Sunday, September 19, 2010

Coming Out of the Ground

Village at Tom's Creek - Lot114

Fresh pictures from the jobsite!

On Friday, September 10th a subcontractor was on-site to install the concrete formwork in peparation to pour the foundation walls. The work took roughly a day and utilized a large crew of laborers. The concrete crew was onsite the following Monday to pour the walls, and the formwork was removed on Wednesday. Check out the following pictures to see the process as it evolved in front of my eyes. Unfortunately, I was not on-site to capture the actual pouring of the cement - my favorite step in the process.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

VT Academic and Student Affairs Building - Foundation Observations


The new Academic and Student Affairs Building at Virginia Tech is under construction just a short walk from the Department of Building Construction. What a great opportunity to observe the construction process from ground breaking onward. The finished building will include 77,301 finished square feet in 3 stories and will house two floors of dining and one floor of classroom space at a cost of just over $45,000,000. The schematic photos of the building show a green roof and rain gardens, leading me to the conclusion that cutting edge green technology was an integral part of the design process. Although construction is scheduled to take until summer 2012, I will be chronicling some of the important milestones as the foundations are constructed through December 2010.

Gettin' Dirty

Today I began a new side project for the semester - field laborer for Progress Street Builders, a semi-custom home builder headquartered in Blacksburg, VA. I will be working directly under the assistant superintendent on 3 houses in various stages of construction, and my duties will include carrying, lifting, pushing, digging, hammering, screwing, mixing and every other possible dirty job on a construction site. By integrating directly into the outfit that is building these houses I hope to be in a position to observe the construction process and gain some valuable skills in wood-frame construction techniques. Through this position I will be able to apply some of the concepts and theories from the classroom to a working construction site, and its a heck of a lot better than sitting inside!

I have several objectives for taking this position:
1. Hands-on application of classroom concepts.
2. Observation of 3 working construction sites.
3. Developing useful life-skills (carpentry, masonry, etc.).

The three houses in Tom's Creek Neighborhood that I will be assisting with are in the foundation, framing, and finishing stages of construction:

Village at Tom's Creek - Lot 114
Village at Tom's Creek - Lot 210
Village at Tom's Creek - Lot 211
Throughout this semester I hope to make semi-regular updates to this blog to document important milestones in the construction of a house.

Progress Street Builders