As fall approaches in our Northern hemisphere, contractors may be tempted to reschedule construction jobs, for many things can go wrong in the chill of winter: Jobsite injuries due to slippery grounds or stiffer joints, decreased dexterity owing to heavier clothing, lack of visibility, and myriad others.
Apart from impacts on the human body, cold temperatures can also affect how equipment and materials behave during the execution of a construction project. Pieces of equipment need additional preventive maintenance to ensure that they’re in their prime when needed, whereas materials acquire different properties with temperature shifts, potentially causing you major structural problems down the road.
Many contractors rent _portable heaters_to help them cope with all these setbacks during freezing months. Not only do these heaters keep work crews safe and productive, but they also aid in maintaining optimal temperatures and moisture for many weather-sensitive construction tasks such as concrete curing or drying after wet work.
How The Cold Affects Materials
The materials that we usually use during construction work include wood, steel, concrete, adhesives, and paints, among many others. These materials are hyper-sensitive to temperature changes. Let’s go over some of the effects that cold weather can produce on them:
Wood
Wooden planks and materials will often shrink to extreme proportions as they lose moisture during winter. Be mindful that cold winter air is drier than summer/spring air for it holds far less moisture.
Steel
Steel is typically a very resilient material when warm, and overly brittle when cold. As you can probably imagine, brittle steel will not bend; it will break! That’s because cold debilitates the bonds between the steel’s crystal lattices.
CONCRETE
Concrete is a highly porous material. When the water retained in the pores freeze, it gets increasingly difficult to cure and its integrity can suffer as a result.
GLUES AND ADHESIVES
Water-based adhesives are wont to freeze, and you can already imagine what that means! The increased viscosity makes it much harder for the adhesive to seep through the fibres of the materials, losing its bonding abilities. Glue films will also be uneven, producing unwanted voids.
PAINTS
Just like adhesives, paints become more viscous under colder temperatures and would require more mixing time. This is particularly true of alkyd and oil paints. What’s more, cold temperatures will create uneven colour shifts across and/or lumpiness. Add to that the delayed drying times after application.
How Portable Heaters Can Help
Not all portable heaters work for all situations. You need to find the type of portable heater that’s suitable for the task you’re performing at any given moment. Let’s now go over some heating application examples:
Preparing the Site
Ground thawing is a very important step when doing foundation work in the middle of winter, as that’ll guarantee that you won’t suffer any delays in your project due to impenetrable ice sheets or snow buildups. The ideal heaters to utilize for this purpose are the indirect fired or _hydronic _types.
Concrete Curing
The concrete pour must be protected when temperatures fall below 42º F. This can be achieved through insulation blankets, the use of additives, or hydronic heating systems. These should help concrete pours retain optimal curing temperatures ranging from 65 to 75º F.
Wet Trade, Space Tempering and Pipe Freeze Prevention
Painting, tiling, spackling, and other similar wet trade work must not be performed at temperatures under 45º F. Furthermore, when environments are too cold, you’ll find it difficult to apply fire proofing material on steel beams. While maintaining interiors at higher temperatures using portable heaters, you also prevent pipes from freezing and bursting.
Should I Rent or Should I Buy?
Contractors who wish to buy their own heaters will be presented with various hurdles. At first, it seems reasonable to buy a portable heater, as that would save you future renting costs.
However, as a contractor, you must keep in mind potential maintenance costs and other inconveniences. Before buying a fleet of portable heaters, ask yourself the following questions: Where would you store them once you’re done with them? How are you supposed to deliver them over to the construction site? What happens when there’s a malfunction on site, and who’s going to solve it?
To avoid potential buyer’s remorse, we at _Aerotech Herman Nelson International _can hook you up with the best heaters on the market so that you can fulfil your construction needs right on schedule without worrying about what to do with all that equipment afterwards.
