ᐅ Severe weather warning level red for our construction area tomorrow!

Created on: 12 May 2018 21:13
K
KingSong
Hello everyone,

A severe weather warning has been issued for our building site tomorrow from 2 p.m. to 5 a.m. the following day. It is a red alert with warnings of heavy rain, hail, and hurricane-force winds.

At the moment, our base slab is prepared for the concrete pour scheduled on Monday.

Current status:

- 18 cm (7 inches) of perimeter insulation installed
- plastic sheeting on top
- spacers and one layer of reinforcement steel

Can I leave everything as it is shown in the picture without worry, or should I secure anything or take other precautions?

Could hail cause serious damage to the plastic sheeting or the perimeter insulation?


Foundation construction site with reinforcement steel mesh, gravel, and adjacent house


Thanks in advance,

greetz Jörg
M
matte
13 May 2018 13:54
toxicmolotow schrieb:
If I were a site manager, I would definitely be interested in the building I’m responsible for. Also in the severe weather warnings (which, by the way, still haven’t been issued for Ingostadt). But I’m sure there are other site managers as well.

And if I were a site manager and knew concrete was scheduled to be poured on Monday, I could even be sitting in Hawaii and still know the preparations are almost complete. But if the top layer isn’t in place yet and nothing has been tied together... then as a site manager, I would know that concrete pouring on Monday is unlikely. Knowledge isn’t about distance, at least not when it comes to the general workflow.

But either way, you probably won’t be able to change much anymore.
Why wouldn’t concrete pouring be possible on Monday?

Here, we regularly had the rebar delivered, tied together, and the concrete poured all on the same day...
T
toxicmolotof
13 May 2018 14:09
matte1987 schrieb:

For us, the steel, including twisting and concrete, arrived on the same day regularly...

If that's the case, then it's good. For us, it was different, and there was a gap of 2-3 days in between because the workers also had other construction sites.
KingSong13 May 2018 15:05
I appreciate the active participation here, but I also find it somewhat fascinating and wonder why @toxicmolotow seems to know everything better than I do, even though he is not me. So yes, the severe weather warning is still in effect, including for Ingolstadt, even though we’re not building there—but it doesn’t really matter.

And yes, the steel reinforcement is so far only single-layered and not yet twisted, but I was there live when the foundation slab supervisor made a call and ordered the concrete for Monday at 12 p.m.

If your experience was different, I’m sorry for you, but trying to act like a know-it-all when someone is genuinely concerned about their first (and last) construction site and has questions… no, that’s not very courteous.

Oh, and for me, there are four people working on the foundation slab. They each complete one after the other, without switching back and forth.
T
toxicmolotof
13 May 2018 16:26
You know, saying "everything from me" is quite absolute, just like many things here are often viewed in absolute terms.

If it repeatedly (but not always!) affects you, there must be some reason for that. Whether it lies with you or with me... I don't know. But it is rarely ever one-sided. So please also take a look at your own situation.

However, if it’s your thread, a response will usually (as long as the thread is not hijacked) relate to you.

Why am I so strongly against the "severe weather warning"? I can tell you: Because here (and elsewhere) there is regularly panic, as people don’t know how to read and interpret certain notices from the DWD (German Weather Service). And some information is simply wrong.

Examples? Sure:

A hurricane ([partly clearly] >118 km/h (74 mph)) is completely different from gale force or storm winds (62-88 km/h (39-55 mph)).

And a preliminary notice about significant weather (which often already causes panic) is something quite different from an actual severe weather warning. There are also several stages in between.

By the way, I interpreted Ingolstadt at least as the location of residence or construction site. Alternatively, one could or should provide more precise information about the building location or the place where the event is happening.

To clarify your "preliminary severe weather warning" a bit more... We have had the same warning since yesterday. And we are now behind the line of thunderstorms. Do you know what has happened here so far? The flowers and lawn got wet. My car stayed outside.

That doesn’t mean such warnings should be simply ignored (which you didn’t do). The region around Ingolstadt still has to be affected next (+30 m (100 ft)). Then there will also be a "real" severe weather warning.
KingSong13 May 2018 16:30
Sorry, but I was really bothered by your statement about the site manager and concreting on Monday. I agree with you that weather conditions can be unpredictable, but not considering them at all is also wrong. However, to immediately say that concreting definitely won't happen on Monday, even though you don’t know the full circumstances, is simply not okay.
Mycraft13 May 2018 16:39
Stay calm, it's just an attempt to help...