Construction Informer

Just Build It Right: In Biskra, Algeria, the housing and town planning minister is cracking down on what he calls “urban anarchy” in building. Armed with additional funds the organizations that police compliance with building codes are imposing sanctions on builders who violate the “rules of urbanism and construction.” While a lot of the rest of the world reels under the current economic storm it seems Algeria is on a growth path. According to the International Monetary Fund the country is expected to post 4.9 percent growth in 2008 and 4.5 percent in 2009.

South Korean Builders On Growth Path: South Korean builders are building more and more of the Middle East. With overall construction orders up a record 45.4 percent year-on-year the boom is being enjoyed by medium and large firms alike. South Korean builders are also increasingly grabbing contracts throughout Asia with a 56 percent gain in that sector. In one interesting collaboration a consortium of South Korean construction companies won a $6.3 billion refinery project in Kuwait. The country’s builders are also handling desalinization and gas facility projects.

Concrete Figures Prominently In Africa: Tanzania is undertaking the construction of the single largest cement plant in the east African region. Expecting demand in that area to grow at twice the rate of projected economic growth of 5 to 6 percent, Kenya’s Athi River Mining (ARM) company will build the plant with a capacity of 4,000 tonnes (4,480 tons) a day. Funding for the project was concluded before the world’s recent economic crisis and it drew from both national and international sources. A spokesman for the project said a reduction in the demand for cement because of the market turmoil is not expected to be significant. ARM is the second largest cement maker in Africa.

Seldom do I come across an item that is being sold to the makers of construction equipment and materials. So when this crossed my screen I thought a closer look was in order.

The company, Tah Industries, is offering a packaging solution for adhesives, epoxies and urethanes that makes it possible for the people using the product to just use a standard caulking gun. Ingenious. I remember using a few of these materials. One was used to cement rebar into concrete where one pour was joining another. The side-by-side dispensers always seemed a bit mystical - like you were employing some special skill or something to use them. Clip the ends evenly, push the plunger evenly, and until they started coming with caps, you had to use it all or loose it.

Since the product specific containers can now be abandoned, we ought to see the costs of some of these materials come down…right?

Photo: Business Wire

What do you do if you have taken the process of insulating a home from science to art?  Well, you might try entering a competition. That’s what Ray Blackwater with Durango, Colorado-based San Juan Insulation & Drywall did and he is now the “Best Insulation Installer in America” for 2008.

According to Insulate America, Blackwater defeated last year’s champ Salvador Hererra from Insulating Inc. in Raleigh, NC. This year’s three other regional winners who competed for the crown included:

Jesus Campanero from Chico, CA

Matt Fletcher from West Boylston, MA

Martin Sanchez Soto from Charlotte, NC

The competitors had to install insulation of various types in a mock up of a building that included all the usual things that get in the way or make the job difficult, like electrical boxes, wires, pipes, headers and even a vaulted ceiling. Judging criteria included quality of workmanship, adherence to safety, and speed and productivity. New this year, the sixth year of the competition, was the amount of scrap they each generated.

October is Energy Awareness Month so Johns Manville in association with Insulate America sponsors the competition to draw attention to the professionals that give their all to help make sure buildings achieve their maximum energy efficiency.

To me these are great initiatives. There really aren’t enough efforts that showcase the day-to-day work construction people do. Especially with the slant of showing it in a professional sense. You can find all kinds of people showcasing the negative actions of people in construction, so these kinds of things help to balance the picture for those who are willing to look a little deeper.

Ray Blackwater of Durango, CO. (Photo: Business Wire)

Fire safety is in the news and it reminded me of all the various ways fires can get started at construction sites. Some of the obvious include containers of gasoline, diesel fuel and other liquid fuels stored in unmarked locations. Without the proper signage people may not be aware they just lit up their cigarette next to a gas can. Electrical equipment can cause sparks at times so once again being aware of where to store the gas is important. Here are some other examples from recent news reports.

A 3,000 square foot home that was nearing completion sustained a half million in damages from a fire that started in the wee hours of the morning. Apparently the owners were staying in a guest house on the property. They were not hurt.

In Las Vegas the second floor of a building under construction caught fire and electrical insulation along with some tools were destroyed.

An ambulatory care center under construction in South Carolina was the scene of a fire that started from a stack of insulation that was on the roof. Buildings under construction often don’t have all the access in place yet so firefighters who would normally have approached from interior stairs ended up using construction ladders to get to the flames. In this case there wasn’t any structural damage to the building and the $9.6 million structure is still expected to be completed on time.

Construction debris on the roof of a new baseball stadium being built in North Carolina caught fire. Again, insulation was the fuel and in this case it was identified as styrofoam. Coincidentally, a relative of styrofoam insulation made of polyisocyanurate has a high R value per square inch but it too is combustible.

In another incident involving styrofoam it only took some sparks to cause a fire. In Utah workers were cutting some steel when the sparks from that operation caught styrofoam blocks on fire. This happened at an office building under construction.

So, besides flammable liquids posing the typical dangers it appears there could be a trend toward insulation fires. A daily trip around the job site with a critical eye toward potential fire hazards can net an added measure of fire safety to any project. Of course looking around for other safety hazards at the same time should yield safer work sites overall. It’s never easy to build safely, but factoring in the additional time to accommodate safety is a lot less painless than dealing with accidents.

Marketing With Topical Messages: A new initiative in New York is offering to answer a lot of questions about green building. This is unique because it isn’t a government effort but rather a grass roots business effort. Named The Hamptons Green Alliance the site is claimed to be the first ever consortium formed by local building companies that is committed to green initiatives in building. Designed with consumers in mind the site features articles on the diverse topics of alternative energy, insulation, smart home electronics, HVAC and natural landscaping.

This is an interesting concept since it brings builder and trades together in a single marketing effort that directly targets topical information that is very much on people’s minds these days. It could be as construction businesses continue to find value in more transparent business relationships with each other, more of these efforts will surface. From the perspective of someone who wants to have a home built there is a certain comfort in knowing all the players who will be doing the job are working as a team, and something like this illustrates that to a certain degree.

Tax Break Gets Extended: There is of course a whole lot more in the “bailout” bill than most people probably realize. Some of it makes sense. For example, anytime the government gives people a tax break to do smart things I tend to gauge that as making sense. One of the things in the bill that got included was the cancellation of the expiring energy efficiency tax break for commercial buildings as reported on in this post. Figuring out to about $1.80 per square foot, the deduction could be just the ticket to get some owners to consider moving forward with their plans.

Do You R&D? In construction it may be overlooked but there are efforts that those in the AEC fields do regularly that might qualify as research and development. New processes, and new designs and improvements on existing processes and designs could all qualify for the now-extended R&D tax credit. Even testing and investing in research and development could not only be beneficial from an operational point of view, but also from a tax point of view. With this credit being extended until the end of 2009 there may be enough time to continue with, or start new efforts in this area that could be brought to fruition before the expiration date.