The UK Construction Blog

A pocket size non-destructive digital display moisture meter for measuring percentage moisture content in wood incorporating a switchable specific gravity adjustment for most wood species. It provides relative/comparative readings deep into most building
materials such as Dry-wall, Roofing, Brick, Ceramic tile etc.

The MRH also has the additional option of a Hygrometer mode to measure Relative Humidity, Temperature, Dew Point Temperature and Grains/lb. by simply plugging in a Tramex Relative Humidity Probe.

MRH Kit Specification

MRH-Kit - Tramex Complete Moisture and Humidity Meter

The most comprehensive range of glass and glazing analysis tools in one compact kit.

This is the perfect solution for any surveyor who needs the ability to carry out full risk assessments of glass or any other type of fenestration survey.

Glass Analysis Kit, Kit Includes:
1 x Lazer Glass Gauge
1 x TGI – Toughened Glass Detector
1 x Low E Coating Detector
1 x Kit Box

Glass Analysis Kit

SiteMaster Facade – Mobile CAD Software
Facade Survey with Total Stations
SiteMaster Facade – a Total Station solution

Facade Survey with Total Stations

SiteMaster Facade and Totalstation enables you to survey and draw complicated facades in a
very short time.

The software turns the collected measuring points, lines, circles, und rectangles into a 2D projection on-site.

Without spending hours back in the office, polishing the drawings views and projections are done on-site,
minimising errors.

The projection mode allows you a free definition of the projection levels. On that level all façade elements
will then be drawn and designed.

A lot of measuring time can be saved in the projection mode through the collection of the angles. By
collecting the angles the intersection points are identified automatically on the defined level.

You can even create the exact positioning points of the facade elements in 3D mode.

Further options of SiteMaster Facade

• Free positioning

• Free definition of the project level of the facade

• Generation of a 3D building model by assembling 2D views

• Copy functions of facade elements

• Stake-out of chosen plan points of a CAD drawing

• Graphical and numerical display of stake-out directions

• Import and Export of ASCII-files of the standpoints and point coordinates as well as the raw data of the surveys

SiteMaster TopoSurvey – Mobile CAD Software
CAD comfort when doing a site survey with Total Stations
SiteMaster TopoSurvey – a Total Station solution

CAD comfort on site with Total Stations

SiteMaster TopoSurvey connects the data collection in the field through a Total Station with the direct display of the measuring
results in a CAD drawing.

SiteMaster TopoSurvey has tools for topographical collection of streets, buildings, lands as well as land city planning detailsthat are connected to symbols.

Comfortable feature for generating new stations/points or for the connection of existing stations/points the program supports
Excel coordination tables with alphanumerical data for the collection of points, lines and symbols.

Measuring points that are hard to access can be measured through the offset method.

Land survey Totalstation

•          Data collection in the field with the direct display of the measuring results in a CAD drawing

•          Tools for topographical collection of streets, buildings, lands as well as land city planning details

•          Comfortable feature for generating new stations/points or for the connection of existing stations/points the program

•          supports Excel coordination tables with alphanumerical data for the collection of points, lines and symbols

•          Measuring points that are hard to access can be measured through the offset method

•          Supports the attributes of blocks i.e. trees that can be marked with extensive information

•          Interface for the ASCII-Import and Export enable the exchange of station coordinates, measured point coordinates, the
collected data information as well as the raw data of the the measurements

•          Stake-out chosen points of a CAD drawing out in the field through the graphical and numerical display of Stake-out direction

FOR ALL BUILDERS & CONSTRUCTION WORKERS OUT THERE! WHY NOT DIVERSIFY?

Steve was like a lot of people working a trade in the Construction Industry, due to the economic climate he was out of work more than in it. One day he saw an advertisement for Sitemaster Software, this piqued his interest as it was something allied to building that he knew and as he already carried out his own surveys for estimating purposes he thought that the added bonus of being able to draw up accurate floor plans would give him another opportunity to earn a living doing something he already had an interest in and which could help in his normal job when things picked up. Sort of kills two birds with one stone!

So what did he have to loose, he sent off for more information and agreed to a FREE NO obligation demonstration.  What Steve witnessed  was professionally-finished building floor plans, area estimates and inspection drawings using a Bluetooth handheld laser talking directly to the software held on a UPMC (Ultra Mobile PC) tablet, he saw that there was no longer any need to take measurements using tape measures, no need to write any notes or draw pencil sketches anymore, the dimensions are instantly inserted into the drawing programme and it draws the lines in real time – On Site!

Steve stated at the time “I have experienced first-hand the immediate gains that Sitemaster Building software can provide to construction and building information mangers in terms of accuracy, speed and cost-savings”

He was told of how this software had been instrumental in saving time and costs on many projects around the world,  “On a recent service project, I was contracted to verify a commercial lessee’s office square metreage and was able to determine irrefutably that they were being overcharged by more than 25 square meters on their contract”. Quite a rental saving over a period of a few  years. It is obvious  that where commercial office space commands a premium, the cost-savings to the lessee will be significant over time and positively impact their cash flow each month”  Just one of the ways this software can be used effectively.

Building Talk recently commented  “Sitemaster Building is an amazing application, and is generating a lot of interest in the marketplace”.

Steve was so impressed by what he was shown, that he decided to buy there and then and take up the optional  offer of a days training. This was carried out in due course and Steve immediately put this software/ kit to good practice. In fact he was in touch with some old clients who gave him work from time to time, construction work, but they had none available just now, so he offered his services as a surveyor and offered to draw up floor plans of some of their property portfolio, he knew through the grapevine that they needed this due to recent changes in legislation, the two negotiated a price and off Steve went to start his first proper floor plan survey. The first building he worked on took him some time, he was after all learning as he went along, but by the time he started the second project he had ironed out all the queries and problems he was having and with the help of the training he had received and the telephone support from the company, he was well on his way.

He was now starting to produce finished floor plans much quicker and  700 – 800 square meters per day were not uncommon. He knew through experience that most surveyors/architects will hand sketch and measure maybe 500 – 700 square meters per day, and then spend at least another day back at the office drawing the floor plans up. Yet Steve on only his second project was walking off site at the end of the day with circa 700 square meters surveyed, measured and drawn and of course FINISHED!
It quickly dawned on him that there was a real opportunity here to offer this as a full time service and make some good money along the way. What started off as an attempt to try and earn a bit more money due to lack of construction work, had now turned into a possible future gold mine offering his services of providing finished, accurate floor plans quickly and efficiently both for his own clients and for others. He had now in effect gone from a pretty ordinary builder to a much sought after professional member of the construction industry, more or less overnight, he now charges his clients on a per square metre basis for most projects as he has now got to  a point where he can produce nearly 1000 sq metres per day on a large project.

Of course producing accurate floor plans is one thing, but the Sitemaster Software is so good it also works out area, volume and perimeter calculations of rooms, it also automatically and in the background builds up door and window schedules, lists of radiators, plug points,  and in fact anything else you  collect along the way, the data collection feature of this programme is ideal for Asset and Facilities Managers.

Along with the floor plans, Steve now finds he can charge for providing door and window schedules, that for most traditional surveyors/architects can take hours or even days to produce, takes Steve seconds with the push of a button. The programme does this all automatically for him, his earnings are now rising exponentially as he finds more ways and new markets to put this programme to work for him.

Steve has since shown this to some of his fellow workmates on the construction site and comments:

“Once people see Sitemaster in action and witness the finished results, they can’t believe they have been using a tape measure and paper for so long”.

“Architects, designers – anyone wanting to create as-built drawings can now complete the task in record time without leaving the clients site.  Better yet, there is no need to send two people to a site and finished drawings can be generated up to 10 times faster than traditional measuring-tape and paper methods.”

Profiled in a recent Microsoft white paper, Sitemaster is claimed to be the first system of its kind to automate the creation of wireless, laser-generated as-built floor plans, area estimates and building inspections for architects, appraisers, contractors, engineers, estimators, facilities managers, floor-planners, estate agents  and other professionals involved in the design, construction and management of buildings.

Using a Leica Disto A6 handheld laser, Sitemaster facilitates instant on-site creation of detailed, AutoCAD-compatible drawings on a Bluetooth wireless Pocket PC, Tablet PC or laptop computer running Microsoft’s Windows mobility operating systems.

“Sitemaster provides the missing link for thousands of potential clients”.

Now it is time for you Construction Tradesmen who are maybe looking for other ways of earning a living, to try this for yourselves, why not? What have you got to loose? It worked for Steve, why shouldn’t it work for you?

The voice of reason at the HSE

The HSE has often borne the brunt of criticism from the business world and the wider public that the UK has gone “Elf n safety” mad. Judith Hackitt, Chair of the HSE is keen to dispel such resentment and has recently spoken quite refreshingly about promoting a “common sense approach” to health & safety in Britain.

Having been appointed Chair of the HSE in October 2007, Judith Hackitt has embarked on an ambitious campaign to win the hearts and minds of British business and its workforce. Over the past fifteen months she has given 30 speeches to a wide variety of audiences including chief executives, union leaders, politicians and of course health & safety officers amongst others.

Most recently Hackitt addressed the Occupational Health and Safety Conference to outline the HSE’s strategy for the coming years. The following goals were highlighted:

1. Continued commitment to investigate accidents and take the appropriate enforcement action to secure justice
2. Encourage strong leadership based on a common sense and proportionate approach
3. Help managers distinguish between real and trivial health & safety
4. Increase competence in health & safety for greater ownership, confidence and proportionate risk management

An extract from Judith Hackitt’s speech is summarised below:

With the merging of the Health and Safety Commission with the Health and Safety Executive in April 2008, came and important development. This important step started us on this challenging journey to bring Health and Safety into the 21st century. Holding on to those things which are good, effective and still relevant whilst at the same time, adapting and changing as the world in which we all operate changes and calls on us to address new risks. Prior to the introduction of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act (1974) which created HSE and HSC, ~1000 people lost their lives in work related incidents every year. The 1974 Act had an impact; it was a huge turning point for Great Britain’s Health and Safety system. Prior to the Act:

• The system of regulation was disjointed, with multiple sets of regulations calling for different practices and setting different standards in different industry sectors.
• Numerous sectors and work activities were not covered by regulation.
• There was no requirement for employee involvement in managing health and safety.

Compared to many other pieces of legislation which have been enacted before and since HSWA, the Act is quite remarkable in its resilience. The key principles of the Act required that we all:

• Recognise the pace of change - in business, in technology, in society.
• do away with rigid, specific old-fashioned prescriptive solutions

And replace that with a broader and more generic goal setting approach based on the overriding principle that “Those who create the risk are best placed to manage it” The evidence is there for us all to see that this approach has worked. Since the introduction of the Act, safety performance overall has improved by more than 70% partly because of changes in the types of work people do, but also because of the effectiveness of the system. It is hardly a cause for celebration that > 200 people continue to die as a result of incidents at work every year but we should also remember

• where we’ve come from
• we have one of the best combined health and safety records of any country in the world

The fact that our performance has plateaued again, albeit at a much lower level than before tells us something – but it certainly doesn’t tell us that we have to change a fine piece of legislation which has served us well and delivered such a huge benefit, measured in lives saved and injuries and illnesses avoided, for more than 30 years.

So when HSE looked back at where we had come from and what we have we decided to take stock of, what has changed and what adjustments we need to make to our strategic approach to deal with those changes.

The world of work has changed in many ways. Many of the work activities and businesses which existed in the 1970s continue to operate and indeed thrive today.

And then we move on to the emerging and growing sectors which bring with them new risks to be managed and new challenges. The strength of the 1974 Act is that by setting down non specific, generic but time honoured principles, we can apply those principles today to many more SMEs, to nanotechnology, to a rapidly expanding waste and recycling industry and so on.

We must also recognise that public expectation and societal values have changed. There is a much stronger tendency for people to look to others to blame and to call for “something to be done” whenever there is an accident or an incident. There is a greater level of concern about the possibility of civil litigation and claims for damages. “Where there’s blame, there’s a claim” is a reality of the 21st Century and increased bureaucracy is often the response to ’something must be done’.

One of the saddest things about where we find ourselves in the 21st Century is that much of that bureaucracy has proliferated in the name of Health and Safety or rather “Elf ‘n’ Safety” because we do need to draw a clear distinction between that which is real Health and Safety – stopping people getting killed, injured or made ill by work – and much of the nonsense and jobs worths which shamelessly use health and safety as an excuse.

We’ve also become confused as time has progressed about who is responsible for what in relation to health and safety. The responsibility for managing health and safety in any organisation rests very clearly with those who create the risks – HSE is not responsible for managing health and safety in your workplace – that is down to you as duty holders and employers.

Without that recognition of basic responsibility and commitment to do it because it is the right thing to do – there will be no good health and safety system.

HSE provides guidance and advice of what the law requires and takes enforcement action where we find breaches and non compliance. Health and Safety professionals including ourselves provide framework and support but leadership in every organisation is key.

Today we have many more small businesses than we did 30 or even 10 years ago. However turbulent the economic climate may be over the foreseeable future, we can confidently expect that trend of increasing proportion of employees being in SMEs to continue into the future.

We know that in the past effective workforce involvement, particularly where it has involved unionised safety representatives, has delivered generally better safety performance. But today, not only are workplaces themselves very different but there are also many more workplaces with non-unionised structures or a mix of unionised and non-unionised workforces – our task is to find new and effective ways to engage current and future workforces.

Many organisations are already fully committed to a properly integrated suite of health and safety arrangements and they know that good health and safety is good business. But in the coming months, the economic climate is going to test that commitment in some places and in others there is a much longer standing scepticism/reluctance to embrace proper health and safety which we must tackle. Exemption from the law or from scrutiny by the regulator is not an option for any organisation – a common sense fully integrated approach is not an option either but an imperative for everyone.

To read Judith Hackitt’s speech in full click here

ROI example for SiteMaster

Responsible facility managers and businesses alike are always looking for ways to minimize their expenses and to hold onto their available resources. They are constantly reviewing and rethinking their operational strategies in order to remain competitive in today’s business environment. In an attempt to accomplish this task many organizations are looking for solutions to increase productivity and reduce costs. SiteMaster Building provides a low cost means to meet that need.

In a recent article for Business Advantage’s CAD Spaghetti, Rob Jones of Graebert UK talks about the benefits of using the SiteMaster system and how businesses can achieve a solid return on their investment.
He states: “Once users realize how beneficial the system is to their work flow in achieving 90% of the drawing in the field, it certainly opens the mind to this investment and how quickly they can achieve a return on investment.  Most surveyors use a laser measure, a total station, a laptop or some form of computing device; we are the platform that ties them all together to make their investments work a bit harder and certainly a lot smarter. Whatever the size of organization, the investment made in SiteMaster is a very sound business decision” (Jones, 2008).

In order to demonstrate the return on investment potential that can be realized utilizing the SiteMaster product line over the Tape measure and Paper methodology the following examples are provided. Cost estimates for both surveyors and draftsmen are based on arbitrary dollar amounts and are to be utilized for demonstration purposes only as wage rates will vary from organization to organization.   Graebert’s projections for increased productivity are utilized to demonstrate the gains that can be realized by utilizing this system and methodology.

As with any new system there will be a ramp up period for the training of personnel. Initially, a typical survey team will consist of two personnel. Once users become more familiar with the system however they can go to a single person team.  Cost savings can be realized through this reduction in staffing requirement.

Survey Technician Example:

Wage rate per day = Number of personnel *Wage rate per Hr

Traditional Method:                 2 x $21.40 per hr = $42.80 per hr *8 = $342.40 per day

SiteMaster Method:                1 x $21.40 per hr = $21.40 per hr *8 = $171.20 per day