Considerations When Fixing Steel Bars Protectors In Concrete Fence
The design of the fencing method in Nigeria had changed when compared to the previous style where the fence would be completely made with blocks with wire mesh or broken bottles inserted on the top of the fence around the four corners for security purposes.
The modern system of fencing has proved this, recently I discovered that a lot of modern buildings do not follow the old techniques rather the front of the fence is built for easier visibility between the compound and the outside.
The most common design is buildings having a fence about six blocks above the ground which makes up half of the total height of the fence, the remaining parts are filled with iron protectors.
Recently I was at Oyigbo in rivers state, where I witness a quarrel that lasted for hours in a building site where protectors are to be fixed to its fence according to the modern design.
The whole drama started when the man hired to fix the protestors condemned the whole of them, arguing that they were made with wrong measurements not quite long the owner of the building visited the site and the same story was explained to him as the reason the protector cannot be fixed.
A call was immediately made to the welder who fabricated the protector and surprisingly the young man came just a few minutes later.
The owner of the building was busy attacking the welder with different abuses for using the wrong measurement for the protector, anyway I was quite doing my own job on the site while still taking note of what is happening.
From all the explanations the welder gave I could summarize in these few words;
THE PROTECTORS ONLY HAD EXCESS HOOKS AT THEIR BOTTOM
His explanation was that the hired laborer does not want to stress himself in chiseling out concretes at the top of the blocks where the protectors are supposed to seat on because the protectors are having more hooks in that area.
So instead of that, he tries to look for easier means by rejecting the whole work.
It was that moment the welder made a call to someone who brought his hack saw which he used in cutting off some of the hooks.
But before that, he notified that a reduction in the number of hooks is going to reduce the strength of the protectors in terms of their affinity with the concrete parts of the fence.
THE HIRED MAN WAS BUSY POSITIONING THE PROTECTORS WRONGLY
He further explained to the building owner that the laborer he hire was busy positioning the protectors wrongly because he wants to find easier means to avoid the chiseling of many holes in the concrete.
The evidence of his explanation was the one the hired laborer had hung in-between one of the spaces waiting for the chiseling of the concretes for their hooks and fixing of it.
HE COULD NOT UNDERSTAND THE DRAWING THAT FOLLOWED THE PROTECTORS
He also explained that the laborer did not go through the drawing he made which gave the number to the various protector specifying their position on the fence rather he was using his own discretion to decide where each protector should be fixed.
After the whole argument and explanation of the welder, the whole issue was settled.
CONCLUSION
From that experience, I decided to put down this article to give incite to the necessary things one should consider while fixing protectors to the modern fence, though not in the position to judge such a situation I leave it up to the reader to make your comment and contributions.
