Cartman was right...

The Chinese are gonna take over America, one union and building at a time.



[YOUTUBE]Ps0DSihggio[/YOUTUBE]

[brainanator]

amazing.....They really have their crap together...unlike us.

[What's_nitro?]

Impressive.

2 Days? If you add up the counters it comes to ~5.7 days... ~47 hours for the frame, ~90 hours for the interior/exterior.

[brainanator]

hey, they just build stuff, they aren't mathmagicians.

[JERRY2KONE]

That is the way they work in most of Asia. That is why they are out selling us so badly in automobile manufacturing and a bunch of other things. I guess that puts "Home Extreme Makover" to shame only building a single family home in 7 days. It looks like construction is about to go through a new revolution on how to build. You have to admit that this is pretty impressive. Think about it. They took what usually takes a very large team of contract workers and about 12 to 24 months and completed it in just one week. Think about the money savings overall. Hell you could build an entire town in less than one year.

There is no doubt that the rate they put that hotel up is impressive and that there is a tremendous work ethic is Asia.

However that being said and given the quality shown in Chinese steel vs American steel as well as the issues that have come up in the States with contractors that used Chinese drywall what have they really accomplished? Even though that is a hotel (Just a short term stay) would you want to stay there with your children? I personally would not. Was the building inspected for errors or did they just assume it was correct to move on? Did the architects and engineers make sure it is square for structural integrity? Is the the electrical correct, everything grounded and properly insulated? Is the plumbing water tight, or how many small leaks could be in that building leading to mold? How bout fire safety?

While I will admit that some of America needs to get back to the hard work ethics that built this country, I personally have found that when anything is done too fast, errors are frequent.

Quality takes time and this type of thing will catch up with the Chinese in the long run. To do things right it takes a little time.

But in the words of Dennis Miller "that is just my opinion, I could be wrong."

[pinkpanda3310]

+1 I saw a few issues with the construction as well. Particularly, onsite safety. Some of the methods and practices would not pass the Australian 'Worksafe' authority. Worksafe have their place but they really do slow the pace of construction.

I wonder if that was just a day at the office or if it was intended as a show peice for the expo. It required an enormous amount of manpower. Do they have enough work to keep them all going?

We also use cranes like that at work but never 7 at one time

I know of another company that imports prefabricated steel from China but they rarely get a job that all fits with no issues.

[rawfuls]

Hmm, I remember reading the news article that this video was attached to.
It reported it was ____ insulated (something good is all I remember..), and was solid enough to withstand a 9.0 magnitude earthquake.
Then again, there's a difference between it should and whether or not it will.

EDIT: Found it!
It's sound proofed, thermal insulation.
Sounds pretty BA..

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot...c/11/s38727245

[Finnster]

It looks like a highly modular/ prefab design. Kinda like houses are going towards. Everything is built in a factory, shipped out in pieces and the workers just bolt everything up together.

Looks a long way from the old days of welding and riveting I beams one at a time.

Of course this is Chinese, which means it will likely collapse in a few years ... ;)

[TexasSP]

What's interesting is some of the modular home construction with wood can hold up better to hurricanes and storms better than some steel structures.

In recent years I saw some systems using no nails or screws but instead an adhesive sprayed on while the walls lay flat. It actually bonds in such a way as to add great strength to the whole structure. Steel buildings are also having spray in foam applied after construction which adds a lot of insulation but can also strengthen the building by somewhere near 30%. I have seen several that have been done and the difference is quite noticeable in the right circumstances.

[steveo]

thats all show no one builds like that, everybody would be out of a job before they knew it, theres no way a contractor has enough work to be steady unless that job was contracted like that which is crazy alot of mistakes can happen i have seen it.

[JERRY2KONE]

No it was real alright. Why not build like that. We can make all of the excuses we want to about what can go wrong. We already do that now. Anything is possible if the people in control of the situation take all of the needed precautions and has people involved in each process of the project on site overseeing every aspect of the task at hand. Having a devoted team with a certain level of skill on site is also a blessing. Having pride in ones job used to be the norm in the USA, but now it is all about what one can get out of the company with as little work as possible.

I remember the first time I watched the "Home Extreme Makover" show and thought that there was no way they could tear down and rebuild a single family home in one week and have it ready to move in, but it has been done hundreds of times since then. Even "Habitat for Humanity" has done it a few times with 90% of the workforce being volunteers. You are going to see injuries on any worksite no matter what the pace. Construction mistakes are sometimes unavoidable if things are not kept to a very precise schedule. As long as the mistakes are not major or catostrophic in nature there is no reason any good company can not build things in that fashion. That building was nothing more than a giant version of an Erektor set, and that concept started back in the 1950's. Have you seen how fast the Koreans are now building the newest Supertankers. It used to take 2 to 3 years from start to finish, and now they can build a complete ship in a year. You can doubt our abilities human beings all you wish, but things like this are going on more and more around the world revolutionizing the way we do construction.

[reno911]

Over-engineering at work. They think everything through before hand. I see nothing wrong with this. In fact they way the Chinese and that side of the world is going I wouldn't be surprised if this is our future.

[JThiessen]

Originally Posted by JERRY2KONE

Have you seen how fast the Koreans are now building the newest Supertankers. It used to take 2 to 3 years from start to finish, and now they can build a complete ship in a year. .

Dont go giving all the credit to them. Most ship builders/ferry builders here stateside do the same thing. Its all modular sections that are prefabbed and brought together for final assembly.

We do the same basic thing with airplanes now. Google "Dreamlifter". Its a modified 747 that we built to carry complete 787 body sections and wings from suppliers all over the world. The IDEA was that those folks overseas had half a clue as to what they were doing and would ship us completed (and correct) body sections and wings and we'd just do the final assembly here. Well, come to find out, America does have something that those other countries dont - the ability to build very complex aircraft. And now we are feeling the pain of assuming that they knew what they were doing. I've been to several of the plants in Italy, China, and one in Mexico, and I can tell you one thing, the work ethic the people there have is pathetic, even in comparison to what I thought were lazy slobs here. And you definitly dont leave a tool laying around - it'll be gone in someones lunch pail in a second.

Yes, we have our share of issues here - but technology and manufacturing capability are not one of them. Our products and standards are far safer than any other country in the world, and we can build just as fast while maintaining higher standards.

[simplechamp]

Originally Posted by JThiessen

Our products and standards are far safer than any other country in the world, and we can build just as fast while maintaining higher standards.

Yes, but being safer and having higher standards isn't free. Not saying it's a bad thing, but it's the trade-off. Sadly many things come down to bottom dollar price.

My town is supported by a large paper mill. They make the high-quality coated paper used in magazines like National Geographic (and they make a special grade of paper just for Oprah's magazine, LOL). Their competitors can cut the trees down in the US, send them on a ship over to Taiwan, manufacturer the paper, and send it back, for cheaper than can be produced at the local mill. The quality is right on par, but the lack of wage, safety, and environmental standards in Asia makes it so much cheaper to produce.