AS/NZS 5131 Fabrication and Erection of Structural Steelwork was published in late 2016. Okay, so it’s not new, but experience suggests many people in the construction industry learned of its ex…

Should you be concerned when you see a crack in a concrete wall or slab? Well, that depends. There are two classifications of cracks in concrete – structural, and non-structural. You should be immed…

We often use retaining walls in places where extra support is needed to hold back a sloping patch of soil. The most basic function of a retaining wall is to battle gravity and the lateral force of the…

Winning a job on a schedule of rates is a tough job. Regardless of the value you can bring to a project, the time it costs for one hour of my time becomes front and centre in the quest to beat a compe…

Look at the image. Not a cursory glance, actually look at it. Doesn’t it look like the long chains are in compression? Clearly they’re not, and magic is unlikely the reason it’s stru…

I recently drove to Menzies. That length of drive has you pondering stuff, and the further into the goldfields I got, the more I pondered our vast state and how, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, th…