The White House is made of Masonry

So, John Edwards is dropping out of the Democratic race, and it's down to Clinton or Obama. On the Republican side, Giuliani dropped out and John McCain is plowing ahead, with several others still in contention.
I wonder what a political race in the construction field would look like?
On one side, Masonry. On the other, wood. With Steel and Tilt-up running as a third party candidate. The issues in the race - character and quality, sustainability, economics and lifecycle costs. Not doubt there might be some negative campaigning, construction is messy. Early polls, based on looking around any community, would show the people prefer Masony when it counts - city hall, fire station, library, bank, executive homes, safe apartment buildings. And in the final vote, Wood and steel would both go down in flames, while tilt-up tipped over. The clear winner, Masonry.
The White House has a unique and fascinating history. It survived a fire at the hands of the British in 1814 (during the war of 1812) and another fire in the West Wing in 1929, while Herbert Hoover was President. Nonetheless, the exterior stone walls are those first put in place when the White House was constructed two centuries ago.

Raise the bar, not lower it

There's a bill in the Colorado Legislature which would allow cities and counties in Colorado to impose rent controls. At a time when the housing market is already desperately challenged, it does not make sense to impose rent controls, which have repeatedly been shown to result in property owners not maintaining their rental units or converting them to condos and getting out of the rental market.
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_8104624

It would make more sense to have local governments step up to the plate and require the buildings in their communities be constructed of masonry, which would reduce maintenance costs for property owners and improve the quality of the buildings in the entire community. What elected official in their right mind would say "I want decaying buildings in my town" instead of "Let's give the residents the quality they deserve."

Blowing in the wind

We thought we were going to be happy to show you the HGTV Green Home project, until we saw that it is encouraging people to use Fiber Cement siding for their homes. Fiber Cement siding has a number of flaws, not the least of which is its inability to withstand wind-blown objects. http://www.hgtvpro.com/hpro/pac_ctnt/text/0,2595,HPRO_20196_64689,00.html?xp=1
Watch for yourself as a 2x4 is blasted through Fiber Cement siding in this test conducted by the Brick Industry of America: http://www.bia.org/html/sheltervideos/Series%202%20Impact%201.mov
The study, conducted at the Wind Science and Engineering Research Center at Texas Tech University, demonstrated that a medium-sized wind-blown object, such as a 7.5-foot long 2 x 4, would penetrate homes built with vinyl or fiber-cement siding at a speed of 25 miles per hour (mph). By comparison, the same object would need to travel at a speed exceeding 80 mph in order to penetrate the wall of a brick home
In a test that simulated wind-blown debris traveling at a speed of 34 mph, the 2 x 4 bounced off the brick veneer with no damage to the interior wall. When the same test was conducted on a vinyl or fiber-cement sided wall, the 2 x 4 easily penetrated the wall, with more than five feet of the timber passing through the interior wall. The test was representative of weather that would generate wind speeds of between 100 and 140 mph.
Now watch the same test when the 2x4 is launched against brick:
http://www.bia.org/html/sheltervideos/Series%201%20Impact%201.mov

How do I know when my building needs repair?

Masonry walls are amazingly resistant to the ravages of time. They do not fade, rust, rot or burn. Brick walls never need repainting, although concrete block ones
need to have the water repellent coating renewed from time to time. The number one enemy of masonry in Colorado is water, coupled with our climate where the temperature often drops below freezing. When water freezes, it expands 9%. This expansion can crack even the sturdiest construction. We have over 150 freeze-thaw cycles a year in Denver. If a brick is saturated when the temperature dips below 32 degrees, this expansion causes hairline cracks that can lead to more significant problems down the road. My best advice is to keep your masonry dry. Make sure the gutters and downspouts are repaired so they can quickly flush water away from the wall. Verify that the parapet caps and the window sills are firm and tight and shed water well. The National Trust for Historic Preservation suggests that you take photographs of your building once a year--about 2 to 4 hours after a rain storm.
These annual photographs will let you compare the condition of the building from year to year. If you see any puddles at the base of the building it means that you should re-grade your landscaping or re-slope the sidewalk. If you see big wet patches on the wall, this indicates that water is getting into the wall instead of being shed away. This greatly increases the likelihood that your wall will be wet one night when it freezes. You are likely to see these wet spots under window sills, under parapet caps and behind downspouts. If you suspect that the joints in a particular area of the wall are damaged, take a key and run it along a horizontal mortar joint, pressing firmly. If little flakes of white mortar pop off the wall, your mortar joints probably need repointing. You do not have to repoint the entire wall—just the damaged portion.

Baby it's Cold outside

The temperature is 8-degrees, and it's dropping. My hand stuck briefly to my car's metal door handle when I was returning from an appointment an hour ago. It is coooooold in the Rocky Mountains today. Yesterday, it was 46-degrees. Tomorrow it is supposed to be in the 30's after a night in sub-zero temps. If ever there was proof that the Rocky Mountain region has more freeze-thaw cycles than anywere in the nation, except Taos, N.M., this week is it. We average about 150 freeze-thaw cycles in the Rocky Mountain region, which is why the mortar mixes and some masonry and design detailing techniques have to be different here than in any other region of the country. The rules we play by are just a bit different. Too bad people can't be custom-designed to survive the freeze-thaw cycles as well. Then again, maybe we are. I've heard people in the Rockies are much more laid back and flexible than their counterparts on either coast.

Wish they would make up their minds

Economic predictions are just that, predictions. But conflicting predictions are just annoying. Realtors are predicting that Colorado's residential market is recovering and about to Boom. Builders are saying that the market fell 25% in the past year and will continue to decline. Economists are saying Colorado is in much better shape than the rest of the nation.
Kinda sounds like that retirement commercial where they liken predicting retirement funding to a weather forecast that says it might be hot, rainy, hurricanes or a blizzard - dress accordingly.

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_7995172 builders 25% decline

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_7991798 realtors see housing boom

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_7991790 Colorado could avoid recession

Masonry Videos

Sometimes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i577mPKh1ck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXgvWGv_mlA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9056Qeh044

Masonry Ordinances Protect Communities Across the Country

Brick Helps Maintain Quality Construction in High-Growth Areas
"A builder only owns a home as long as it takes to sell it. A buyer may own the home for 5-7 years. But our community owns the home forever. No one has a greater stake in the quality of what's built in our city than we do." -- City Planner, Aurora, Colorado
Some call it new urbanism. Some call it green building, and others call it just plain smart. However it's termed, communities throughout America (and Colorado) are enacting masonry ordinances to combat substandard construction and manage the quality of new development. Local governments favor masonry standards because they provide a tangible way to guarantee the durability, safety and curb appeal of new buildings in their communities. Masonry guidelines ensure that new homes and schools are built to last and to require little or no exterior maintenance. Masonry guidelines guarantee that apartments and town homes are built to resist fire, hail and wind. And last but not least, masonry requirements leave plenty of room for individual - expression and design choices.
Citizens like the standards, too, because they are an insurance policy of sorts on the future direction of their neighborhood or community. Well-built homes and commercial buildings retain their value and add to the prestige of the community, and that translates into safer, more desirable neighborhoods and higher resale values for homeowners.

The legislature is in session in Colorado. There was a time, not to long ago, when that meant that no voter's pocketbook was safe. People once joked - the legislature is in session, lock up your daughters and your bank accounts! Not quite so bad anymore. Sen. Peter Groff, Rep. Andrew Romanoff and Gov. Ritter are all working to insure children and improve business in the state.
Here's the Gov's State of the State speech:
http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1188376829848&pagename=GovRitter%2FGOVRLayout
It's easy to keep track of what the legislators are doing at:
http://www.leg.state.co.us/
Here's the Speaker of the House, Rep. Andrew Romanoff's blog
http://www.andrewromanoff.blogspot.com/
Senate President Sen. Peter Groff does not appear to have a bloag, but here are blogs about him:
http://wordpress.com/tag/sen-peter-groff/

What happens in Vegas Won't stay in Vegas

Want to see how fast our masons are?
Don't miss RMMI Member Ray McDermott as he competes in the national Spec Mix Bricklayer 500 Competition in Las Vegas on January 23. This is a return engagement for this star mason. Also making a return engagement as a Judge for the Bricklayer 500 will be newly-elected RMMI board member Jim Serowski. www.specmixbricklayer500.com

Woes for developers and homeowners

Keeping in line with yesterday's post, it appears more builders are in trouble with residential development. This article from the Denver Post outlines KB's difficulties and 4th Quarter losses:
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_7911586
Last week MetroNorth Newspapers ran an article outlining forclosure rates in the Denver area, in which Adams County Clerk and Recorder Carol Snyder was quoted as saying she doesn't think foreclosures will be under control until 2010. http://www.metronorthnews.com.
Sounds like this is a really bad time for me to have to sell my house. Anybody looking for a 4 bedroom, 3 bath home in Westmnster? $280,000 firm.

We're out there

Well, the press release went out Friday announcing this blog. Welcome to any and all who are first-time readers as a result. We're looking forward to your comments and participation in the dialog.
We all know the residential market is down, but some of the news these days is starting to get downright scary. Consider this article from cnnmoney.com:
In another sign of the collapse of the market for new homes, builder Lennar Corp. has dumped a portfolio of 11,000 properties for 40 percent of their previously-stated book value.
Lennar announced the deal late Friday as its fiscal fourth quarter came to a close. It is selling the properties for $525 million, even though it said their book value as of Sept. 30 stood at $1.3 billion.
Here's the link to the full article:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/12/03/news/companies/lennar_morganstanley/index.htm?postversion=2007120314
It's a good thing the commercial construction markets are still going strong.
The debate has been lively about whether or not we're headed for an 80's-style recession. The topic even snuck into the Facebook-ABC Presidential Debates on Saturday. I really enjoyed the debates, and consider the top line of the night being Gov. Richardson's observation that he'd been involved in hostage negotiations that were friendlier than the debate was.
There's a link to the One Night Two Parties debate on the ABC site:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/

HGTV Giving Away Green Home

HGTV will be giving away a green home this spring - see the link! Too bad it's in South Carolina, instead of here in the beautiful Rocky Mountains, but, hey - free is free and green is green! Sustainable construction is one of our favorite topics - Did you know there are up to 62 LEED points you can get from construction with Masonry? Yep. It is a renewable, recycleable material manufactured locally (depending upon where you are, of course).

Denver residents don't want tilt-up

There was a letter posted on the Denver Post Web site yesterday where the writer states that he does not like the concrete slab walls in the Art Museum Project and does not want them for the Civic Center project. Our Technical Director agrees. The walls in front of the old museum (the Gio Ponti building) are cast-in-place concrete or tilt-up. Masonry offers a much more aesthetic feature to architecture than does tilt-up, and at the same cost. For the same dollars, why not use the more attractive material? Masonry has smaller modules and breaks up the visual surface of the wall. It does not have such a monolithic, brutal appearance at the pedestrian level.

Masons and their Toys

On Dec. 8, the Rocky Mountain Masonry Institute held a friendly competition to see which company could donate the most toys for the US Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program. Participants were competing for bragging rights only. MSE Structures, a masonry and retaining wall construction company specializing in commercial, industrial, highway and government projects up to $5,000,000, out-donated 30 other companies in the tightly fought competition.