Something interesting I saw

[n74tg]

While visiting the girlfriend's mother this weekend I noticed a new house being built close by.  So, naturally I had to go by to inspect.  No, in all honesty, I can stand her mother for only so long at a time; so I was really escaping for awhile.  Nevertheless, I was rather surprised (and impressed) at some of the things I saw. 

The first thing I noticed was that the contractor didn't just put up batter boards on all four corners; he put lots of them up, like maybe eight total.  When I arrived, it looks like he had almost completely "fenced" the project site in batter boards.  Most of these batter boards had horizontal members that were either 8' or 16' in length.  Initially I'm thinking whoa, lots of overkill here.  So, I look closer.  Apparently he had squared the batter board corners up AND he had leveled the tops of all the batter boards with a surveyor's level.  The horizontals on one end were about a foot off the ground, and on the other end about three feet off the ground.  Standing at one corner and sighting across the building site I could see ALL the horizontals were at the same elevation.  "Humm" I says to self.

Next thing I noticed was he had put drywall screws in all the horizontals to mark every detail needed.  Like most new houses these days, nothing is just a plain rectangle anymore; there's insets and bumpouts everywhere.  Sure enough there was a screw in oppossing batter boards to mark where every corner is.  What made it easy to follow was that he still had his strings running most everywhere.  I mean there were at LEAST twenty strings running across this building site.  Most had been unclipped at one end and layed down on the ground, but you could easily see where they had run when installed.

They had already poured the footers and started building the block foundation walls.  What interested me was that the mason had C-clamped a piece of square metal bar to the horizontal of the batter boards on opposite sides of the site.  It looked like it was a piece of scaffold framing.  This metal bar was pencil marked every 8" to denote block levels.  The bar lined up exactly with the screw in the horizontal batter, so I knew the wall was being built where it should be and plumb.  But, perhaps even more interesting was, when it's time to do the next wall, just move the metal bars.

I can just imagine this guy marking where all the plumbing runs need to be on the batter boards, running a string across and in this way insuring the plumber puts the pipes where they need to go; a real simple method of quality controlling your sub contractors. 

I wish I had spent more time at this site, and that I could spend more time there in the future to see what other interesting uses this guy makes of his batter boards.  Too bad, the "mother in law" lives two hours drive away. 

For years I have "inspected" (really means watched) houses being built.  I am amazed at both the good and the bad things I've seen.  It has helped me tremendously in the planning and construction of my own house.   This project had some of the more interesting things I've ever seen.

[Redoverfarm]

N74 I usually try to set my graded on the batter boards as well as the squareness of the building. Then when it comes time to dig out the footers a simple stick rule to locate the depth to keep me on track. At the cost of concrete I don't need any extra depth and need to insure the proper thickness.

Another thing which has proved usefull is taking digital photographs of buried lines before they are covered. 

John

[John Raabe]

Good builders often find ways of direct location of things - rather than relying on measurements and calculations. Thus the use of batter boards, story poles, stair guides, templates, the use of framing squares, etc. All help you think in a more practical straight-forward way and helps eliminate the "errors of abstraction" that can creep into math and trig. calculations.