Research Korner: Construction Essays

HOTEL REFURBISHMENT     The hotel construction and refurbishment industry consists of private companies and public authorities, with many individuals and organizations involved, from the manufacture of necessary components to the assembly and construction process. The hotel refurbishment project requires a registered architect and civil engineer under the direction of a project manager to execute the design and to make sure that it complies with the regulations governing building construction, at the same time conforming to the requirements of the owner. The architects or engineers convert the requirements into a set of drawings and written specifications that are usually sent to contractors for bidding. The successful bidding contractor will be the one responsible for the required manpower such as the plumber, painter, electrician, carpenter and other manpower required for the construction. Contractors carry out the work under the supervision of an architect and engineer who act as agents of the owner. Current Statutory Land Matters In the refurbishment of the 80 hotel bedrooms and 5 corridors, there are certain laws and various regulations and standards that must be taken into account and followed. These basic rules are the generally accepted technical rules for construction and refurbishment. These laws and regulations are designed to ensure safety during and after the refurbishment of the 80 hotel bedrooms and 5 corridors and to protect the building against damage and defects. The 80 hotel bedrooms and 5 corridors must be refurbished  in such a way that the public who will go to the building as well as the structures within the vicinity of the building will be safe. Regulations are also enforced to guarantee the owner of the hotel that the building will be profitable for him in the long run.             Fire protection and security are the basic concerns of many refurbishment regulations. The 80 hotel bedrooms and 5 corridors should be designed and refurbished in a manner that all the people inside can leave the building without the risk of injury and at the shortest possible time once a fire breaks. Generally, it is a standard for corridors and hotel bedrooms to be refurbished with escape routes and fire escapes, fire compartments and with the choice of material. Operational security concerns the safety of elevators and escalators, stairs, railings and parapets and the installation of emergency lightings. Regulations for operational security also include the alarm system for carbon dioxide in underground parking lots; and the non-slip nature of floor in traffic areas, sanitary rooms and kitchens. Refurbishment Control             Stability and construction physics are also major concerns in standards and regulations. Stability of the refurbishment project depends on how the hotel is designed and constructed. The designs and construction methods are govern by these regulations; plans and designs which includes stability calculations and material properties and specifications are checked by authorities and should passed their standards. Demonstrations of the internal structural strength of the construction and safe transfer of loads to the subsoil should also be practiced to determine the allowable maximum load that the building can withstand. Planning Issues             Construction planning of the hotel refurbishment project involves the weighing of the project costs and determining the most reliable options, making sure that the project is feasible at the most cost-effective time. Refurbishment planning is challenging because of the changes that must be handled as the construction proceeds. Financing             The cost of refurbishment of the 80 hotel bedrooms and 5 corridors ranges to roughly a millions dollars. It is very rare that an owner can afford the costs without outside assistance such as banks and other financial institutions. Sources of capital to finance the refurbishment of the 80 hotel bedrooms and 5 corridors depend on the type of low-rise. Financing of refurbishment depends on what type of business is going to be established. Basic sources of capital can be through equity finance, debt finance or internally generated funds. Cost Estimation             Cost of refurbishment of the 80 hotel bedrooms and 5 corridors depends on the nature, size, location and management organization of the project. Project managers and designers such as the architect and engineer should realize that the costs are only estimated values and may vary depending on the changes, schedule adjustments and site conditions.             Capital cost for the hotel refurbishment project includes: ·         land acquisition, including assembly, holding and improvement ·         planning and feasibility studies ·         architectural and engineering design ·         construction, including materials, equipment and labor ·         field supervision of construction ·         construction financing ·         insurance and taxes during construction ·         inspection and testing ·         owner’s general office overhead Engineers and contractors used different types of cost estimation and should be weighed and compared to determine the most cost-effective estimate. WORKS PROGRAMME Submission /Approval Period There are several factors to consider evaluating and estimating the refurbishment period of the 80 hotel bedrooms and 5 corridors. The scope and the method of refurbishment used in the project decide how long it will take to finish the project. The scope of a hotel requires a short time compared to high-rise structure. A typical hotel bedroom and corridor can take 3- 6 months refurbishment time which may vary depending on the location, construction methods and procurement processes involved.           Timeframe   Week                         1   2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12   Submission of Papers                           Excavation                           Substructure                           Superstructure                           Exterior Walls                           Weatherproofing                           Interior Finishes                           Mechanical                           Electrical                           Exterior Work                           Alteration                               Refurbishment Guidelines   The hotel bedrooms and corridors are the external façade of a building with large area of glazed portion that carries no superimposed load except wind load. Requirements for Hotel Bedrooms and Corridors: ·         Strength and Stability. The hotel bedrooms and corridors must be able to resist wind forces and transmitting them reliably to the building structure. They should be able to take up positive and negative wind pressure and must be able to avoid damage due to deflection or distortion under expected building movements. Members of the hotel bedrooms and corridor frames must be strong and durable which should be made of strong and corrosion-resisting materials. ·         Weather resistance. Hotel bedrooms and corridors should have the ability to keep out water and wind by using resistant infilling or paneling materials such as glass, metal, plastic sheet, or stone slab. They should have appropriately designed jointing or sealing provision. ·         Thermal insulation and condensation. Hotel bedrooms and corridors usually have air conditioning for cooling thus need arches that can minimize the loss. Double-glazing of appropriate material and design properly insulated with thermal effective materials under the right design. ·         Sound insulation. Many hotels are situated within congested downtown area and near a super highway, having a background noise of more than 70dB. Arch systems should be designed to reduce the noise entering the building. ·         Fire resistance. Hotel bedrooms and corridors should be fire resistant and by the use of fire resisting construction in the non-glazing portion of the arch, and sealing all voids and gaps between such compartments by fire resisting materials (, 2000)   The structural engineer must consider many different factors before selecting the final structural system of the hotel bedroom and corridor refurbishment project. Basic refurbishment properties such as height, shape, and usage as well as local economic conditions that affect the materials and labor costs; construction schedule, design loads both vertical and lateral; building behavior and occupant behavior; foundation considerations and coordination with mechanical systems (, 1986) are all factors that influence the structural system. Generally, structural systems for hotel bedrooms and corridors are flexible and limitations only come from the material used in the construction. Typical materials used for structural systems of arches are steel and concrete.             Steel is a common material used for the refurbishment of bedrooms and corridors used in high-rise hotels and are popular due to its high strength to weight ration and variety of members can be fabricated from it. Steels can be wide flange sections, open web joists, tube steel, angles, plates and channel sections each one has its uses depending on its characteristics.             Wide flange sections are used for their high strength and easy connection while open web joists are used for their economic value because of their low weight. Tube steel, also known as Hallow structural section, is used for its high resistance to torsion and is ideal for members that span long, unbraced distances. Angels are most common for beam-to-beam and beam-to-columns connections as well as to form truss structures. Plates are also commonly used for beam-to-beam and beam-to-column connections while channel sections are easy to bend thus commonly use in curved areas (, 1994).   Steel frames are fabricated in pieces and then shipped to the building site. The method used is determined by the forces that the connection of pieces or sections must transfer. Beam to column connections usually consists of plates or angels that are bolted or welded to the members. If the members are wide flange sections, the angles or plates are connected directly to the web or flange of the section. If the members are tube steel section, a slot is cut in the sides of the section and a plate is inserted through the tube. If a pile system is being used, the piles are either driven into the ground using a pile driver, or they are concrete that is poured into a drilled hole.  The pile cap is then poured over the piles (, 1994).             Cast in place concrete is concrete that is poured on the building site and cures in place. The steel reinforcing aids the concrete in resisting tensile stresses on the arch. The amount of reinforcing and its configuration contributes to the strength of the concrete and the strength of the system as whole. Another method to reinforce concrete is with the use of cables that are placed inside the concrete when it is poured and then are tensioned as the concrete cures. This method is called post-tensioning. The tension cables form a steel net that lends strength to the concrete and act to compress the concrete. This helps tension forces created by loading conditions and increases the bearing capacity of the concrete (, 2005). On the other hand, pre-cast concrete is poured into moulds and allowed to cure before it is transported to the building site. The reinforcing is placed in the moulds before the concrete is poured.             REFERENCES

HOTEL REFURBISHMENT

HOTEL REFURBISHMENT The hotel construction and refurbishment industry consists of private companies and public authorities, with...