Obviously, summer is the most ideal time to have an extension built on your house; the long daylight hours, warmer temperatures and minimal rainfall provides much better conditions for building work, especially when it comes to piling foundations. Not to mention, extensions generally involve taking out large sections of your home’s outer wall, leaving you vulnerable to the elements and making it very difficult to heat your home properly.
Winter construction does throw up some obstacles, but with the right know-how the work doesn’t need to be put on hold; its all about mitigating the issues that winter weather brings.
In this blog we will take a look at some of the most common problems building an extension in winter causes and run through the ways in which the team at Rhinopiling tackle those obstacles.
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Freezing Temperatures
Cold snaps can set in at unpredictable times. Rather than close up shop and wait for weather to warm back up again, its important that certain jobs, like brickwork, for example, is finished as the water content in mortar can freeze and prevent it mixing through the cement. As frozen water expands it can cause cracking to brickwork which can mean an area needs to be demolished and rebuilt.
To prevent this disruption in the process we must try and anticipate the best times of the year to begin projects. As we cannot always be completely able to say when weather may take a turn for the worst we have to go by the seasons. We try to avoid starting a project that will mean important parts of the piling process won’t be completed before winter is here.
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Shorter Days
With limited daylight hours to work with, its inevitable that for jobs to be completed on time, teams will have to work in the dark at some point. When the sun goes down it isn’t just light that we have to deal with; as the sun falls, the temperature also drops. This is why we will install floodlighting and heating to ensure a full day’s work can be completed without having to be cut short.
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Security
Unfortunately for teams working on small sites, theft is something we have to be wary of. With scrap metal, expensive building materials and high-value tools on every building site, they become a target for thieves looking for an easy target. Large construction sites can afford a full-time security, but smaller sites need to be extra vigilant.
Increased darkness around winter means that it is easier for thieves to walk away with expensive equipment without being seen. For this reason, the site manager needs to enforce extra security and awareness by staggering deliveries so nothing is left unattended, different contractors are also staggered when visiting site so there aren’t big groups of people entering and exiting all at once and double checking that all high-value items are securely packed away each day.
Rhino Piling provides piling in Manchester and the surrounding areas. For more information or for a no-obligation consultation, contact the team today.
