Makki Constructions is a professional Building Constructions company in Sydney with a proud record of successful delivery of quality construction projects. Makki Constructions was founded in 2005 and is owned and managed by its Managing Director, Fadi Makki, who has more than eleven years experience in residential construction and commercial construction boutique refurbishments and fit-out developments. It is a well-established, thriving business with a solid reputation for excellence, efficiency and reliability. This is based on a commitment to clients and the industry, driven by a philosophy of Quality without Compromise.
We specialize in
Design and construction of quality prestige homes
Construction Management
Project Management
We also offer
Commercial and Industrial design and construction
Boutique residential renovations, refurbishments and extensions
Multi-residential design and construction
Sustainable Housing Consultation and Reporting
Council Development Application advice
Certification
Our success is poised to continue into the future, based on our philosophy of hard work, dedication and quality workmanship. This stems through the core of everything we do. Our dedicated employees and team of hand-selected, fully licensed and insured trades people all shares Fadis attitude and respect.
Our complete turnkey solution for design and construction means you deal with only one person for the entire project and we deliver your project on-time, within budget and with minimum stress.
For the best in commercial construction, we offer a full-service Building solution from design to completion. We take pride in our work, have a passion for customer satisfaction and our work is completed with perfection in mind. From new buildings to commercial fit outs, no project is too big or too small. Our services include Project management, Commercial construction, Commercial fit-outs, Office/Factory renovations, Showroom renovations and fit-outs, Mezzanine floors
Our Commercial designers and architects work with meticulous attention to detail based on your vision, requirements and circumstances. Our designs are modern, inviting and sophisticated and incorporate features and fittings of quality and excellence with form, flexibility and functionality in mind.
Month: April 2019
Construction Injuries in Birmingham
The construction industry encompasses a number of trades and job types both skilled and unskilled. The construction industry in total has one of the highest worker injury rates of any industry.
Hazards inherent to construction work are often known but can be hard to control in workplaces that change constantly. The use of heavy equipment, tools, machines, scaffolds, and ladders, all of which may be unsafe or used improperly contribute to the hazards on a construction site. Construction accidents are caused by many other factors, including work methods, site conditions, worker failure to use safety equipment, and a lack of proper worker training. Common construction injuries include falls, burns, cuts (including amputations), explosions and electrocution. Construction Injury Liability
Typically there are several individuals and organizations working at a construction site. Many or all of them may be liable for injuries that occur including the construction site owner, architects and engineering professionals, contractors, construction managers, and manufacturers of construction machinery or equipment. Commonly, construction projects are based on a general contract relationship, where a general contractor, hired by the site owner, enters into agreements with sub-contractors to perform specific portions of the job, such as electrical or plumbing work.
Construction projects usually involve delegation of both work and legal responsibility, including from site owner to general contractor and general contractor to “prime” or “sub”-contractor. Courts will weigh the extent of control over the premises on which the work is being done and the degree of control over the work itself in determining who is legally at fault for the injuries sustained by a worker.
Both the general and sub-contractors have a legal obligation to provide workers with a construction site that is safe, and they have a legal duty to warn workers of any hazards at the site that they are aware of. Generally, a contractor will have a duty to make sure work is being performed safely, and this legal responsibility includes ensuring safety regulations are followed on site.
The general contractor is always responsible for job safety on the entire site and for ensuring compliance with all OSHA regulations. Any subcontractors brought on site by the general contractor are also responsible for ensuring job safety and following OSHA rules that apply to their part of the project, but the general contractor is still responsible.
There are protections provided to construction workers who have been injured on the job site, if you have been injured on the job and live in the Birmingham or Gadsden areas or anywhere in Alabama please visit the website of The Shelnutt Law Firm, P.C.
Reaming in Steel Construction
The reaming procedure is utilized to a bit enlarge holes for steel connections. The course of action will take an current hole together with a bit improve its diameter. A reaming tool has a central shaft with some cutting edges operating parallel to the shaft. The reamer is inserted in to the hole so the edges run perpendicular to the surface the holes are drilled into. A reaming tool is utilized to remove tiny material in the inside about the hole so by far the most precise diameter could be accomplished.Reaming tools for steel construction can be employed in milling machines, drilling jars manufacturer or by hand. As a consequence of the extreme presence for friction, it really is important to lubricate tool components with sulfurized oil when reaming steel.
In addition, reaming tools which might be made from heat resistant material such as higher cobalt steels or even tungsten carbide ought to be applied. The actual time and additionally position about a reamer throughout the method is calculated scientifically according to diameter associated with tool, quantity associated with blades on tool, feed rate, distance to subsequent hole, coupled with depth relating to hole. While a CNC machine junk mill drilling would deliver one of the most precise position and additionally time a drill press is enough when the steel aspect is tightly secured.Employing reaming in steel construction could be high-priced so it is essential to consider when reaming is vital and additionally when it truly is not required.
Reaming is largely utilised when a typical structural bolt just isn’t sufficient for the design and style safety needed. A close tolerance bolt could be needed to avoid any slipping in the connection. In this case the hole will be produced in the same diameter concerning the bolt not to mention then reamed to make a close tolerance match together with the bolt. Cold perform will have to be minimized when drilling jar design initial hole to ensure that when the reaming reduce is created it reveals steel that’s not work hardened. That is one more benefit to reaming.
Koi Pond – Liners Vs. Professional Construction
Why is there so much talk about pond liners? Which ones are UV protected, or stronger, or last longer? I am by no means an expert on liner technology, nor have I ever used them in my 29 years of designing and building waterfalls. If you’re a “liner guy” disciple, I’m sure you’re thinking, “Oh no, here he goes.” To tell the truth, I have been minding by own business for over two decades, just watching, reading and listening to all the “experts.”
I’ve listened to how “pond liners are simple to install,” and “pond liners are inexpensive compared to concrete and steel,” and “pond liners are quick to install.” Or “pond liners last for 50 years,” “pond liners bring higher profits to pond construction and waterfall construction,” and “liners don’t contaminate the water with alkali as does concrete construction.” Yes, I’ve almost sold myself on listening to the facts of the “experts.” Well, not quite, due to a few facts of my own.
So, a pond liner is guaranteed for 40 to 50 years? I would have to agree with that, as long as you leave it in its box the whole time. Too bad a liner manufacturer’s warranty doesn’t include damage from gophers, ground squirrels, chipmunks, rats or mice. Or tree, plant and weed roots. Or from stretching and punctures in the liner due to heavy rocks and other sharp objects. Startling fact: a puncture only the size of a pin hole can cause a pond to lose one drip per second, or 5 gallons in just 24 hours. That’s a pin hole, not a hole made by a pair of buck teeth on a burrowing mammal.
Imagine along with me for a minute: You have spent $350 on a pond design and then $8,000 of your hard-earned money for a pond and waterfall. This water feature is impressive. They dug a big hole, piled up some dirt at one end, draped a large rubber liner over the whole thing, and placed giant boulders all around the fish pond and on the dirt mound. Smaller rocks fill in between the boulder and additional rocks cover the liner in the pond. Now, it’s two years later and you’ve just come home from a two-week vacation to find the pond half empty (or half full, if you’re a positive person).
There must be a leak! How did this happen? Where is it? No problem, you think, I remember the salesman’s pitch: “If you should ever get a leak, just clean off the area around the hole, dry it off, and using the directions enclosed in the patching kit, apply this patching material.” But there’s only one problem: Where is the leak? or leaks? How do I find them? And if I do find them, and I’m successful in patching them up, what’s to keep it from leaking again?
Okay, I’m going to snap my fingers and you’ll wake up: “Snap!” Surprise! That was only a mental exercise with a happy ending. It wasn’t real. Or was it? Yes, it was. The short story you just heard was true. One out of every eight projects we do involves replacing the leaky liner for an angry fish pond/leaky liner owner.
Why am I finally speaking up now, after all these years and waterfalls and fish ponds? Because I’m angry, too! Not at the “liner guy” who sells the pond liners, but at his disciples around the country who are bragging how much money they make in just one or two days. I’m not upset at the fact that they make in two days what takes me six to seven days to make in constructing my fish ponds of rebar and 3000 psi concrete.
My ire stems from having to charge $8,000 to replace a $6,000 liner pond that lasted only two years. (A pond liner with padding didn’t stop a tree root which traveled 25 feet to do its destructive work.) For only an additional 16% in cost, that client could still be enjoying his original pond, stress-free, for his lifetime and that of his children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
The main features touted by pond liner promoters are simplicity, low cost, quick installation, and extremely high profits. In an article published in his catalog/magazine of liners and accessories, the “liner messiah” has obviously taught his disciples well, as you can read in this excerpt:
“If you hire us to install your pond, you get a choice of buying it with or without a stream. We offer no other choices! The pond we build covers an area of 11 by 16 feet, has a maximum depth of 2 feet, and a beautiful waterfall. We’ll build your pond in one day. The basic pond costs $5,100 and if you want to connect the falls with a stream, you’re looking at an extra $1,000. That’s it. End of story. No mas.”
That’s what Ernie Selles, president of Patio Ponds and disciple of the “liner guy,” said. Another quote from Ernie in the same catalog is, “I get out of bed every morning and look forward to going to work in a way that I never had before.” I noticed he didn’t mention how well he slept.
Let’s do the math on Ernie’s installation. The pond, stream, and waterfall cost is $6,100. The actual retail cost of the kit is only $1,000. $5,100 profit for only one day of labor. Notice: unlike our package, they offer no lights, no autofill, and the pond is only two feet deep. Yet three feet minimum are required for koi fish. A two foot pond affords no protection from predators such as raccoons and herons, and the shallow depth is affected easily by rapid temperature changes, causing undue stress on the pond’s inhabitants. They do not like to construct ponds over two feet deep, because they are more susceptible to cave-ins.
We would build the same pond with a depth ranging from 3 to 3 feet, with no shallows for dining predators. It is constructed of rebar 18 inches on center with a shell of 3000 psi concrete (sidewalks and driveways are typically 2000 psi). This 7 sack, 60% pea with fiber mix is so dense that it’s waterproof. However, we still coat it with ThoroSeal. The pond is equipped with two anti-vortex bottom suction drains, a skimmer to remove surface debris, and an out-of-pond pump that produces 5000 gallons per hour at only 2.6 amps, compared to the liner guy’s pumps which are only 4200 gallons per hour at 7.6 amps – over twice the cost of energy! In addition, you have to pull his heavy cast iron monster pump out of the water to clean out debris.
We would also include a state of the art Aqua Ultraviolet filter and UV light – the best money can buy. The liner guy’s filter needs to be disassembled in order to clean it by hand. The Ultima II filter requires the simple turn of a handle to back flush the debris. This system has been operational in my water features for nine years with no problems. We include an ultraviolet light in our system that kills the bacteria that create smells, kills pathogens that cause disease and algae spores that turn the water green. This light has a wiper arm that cleans the internal lens without the need to open the light.
We also offer an automatic electronic water level control system, the “AquaFill” by Aquamedia Corp.com that keeps the water level of the pond constant. Pond liner installers use floats that are mechanical like the float in a toilet tank. Mechanical fillers can corrode and stick, causing overflows and even poisoning the fish with excess chlorinated water. However, the AquaFill does not stick or corrode.
Not only are all our ponds designed a minimum of three feet deep, we build caves for the turtles and fish to hide in. With pond liner construction, rocks cannot be cemented to the liner and consequently many are loose, creating a hazard if someone were to step on them. Kids will be kids and I promise they will eventually be running up and down the falls. We have no loose rock because they are all cemented in place with Aquamedia Mortar Mix, which is not only three times stronger than regular mortar, it is very dense. As a result, alkali will not leach out into the water and create a pH problem. Regular mortar mix is porous and water passes through the joints of the rock, carrying with it cement residue. This in turn creates stain trails high in pH, easily poisoning the fish.
In conclusion, as an educated customer, would you pay $6,100 for a rubber pond liner or spend the same amount or a little more to get a shell made of concrete and steel that not only would never leak, but would last for decades. So what are we as contractors looking for? Exorbitant profits or peace of mind with long-term, happy clients?
It is more enjoyable for me to get a call eight years down the road from a content client than to get a complaint of a leaky pond. What does the “liner guy” disciple say? “Sorry, we only have a one year warranty”? Or do they go back and remove all the rocks, pull out the pond liner, clean it, repair the leaks, and replace all the rocks and equipment at no cost? Liners or professional installations?
If you say pond liners are professionally installed, then why is the very same liner kit sold to homeowners and do-it-yourselfers? The reason is, it doesn’t take an experienced professional to install one.
All you need is “a garden hose and a shovel”!
Look before you leap, and ponder before you weep. Happy koi, peace and joy.