to support the house,
compacted fill may be required (usually around 150-200mm thk)
Backfilling & Grading
- Backfilling is the replacement around the foundation and into trenches of the soil and rock
removed during excavation
- Rough grading is the smoothing and leveling of the site to a level just below that of the final
finish grade in preparation for the finish sitework that will take place later
- Use of a tampering machine

Deep Foundations to be discussed some other time

Termite Proofing
1. Chemical Barriers
a. The objective of this method is to establish a continuous termiticide barrier or treated
area between potential soil access routes and the structure to either kill or repel
subterranean termites that attempt to reach the structure. A termiticide is a type of
chemical used to control termites.
2. Colony Elimination (Bait) System
a. The objective of this method is to attract the termite workers to forage on a slow-acting
insect-growth regulator (IGR) called hexaflumuron that will work to eliminate the termite
workers population and eventually result in the death of the queen and any subsequent
future queens, and therefore the entire colony.
b. The system employs baiting and monitoring devices, installed where evidence of
infestation is found: on the ground outside the house, on walls, floors, ceilings inside the
house.