Sunday 31 May 2015
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Friday 29 May 2015
Access Every MCAA Webinar in 2015 for Free
The Mason Contractors Association of America (MCAA) is offering the 2015 Live Webinar Season, featuring more than 50 free webinars, to all attendees. Topics include workers’ compensation, marketing for mason contractors, I-9s, scaffolding inspection, technology for the job site, and much more.
Visit www.masoncontractors.org/live to view a list of upcoming webinars and register for free.
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- 43By Tim O’Toole When you become a member of the Mason Contractors Association of America (MCAA) before June 30, 2015, you’ll receive a membership package that includes access to CMD Insight for one-year. Find masonry projects in your area faster and easier Use saved searches to effortlessly follow projects Download, export and view plans and…
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January 2014 Education A New Learning Curve How online education is changing the way contractors earn certification credits By Tim O’Toole When it comes to masonry, hands-on training is difficult to replace. But, when it comes to distance learning, the Mason Contractors Association of America (MCAA) is leading the charge. The MCAA offers more than…
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March 2012 President's Message New Beginnings John Smith President Mason Contractors Association of America As I begin my term as president, I would like to start by thanking all of you for the trust you have placed in me to lead this great organization. There have been so many respected individuals who have done a…
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March 2013 From the Editor Trends of the Trade Jennifer Morrell Editor jmorrell@lionhrtpub.com Covering a trade show is a lot of work. You leave everything in your life behind for a week to live out of a suitcase and totally blow your diet with restaurant food. With any luck, you’ll pick up a cold –…
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Thursday 28 May 2015
Extruded Concrete Thin Brick
TEC Products Inc.
Hartland, Wis.
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February 2012 Sustainability The Environmental Attributes of Bricks By Charles B. Clark, Jr. Photo by Jeffrey Totaro Shown is the Cuisinart Center for Culinary Excellence in Rhode Island, which won a Silver Award in the BIA Brick in Architecture Awards competition. Architect was Tsoi/Kobus & Associates; landscape architect was Stephen Stimson Associates; builder was Agostini…
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October 2014 Pavers, Thin Brick and Thin Stone Veneer Veneer Revolution: ThinBrick Panels Thin brick creates attractive brick exteriors without the cost and weight disadvantages of traditional brick masonry. New advances in thin brick panels such as the patented Old Mill Thin Brick System add to the advantages of thin brick, making it more versatile,…
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February 2012 Manufactured Thin Brick Brick 2.0 Choosing manufactured stone thin bricks for your siding needs By Justin Whitman A wide variety of options exists with choosing a siding product. For many, the decision can be difficult. Following is a breakdown to help with the selection process – five factors to consider when choosing a…
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February 2011 Brick Sustainability Moves Forward With Bricks Photo courtesy of National Building Museum While the construction industry hunts for the newest sustainable building materials, an ancient product offers substantial sustainability benefits. Bricks, the oldest building material in existence, can improve a building’s energy efficiency, reduce the environmental impact of building maintenance, and easily reach…
The post Extruded Concrete Thin Brick appeared first on Masonry Magazine.
May 2015 Table of Contents
Table of Contents
May 2015
Volume 54, Number 5
FEATURES
Flashing and Drainage
A failure of the flashing and drainage plane can lead to degradation of many wall components.
Codes and Standards
The Masonry Alliance for Code and Standards is working to develop and submit code changes that will ultimately make buildings and their residents safer.
Saws
A hard-nosed look at what makes the saw industry tick from three experts
COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS
From The Editor
Chairman’s Message
Government Affairs
Business Building
Full Contact Project Management
New Products
Classified Advertising
News
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Flashing and Drainage By Jeremy Douglas The flashing and drainage plane has always been a critical component of any cavity wall system, diverting moisture outward as it collects in the cavity space to the exterior of the façade through the weep openings. A failure in this arrangement can ultimately lead to degradation of wall components…
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Saws By Jennifer Morrell Masonry wanted a hard-nosed look at what makes the saw industry tick, so we went to three experts to get the real scoop on what has changed – and what hasn’t – in the masonry saws industry. David Fernandez is product manager, commercial products, for Makita U.S.A. Inc. Saw industry veteran…
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June 2013 Codes Standards and Reports Building Codes, Industry Standards and Evaluation Reports By Lonnie Haughton Given the complementary roles and functions of building codes, industry standards and product evaluation reports, it is important that all construction professionals understand the appropriate applications for each. Building codes The controlling building codes for most state and local…
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Table of Contents May 2014 Volume 53, Number 5 FEATURES Flashing and Drainage Flashing, something you can see little of on a completed building, can be the difference in how a project turns out. Minimizing Dust on the Job Power equipment manufacturers are working to help mason contractors meet OSHA requirements for silica dust elimination.…
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March 2015 Saw Blades By Jim Cook The thing about blades is that they can always be a little sharper. That’s a maxim the masonry blade industry has taken to heart as it continues to innovate, making blades more versatile, more durable and less expensive to produce. The masonry blade industry has done much to…
The post May 2015 Table of Contents appeared first on Masonry Magazine.
June 2015: Business Building
Does Your Timecard Work for You?
By George Hedley
Designed properly, your timecard can become an invaluable tool to track labor production; field quantities installed; company and rental equipment usage; and materials consumed on the job. After gathering the information available from daily and weekly timecards, you can create a production tracking system to give your field foremen and superintendents updated job cost data, so they will know how well they’re doing every week on their projects. To design an integrated timecard to work for you, get your estimator, project manager, and foreman together to determine which work task cost codes you want to track.
When you bid a job, the estimator calculates exact quantities of work for each part of your scope of work. Your timecard cost code categories, therefore, must match how you estimate and bid, in order to keep track and know actual hours required for different parts of the job. By having the codes match the timecard, he can calculate the number of hours required to perform each task after project completion. He can see if his production rates are accurate and match how he prices future projects.
Before the job starts, the estimator should get together with the project manager and foreman to review the bid and quantities allocated to perform the entire job. The foreman then will have a budget in mind. To track how well the crew is doing versus the job estimate and budget, make sure your foreman records the quantities installed every week as noted on the timecard. This way, the foreman and project manager can review the progress weekly to see if they are staying on budget.
Estimators also calculate the number of equipment hours required to build projects. The timecard can be used efficiently to track company equipment and rental equipment usage. Set up your timecard to include a listing of all of your equipment. Have the foreman record which equipment is used on the daily timecard. Your accounting manager can then job charge your equipment weekly to the correct jobs, based on where it was used. At the end of the job, you can then review the estimate of equipment versus the actual hours spent on the projects. Your foreman and project manager can monitor the budget versus actual for equipment, if given an update every week of these numbers.
You also can design your timecard to track the materials used weekly on the jobsite. Have the foreman record what materials were installed or delivered to the job.
At the end of each weekly pay period, add the number of hours spent in each cost code work item, and compare it to the job budget. Review these numbers with your field foreman Monday morning to make sure he knows where they are and what they have to do to keep the job on budget. Your estimator is the best person to prepare this weekly recap as he clearly understands the cost codes and job budgets. Plus, he will be the first to discover if his estimate is correct or there are job cost overruns.
Knowing where you are is easy, if you setup your timecard properly. Have your foreman turn in every field employee’s timecard daily to maintain accuracy. Keep your costs updated every week and make sure your foreman knows if his job is on budget or not. This will help you make more money. To get a working copy of the Weekly Field Progress Tracking Report, email gh@hardhatpresentations.com.
George Hedley works with contractors to build profitable growing companies. He is a professional business coach, popular speaker and best-selling author of “Get Your Business to Work!” available online at www.HardhatPresentations.com. To sign up for his free e-newsletter, join his next webinar, be part of a BIZCOACH program, or get a $100 discount coupon for online classes at www.HardhatBizSchool.com, email GH@HardhatPresentations.com.
George Hedley, HARDHAT Presentations, 800-851-8553
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How to Set and Track Project Goals By George Hedley To achieve or beat construction project goals, your field crew and team leaders must know what you want them to accomplish. Implementing a winning strategy starts with a scoreboard showing all of the tasks, milestones, and measurable targets you want them to hit. Next you…
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June 2010 Business Building What Do Leaders Do? By George Hedley On the jobsite, your crew hits an underground water line not shown on the plans. With water now spraying over excavated and open footings, should you wait for a signed change order to fix the broken line, or take immediate steps to mitigate the…
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The post June 2015: Business Building appeared first on Masonry Magazine.
Wednesday 27 May 2015
Brick Matching 101
MORTARS, MIXTURES AND STAINING
By Don Foster
A poor match is always a bad compromise.
When repairing or adding to a masonry structure, we usually want the new area, wall, extension or wing to look just like the pre-existing masonry.
Matching colors and textures is one way to make any set of structures appear to “belong together.” A house and a garage, a church and a rectory, or a set of buildings on a university campus give visual evidence of their relationship, when they obviously are made of the same materials in the same color. When two or more buildings have the same natural-looking masonry façade, they appear particularly substantial and unified.
This unity is destroyed when a repair is made, or a new wall, wing or building is added using masonry that does not match. Sometimes a customer on a budget may reluctantly accept a small mismatched repair that scars the structure and reduces the value of the property. But for large projects like a new wing for the hospital or a new science building on campus, the customer should never feel the need to build or expand without masonry because the new brick would not match the old. To get the job done right, you will need to know how to match brick.
Rule No. 1: Find the brick
Begin your search as early as possible. The earlier you start, the more options you’ll have, and the greater your chances of achieving the best result.
Shown is a result of poor planning. The wrong colors and textures were chosen.
Find out whether the original brick still are being made today, and, if so, whether they are still made at the same plant. From time to time, a brick manufacturer will stop making a popular type of brick (perhaps because of a plant closing), and then try to keep sales up by making that brick at another facility and giving it the same name. Unfortunately, the change in facilities means that the raw materials, machinery and manufacturing processes also may change. As a result, the new brick may not look like the old, and may make a poor match for a project.
Even a brick made at the same facility and given the same name may look different. Brick manufacturing involves many variables, any one of which can change the color or texture of the finished product. Beware of relatively small differences that may become noticeable, once the wall is built.
Keep all this in mind when trying to find the right brick for a project. The best way to know whether your tentative choice is a good match is to get a current sample that represents the complete range of color, size and texture. If possible, build a 40- to 100-brick panel, laid in mortar, so the proper percentages of the various colors of the brick range will be represented.
Compare the panel to the wall you are trying to match. Keep in mind that the mortar color also needs to match as it can represent a significant portion of the wall (e.g., 18 percent to 20 percent of a modular-sized brick wall), and will have a sizeable effect on the apparent color of the brick.
Rule No. 2: Blend two or more types of brick to match the range of the original wall
Sometimes a single type of brick will not give you the full range of colors needed to match the original wall. In this situation, try blending two or more types of brick that work together to give you the range you need.
Creating a blend like this requires careful thought. In addition to matching the colors and the proportions of colors in the original wall, you must assure that your new set of brick types will all work together. Check the face height, length and bed depth, and the technical standards for each (e.g., ASTM C-216 FBS, FBX or FBA).
This is a perfect example of a blend that would be difficult for a manufacturer to repeat.
When searching, your first choice should be to find a complete set of brick of all types needed that can be made by a single manufacturer at a single plant. Your second choice should be a set made by a single manufacturer at more than one of its plants. If still unsuccessful, your last choice should be to blend brick made by more than one manufacturer. When working with more than one manufacturer, coordination and logistics will be complicated. One approach is to ask if your brick distributor would be willing to blend the brick on pallets at his location before delivering to the project.
Matching sizes is essential for an attractive blend. The mason has a difficult job laying brick when the face heights and lengths of the brick are not compatible. The new wall can look irregular and sloppy, and at times will not line up to the existing wall.
These bricks absorb water and darken. They are good candidates for stain.
Color also is essential and must be right in three ways.
- First, each color that is a part of the blend must be right. For example, if you have a four-way color blend, and three colors match but the fourth does not, you will find that you will still have a poor match that will be obvious even to a casual observer. The wrong color, even in a brick that makes up as little as 20 percent of the overall blend, can create a noticeable difference.
- Second, each color must make up the right percentage of the wall. If the original wall consisted of 40 percent dark red, 30 percent light red, 20 percent orange and 10 percent brown, then the new wall must include those same percentages of each color.
- Third, the colors must be arranged so as to mirror the way they are spaced and placed in the original wall. If the orange bricks in the original wall never touch each other, but the orange bricks in the new wall are often clumped together in groups, the mismatch will be obvious.
The goal is to mirror the original wall in every possible way. The work requires careful attention to detail, but the results are well worth the effort.
Rule No. 3: Stain when needed to improve the match
When stain can help
Although beginning early and conducting a thorough search will greatly increase your chances of finding a brick match, sometimes the brick is simply unavailable. At other times, you may decide that complex blending is impractical for a particular job. When that happens, look for brick that are the same size and texture, and as close as possible to the original wall in color. The closer you get in color, the less staining you’ll have to do. Less staining means lower costs and a simplified color-matching process for a better chance of a more precise match.
Just a few years after the application of a masonry stain that was not proven.
Also assure that the brick are good candidates for staining. All you have to do is assure that the surface is absorbent. A simple water test is all that is needed. Pour some water on the wall. If it absorbs some of the water and darkens temporarily, as illustrated, then you can incorporate proven masonry staining into your planning, adding a stain contractor to your team.
Using a proven masonry stain system has many advantages. One is that the product will never hurt the brick or masonry to which it is applied. Another is that it is applied artistically with a brush, one brick at a time, to maximize absorption into the masonry face.
Product to WatchFast-Set Large Tile Mortar |
 Large-format tile has become a popular choice for commercial floor and wall installations.Because it requires fewer grout lines than smaller tile, large-format tile visually expands rooms and produces a neater, more modern appearance. TEC Fast Set Ultimate Large Tile Mortar helps installers meet requirements to fully realize the advantages of this product type.For successful large-format tile installations, setting materials must have not only good bond strength, but also non-sag capabilities for walls and non-slump traits for floors. It also is important to use materials with high resistance to shock and impact, and compressive strength to support the heavy tile. TEC developed Fast Set Ultimate Large Tile Mortar specifically to meet the numerous unique requirements of large-format tile.TEC Fast Set Ultimate Large Tile Mortar is a polymer-modified, full-contact mortar that is ideal for installing ceramic, porcelain and natural stone tile. It is ideal for use as a medium-bed mortar for heavy and large-format tile in both interior and exterior applications. It also can be used in standard thin-set applications. It has non-sag and non-slump characteristics, making it appropriate for wall and floor applications. This product can be used over a wide variety of substrates, including cured concrete, cured mortar beds, brick and masonry, plywood, and uncoupling membranes.This product is designed for efficiency. As with any tile installation, full and complete coverage of large-format tile provides a strong bond and minimizes the likelihood of damage from impact or heavy loads. TEC Fast Set Ultimate Large Tile Mortar offers superior transfer, helping installers achieve full coverage with minimum effort. When used as a medium-bed mortar, it significantly reduces the need for time-consuming back buttering. Part of the TEC Same-Day Installation System, this product cures quickly. After installing tile with TEC Fast Set Ultimate Large Tile Mortar, installers can grout in just three to four hours.When troweling mortar onto a substrate for a large-format tile installation, it is important to keep the mortar surface in a wet, tacky state and not to skin it over before the tile is set. Despite its rapid cure time, TEC Fast Set Ultimate Large Tile Mortar provides an extended open time of about 30 to 40 minutes for ease of use. It mixes a smooth, creamy consistency for superior handling.TEC Fast Set Ultimate Large Tile Mortar passed rigorous ASTM C627 Robinson floor testing, which means it can be specified for heavy commercial environments. During testing, the tile assembly withstood 450 rotations of three steel wheels bearing a load of 250 pounds each without any damage. With these test results, installers know that TEC Fast Set Ultimate Large Tile Mortar can withstand the rigor of demanding environments.
TEC Fast Set Ultimate Large Tile Mortar contains 5 percent pre-consumer recycled material in the gray formula and 5 percent post-consumer recycled material in the white formula. It is a zero-VOC product and exceeds ANSI A118.4 and A118.11 shear bond specifications. TEC is offered by H.B. Fuller Construction Products Inc. For more information, visit www.hbfuller-cp.com. |
Still another advantage comes from the fact that the stain is translucent. As a result, you can change color, while retaining the natural variations in tone that give brick a natural look. In fact, instead of coating the brick with a single color, the stain actually mixes with the pre-existing colors within the surface to produce the outcome you want.
For example, to make a red brick orange, you do not cover it with an orange coating as you would with a paint or paint-like product. Instead, you add some yellow. Once the yellow is absorbed into the surface and dries, it blends with the pre-existing red color of the brick and creates a new, orange-colored brick.
Then there is placement. The stain specialist can choose the number or percentage of brick to change, what colors to use, and most important, which brick in which positions in the wall will be stained. Every element of the process is under control, which is why it can be so successful in mirroring every aspect of a wall.
Choosing a proven masonry stain system
When choosing a stain system, beware of those using latex or acrylics. They may start peeling, fading, cracking or blistering in only a few years, and are difficult to remove from brick and mortar when they need to be reapplied. Do not take a great product like brick and make it a maintenance nightmare, scarred with an unproven masonry system. As a rule, never put a product on a brick that can hurt a brick.
A proven masonry stain system:
- Bonds and penetrates into the masonry surface
- Never peels, cracks, fades or blisters
- Is not an acrylic paint
- Has been laboratory tested to weather 40-plus years, to not seal masonry, and to not fail in freeze/thaw cycles
- Is translucent, allowing for natural color variations
- Leaves no shine when wet or sunny
- Is applied with a brush for maximum absorption
- Comes with a resumé of at least 10 jobs that have lasted 15 years or more in a severe weather market and that are available for public inspection.
- Working with your stain contractor
Here’s a paint-like product applied less than two years earlier. Note the blisters formed in the coating, and the single-tone color. Even the mortar has a paint-like product on it. These are not proven masonry stains.
In a short few hours, your stain contractor’s specialists can represent their work on a 40- to 100-brick test panel. Whether it is a taped-off portion of an existing fully cured wall or a temporary field panel built with mortar, the test panel displays the precise colors planned for the project and the way in which they are to be arranged. The customer and the architect can control the color range and other details, including the cost of the job. If the test panel shows that the mortar is not a good match, it can be stained as well.
In the blue-taped area is an example of how a staining sample can be represented or viewed for approval by the owner.
Once the test panel is approved, the stain contractor can easily expand the sample panel throughout the project for a successful completion.
Summary
To get a brick match, start planning early to find the brick or blend a combination of brick. If you cannot find brick that match, find brick that match in size and texture, and then get as close as you can in color. Then, use a proven masonry stain system to bring the color even closer. Satisfy your customers; simplify your life. Make it match, every time.
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| Here, the same test panel is in the process of being stained. This process is very flexible and allows for input from the owner and the architect. | Here is a donor brick that was chosen for its size and texture to be stained per the architect’s instructions. |
Don Foster is founder and VP of Masonry Cosmetics Inc. He has experience with every aspect of brick manufacturing and sales, and has been staining masonry for over 20 years. Contact Don at Brickmen@gmail.com or 888-698-8705. Visit Masonrycosmetics.com for more information.
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