Rebar Cutter

I have always preferred the Benner Nawman rebar cutters. I have seen very few problems with them and the time or two that I have had a problem it was dealt with very quickly by them. I am just mentioning them here because I like the product. I also have a little video of me cutting a piece of #5 rebar. Their website is below. It is the link to their construction products.

http://www.bnproducts.com/bn-products/construction.php

Form Release and How it Works

Ever wonder how form releases work and why they are better for concrete than regular oil?

All form releases are VOC compliant. Diesel fuel and motor oil or burnt oil work and are still used by some people but they are not VOC compliant. They also have the problem of staining concrete. Even though all form oils are VOC compliant, most still have a highly refined fuel oil in them.

There are different types of form releases but the one I will focus on is the dual reactive form release. Dual reactive form releases work by providing an oily slick film on the surface with fatty acids mixed into it to create a chemical reaction. I know I stated oil. Since the amount of fuel oil had to be reduced to make the form oils meet the VOC specifications they had to replace it with another type of oil. So they have added more natural oils. For the sake of this article, I will call them vegetable oils. There are many types that are used but vegetable oil is a term that is understood by all. The vegetable oils cost more per gallon than the fuel oils. So, the more expensive the form release, chances are the higher the concentration of a vegetable type oil. The oils create a slippery surface on the form which prevents the concrete from sticking.

The second part of the dual reactive form release is the chemical reaction, which is adding fatty acids to react with the calcium in the concrete. Concrete has a high Ph. When the fatty acids react with the calcium it creates something like a soapy film. The soapy film helps prevent the concrete from sticking to the form also.

When applying the dual reactive form release, more does not mean better. Pay attention to the coverage chart for the form oil that is used. Typically, the smoother or more dense the form, the less you will use per square foot. When you apply too much form release you will have too many fatty acids in that area which may create bugholes in the concrete. When you put way too much on the form you can or may prevent any reaction that could happen, which means prying the forms off by force and making a nice repair situation. When that happens feel free to call your local sales rep and they will be happy to sell you another product to fix the problem.

Solely water based form releases work with only a chemical reaction. There is water and fatty acids in the mix. Coverage is much thinner and you will never think you have put enough down so you will over apply, which creates the problems above. The water based ones work when properly applied with no rain in the forecast but must be reapplied after rain has washed it away. The other problem with the water based ones is that there is no back up activity to help break the forms away if the chemical reaction fails.

How are you viewed?

I have been trying different Churches lately. No, this little essay will not be about religion, but it is about what people like. There are some with many people and others with not so many. Churches come in all shapes, sizes and denominations. While sitting in a different Church this past weekend, I thought about how I am seen as a salesman for my company and what it is I like about the places I buy from. Just like Churches, we buy from a wide variety of places. It seems like the places that are the biggest are the places where I have to find one person that I can deal with. In the larger companies as a whole, there is one person you can trust. The rest of them have no idea how all the parts come together. It seems in the smaller companies like most, if not all of the employees, know their position in the wheel and know all the other spokes by name. It seems that they are the ones that can always find the information for me when I am buying. Where I work is like the small company. Branches are smaller than some or most of our competitors, but we know most everyone in the company, as spread out as we are. When I go into a big box store, I have to search for everything myself. I must search aisle after aisle to find the product I am looking for. There are few people in the big store that can answer a question about whatever it is I am buying, but they can tell me how much it costs and tell me where to find a buggy, if I am lucky. So, I really prefer the smaller, more personal touch of a store that will accommadate me and answer questions that I may have. If they do not know an answer, I feel certain that they will find out and let me know. They are concerned about the success of their business, just like I am, and that is how I want to be viewed.

Adding to the Sale

"Do you need anything else?" or "Do you need any product a to go with your order?" One is letting the customer think of something he made need. The other is being specific for something the customer may have forgotten that he needs. When you are in sales you are always selling. It is not necessarily a hard selling technique but you always need to be trying to help the customer and ultimately yourself. Sometimes people will order what they need, but not the little things that go along with it. It does a customer no good to have a product that you deliver, only to find out he needs something else to work with it. So, building the order with something that is useful to the end user is saving the customer time and money because he doesn't have search around for other items that he could have ordered from you to begin with.

Math

I remember in school trying to figure out why any one needs math in the "real" world. Now, as an adult, I wish I knew more math. It is not that I want to be a math genius but that I would remember more of the formulas that were taught in school. The older I get, the more I like math. It is not ambiguous. It either is or isn't. In construction math is used frequently. You need to know how to figure areas, length x width. You need to know volume, length x width x height. Pi, π, is important. It is used in many formulas, like areas and volumes. Think of how often you look at circles trying to figure area only later to be confused by the radius or diameter.

Information on π can be found by clicking the link below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi

You may also use conversions. Convert square inches, 144, into square feet, 1. Or cubic inches, 1728, into cubic feet, 1. All construction uses math. Stairs are laid out using math. Squaring a building uses math. If the tape measure is too short to measure, the old Pythagorean Theorem is used.

If you are interested in a little site that explains it with some interactive drawings, click the first link. The second link is for the wikipedia information.

http://www.ies.co.jp/math/java/geo/pythagoras.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_theorem

I am sure there are many little math formulas that I forgot to mention and if someone in school says they will never use math in the real world, just give them some examples how they might.

More Concrete Repair

In the new issue of "Concrete Repair Bulletin", there is an article named "Repair of Concrete Structures under Construction" by Bud Early. The topics are general topics and talk about the issues in simple terms and explanations. The topics are Concrete Cracking, Poor Construction Techniques, Concrete Curling, Honeycombs/Voids, Repairing Cracks in Concrete, Repairs to Curled Slabs, Repairing honeycombs/Voids and Avoiding Problems in the Future. What grabbed my attention the most was under Repairing Cracks in Concrete. He writes, "Before you begin to repair cracks in concrete, you should answer the question: 'What is the purpose of this crack repair?'" I love the question because it is the same one I ask when customers tell me of their cracking problems. So many times when the question is asked, they do not know the answer. Many assume that all cracks are structural. Sometimes they are limited by money and they only want to make it look better or keep it from getting worse. He spends more time dealing with this topic than the others but does keep it easy to understand and read. Repairing cracks in concrete is important and cracks do happen. Structural cracks need to be addressed and fixed properly. For the cracks that are merely cosmetic, you can have other less expensive choices. When you are unsure of what to do on the crack repair call someone that can give you the information you need.

The link to the magazine is

http://www.icri.org/publications/bulletin.asp

I tried to get the article online but was unable to. However, it will become available in the future. I can look at the articles back to 2005 but there is a search feature in there to get ones further back. I like the site because of the articles and it is a good source of information.

Crystalline Waterproofing

One of the magazines I started reading is "Waterproofing Magazine." In the newest issue there is a very good article titled "The Basics of Integral Crystalline Waterproofing" by Sunny Shao. In it is described the basics of how crystalline waterproofing works. The article explains that the crystals grow, filling the pours of the concrete. It can be as an admixture to the concrete or applied to the surface later.

In my experiences with crystalline waterproofing products, I have found that they work well in certain circumstances. Rules that I have found out about them are they require water to work. Which according to the article is true. They take a little time to work with the water. They also do not stop large cracks. I had a customer that used some ICW (Integral Crystalline Waterproofing) in a fountain. A few days later he was called by the owner that the fountain was leaking. It was suggested that he wait about another week and it would no longer leak. There was plenty of water in the fountain and it stopped leaking because the ICW had plenty of water. Another time I had a customer with a concrete flat roof on a house with living space below. He bought some to mix with the concrete, not from me, and as he was building the house he noticed every time it rained that the concrete roof leaked. I told him there was not enough constant water coming through the roof for the ICW to work and grow to stop the leaks. Lucky for me that I sell a good deck coating and got that sale.

I tried to get the whole article online at

http://www.waterproofmag.com/index.php

I never made it to the online article because of the way they have it set up to get the catalog online. However, there are 3 articles that you can read "Green Roofs ", "Deep Foundations" and "Dimple Membranes."