Edmonton Construction 13 (November 2015)

[240glt]

^ yes Edmonton is a bit unique. I've done major projects all over western Canada, and the industry seems to have more challenges here than most other places, with the exception of the far north

[hilman]

https://twitter.com/uptown_one/status/806622991580876802

[kcantor]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

^perhaps, but friend's with condos in Toronto, Cal, Van all have had minor and major issues... it is not unique to us.

Originally Posted by 240glt

^ yes Edmonton is a bit unique. I've done major projects all over western Canada, and the industry seems to have more challenges here than most other places, with the exception of the far north

i think i would have to weigh in with 240glt on this one although the difference is not as pronounced as it would have been a decade ago.

that's because the industry here - design and construction - simply had that much less experience than the rest of the country with the possible exception of the far north. i say possible because their much smaller pool always had the majority of the work and maintained a level of experience that many in edmonton were unable to.

much experience has been gained over the last decade, to the extent that i think most things started today would be better designed and better constructed than most things a decade ago.

from an overall point of view, it also needs to be noted that this is addressed to the 80% of the market that is somewhere in "middle of the road" category. outside of that, the bottom 10% of the market will always be crap because those delivering that product simply don't care enough to do anything more than the absolute minimum they can get away with. it also doesn't apply to the top 10% of the market which will always be exceptional because those delivering that product aren't prepared to accept anything less than the very best and if that's not available here they will bring it in from elsewhere.

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by 240glt

^^ much more significant than that I am hearing

If you can't satisfy setpoint in your condo then yes you have a problem. But you'll have trouble achieving 30c regardless, but with perimeter baseboard, if your boiler are sized and working properly and your resets are set up properly as well you should have no problem overcoming the thermal loss of the windows

Agree, also using convected heat along the windows is more efficient than the fan coil set up I assume they are using. The FCs have a filter clogging issue in a residential setting.

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by s4.audios

Thanks Mr.Cantor, I will keep an eye out and see if anything needs to be done.

Try reducing the airflow into the bedroom and forcing more air toward the curtain wall. Also watch the humidity in the space. If your air moment is insufficient the windows will get condesation. And if all else fails blame the Balancer.

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by 240glt

Yes & no. Yes there is always some tweaking and deficiency resulution. However there is 'normal' and then there's issues that go far beyond that, that are not easily solved within a warranty period and are the result of poor design and construction practices.

Unfortunatley in Edmonton it does seem like the later is more prevalent than in other places

Comercial work is generally ok. It's the residential side that gets me. I have done site reviews on a number of residential condo project lately and it bothers me how car less the work is. Yes there is challenges with commercial and institutional work but the standards seam higher. High tech and high efficiency equipment is good to have, but you need to know how to properly alpy it.

[cyeg66]

I love meandering onto this thread and reading this. Makes me feel all s-m-r-t and like I'm getting my geek on, even tho I haven't the foggiest wtf you're all talking about. Well, not about everything, but I digress. Oh, to be in the industry.... Thx, Hilman. Lovely pic of COE tower.

[Baronmine]

From the Edmonton Journal.

The family of longtime Old Strathcona grocer Tubby Bateman is proposing to demolish the store he once owned and a nearby cafe to build a 28-storey condo

tower.http://edmontonjournal.com/business/comm...-for-wild-earth-bakery-site-on-99-street

[240glt]

Originally Posted by Airboy

Comercial work is generally ok. It's the residential side that gets me. I have done site reviews on a number of residential condo project lately and it bothers me how car less the work is. Yes there is challenges with commercial and institutional work but the standards seam higher. High tech and high efficiency equipment is good to have, but you need to know how to properly alpy it.

Yeah I used to pick up some valve & stat work as filler when I was with JCI and Houle Electric, the standards in residential work are quite a lot lower than commercial that's for sure. As far as I'm concerned the heat pumps they're throwing into resi nowadays are pure garbage. I'm biased because the vast amount of the construction work I've done has been institutional and the standards are very high, but It's still disappointing to see the lack of care & attention that goes into residential construction in Edmonton and Alberta. Comparatively, the Bosa buildings I've worked in in BC were quite a lot better

[Hallsy's Toupee]

City looking into permits for Fox Two sales office on 104th Street
'They may need a development permit,' city official says
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/c...office-on-104th-street-1.3887277?cmp=rss

[s4.audios]

Originally Posted by Airboy

Try reducing the airflow into the bedroom and forcing more air toward the curtain wall. Also watch the humidity in the space. If your air moment is insufficient the windows will get condesation. And if all else fails blame the Balancer.

Hmm.. we put a rubber strip at the bottom of the entrance door because the gap is fairly big and lots of dust was brushing through when they hadn't finished the hallway. Would that be part of the condensation problem?

[Hallsy's Toupee]

Since this is now turning into the HVAC thread - can someone please tell me they're going to fix it in the Sutton Place hotel? Every time I pass through there it's so cold. I noticed that Chop is now keeping their doors closed. It was getting boiling hot in there during the summer.

[s4.audios]

Ultima is technically still under construction, therefore it is related to construction!!!

[Hallsy's Toupee]

Yah but it's getting too techy for my own liking!

[CMD UW]

Originally Posted by 240glt

Thermal bridging, prevalent on lower quality window systems, improper installations or premature failures

Given that Ultima is using Starline I don't think quality 'should' be an issue. They have been around for a long time and stand by their product. My guess is that the issue is related to thermal bridging due to poor construction or something along those lines. Although I'm just speculating based on what I'm reading.

[Airboy]

Unless you can see all the issues together and be on site to look at the issues. it really is just speculation on what the cause is. The trick is to get all of the players in the same room and go through the issues.

One recent project where we were told the Boiler wasn't right. (not getting the heat out to the system). We got mech contractor, Eng, General, Controls, Balancer, commissioning agent and the product rep all on site at the same time. After going through the issues and looking at performance. It turned out the boilers were not the issue at all. It took some minor adjusts to pumps and contols and moving one sensor, within 3 hours we had a working system.

I have a few RFPs on my desk for total system upgrades on 30 year old HVAC systems. Seems this may be the new push next year.

Quite a few Chiller changes coming this year as well. One in particular will require closing a few downtown streets to assemble a very large crane.

[240glt]

Originally Posted by Airboy

Unless you can see all the issues together and be on site to look at the issues. it really is just speculation on what the cause is. The trick is to get all of the players in the same room and go through the issues.

One recent project where we were told the Boiler wasn't right. (not getting the heat out to the system). We got mech contractor, Eng, General, Controls, Balancer, commissioning agent and the product rep all on site at the same time. After going through the issues and looking at performance. It turned out the boilers were not the issue at all. It took some minor adjusts to pumps and contols and moving one sensor, within 3 hours we had a working system.

I have a few RFPs on my desk for total system upgrades on 30 year old HVAC systems. Seems this may be the new push next year.

Quite a few Chiller changes coming this year as well. One in particular will require closing a few downtown streets to assemble a very large crane.

At least the trolley busses are gone. That was always the worst pain about coordinating a pick downtown

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by 240glt

At least the trolley busses are gone. That was always the worst pain about coordinating a pick downtown

I remember when the Changed out the chillers at the Telus Towers. Crane was set up in front of the MAC. At the time it was special order crane. I think we have a few of that size kicking around now.

[240glt]

Yeah for a while there we were doing quite a few lifts and I was using Mammoet for my lifts and rigging. I got a job to replace the four rooftoppers in the Army & Navy in Whyte, I had figured on using a picker truck to lift them but the treew were in the way, so my guy says 'no problem' , the day of the job they show up with a 200 ton jib crane to lift these 3000lb RTU's right up over the trees. It was awesome

Never did pay the city the $2800 charge to shut Whyte down for six hours. Tried to get an invoice from them but they were so disorganized it was impossible to even find someone who knew what they were doing.

[oiler-dude]

Speaking of cranes and shutting down streets, kept forgetting to ask this. Was leaving Downtown last Saturday (Dec. 3rd) and Jasper Ave between 99 & 97st was down a few lanes with a giant crane set up in the middle of the road. Anyone know what that was about?