EllisDon Finds New Ways To Leverage Its Expertise

by: Duane Craig - May 29th, 2009   Filed under: General News, Industry, Products

Construction firms may often overlook the valuable assets they have in their people and their skills. Not so over at EllisDon, Inc. The company is creating new and unique opportunities that leverage its people and skills investments. Geoff Smith, president and CEO of EllisDon agreed to answer some questions about this new venture.

Q: After years of being successful at building, and at construction management, why are you now offering your expertise on a consulting basis?

There are several reasons why EllisDon is doing this. Firstly, we believe there is a very large and unserved global market for precisely these kinds of services. (And where people are providing these services, they aren’t builders. When we say something will work, we KNOW it will work, and are prepared to participate and guarantee.) I won’t go through the specific services and target markets – you can see that from
our website – but we believe there may well be keen buyers. Secondly, these services offer new ways to build new revenue and brand new relationships and partnerships, based on expertise which we already have and infrastructure which is already in place. Thirdly, it is a great way for EllisDon to expand into new global markets without taking huge risks – the profit margins will of course be lower, but so will the
risks.

Q: Is this similar to outsourcing, that is do you take over various operations if a client wants you to do that?

I have been thinking of it as insourcing (our clients will outsource to us) – and the answer is yes, we are prepared to take over various operations and activities if a client wants. For example, we believe we can do construction accounting for firms both more effectively and more efficiently than many can do for themselves – so they would be costing themselves money not to use us. The same goes for project management systems, HR, and many of the other services we are offering.

Q: Are these services for everyone, or are they designed for very large companies?

In the North American market, we believe these services will be most attractive to mid-sized companies rather than the larger ones. Companies that want to move themselves to the next level quickly, inexpensively and with the least risk. Or a company that has a specific project or opportunity that is somewhat beyond their current expertise and wants some help in order to ensure success. Or a client (or lender) that has a builder in those circumstances, and wants to ensure success through helpful oversight and assistance.

In the global market, especially in ‘emerging markets’, we believe that these services may well be attractive to both mid sized and large companies in the same circumstances.

Q: When will these services be available? Where?

These services are available right now, and can be made available to anyone anywhere. EllisDon has experience in many countries and a permanent presence in North America, Europe and the Mid East. Many of the services, or elements of each service can be delivered electronically, and we are prepared to travel anywhere for mutual advantageous opportunities.

Q: Can you take me through the steps involved to illustrate how this might work for a client who wants to take advantage of your project
management expertise?

If one goes through the website, I believe we have set out how the services will work for various clients. Most importantly, we are very flexible – every client, every project and every set of circumstances is different, and we are ready to adapt (in terms of the service provided and the remuneration) to individual needs. We have experts ready to immediately address each of the services offered, and to tailor a solution to anyone’s situation, and we have set up the offerings so that all you have to do is pick up the phone and you will be speaking very promptly to the most appropriate expert for your situation.

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Straw Bale House Survives Strong Quake

by: Duane Craig - May 28th, 2009   Filed under: Architecture and Design, Materials, Process

People may have to stop referencing the Three Little Pigs story while extolling the virtues of one building material over another. It appears that straw may be just as resilient as brick.

Darcey Donovan, a civil engineer, and the Reno alumna of the University of Nevada, built a straw house that survived the 82-ton force of an earthquake simulation. The house was a full-scale, 14-foot by 14-foot replica of the kinds of houses Donovan has been building in Pakistan. It took seven increasingly forceful quake simulations to cause the house to sway and crack at the seams – but it stayed standing.

Donovan described her work in Pakistan as an effort to increase survival rates for people who have traditionally lived in housing that doesn’t stand up to quakes. A major challenge she explained is in making the housing affordable and earthquake resistant.

Straw bale houses are used around the world, but those have posts and beams for support and rely on energy-intensive materials, skilled labor and complex machinery, making it unaffordable for the poor,” Donovan said. “In our design, the straw bales are the support, and not just for insulation. Our design is half the cost of conventional earthquake-safe construction in Pakistan. The materials we use — clay soil, straw and gravel — are readily available; and we utilize unskilled labor in the construction.

Donovan also claims the structures are 80 percent more energy efficient while being 50 percent of the cost of conventional buildings.

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Try Helping People Protect Their Eyes

by: Duane Craig - May 27th, 2009   Filed under: Products, Safety

Some estimate there are more than 2.5 million eye injuries each year in the U.S. The Texas Ophthalmological Association (TOA) claims a large number of those might be avoided if people would just wear eye protection, like ANSI-rated eyewear.

When you consider how small the eye is, compared to the rest of your body, and how well protected it is already, (inset, rapid response blinking, and with lashes and brows to catch foreign intruders), it’s kind of amazing how many things find their way there. I’ve often been amazed at how many things end up in my eyes even when I AM wearing safety glasses. I was running the line trimmer the other day, wearing my safety glasses, and some piece of a plant still managed to hit my eyeball.

Even so, most amazing is how difficult it is to get people to use eye protection. Most of the time it involves slipping on some eyewear, yet for reasons bordering on stupidity huge numbers of people can’t be bothered. For those managing construction projects it is a never-ending process trying to keep everyone’s eyeballs safe at the end of the day. Many people don’t publicly like my suggestion for how to make more eyes safe on the job but I think privately many do.

If people aren’t wearing eye protection when they get an eye injury, don’t pay for any medical care, and don’t allow any other compensation – no disability, no SSI, no workers compensation. It’s unlikely though we’ll ever see that level of personal responsibility being called for.

So, even though May is almost over it was Healthy Vision Month. It’s still not too late to get everyone together for a safety meeting and talk a little bit about protecting eyes. One thing I’ve found to be effective is to hand out safety glasses, but not just the cheapo ones that nobody wants to be seen in. Have a selection so people can pick their own style. And for those who wear eyeglasses, offer some money toward converting their lenses to safety lenses. From my experience it’s almost impossible to get people to wear the safety glasses that have the elastic band and fit over the top of the eyeglasses.

For those people who can get by with reading glasses there are now safety glasses with built-in bifocal readers. I have a pair of these and they work great. I can even see the sixteenths on the tape measure when using them. So while helping to keep my eyes safe, I’m also finding a new level of accuracy in the stuff I build!

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Rethinking How Disaster Money Is Doled Out

by: Duane Craig - May 26th, 2009   Filed under: Architecture and Design, General News, Industry, Safety

As natural disasters that affect buildings continue to escalate, the insurers of those buildings are obviously looking for ways to minimize risk. According to The Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), a nonprofit funded by insurers, one way to accomplish that may be to increase the payments a state can receive in the aftermath of a disaster if the state adopts and enforces stronger statewide building codes.

The IBHS says that under legislation proposed in Congress, HR 2592, 13 states would qualify for additional post-disaster money, 10 more would qualify if they did some minor modifications to their building code efforts, and eight others could qualify if they beefed up their enforcement efforts.

To see where your state stands you can check out the IBHS interactive map.

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How To Get The Most Out Of Highway Rights Of Way

by: Duane Craig - May 21st, 2009   Filed under: Architecture and Design, General News, Green, Process

A couple of enterprising fellows have come up with a scheme to put all that space around roadways to use creating energy. Called a GreenRoadway, the vacant land and median areas are loaded up with wind turbines and solar panels. The wind turbines portrayed look kind of like stacks of disks rather than great big propeller-style contraptions (as seen in the attached photo taken from the GreenRoadway press kit). Model portraying the GreenRoadway solar panels and wind turbines along highways

According to the prospectus these lands are often convenient to the electric grid and will support solar panels, wind turbines, vehicle charging stations and geothermal systems. The system is being licensed on a state-by-state basis and is expected to allow the licensees to take advantage of tax credits, renewable energy credits, and funding from the latest stimulus package. Sealed bids are being accepted until July 24, 2009.

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Lawyer Asks The Hard Questions About Green

by: Duane Craig - May 20th, 2009   Filed under: Green, Industry

In a nation with relatively free speech there are always those who get off the politically-correct thought patterns and suggest the prevailing thought might be due for some scrutiny. These voices are necessary because so often group think is nothing more than repetitive sound bites that large numbers of people simply assume to be true.

The rise of entertainment journalism personified by anchors like Lou Dobbs, and radio personalities like Rush Limbaugh, adds politically-correct emotion to topics that would be better served by “just-the-facts.”

So when it comes to construction topics it is always refreshing to hear from those who offer opposing views without a lot of entertainment spin. One such personality is veteran environmental attorney James A. Kosch. Kosch has been mentioned on these pages before as he called for us to really think about where we were going with our green initiatives.

Now, about a year later, he’s back and proffering that the green building craze is here to stay, but that it probably isn’t going to reward us with quite the utopian visions we harbor. That, of course, has to do with money. Kosch is also still asking some hard questions, and perhaps causing some to think about the long-term challenges that green is bringing, particularly when it comes to the law.

…We can now ‘do green’ much more effectively than in the past.”

Still, major uncertainties remain. Legal professionals tracking this trend are navigating uncharted territory on issues related to water reuse, energy generation and sales, tax credits, insurance, economic incentives, easements for light, air and conservation, and much more, Kosch explained. They must pay particularly close attention to the status of legislation and regulation that affects, or may affect, future projects, he added.

So far this year, for example, New Jersey lawmakers have introduced 20 or 30 green-building related bills. “Fortunately, much of this legislation shows a moderating sensitivity to the economic challenges now faced by New Jersey businesses. We’ve seen bills pass that provide flexibility,” Kosch said. “That is a positive development. After all, the Soviet Union tried command-and-control, and it didn’t exactly work.”

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Get The Lowdown on Networking Sites

by: Duane Craig - May 19th, 2009   Filed under: Web Tech

I have only recently begun to re-explore social and business networking Web sites and it seems they have come a long way from just a few years ago. There are now widget-types of tools you use that will do things like automatically include your latest blog posts and the books you are reading.

I use LinkedIn for business and Facebook for personal (my daughters invited me there and were kind of surprised I signed up since they tend to think of it more for people a lot younger than me).

The one thing I have noticed is that it can take a lot of time to keep up with all the activities you can get involved in on these sites. Brian Eastwood did a post recently that covered these sites really well from a business perspective, and he gave some good advice about how to use them most effectively.

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Making Deadbolts Tougher

by: Duane Craig - May 18th, 2009   Filed under: Architecture and Design, Materials, Products

I like it when a manufacturer thinks about ways to make the installation of its product easier. Just as long as the method is a good one and I’m not going to have to go back later and work on the thing again. I only like to install stuff one time.

Schlage has a new deadbolt that it claims can be installed in less than one-half the time of a typical deadbolt. Calling it a “hands free” installation, Schlage writes that one side of the deadbolt snaps into the door leaving you free to grab your screwdriver without having to hold it in place. I’m having a little trouble picturing installing a deadbolt without any hands being involved, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they mean “hands free” at a particular installation point.

But there is more to this deadbolt than meets the eye. It has an anti-pick shield, and the bigger latch and bolt size is supposed to give you added kick-in resistance.

One thing lock manufacturers never seem to take into consideration is the fragility of the door frames. No matter how big of a latch and bolt you have, when it is mounted in a three-quarter inch wooden jamb, there’s really not much the bolt and latch are going to do to prevent the door being kicked in. The flimsy jamb is just going to split and the door will be wide open. So one of things I do is make sure to use the extra long screws that often come with deadbolts. These screws should make it into the door framing and that will most likely require someone to kick it more than once.

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Self-Healing Concrete On The Horizon

by: Duane Craig - May 15th, 2009   Filed under: Materials 1 Comment

If you forced the center of a 10 foot piece of concrete to bend by three percent, and it didn’t break, the bow in it would be three-and-a-half inches lower than the ends. (Photo by Nicole Casal Moore)

Self Healing ConcreteIt should break, or at least severely crack. But a new kind of self healing concrete will take that kind of abuse and actually heal itself. The material is being sought after for bridges, roads and other infrastructure projects where reinforced concrete is exposed to harsh weather and salts.

The concrete gets its properties from an engineered cement composite (ECC) developed over a 15 year period at the University of Michigan. The ECC concrete recovers its original strength after the strain and behaves like new when stressed again. The cracks resulting from the stress heal up when exposed to water and carbon dioxide leaving a thin white scar. Cracks that heal don’t permit water and de-icing salts to enter the concrete where they can degrade the reinforcing bars.

University of Michigan (2009, April 24). Self-healing Concrete For Safer, More Durable Infrastructure. Retrieved May 14, 2009, from ScienceDaily.

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Getting Started With Integrated Project Delivery Part 4: Contracts

by: Duane Craig - May 14th, 2009   Filed under: Architecture and Design, Industry, Managing, Process

Since Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) is a process that requires collaboration, the typical ways construction contracts are crafted don’t fit it very well. According to the IPD symposium report by the California Council of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) most construction contracts

“create incentives for individual firms to protect their own interests at the expense of the project.”

So the characteristics of contracts used in IPD have to be different – different enough to stimulate open collaboration and innovation. Here are some of the key points the symposium participants came up with.

  • Participant compensation can be raised or lowered based upon their performance as measured against predefined targets
  • Balancing risk and reward eliminates the need for inflationary contingency pricing, promotes relationships that can solve problems, and creates incentives to innovate
  • Multi-party agreements instead of individual two-party agreements are preferential
  • Bringing subs in for pre-construction work, and compensating them for that, is well worth it since it reduces RFIs and their associated costs
  • Problem participants who refuse to play by the new rules, and who won’t bend to peer pressure, may have to be removed with the whole group’s agreement

At the risk of over-simplifying, the concept that comes through the most for me relating to IPD is that it has at its heart the idea of helping many players to build the best project they can while looking out for one another. And that, as an HVAC pro used to say to me – “is a beautiful thing.”

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Getting Started With Integrated Project Delivery Part 3: The Budget

by: Duane Craig - May 13th, 2009   Filed under: Architecture and Design, Industry, Managing, Process

The development of construction project budgets often travels a path filled with best estimates, guess-timations and wishful thinking. That’s no wonder since in most cases you’re trying to figure out what something is going to cost at some point in the future.

So traditionally the budget process has been handled like some kind of a high stakes card game with the players gathered around a table, holding their cards close to the vest while they eye the others for signs of weakness or bluffing. In a way, it’s kind of an adversarial relationship and this of course sets the tone for the entire project.

When the California Council of the AIA called together 32 AEC professionals for its symposium on lessons learned from using Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), the discussions related to arriving at, and managing the budget covered a lot of ground.

What sets IPD budgeting apart from traditional approaches to budgeting is that the budget is handled collaboratively and it is an ongoing process. On that topic some of the observations by participants included:

  • Historical data and trends are just a small part of cost
  • Where costs are most questionable accuracy comes from input of all stakeholders
  • Engineering should influence the budget rather than just responding to it
  • Trust is key and is the ingredient that takes the fear out of the bid process but it has to be extended through all participants
  • Contingency money needs to be included in the budget and it needs to be separated from allowances

On the topic of managing the budget the participants recommended quick checks on costs instead of milestone “bottom-up” estimates, but even when BIM is being used the need for the experienced human estimator is still there. One owner recommends bringing together the estimators for the owner, designer, and constructor and having them come up with a consensus estimate. The budget process should stay flexible with the team doing regular checks on money spent compared to the target.

Contract language is different for IPD projects and is perhaps the area where the greatest amount of adjustment to how people think is required. More on that tomorrow.

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Getting Started with Integrated Project Delivery: Part 2

by: Duane Craig - May 12th, 2009   Filed under: Architecture and Design, Industry, Managing, Process 1 Comment

Once you establish that traditional delivery of construction projects may be outmoded, it isn’t too much of a leap to suggest that Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) might be a better alternative. In the previous article we looked at some of the reasons for both of those. Here we take a look at things that work, and don’t work, when it comes to putting the IPD team together.

The participants in the California AIA Council’s “Lessons Learned Symposium” suggested there may be projects where IPD can’t be used effectively. They point out that first of all IPD requires a lot of attention up front, so if the project is supposed to start yesterday, then rushing to include IPD is probably not wise.

The other time when IPD may not work is when key people, or many of the participants, are too immersed in the old ways of delivering projects. Because the old way of building harbors distrust, it is not a good precursor for a system that has to be based upon trust. Interestingly when owners were asked how they build their teams the very first criteria was to determine who they trust. Other steps included:

  • Define and communicate goals
  • Understand all team members’ goals
  • Once the team is assembled, then assign lead people for owner, contractor and designer

The hallmarks an owner should look for in team members largely revolve around attitude. Those involved need to bring enthusiasm for the new process, have a mindset that leans toward collaboration, and be able to find rewards in using an IPD approach.

Of course team members also have to have the requisite skills and technical experience, and some suggest that they should understand not only their work, but the work of the other players. For example an owner might look for a builder who also has a good understanding of design, and an architect that has a good understanding of building. Basically the goal is for all team members to understand what the other members are doing. My reading of that tells me that on a deeper level they should have a good grasp of the process the other team members use to complete their portion of the work. How we work is often as important as what our work is.

The participants also thought that all parties needed to have a very thorough understanding of IPD principles, what its goals are, and what the advantages will be. Those are all included in the paper that describes this symposium.

Finally team members need to understand the other team members’ goals since those will have to be meshed with the project’s goals in order for everyone to be successful.

The money aspect of a project using an IPD approach is perhaps one of the most challenging. In the next installment of this article we’ll look at budget considerations.

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Early Adopters Dissect Their IPD Experiences: Part 1

by: Duane Craig - May 11th, 2009   Filed under: Architecture and Design, Industry, Managing, Process

The American Institute of Architects (AIA), California Council, recently learned and published some valuable lessons from people on the front lines of building. They brought together 32 owners, architects, general contractors and subcontractors who had been involved in delivering projects using alternative methods, including Integrated Project Delivery (IPD). The group then dissected their experiences with these projects to determine if there were commonalities of what worked and what didn’t, and how the processes could be improved.

Right at the beginning it was clear the participants recognized the traditional way of building where each entity involved focused closely on only its own piece, was no longer a good way to go. Reasons listed included:

  • Increasing project complexity
  • Increasingly restrictive building codes
  • More specialized business entities
  • Greater chances of claims and litigation

The group also suggested there were escalating consequences for each player in the building process as long as traditional building practices are followed.

For designers the constant need to adjust design to meet the budget results in inefficiencies and slippage in design intent. For the contractors keeping up with the document flow including change orders and information requests results in inefficiencies and lost productivity in the field. Owners face ending up with a project that is less desirable while having to deal with high risk and unpredictable costs. Then too, everyone involved faces higher risks of financial loss.

The participants also had a lot to say about how IPD can turn much of that around. When owners, contractors and designers form a team with the goal of mutually collaborating to build the best they can build then many of the problems that plague traditional approaches to building are eliminated. Because the collaboration results in great efficiencies the project is delivered on time, and on budget. There is also a higher degree of accountability since the team has to solve the problem and not just the one who is affected by the problem. The other advantages of IPD include:

  • Getting things right the first time
  • Predictable and controlled costs
  • Greater chance of accomplishing all owner goals
  • The flexibility to adjust to and benefit from changing market conditions

The participants also had a lot to say about things that worked and didn’t work when it comes to forming the IPD team, and there will be more about that, right here, tomorrow.

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A Tale of Border Fences and Bridges

by: Duane Craig - May 8th, 2009   Filed under: Architecture and Design, General News

The southern border of the U.S. offers us a paradoxical study in building. While construction of a fence to keep people out is finishing up, a new bridge to let people in nears completion.

The Anzaldaus International Bridge is being heralded as the newest and “one of the largest” international bridges in the country. The press release points out that Hidalgo County, Texas, where the bridge is located, is bracing for a traffic surge and the area is investing millions in street improvements.

Meanwhile the border fence is completed on most of the border where it is going to be. There are a lot of areas where it isn’t going to be because the terrain is considered too rugged for even aspiring immigrants to cross. Border Fence Type The fence is an interesting mix of designs. Besides the one shown here there is a picket style (picture a very, very tall deck railing), and Normandy Vehicle Fencing (steel Xs tied together with more steel) as-well-as Bollard fencing (upright concrete or metal posts). Of course, as many suspected as the debate raged about whether or not to build the thing, it is regularly being breached. In one place in Arizona the steel mesh was cut away and removed so vehicles could pass through, and then it was re-attached so as to appear normal. Those who live along the border claim the fence is largely ineffective.

There is also another paradox related to the border fence. There have been reports that contractors building the fence have either employed, or regularly employ, illegal aliens to do the work. One contractor plead guilty and was fined.

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NBIMS Seeks to Tame the Churning BIM Waters

by: Duane Craig - May 7th, 2009   Filed under: Architecture and Design, Industry, Materials, Process, Products

At first glance Building Information Modeling (BIM) appears to be a sea of churning waters and it’s no wonder. The International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI) brought together 19 countries in an effort to create a single building information model for the entire construction industry, according to this paper by Ian Howell and Bob Batcheler of Newforma. That work was successful and resulted in a draft ISO standard. But because there was a time that lapsed between the idea and the culmination of the IAI draft, others, namely software vendors, started creating their own versions of BIM.

Likewise additional efforts surfaced in other standards organizations like the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and the American Standards Institute (ANSI), to name just two.

Today, Building Smart Alliance, associated with the National Institute of Building Sciences, has the National BIM Standard (NBIMS), of which Howell and Newforma are supporters along with 69 others including architects, the AIA, major home builders, designers, engineers and more. According to the Building Smart Alliance, IAI and other open source alliances have also signed on with the NBIMS. It is advanced by the supporters of the standard that it should spell out, among many other things, the ways and means for all the different software efforts to communicate with one another. The framers of NBIMS also don’t see any problems with the continuing growth of BIM solutions, writing:

Imperfect as it may be, the creation of a National Building Information Model Standard should do nothing to slow the explosive growth of BIMs in the industry, only make them more usable and sustainable and provide the software vendors supporting the facility industry a consistent target for their BIM development efforts.

So while the waters may be churning it appears NBIMS may offer the opportunity to get it all flowing in one direction. And that can surely help more of the promises of BIM to be realized.

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