About Me

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I was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1991. I lived there for 16 years before my dad got offered a job in Norfolk, Virginia in the United States. I immigrated to the States with an open mind set and ready to take on a new life. I was pushed back a year and retook ninth grade in a new langauge. I am currently a Sophmore at Virginia Tech and i am studying to become a Construction Manager.

Friday, December 9, 2011

It feels like Freshman year again.

Today I visited my Freshman home again.  Our class is going on our first tour of West Ambler Johnston.  While everyone else was tailgating, or preparing for the big Thursday night football game, I showed up at West AJ for a site visit.  I showed up at the site very unprepared to see the transformation of my old residential hall.  The dorm is being converted into a residential college just like East Ambler Johnston was renovated last year for the same purpose.

Our visit started out in the conference room, where questions were answered and minor details were given to us. For example, it is a lead silver project, the seventh floor (top floor) is most complete, and the building could not be renovated so quickly if it was not for BIM.  More interesting facts, such as the multi million dollar staff apartment in the residential hall, and that one mock bathroom was built and copied for every floor. There is also approximately 200 laborers on the site on an average work day and some of them work 10-12 hours a day.

The site was completely shut down because of all the traffic for the football game.

Here is the lay out of the building as we walked to the top.  I will break it down per floor so that you can see what is done one each floor.  Unfortunately, we moved through the building very fast as a group and I could not take many pictures.

1st Floor.
Framing + waterproofing


2nd Floor.
Framing + Insulation

    Figure 1.                                                      Figure 2.                                                Figure 3.

        Figure 4.                                                     Figure 5.                                            
Figure 6

 In Figure 1, you can see the framework that was done for the drop down ceiling.
Figure 2 was taken while walking through the hallway.  You can see the frame work for the arch way. On the 3de floor you will see the framework of the archway covered.
 Figure 3 shows the insulation in the rooms.
Figure 5 is the framework for all the pipes and utilities that goes into each room.  All those utilities and plumbing are located above the door.
Figure 6 was taken in the bathroom.  The very fascinating thing about the bathrooms are that the first room was rebuilt off site and all the utilities and plumbing that goes into the bathrooms where built in that mock room. Once they found that all the systems worked together and there were no obstructions that mock room was copied for each floor. Everything in the bathrooms were pre-manufactured to the mock room.  This picture shows the bolt where the plumbing for the toilets will be joint to.

3de Floor.
Frame + Insulation + Drywall



4th Floor
Frame + Insulation + Drywall + first coat of primer
5th Floor 
Frame + Insulation + Drywall +  1st coat of paint + 2 finished coats of paint + Casework for sink.
                                                                                                                             Figure 7.
                                                                                                              
  
Figure 8.

Figure 7 shows where a worker has gone through the rooms and posted these pieces of papers that indicate that the area had to be patched up.  Figure 8 shows the case work for the sink. The fifth floor is also getting ready for tiling in the rooms.

6th Floor.
Frame + Insulation + Drywall +  1st coat of paint + 2 finished coats of paint + Casework for sink + counter top for sink + Completion of drop ceiling.
                                                                                                       Figure 9


I took Figure 9 because part of the drop down ceiling was missing.  This is because the fire department has to come inspect the alarms and sprinkler systems.  I am sure there are other inspectors that have to inspect it too.  The 6th floor has the fire alarms, tiles in bathrooms, and lights all installed. 

7th Floor
Frame + Insulation + Drywall +  1st coat of paint + 2 finished coats of paint + Casework for sink + counter top for sink + Completion of drop ceiling+ glass in common room.

The 7th floor has its final coat of paint, sinks, outlets, vents, and toilets installed.













Below I have posted more information about the site.



I hope this gave everyone a good perspective of what is going on at West AJ.  I hope everyone enjoyed the game. GO HOKIES!

All the best,
Mic

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