#tmkuta blogs

[tmkutawrites]

A Primer on Basic Construction Lingo

I get it—there’s a lot of construction lingo in A Common Bond. I couldn’t help myself! When you work in the industry, it’s so hard not to. My beta readers and editors helped me get the worst of it down to a dull roar, but I thought I would create a little write up sharing what some of the basic construction lingo means!

Ready? Here we go!

General Contractor:

Colloquially known as: The GC

 Also known as cat herders. General contractors are in charge of running the project—they liaise with the client and the architects, iron out any problems, and (try to) keep the project on schedule.

Subcontractor:

Colloquially known as: The sub or subs

Subcontractors work for the general contractors. They are the specialty workers who do the work. Demo crews, Electricians, HVAC, Plumbers, Masonry, Roofing, Flooring, and more are all usually their own companies.

Sometimes you get a subcontractor who does multiple things—waterproofing and roofing, or masonry and concrete, etc.

Bid:

This one people might already be familiar with. This is when the subcontractor crunches the numbers and says “Doing ABC tasks on this project will cost us XYZ dollars.” Those final numbers will be given to the General Contractor, who will combine the numbers from all their subcontractors plus their own, and give it to the client. The client will decide which General Contractor’s bid they like the best, and whoever is chosen wins the bid.

Contract Documents:

Colloquially known as: CD’s

Contract Documents are usually made up of 3 parts: The Contract Drawings/Architectural Drawings, The Specifications, and The Contract. They are used by the GC and the Subcontractor to create their bid documents, which then later turn into the legally binding contracts that say “you must do XYZ work.”

Sometimes this can be “fun” because a project will release incomplete drawings to be bid on (these are known as 30% or 60%’s). This usually ends in a lot of back-and-forth on “Do we owe, don’t we owe” later on in the project, as items and tasks are removed and added to later iterations of the drawings.

Specifications:

Colloquially known as: The specs

Specifications tell general contractors and subcontractors how to Do The Thing. They are broken out by category –Demo, Masonry, Flashing and Sheet Metal, Unit Masonry, Historic Restoration, etc—and in each section the architect or client (usually the architect) will lay out what tasks are required before work can begin (Section 1), what materials should be used to do the work (Section 2), and how to do it (Section 3).

Section 2 is usually what matters most. Sometimes specifications are very specific and list only a single brand name material that can be used. You use that brand name material on pain of death. Other specifications are more open—you are told you can use this brand name material or a comparable brand name material made by a different company. Others still are even more open—they say to use any product that has ABC characteristics/properties which is made to XYZ things. The product to actually use is up to the company, as long as it fits within those requirements.

Submittals:

Submittals are basically where you take all the shit listed in the specifications and turn it in to the client and architect, asking for permission to use. This includes all product data and safety data for any materials that are to be used, preconstruction surveys, material samples, mock-ups, and more!

Mock Ups:

Mock ups are when you do a small sample of the bigger task you are contracted to do. If you are installing waterproofing, you put down 5ft by 5ft square of the entire process to show that you understand how the material and process work. If you are cleaning a building with a certain chemical, you clean a similarly sized area of building to make sure the chemicals work and don’t damage the building. Repeat across the entire jobsite for every trade and every material/process.

Request for Information (RFI):

It’s basically what is says on the tin: you are asking for more information. Usually it is about conflicting drawings, specifications, or unforeseen project conditions—aka, you demo the first layer of drywall and find a bunch of mold nobody knew anything about, or during preconstruction documentation by a subcontractor, a giant (or small) structural crack is discovered that didn’t make it into the contract drawings. RFIs are used to close information gaps, fix incongruent drawings, and generally capture specific decisions for construction of the building that aren’t already written down in the drawings, specification, or contract.

RFI’s are fun because they can often result in change orders.

Change Order:

Change Orders are changes, modifications, or adds to a contract. A wall is opened up and it turns out the brick is crumbling and in super bad shape—if that wasn’t in a subcontractor’s contract, the GC will ask them to submit how much the materials, labor, and overhead it will cost to do that task. That document, the change, is then submitted to the architect and the client for review. If it is approved, the change is good to go and the subcontractor can get to work.

Changes can also be given out when work is just…missed. For instance, you need to repair a bunch of painted stone window sills, but someone forgot that the paint has to be removed before those repairs can be done. Nobody has paint removal at the window sills in their contract. Whoops! The GC will ask the best sub for the task to submit a change order to do this work so that the original work can also be done.

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And those are you basic terms! Please note that some of these are more complicated than I have explained, but I tried to boil them down to their most basic for those not in the industry.

I will make another post later with specific terms for masonry and restoration—since Oceanic is primarily a masonry restoration contractor, after all ;)

[carrigerpigeon]

Should I introduce myself to all these new people? I guess I should.

Name’s Ty, although most people in the fandom call me Pidge. Nonbinary butch lesbian, they/them pronouns. I get very excited about very ridiculous things (usually related to lesbians). I am but your humble lesbian pigeon weasel who drives this here lesbian bus, where I also dabble as a  supreme shitposter, question-asker extraordinaire, and lesbian smut writer.

I’m the main admin behind @fuckyeahgailcarriger​. I usually receive an ARC for all of Gail’s work, so I don’t liveblog like I used to. That being said, this blog is NOT a spoiler-free zone, as I usually have to sit on my book excitement for months, so as soon as I can talk about it here I FUCKING DO. I have somehow migrated from fan of Gail Carriger to friend; I’m still not certain how that happened and am fairly confident this is all an elaborate fever dream.

Beyond this blog, which is exclusively for content related to Gail Carriger’s work (who can be found @gailcarriger), I can be found being angry and gay on my main blog, @toastweasel​. Although most days I’m angry and gay on Twitter (@tmkuta) instead.

Now that you’re here....

1) Go preorder The Enforcer Enigma, out August 1, cuz the fucking SELKIE MOB is back.

2) If you sign up for Gail’s newsletter she’ll send you Marine Biology, free a short story that began the universe TEE is in. You’ll get to meet the OG selkie mob for free. And cute gay boys, I guess. Also you’ll get to be subscribed to Gail’s once-monthly newsletter, which is terminally delightful and often includes cute pictures of her cat.

2a) (Also out in August in Harrow the Ninth, so you should go preorder that and also preorder Gideon the Ninth. Those are also lesbian as hell and a fucking delight.)

3) Gail Carriger reading order is here if you’re new to her stuff.

4) If that looks list looks big and scary and you’re just here for the lesbians, might I recommend Romancing the Inventor (tw: sexual assault) or Competence, which can be read independently of the main series (in my humble pigeon opinion).

5) My thirsty sapphic Sidheag/Aggie fanfic is here (along with some original thirsty lesbian/sapphic shit, too, all for free cuz I’m generous like that). Leave comments, ya filthy animals.

6) Also donate to your local chapter of Black Lives Matter and buy books written by Black folks! I’ll reblog some lists in a bit. I highly recommend ordering and reading Once Ghosted, Twice Shy by Alyssa Cole while you wait.

Anyway, I think that’s it. Welcome, y’all. Go wild!  Put your feet up on the coffee table, Idgaf. Just take ‘em off before the wife gets home or she’ll be mad. :)

[carrigerpigeon]

I REALLY HOPE Y’ALL FOLLOWING THIS BLOG ARE GAIL CARRIGER FANS, OTHERWISE THIS IS GONNA BE REAL AWKWARD REAL FAST

It’s a Gail Carriger fanblog. If you want unabashedly thirsty lesbian content, @ tmkuta on twitter or @toastweasel here on the tumbles.

This blog is all Gail Carriger, all the time. Even when I’m screaming about lesbians.