Chris Kuenzer: Hands-on Learning

On Thursday last week, I helped Pat make some flashing to go around the ductwork penetrations in the penthouse walls. Flashing is used to create a waterproof seal around an opening on a roof or wall. We used a metal break to bend the sheets into right angles, and crimped the edges so they wouldn’t be sharp. After we made the flashing, we cut it to fit each side of the opening, and sealed it using Vulkem, which is a polyurethane sealant. Next, I secured the flashing to the wall with a few screws. We were not allowed to put screws into the ductwork because it can cause several problems, such as giving dust a place to collect and clog the ductwork, or causing the screws to loosen and fall out when the duct vibrates. On Friday, I was working with Pat again, but this time we were drilling holes in a concrete floor slab in Building 27 to mount a machine for one of his PDPM jobs. We drilled the holes using a hammer drill, and cleaned out the dust with an aspirator and a vacuum. We had to make sure each hole was at the required depth before moving on to the next one. After that, we had to epoxy the holes, and quickly get the threaded rods in place before the epoxy finished setting up. We had to wait forty minutes for the epoxy to set up, so we took our tools back to Building 137 and washed our hands. Once the epoxy had fully cured, the bolts could be tightened down.
At Building 70, our guys have made even more progress. Ideal’s carpenters have finished the walls and soffits, and started to hang drywall. They are working closely behind the electricians, and they have hung board on most of the east side of the building. Progressive has started reworking the fire protection, and some guys from RL Bondy have started to insulate the new ductwork that Ensroth has put up. Ensroth received their second shipment of ductwork last week as well.