ETHICS IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY BASICS AND TUTORIALS

CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY ETHICS BASIC INFORMATION
What Are The Construction Industry Ethics?

In 2004, FMI, the nation’s largest management-consulting firm for the construction industry, teamed up with CMAA to survey project owners, architects, engineers, construction managers, and contractors to gauge their concerns about ethics in the industry.

The results, culled from 270 responses, might be kept in mind as we traverse the design and construction industries in the chapters that follow.

The key concerns expressed by the respondents to the survey were fourfold:

1. There appeared to be a breakdown in trust and integrity.

2. There was a perceived loss of reputation for the industry.

3. There was a need to provide a code of ethics and standards.

4. There was a need to create a more equitable bidding process.

Concerns were voiced by owners, architects, engineers, and contractors; they all seem to point to a need for fairness on the part of each party to the construction process.

Concerns about architects and engineers included the following:

■ Owners stated that architects and engineers do whatever makes the owner happy, often at the expense of the contractor.

■ Architects and engineers need to express fairness when dealing with contractors or making decisions that affect the owner.

■ Design professionals knowingly issue plans and specifications that are deficient. Concerns about contractors included the following:

■ Bid shopping, a practice where contractors use one subcontractor’s price to drive down the price of another to achieve the lowest cost, often an unrealistically low price

■ Change-order games, played by a general contractor who knowingly submits a low bid in the hope of gaining more profit by issuing questionable change orders as construction proceeds

■ Payment games, the receipt of payment from one owner, which should be used to pay for labor, materials, and equipment for that project, commingled with funds to pay for other projects

■ Instituting claims that are vague or specious

■ Engaging subcontractors whose past performance has been unreliable Concerns about owners included the following:

■ Owners who authorize work but argue about paying for it

■ Owners who are very late in their payment of contractor requisitions

■ Owners who pass off responsibility to others when they are the party that should assume responsibility and resolve problems promptly and equitably

■ Owners who lack ethical behavior, such as advertising bogus low bids to drive down the price of bidding contractors

■ Little dialogue between owners and contractors about the expectations of both parties

It appears from this study that there is plenty of blame to go around, indicating the need to maintain and enforce ethical business practices by owner, architect, and contractor alike. So with that in mind, we will now begin the design and construction process.

PROPERTIES OF FRESH CONCRETE BASIC AND TUTORIALS

FRESH CONCRETE PROPERTIES BASIC INFORMATION
What Are The Properties Of Fresh Concrete?

Concrete workability is the relative ease with which a fresh mix can be handled, placed, compacted, and finished without segregation or separation of the individual ingredients. Good workability is required to produce concrete that is both economical and high in quality.

Fresh concrete has good workability if it can be formed, compacted, and finished to its final shape and texture with minimal effort and without segregation of the ingredients. Concrete with poor workability does not flow smoothly into forms or properly envelop reinforcing steel and embedded items, and it is difficult to compact and finish.

Depending on the application, though, a mix that has good workability for one type or size of element may be too stiff or harsh for another, so the term is relative. Each mix must be suitable for its intended use, achieving a balance among required fluidity, strength, and economy.

Workability is related to the consistency and cohesiveness of the mix and is affected by cement content, aggregates, water content, and admixtures. Concrete workability is increased by air entrainment.

Entrained air is different from entrapped air. Entrapped air usually accounts for about 1 to 2% of the volume of fresh concrete and its inclusion is not intentional. Small amounts of air are inadvertently entrapped in the concrete mixing process.

Air content can be intentionally increased by a controlled process called air entrainment, which uses either a special cement or a chemical admixture to introduce evenly distributed, microscopic air bubbles. In fresh concrete, the tiny air bubbles act almost like ball bearings or a lubricant in the mix, and in hardened concrete they increase winter durability.

Too much air reduces the strength of concrete, though, so air content is generally recommended to be within the ranges shown in Figure 2-1.

Consistency is the aspect of workability related to the flow characteristics of fresh concrete. It is an indication of the fluidity or wetness of a mix and is measured by the slump test. Fresh concrete is placed in a metal cone.