LEED Water Efficiency Fig 1: Water Drops (Photo: Steve took it) According to the LEED Reference Manual, a typical 100,000 sf building can save up to 1 million gallons of water in a year if it uses low-flow fixtures, sensors and automatic shutoffs. This sentence alone clearly explains the importance of water efficiency and the demand […]

Swell and Shrinkage – Not What You Think it Means We call the properties that define the volume of dirt swell and shrinkage. Yes, take a moment to giggle like a third grader. Ok now back to it. Hey! I said a moment, not an hour of unnecessary giggling. You know who you are… where was I? Oh […]

LEED Sustainable Sites Fig 1: Sustainable transportation (Photo: whl.travel) This category is addressed first on the LEED Scorecard because the site itself needs to meet specific requirements before an owner can even think of asking for a LEED project. This means an owner should be asking themselves about the LEED process before they choose the site to develop. […]

Survey anchor bolts and beam pockets Prior to erection, the steel erection contractor is to survey all the anchor bolts, beam pockets and embedded plates on the site to ensure no remedial work is needed. This is important to do beforehand so steel erection does not come to a screeching halt if a problem is […]

A Project Schedule The typical project schedule is based on what type of project it is, if the design documents are complete, and if the schedule will be cost-loaded. Let’s take a simple example first, we’ll look at construction of a home. Don’t laugh, it’s nothing like the P-6’s and P-3’s of our time, but it is effective because […]

Quantity Take-off Quantity take-offs are performed at the start of every estimate. Essentially, they quantify the material needed to complete the work specified for a project. For every trade there is a standard method of quantifying material in a take-off. Caulking is measured in linear feet, concrete is measured in cubic yards, drywall is measured in […]

This Sounds a Lot Like Math… And that’s because it is. Come on! I got into construction so I didn’t have to deal with math, right? Wrong. It’s ok, we’ll give you some easy solutions, because at the end of the day, you could make your company some money (or yourself), impress your boss and […]

LEED Materials and Resources This section of the new v3.0 LEED Scorecard has also changed in point breakdown from the previous version, gaining 1 point. Many of the other sections’ point values were doubled, but Materials and Resources was regarded as a section with a one-time impact on the building, compared to the design and efficiency. This […]

LEED Online Submittals So how does a project get points towards certification? Each of the credits listed on the LEED Scorecard requires a submittal to the USGBC to score a point towards certification. If you’re familiar with the construction process, this is just like a submittal you would provide to an owner for a product in the specifications. See […]