Construction Flashcards
A person or organization having the legal right or title to a piece of property, usually the architect’s client and party to the owner-architect agreement.
Owner
A per son or organization that invests in and develops the potentialities of real estate, especially by initiating and implementing building projects for ownership, management, or resale.
Developer
A person who engages in the profession of architecture, usually trained and experienced in the design and construction of buildings.
Architect
A person trained, skilled, or professionally engaged in any of various branches of engineering.
Engineer
Legally certified by a government or other constituted authority to engage in a business or profession in the state or jurisdiction in which a project is to be constructed.
Licensed or Registered
A person or organization hired to give professional or expert advice regarding a specific aspect of a project, such as acoustics or lighting.
Consultant
A person or organization that contracts to provide the materials and perform the work for a construction project at a specified time and rate.
Contractor
A person or organization that contracts directly with an owner to manage and supervise a construction project, including the work performed by subcontractors.
General Contractors
A person or organization that contracts with a general contractor to provide a portion of the work on a construction project.
Subcontractor
The insuring of propery, life, or one’s person against loss or harm arising in specified contingencies in consideration of a payment proportionate to the risk involved.
Insurance
Having a monetary commitment set aside to ensure that all obligations set forth in a contract are fulfilled
Bonded
The institution, usually a commercial bank, providing the long-term financing for a construction project.
Lending Institution
A person or organization that contracts with an owner to advise on and coordinate all phases of a building project, from evaluating the construction cost and feasibility of design decisions to managing the bidding, award, and construction phases of the project.
Construction manager
A person or organization that develops and constructs buildings for subsequent sale or lease.
Speculative Builder
Of or pertaining to an arrangement under which a person or organization contracts directly with an owner to design and construct a building or project.
Design-build
Of or pertaining to an arrangement under which a person or organization designs and constructs a building for sale or lease when ready for occupancy.
Turn-key
The process of building from site preparation through erection, assembly and finishing operations.
Construction
To install the highest structural member in a construction or complete the uppermost course in a masonry wall.
Top out
The temporary framework for supporting a structure under construction that is not yet capable of supporting itself.
Falsework
A temporary structure or platform for supporting workers and materials at a height above the floor or ground during the construction or repair of a building.
Scaffold or Staging
A detailed investigation and analysis conducted to determine the financial, technical or other advisability of a proposed construction project.
Feasibility Study
The competitive process of offering to perform the work described in a contract for a specified sum.
Bidding
A formal acceptance of a bid or a negotiated proposal.
Award
A legally enforceable agreement, usually in written form, between two or more parties to do or not to do something specified.
Contract
A written communication issued by an owner authorizing a contractor to proceed with the work and establishing the date of commencement of the work.
Notice to proceed
A written authorization to proceed with construction of a building project in accordance with approved drawings and specifications, issued by the local govenment agency having jurisdiction after plans have been filed and reviewed.
Building Permit
A person designated by a governmental authority to administer and enforce the provisions of a building code.
Building Official
To construc by the raising, positioning, fitting together and fastening of materials or parts.
Erect
A document issued by a building official certfying that all or a designated portion of a building complies with the provisions of the building code, and permitting occupancy for its designated use.
Certificate of Occupancy
The process of diagnosing the technical, functional and behavioral aspects of a completed building in order to accumulate information for future programming and design activities.
Postoccupancy Evaluation
Of or pertaining to project scheduling in which the design and construction phases of a building project overlap to compress the total time required for completion.
Fast Track
Critical Path Method: A method for planning, scheduling and managing a project, combining all releveant information into a flow chart, including the optimum sequence and duration of activities, the relative significance of each event, and the coordination required for timely completion of the project.
CPM
The manner in which materials are ordered, assepbled, and united into a whole, such as frame construction.
Construction
A construction process using a high degree of prefabrication in the manufacture of standardized units or components to speed assembly and erection of a building.
Systems Building or Industrialized Building
A prefabricated section of a floor, wall, ceiling or roof, handled as a single unit in the assembly and erection of a building.
Panel
A structural panel consisting of a core of relatively light material enclosed between two sheets of a high-strength material, generally resulting in a high stiffness-to-weight ratio.
Sandwich panel
A structural panel consisting of plywood facings glued to lumber stringers, used as floor, roof, or wall member subject to bending. The plywood facings and stringers act as a series of I-beams with the plywood resisting nearly all of the bending stresses. Cross bracing may be placed to support the edges of the skin and to help distribute concentrated loads.
Stressed-Skin Panel
To fabricate or manufacture beforehand, especially in standardized units or components for quick assembly and erection.
Prefabricate
To construct by assembling diverse and usually standardized parts.
Fabricate
The legal documents comprising a construction contract, including the owner-contractor agreement, conditions of the contract and the construction drawings and specifications for the project, including all addenda, modifications, and any other items stipulated as being specifically included.
Contract Documents
The construction drawings and specifications setting forth in detail the requirements for the construction of a project.
Construction documents
The part of the contract documents consisting of a detailed description of the technical nature of the materials, standards, and quality of execution of the work to be placed under contract.
Specifications
A specification that stipulates how a particular component or system must perform without giving the means to be employed to achieve the results.
Performance Specification
A specification that stipulates the exact quantities and qualities of materials to be furnished and how they are to be assembled in a construction.
Descriptive Specification
A specification that refers to a standard specification to indicate the properties desired in a material or component and the methods of testing required to substantiate the performance of products.
Reference Specification
A specification that stipulates the use of specific products, systems, or processes without provision for substitution.
Proprietary Specification
Planning and design utilizing prefabricated modules or modular coordination for ease of erection, flexible arrangement or variety of use.
Modular Design
Any in a series of standardized, frequently interchangeable components used in assembling units of deffering size, complexity or function.
Module
Correlating the dimensions of a structure and the unit sizes of its components, usually with the aid of a planning grid based on a 4-inch or 100-mm cubical module.
Modular Coordination
A technique of constructing multistory buildings in which all horizontal slabs are cast at ground level, and when cured, are raised into position by hydraulic jacks.
Lift-slab construction
A method of casting reinforced concrete wall panels on site in a horizontal position, then tilting them up into their final position.
Tilt-up Construction
A system (ASTM standard E1557) for classifying building elements and related sitework that provides a consistent reference for the description, economic analysis and management of buildings during all phases of their life cycle, including planning, programming, design, construction, operations and disposal. The format is based on the classification of elements which are defined as major components that are common to most buildings and perform a given function, regardless of the design specification, construction method, or materials used.
UNIFORMAT II
- UNIFORMAT II (ASTM E1557) classifies building elements into three hirarchical levels using an alphanumeric designation. There are sevel Level 1 groups.*
- Each Major-Group Element is broken down into Level 2 Group Elements (B10, B20) and Level 3 individual Elements (B1010, B1020, B2010, B2020). A level 4 is proposed to break the individual elements into yet smaller Sub-elements (B1011, B1012, B1012…)*
- UNIFORMAT II differs from and complements the Master Format classification system, which is based on products and building materials for detailed quantity takeoffs of materials and tasks associated with the construction, operation and maintenance of buildings.*
Identify UniFormat Level 1 - Group
Group A
Substructure, including Foundations and Basement Construction
Identify UniFormat Level 1 - Group B
Shell, including Superstructure, Exterior Enclosure and Roofing
Identify UniFormat Level 1 - Group C
Interiors, including Interior Construction, Stairs and Interior Finishes
Identify UniFormat Level 1 - Group D
Conveying, Plumbing, HVAC, Fire Protection and Electrical Systems
Identify UniFormat Level 1 - Group E
Equipment and Furnishings
Identify UniFormat Level 1 - Group F
Special Construction and Demolition
Identify UniFormat Level 1 - Group G
Building Sitework
The Uniform Classification System developed and published by the Construction Specifications Institue (CSI) and Construction Specifications Cadana (CSC). UniFormat is similar in organization to UNIFORMAT II but adds another group, Group Z: General, that incorporates general requirements, bidding requirements, contract forms and contingencies, and project cost estimating. Another significant difference occurs in how UniFormat uses MasterFormat numbers and titles for Level 5 and sometimes Level 4 elements.
UniFormat
A format developed by the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) for coordinating specifications, filing of technical data and product literature, and construction cost accounting, originally organized into 16 divisions based on an interrelationship of place, trade, function, or material but expanded in 2004 to 50 divisions to reflect changes in the construction industry.
MasterFormat
(there are total of 50 divisions compared to 16 divisions)
Before November 2004, MasterFormat was composed of 16 divisions:
Enumerate
1- General Requirements
2 - Site Construction
3 - Concrete
4 - Masonry
5 - Metals
6 - Wood and Plastics
7 - Thermal and Moisture Protection
8 - Doors and Windows
9 - Finishes
10 - Specialities
11 - Equipment
12 - Furnishings
13 - Special Construction
14 - Conveying Systems
15 - Mechanical
16 - Electrical
A classification of a building’s construction according to the fire resistance of its major components: Structural frame, exterior bearing and non bearing walls, interior bearing walls, floors and ceilings, roof, and enclosres of fire exits and vertical shafts. While model codes may differ in the detailed requirements for each construction type, they all limit the area and height of a building according to construction type and intended occupancy.
Construction Type or Construction Class
A code regulating the design, construction, alteration, and repair of buildings, adopted and enforced by a local government agency to protect the public safety, health, and welfare.
Building Code
A building code generally establishes minimum standards for materials and methods of construction, specifications for structural and fire safety and other requirements based on the type of construction and the occupancy of a building, often using standards established by the Americal Society for Testing and Materials, the American National Standards Institute, and various technical societies and trade associations.
Construction having a structure of steel, concrete, or masonry and walls, floors and a roof of noncombustible materials.
Noncombustible Construction
Noncombustible construction having a structure and major components with fire-resistance ratings at least equal to those specified by the appropriate authorities.
Protected noncombustible construction
Noncombustible construction having no fire-resistance requirements except for firewalls and enclosures of fire exits and vertical shafts.
Unprotected noncombustible construction
Any construction that does not fulfill the requirements for noncombustible construction.
Combustible Construction
A construction type having noncombustible exterior walls and an interior structure wholly or partly of light framing.
Ordinary construction
Ordinary construction having a structure and major components with fire-resistance ratings at least equal to those specified by the appropriate authorities.
Protected Ordinary Construction
Ordinary construction having no fire-resistance requirements for the interior structure except for fire walls and enclosures of fire exits and vertical shafts.
Unprotected ordinary construction
A construction type having noncombustible exterior walls and an interior structure of timbers and decking of specified minimum sizes without concealed spaces.
Heavy-timber Construction or Mill COnstruction
An ordinance regulating the division of land into zones, so as to restruct the height, bulk, density, and use of buildings, and the provision of such ancillary facilities as parking; a principal instrument in the implementation of a master plan.
Zoning Ordinance
A covenant with a clause that restricts the action of any party to it, such as an agreement among property owners specifying the use to which a property can be put, racial and religious restrictions are legally unenforceable.
Restrictive Cevenant
A building code that sets minimum standards for energy conservation and the energy-efficient design of buildings.
Energy Code
Of or pertaining to a material, type of construction, or occupancy or use not complying with the requirements set forth in a building code or zoning ordinance.
Nonconforming
An official ermit to do something normally forbidden by regulations esp. by building in a way or for a purpose normally forbidden by a building code or zoning ordinance.
Variance
A construction type primarily formed by a system of repetitive wood or light-gauge steel members and not meeting the requirements for heavy-timber construction.
Light-frame construction
Light-frame construction having a structure and major components with fire-resistance ratings at least equal to those specified by the appropriate authorities.
Protected light-frame construction
Light-frame construction having no fire-resistance requirements except for fire walls and enclusures of fire exits and vertical shafts.
Unprotected light-frame construction
A building code developed by an organization of states, professional societies, and trade associations for adoption by local communities;
Model Code
A comprehensive, coordinated national model building code, developed, published and maintained by the Internation Code Council (ICC), composed of representatives of the three prior model-code agencies (BOCA, ICBO and SBCCI) and headquartered in Washington, D.C.
International Building Code or IBC
A building code developed and published by the Building Officials and Code Administrators International, Inc (BOCA) and previously used primarily in the northeastern US,
BOCA National Building Code
A building code developed and published by the International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO) and previously used primarily in the central and western US.
Uniform Building Code
A building code developed and published by the Southern Building Code Conference (SBCC) and previously used primarily in the southeastern US.
Standard Building Code
The area within the surrounding exterior walls of a building, excluding vent shafts and courts but including unbounded areas within the horizontal projection of the floor or roof above.
Building Area
The vertical distance from the grade plane to the average height of the highest roof surface.
Building Height
Any story having a finished floor surface above the grade plane, including a basement when the finished floor surface of the floor above the basement is more than 6ft (1.8m) above the grade plane.
Story Above Grade Plane
A horizontal reference plane used in determining building heigh and number of stories, calculated as the average of finished grades adjoining a building along its exterior walls. Where the ground level slopes away from a building, the reference plane is established bt the lowest points in the area between the building and the lot line or within a distance 6ft (1.8m) from the building.
Grade Plane
The vertical distance from the finished surface of a floor to the finished surface of the next floor above. For the highest floor level, story height is measured from the finished surface of the floor to the top of the ceiling joists or roof rafters.
Story Height
A retail complex containing a variety of stores, restaurants, enterntainment facilities, and other business establishments housed in a series of connected or adjacent buildings or in a single large building.
Mall or Shopping Mall
A building code term for a roofed or covered pedestrian way within a covered mall building serving as access for a number of tenants and not exceeding three open levels in height.
Mall
A single building enclosing a number of tenants, such as retail stores, restaurants, and entertainment facilities, and having access to one or more malls.
Covered Mall
An exterior building having direct access to a covered mall building but having its required means of egress independent of the mall.
Anchor Building
A common seating area in a mall that serves adjacent food-preparation tenants.
Food Court
