Economy, Quality or Speed

I was talking with a subcontractor today who was talking about business. He said he learned something from another contractor many years ago about three things that really affect a project. He was told that economy, quality and speed are the ones that can create issues. It is not that they create issues in themselves, but if you concentrate too much on one, then the other two suffer. He said yes, you do want a job to have good quality, at a good price and in a reasonable time. However, if you work too much on economy, then the quality and speed suffer. Also, if you want too much quality, then the speed and economy go down. You get the picture. I do not see any of these as a problem for a project if you understand that everything has a consequence.

In distribution it is often said that you cannot have the best price, the best product and the best service. One will always suffer in the long run just like in the above examples for a construction project. So, when you look at a vendor and they have a great price, look at the other two problems you will run into. It may not be the best product and the service may be no good. To have a good balance, as in building a project, you need to pay a fair price for a fair product if that is what you are most interested in. If you want the very best product, then expect it to be more than the least expensive product.

Blown Film and Radon

I attended a company sales meeting this past weekend. One of the vendors that spoke was Raven Industries. We sell their construction films. I learned about the blown film extrusion process of making plastic films. I have never heard of this process before and since I am an infinitely curious person, I wanted to find out more. I am not in the plastic film industry, so, if you read this and are, please excuse my ignorance. Basically, as I understand it, the plastic pellets get heated and go through a dye where air is blown out to help cool the film. It goes straight up in the air to the top and it is slit or folded and is sent back down through the rollers. It seemed really interesting to me. Raven Industries has an animated video of their process. I wanted to find a video of the process on the Internet and I found one that looks like it makes clear pallet bags. Click here if you would like to see the video. I was really hoping the video would show every facet of the process and with some sort of neat camera angle that could show the middle of the blown film, but no such luck. It was still interesting anyway. There is another way to make plastic film and I understand it is called cast film.

One of the products discussed was the Raven VaporBlock Plus. It is an underslab vapor retarder and gas barrier. Radon is a gas. As I understand it, the Vapor Block Plus 20 helps reduce the amount of Radon gas. If you read the data sheet on page 2 note 5, it states, "When VaporBlock Plus gas barrier is used as a part of an active control system for radon gas, a ventilation system will be required. When installed as a passive system, it is still recommended to include a ventilation system that could be converted to an active system later." I knew that radon had become a bigger issue over the past few years. I still know very little about it, but the EPA has some information about the radon gas issue. On http://www.radon.com/ , there is a map where you can check the radon levels by state. It is interesting to look over.

LEED

What is LEED? Leadership in Energy and Enviromental Design.

I wanted to write about this topic but realized that I do not know enough about it. It is talked about frequently by architechts, owners and manufacturers. I went to the USGBC, US Green Building Council, website. I started to research and read about LEED and its rating system for new construction. There are 3 versions right now, Versions 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2. Version 2.2 is the most current. They have a link to find a local chapter. There is one in South Carolina. North Carolina has two that I see, one in Charlotte and one in the Triangle area.

I have learned some things about the LEED process over the past couple of years. I have read some about it also. I have found that there are some added initial costs to buildings in some aspects. There are actually some savings in others. After reading more about it, I have concluded that I do not know near enough. I think there are some long term savings in going with many of its ideas and building designs. Some things, to me, just make sense. Feel free to look at any of the links and judge for yourself if you wish to reasearch it. I think that we will all need to know more about it as time progresses and I think it is better to have more knowledge sooner rather than later.

Detectable Warning Tiles

The ADA, American Disabilities Act, has requirements for detectable warning tiles. There are many manufacturers to choose from. There is a great document to read about some of the testing that has been done. This article / draft was written in 2005 and explains some of the differences in the brands and shows different problems that arise. It was prepared for National Cooperative Highway Research Program Transportation Research Board of the National Academies. If you read the research document you will see that even the DWT, Detectable Warning Tiles, need to be maintained. For those who do not want to read the whole document, it has pictures of problems also. Engineered Plastics, the ones that make the Armor-Tile brand, has info on their site where it lists the ADAAG requirements, ADA Accessibility Guidelines. The Armor-Tile site has much more information that is nice to read on some of the requirements. Click here to read ADA Accessibility Guidelines.

The first picture shows one installed. It is an Armor-Tile tile. As you can tell, it can take a coat of paint nicely. The second picture is an Armor-Tile also, but you can tell that it is in need of being maintained, cleaned.

This is another manufacturer's rubber mat tile. It is in the same area as the first two pictures and has the same foot traffic that the Armor-Tile has. You can see how there may be an issue with this now.

The first picture is also the rubber mat type. The second is an Armor-Tile type. They are in the same flow of foot traffic and across the street from each other. They were both put in around the same time and you can tell the difference on how they stand up to foot traffic. The dark spots on the one that is still in good shape is crusty chewing gum.... At least I am guessing that it is. I didn't actually pick it up and try it. However, if it looks like a duck.....

I have seen many varieties of the detectable warning tiles and so far, I like the Armor-Tile the best, not just because it is the one we sell.

Maintenance

Maintenance is important in so many aspects of construction. People buy buildings or have buildings built and think that is the end of everything to do with the building. Wrong. There may not be much that needs to be done besides maintenance at the beginning, but over the course of time, more needs to be done. They need to think of it like a car or even bathing. Both are maintenance. The oil needs to be changed, the tires need to be rotated or changed, the fluids need to be changed, etc. If you don't do it then you will have problems with your car. It is the same with bathing. I mean, who wants to work or stand near someone that thinks bathing is unneccessary?

I looked at a job today that is in need of being maintained. The water comes in when it rains. The caulk joints failed. I use the term failed loosely. It is not that they have failed because of being a bad product. They failed because they have been in too long, past the normal life of the caulk. There had been patches to cover the problem but they did not work. I was telling the contractor that just because the caulk is failing, it does not mean the building is failing. The building just needs to be maintained. He now has to sell that idea to the owner, but I am sure the owner will complain about the cost because it probably has only been done once or twice in 40 years. There were some other problems with it that could become structural problems because of the water and some may be structural. However, not doing anything is cheaper right now, but in a few years it won't be. There will be cost in replacing the whole project, which in and of itself is expensive. The maintenance issue is much cheaper and less expensive than replacing the whole structure. After all, when is the last time you were able to buy it cheaper a few years down the road?

Meeting People

I was having a discussion with a customer one evening after a meeting in one of the organizations I belong to and he said, one of the problems that the organization has, is that very few there are politically active. After a little better explanation, I understood that he did not mean that we should run for office, but that our representative should know our name. We as individuals should be known to the people representing us. We should not call them just when there is an issue that pertains just to our individual needs, when there is a problem, but at other times to say we support or disagree with something they have done or may do. We should take time to fill out their surveys no matter how inane they may sound. It is a way of giving feedback to the politician. While he may not be the one actually reading responses, someone is keeping track of it. Yes, it will create more junk mail but it is a way to be heard. Another way to be seen and heard is to take the time to go to political type meetings. You can listen, interact or be confrontational. If you see the politicians walking door to door or at meetings, take the time to introduce yourself. They most likely won't remember you next time, so remind them of that each time you see them until they do. This can not succeed overnight. It will take time, maybe years. Think of how politicians are. Don't you want to have them take care of the issues you support? If you complain about them, then get involved with them. Whatever you do you are participating in the process.

I thought of this while at another meeting tonight. It was the Bastiat Society meeting. It was filled with bright, intelligent, friendly people. As I was there, I also remembered something I put in my blog in a previous entry, I had ample opportunity to give my 20 to 30 second blurb about what I sell and the company I work for.

Another thing that I noticed at the meeting, and it is one of the things that made it so enjoyable, even though it is the first meeting that I attended, is that nearly everyone there took the time to introduce themselves and made me feel welcome. I remember other places that I have visited or attended, and no one took the time to make me feel welcome. How often do you go anywhere and you do not feel welcome or like you are wanted? Does it make you want to go back? If it is a business, does it make you want to spend money there again and again? I am guessing not. So, if you are in an organization, church or business, do your best to make others want to come back and help your business grow. It will be beneficial.

Hyperlinking

I finally learned how to hyperlink today thanks to Jimmy. Really all he did was tell me what it is called when you want a word or set of words linked to a website. I have been placing links below or in stories because I did not know how to hyperlink. It is nice having a help section on the website and the explanation on how to do it is simple. The pictures, screen shots, explained everything.

So, if you are really curious on how to make a hyperlink please feel free to see how it is done on blogger. All you have to do now is click the word. I have established the link. :)

Otto Bayer

At the ICRI meeting last week, one of the speakers talked about Otto Bayer. He said that he invented Polyurethane. I didn't mention it in the previous post because I wanted to find out more. His name may be Bayer and he may have worked for Bayer, but he merely shared the name, not the lineage. The Bayer website has a nice little excerpt about him.

http://www.plastiquarian.com/obayer.htm

Polyurethanes were discussed because it is one of the types of products that seals cracks and is more typically used for stopping leaks in concrete structures. There is a nice writeup on Polyurethanes in wikipedia and it explains the history of it quickly. It was invented prior to WWII. It was explained that Germany was trying to make a product to replace rubber tires.

Vehicle tires use the process of vulcanization, thus a vulcanized rubber tire. This process was invented by Charles Goodyear around 1839.

Polyurethanes were not successful as tires. However, they are in use today in a multitude of ways. They are in everything from earplugs to mattresses and, yes, sometimes even concrete structures that have a leak that needs to be stopped.