Structural Engineering

Structural Surveys

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It is important that every building undergoes a survey every now and then to determine if they are still structurally sound, particularly for big buildings which contain a lot of people and are worth a lot of money. Often times these larger building’s insurance will require buildings surveys periodically for the insurance to remain valid.

A number of things need to be reviewed to determine if they need to replaced or repaired regularly. The two biggest ones that need to be looked at regularly are the water systems, which when containing leaks can cause significant damage to a structure, and roofing systems, which when containing leaks can begin to collapse. Even if the worst doesn’t occur to the building due to these issues, leaking water or a damaged roof can result in a significant cost in the long term.

Of course if you live in a earthquake zone or you notice damage to any support beams it is very important that an engineering survey occurs so that you can determine if any repairs are necessary. Although you can usually expect issues like this to not be as prevalent as leaking roofs and pipes, when issues around the actual structure occur significant costs can ensue.

Waiting for Cement to Settle

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Waiting for cement to fully settle and solidify presents a number of problems, both from a point of view of logistics and planning and a civil engineering point of view. It can mean that you need to wait and halt building work, sometimes for a very long time.

There are a number of factors which need to be considered when laying out cement, such as what else needs to be done on the construction project and ensuring that work can still be done while the cement is drying, and how long this drying period will last.

Cement dries at a speed dependant upon how much there is of it and how much moisture it contains. In some of the biggest building projects undertaken the amount of cement could potentially months or even years to fully settle, although methods such as laying the cement in sections can help to alleviate this to a degree.

What Goes into Big Building Projects

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A lot of people are astounded by the incredibly large numbers involved in the costing of a big building project like a school or shopping centre development, but once you understand what actually goes into the development of the building, it does start to make more sense.

If you look at a current example, there has recently been a £2 billion contract awarded to RAM Consultancy, a large and successful building contractor, to plan and manage the development of a School. This a gigantic sum of money, but a lot of things goes into such a project, such as reworking the sewage system so that it connects to the school, building roads to allow access, connecting the building to the national grid, and a lot more. After this, you still need to build the actual school.

There are of course many more examples of buildings of a similar size being developed for less money, as well as others which have required even more. The variables involved include those already alluded to; is the building sufficiently connected to the utilities that will be required. But in addition to these issues, the ability to get to building site and deliver the massive amounts of building materials can also have a very large impact on the cost when you’re talking about such large quantities of stuff.