Fang Bai bought two packs of cigarettes and went to the construction site of the market to inspect the construction progress.
Whenever he had time, he would come over to check. His father was on-site, and the invited professionals only came occasionally; it was impossible for them to stay at the site all the time. This was unavoidable, unlike the third-party supervision of later generations.
The soil for his family's foundation was hard earth, which had settled for a long time, so large stones could be laid directly.
The foundation had been dug four to five meters deep. With this depth and geological condition, if the foundation was well-built, constructing a six or seven-story building would not be a problem.
According to traditional construction methods, after clearing and leveling the foundation and confirming the bearing capacity of the foundation bottom, the foundation must first be compacted before laying high-hardness quartzite. Mud slurry is then poured into the gaps between the rocks for stabilization, which saves cement.
After the rock foundation is piled to a certain height, about one meter of depth is left for laying a reinforced concrete foundation.
Wen City is surrounded by mountains, so the quartzite used for digging foundations was readily available; only the transportation was expensive.
Fang Bai urged the project forward, and the contractor hired dozens of porters at the dock specifically to transport the stones, while his own masons were responsible for pouring the mud slurry.
A few days passed, and the rock foundation had been built. Currently, rebar is being tied and forms are being set up, preparing for the concrete foundation pour.
The weather was a bit cold, but sweat drenched the foreheads and backs of the on-site workers. Their dark faces wore resolute expressions, and their lips were chapped. Several masons were even working shirtless.
Fang Bai opened the cigarettes and gave each master a cigarette. These masters all had mud on their hands, wiped their hands on their clothes, and then smiled as they took the cigarettes and thanked him.
Fang Shi watched his son hand out cigarettes again and felt it was a bit wasteful. Thirty-some people would go through one or two packs of cigarettes, and his son bought Hongtashan cigarettes, which were not cheap.
Seeing his son smiling and coming towards him, he couldn't help but say, "Son, you hand out cigarettes every time you come. These workers wish you'd come several times a day!"
Fang Bai didn't take it seriously and said with a chuckle, "Dad, wages are one thing, and Boss Lu might not be able to take care of everything. I hand out cigarettes hoping they'll work hard.
I don't expect them to do wonders, but it'd be good if they don't give us a shoddy project.
Just like now, they're starting to tie rebar. If it's not tied well, it'll affect the building's quality."
"Alright, so should I hand them out too?"
"Hey, Dad, you can't."
"Why not?"
"I come less often, so when I hand them out, it's to gain their goodwill and ease the atmosphere.
Dad, you're supervising quality. If you hand them cigarettes, they'll see you as easygoing, and they'll get sloppy with the quality. You need to play the tough guy, keep an eye on them, and speak up when needed."
Fang Shi understood, raising his eyebrows and widening his eyes: "Oh, so you're saying, son, you play the good guy, and I play the bad guy, then?"
He felt like his son was leading him astray.
"Hehe, Dad, you're so smart," Fang Bai chuckled mischievously.
"You little rascal, only learning bad things. I really don't know who taught you."
"Self-taught, by observing and pondering a lot."
The two old men stood on the periphery, speaking in low voices, while the workers in the field worked with great fervor.
After watching for a while, the supervisor from the design unit finally arrived late. Fang Bai was quite helpless; it was already good that he could be invited.
He forced a smile, pulled out a cigarette and handed it to him, then slipped an envelope into his hand containing fifteen ten-yuan notes.
When asking for help, cigarettes build bridges, alcohol paves the way, tea opens doors, and money makes things happen naturally.
"Chen Gong, this project still relies on you, an engineering expert, to keep an eye on it. This is a small token for tea; I hope you'll accept it.
After completion, if the quality inspection passes, I'll give you more."
For this project, Fang Bai had already paid the design fee and supervision fee to the design institute, directly to them. Chen Gong would not receive a single cent for coming to supervise; his unit might only give him some extra subsidies.
If Fang Bai could find a third-party quality supervision company, he definitely wouldn't have sought supervision from a state-owned design institute.
But in this era, where were there any third-party quality supervision companies? If there were, they would be foreign companies specializing in large projects, and their prices were very high, which Fang Bai couldn't afford.
Construction had started a while ago, and the supervisor would come for a bit and then leave. Fang Bai hadn't met him. He asked his father, and the supervisor usually came around this time, so today he finally managed to catch him.
Chen Gong saw the envelope, opened it curiously, and when he saw a small stack of ten-yuan banknotes inside, a considerable amount, he immediately beamed: "Mr. Fang, rest assured, I will help you keep a close eye on it. This is my responsibility."
What an unexpected bonus! He originally didn't get any subsidies for coming, and riding his bike here every day was a pain.
They called him an expert, said all sorts of nice things, and even gave him a red envelope, a substantial amount, and this project was only for two months! He was told there would be another portion if he did well!
"Okay, after all, these masons aren't professionals, which is why we specifically invited you over."
"Overall, they seem to have some experience, but there are quite a few issues. I'll talk to them about it shortly."
"Okay, thank you for your hard work."
Fang Bai chuckled and consulted him about foundation construction knowledge.
On the blueprint, Chen Gong was a bit confused as to why the market's stairs were so wide.
Fang Bai explained, "Besides conventional stairs, escalators might be installed in the future, and a vertical elevator will also be installed in this location. Space must be left in the floor slab; otherwise, it would be very troublesome to modify it later by smashing the floor slab."
With limited funds now, he couldn't install escalators. If he bought them, they would only be imported and incredibly expensive.
If he really installed them, it would probably be the first market with escalators in the entire Wen City.
After listening to Fang Bai's explanation, Chen Gong found it quite novel, indicating that the other party wasn't just messing around. He asked, "Then are you using glass for these stair railings? The cost is quite high. Aren't you building walls?"
"Tempered glass offers a better view. If walls were built, customers wouldn't be able to see their surroundings clearly, which would affect marketing and wouldn't be aesthetically pleasing."
Chen Gong nodded, feeling the idea was quite good. He laid out the blueprint and said to Fang Bai:
"Mr. Fang, only the three outer sides need partial walls; the interior will be fully open. The workload isn't too large; once the main structure is done, it will be very fast."
On the blueprint, the 15 plots of land were perfectly located at a crossroads in an L-shape, with 5 facing south and 10 facing east.
Fang Bai's market adopted a frame structure with few load-bearing walls. The first floor, apart from the columns, would be entirely tempered glass, with very few walls. All four sides would be opened up, and the interior would be fully connected.
In this era, smashing and grabbing was quite common, so roll-up doors had to be installed to prevent lunatics from breaking the glass at night.
The cashier counter was U-shaped, with tempered glass installed on the counter, similar to bank counters in the back. There was also an escape passage in the middle, making it impossible to enter from the outside. A groove was also made, preventing hands from reaching in, making it difficult for bandits to rob money.
Fang Bai thought about the poor public security in the next decade or so, and when the design institute was drawing up the blueprints, he offered some suggestions for safety precautions.
In addition to these, restrooms were also designed for the convenience of customers and employees.
"Mr. Fang, since you're dealing with electrical appliances and placing them on the first floor, I suggest that after the foundation is laid, it's best to paint it for moisture protection. Before laying the cement floor and floor tiles, lay a layer of waterproof fabric for moisture protection. It won't cost much."
"That's a very good suggestion. I'll tell the contractor, Boss Lu, about it." Fang Bai agreed, fortunate that he was reminded.
He chatted with Chen Gong for a while, then told his father about the moisture protection and left the construction site.
Fang Shi saw his son giving red envelopes and felt that his son's method of using money to clear the way was too expensive.
He understood the logic, but it still pained him a bit to spend money to clear the way.
Fang Bai rode his motorcycle to find a carpentry factory to custom-make appliance display cabinets. Finding a renovation company was useless.
He had already tried finding renovation companies, but they found his renovation concept difficult to understand. In the end, he decided to directly find a carpentry factory to custom-make appliance display cabinets.
In this era, there weren't many renovation companies, and their renovation styles didn't meet Fang Bai's requirements.
If he went through them, they would still end up finding a carpentry factory, and there might be misunderstandings during information transmission, plus Fang Bai would be exploited an extra layer, spending more money, which Fang Bai was naturally unwilling to do.
Sigh, he had to take the lead himself.
He required the display counters to be grand, convenient for wiring and outlets, and easy to install lighting. The display cabinets for different appliances were all different.
The overall paint color was pure white, which was not easily mistaken and also made the appliances appear brighter.
He had recently drawn some renderings of display cabinets at home. He didn't have much artistic talent himself, but his parents could barely understand them.
Once his market was renovated, the renovation style would definitely be very cutting-edge.
He hoped that through this renovation, he could showcase his unique concept for appliance display, create an amazing shopping environment for customers, and attract even more customers to Wen City's first large-scale appliance market.
Buy appliances, go to Xinghai!
Quality establishes the world, Xinghai enters thousands of homes!
Fang Bai had already thought of his advertising slogans. His home appliance market was: Xinghai Electric Appliance Market!
In one afternoon, Fang Bai visited three carpentry factories. Only one factory could understand his intentions and had the capability to do the work. They negotiated the price, and a few prototypes would be made first. If they met Fang Bai's requirements, mass production would begin.
After Fang Bai paid for the prototype display cabinets, he went to find a workshop that could make glass doors.
Over the next two days, in order to build the Electric Appliance Market even better, Fang Bai traveled all over Wen City, finally getting most of the work done. All that was left was for the main renovation to be completed, and then the manufacturers would visit the site to measure and customize.