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GBE Skills Gap (Opinion) G#41209

By 28 November 2023March 4th, 2024Encyclopaedia, Opinion, State of the Industry

GBE Skills Gap (Opinion)

GBE > Encyclopaedia > Opinion > State of the Industry > G#41209

About:

Scope/Extract:

  • These Opinion Posts have the potential to contribute to filling part of the ‘knowledge-gap’ and I am planning to ring every bit of 50 years of experience in violet construction, 40 years of specification consultancy and 24 years of green construction into its content.
  • GBE Continuing Professional Development (CPD) seminars will also be created and published to support this paper and its promotion.

Skills-Gap:

  • Absent or Inadequate training on:
  • Competent insulation installation:
    • Misleading slogan: “The more insulation the better”.
    • Does not mean over compressed insulation rammed into voids.
    • Apply conductivity thermal insulation at the density it was intended by the manufacturer.
    • Filling all the gaps and voids as you go.
    • Wrapping all the pipes as you go.
    • Signing off procedure to force inspection.
  • Air and Wind tightness & Vapour control installations:
    • Positioning the membranes in the right order (Vapour closed construction in particular).
    • Taking responsibility for sealing the holes you make.
    • Negative pressure blower equipment can blow dust back at the tradesperson when they drill holes, as a reminder.
    • Sealing of perimeters, laps and all penetrations, products and systems.
    • Sequence of assembly: pipes, cables, grommets and membranes.
    • Coordination of trades to get grommets fitted to services pipes and cables.
    • Retrofitting a grommet is impossible, patching a service penetration is less successful.
    • Testing regimes: when and how.

Envelop integrity:

    • Slogan: Build tight ventilate right
      • Making building deliberately airtight to control heat loss and coolth gain,
      • Then deliberately purposefully ventilate to control moisture and unhealthy air build ups.
    • Slogan: No Insulation without ventilation.
      • PAS 2030 & 2035 campaign to avoid condensation caused by insulating without ventilation.
    • Slogan: Build light insulate right solar tight:
      • Green Building Encyclopaedia (GBE) and Green Building Calculator (GBC)
      • Campaign to choose the correct thermal insulation materials to control summer heat gains as well as winter heat loss.
    • Air, wind tightness and insulation champion:
      • Site agent needs added responsibility to care about integrity.
      • Advise, coordinate and guide tradesmen via toolbox talks by manufacturers or suppliers.

Wetter climate:

Construction stage moisture management

Problems:

  • In the UK we are predominantly subject to south-west prevailing moisture laden winds
  • South coat, west country of England, south and west Wales, western Ireland, western Scotland, Scottish isles.
  • East of country is predominantly drier (as dry as Israel allegedly).

Solutions:

  • Build a weatherproof enclosure and build within it.
  • Sequence of working: Build structure, then weatherproof roof, complete enclosure, work on proofing, services and interiors.

External Wall insulation (EWI):

  • Insulate from eaves down to DPC level to prevent wind driven rainwater entry into insulation.
  • Especially tree- or plant-base materials, which when excessively wet can enable mould, rot and unhealthy conditions.
  • Insulate below DPC level with protected and/or hydrophobic insulation.
  • These include:
    • Cellular glass wrapped in waterproof membrane.
    • Cellular glass encased by hot bitumen flood coat.
    • Expanded Polystyrene protected by DPM.
    • Expanded Polystyrene protected by render system.
    • Aerogel encased in powder coated aluminium sandwich.

Dry weather working:

  • Do not start a vulnerable job unless it can be finished during a dry weather spell.
  • Don’t let your building get wet especially if made of timber.
  • Don’t let timber surfaces get wet and stained.
  • Use a sacrificial coating on fair faced surfaces, that needs to be removed before completion.
  • If you sand down the stains only then the appearance of the timber texture will be impaired locally.
  • g. Eden Centre top of the quarry Visitors café, ceiling.
  • BRM photo
  • Choose a green builder who will adhere to these methods by default without question.

Rain sheltering temporary works.

  • For violet contractor who cannot be asked.
  • For wet climate sites.
  • Scaffolding with roof and aprons enclosing the whole building.
  • Avoiding spoiling visible fair faced materials and timber in particular.
  • Spend money to save time and money repairing or replacing spoiled fair-faced timber.
  • Spend money to enable continuous working during inclement weather.
  • Enable wet trades to dry out.
  • Prevent wet trades from getting wetter.
  • Potentially reduced down time and save money.
  • Do not cost cut this from the cost plan but value engineer it into the cost plan.

Care gap:

Whether its down to:

  • management preventing sufficient time,
  • or tight finances caused by main contractors on supply chain sub-contractors,
  • or lack of skills
  • or lack of manufacturers instructions
  • or lack of specification
  • or “I have always done it like this, why change now?”

There is often insufficient time to care:

  • Constructors with all the skills but no time to care
  • Self-builders with no skills but plenty of time to care

Build quality suffers under the current industry approaches.

© GBE GBC GRC GBL NGS ASWS Brian Murphy aka BrianSpecMan ****
28th November 2023 – 4th March 2024

Images:

 

© GBE GBC GRC GBL NGS ASWS Brian Murphy aka BrianSpecMan ****
21st September 2018 – 16th November 2023

About:

GBE Skills Gap Opinion

GBE Opinion

GBE State of the Industry

  • I used to be a Master Builder, Architect’s don’t do that
  • Universal man v One Planet Woman

Sectors

GBE Greenwash

GBE CPD

GBE Jargon Buster

  • Violet (Jargon Buster) G#1583 N#1516

© GBE GBC GRC GBL NGS ASWS Brian Murphy aka BrianSpecMan ****
28th November 2023

GBE Skills Gap (Opinion) End.

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