A wide range of interesting articles that help you make informed decisions and deliver the best projects for your clients authored by our team of NBS subject specialists and construction industry contributors.
Writing clear and concise specifications is crucial on construction projects. A well-structured specification is not only essential for design success but can also prevent delays, unexpected costs and disputes. Here are five essential tips to help you get it right, from our Best Practice Guide to Specification Writing.
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Graham North, national treasurer of the party wall surveyors' group Pyramus & Thisbe, explains the protocol required for the appointment of a surveyor or surveyors, how notice of work should be served, and how an 'award' is created and what it contains – including the all-important conditions survey.
The programme deals with the practical, legal and commercial issues of administration with which viewers may become engaged, from the experienced perspectives of a barrister and insolvency practitioner, respectively, in the field: Mark Watson Gandy (13 Old Square) and Robert Smailes (Shipleys LLP).
The decision to create a Supreme Court for the United Kingdom was groundbreaking and controversial. How has it been deployed in terms of bricks, mortar and judging? This programme explores the background to an exciting legal and architectural project of huge national and constitutional importance.
The country's top village green expert, George Laurence QC, who has appeared in all of the recent House of Lords and Supreme Court cases in this area, gives a critical – and practical – update for viewers.
Eurocode 2 is the new standard for the design of concrete structures. It has been hailed as a robust and rigorous design code, taking a less prescriptive approach to design.
Presented by the main authors of the Approved Documents and other leading experts in the field, this programme explains the most important issues and examines various ways to comply.
If you are building, selling or letting a non-domestic building, before practical completion can be granted the new occupier or owner must be supplied with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) which grades the building's energy efficiency. In this programme we visit the new flagship John Lewis Store in Stratford, to see how a non-domestic EPC survey is undertaken and what factors are key in influencing the final EPC grade.
BFLS Project Architect Robbie Turner and BFLS Director Ian Bogle explain how and why the team decided to integrate the turbines into the building fabric – something that had never been attempted before. And why turbines were preferred over other renewable technologies.
The programme provides an introduction to critical path analysis, including a comparison between 'critical paths' and 'critical chains' as well as the relative merits of Gantt charts. This is followed by a more detailed look at flow charts, giving a clear idea of their actual workings. PERT (Project Evaluation and Review Technique) and PRINCE2 (Projects in Controlled Environments) are touched on as project management tools, while the ideas of 'float' and 'contingency' are explained. There is also a brief look at the resourcing of projects and the issue of 'project crashing'.
