Affordable Housing Week in Denver is June 1-7

June 1-7, is designed to highlight local programs that support affordable housing in Denver and its surrounding areas. http://www.enterprisecommunity.org/local_work/denver/affordable_housing_week2008.asp
Monday, June 2
10:00 am – 1:00 pm: City of Denver Housing FairWellington Webb Building, 201 West Colfax, DenverDescription: Presented by, City and County of Denver. During this event a variety of affordable housing developers, owners and service providers will be available to talk about housing opportunities in Denver.For more information contact: Stephanie Inderwiesen
Noon – 8:00 pm: Housing Justice! SummitRegis University, DenverDescription: The Housing Justice! Summit will convene 250 interfaith community leaders from around the state, with the goal of building awareness of ways to address the needs of those most vulnerable in all our communities and creating healthier, more balanced and inclusive communities.For more information contact: Jackie Hahn
6:30 pm: Kick Off Reception for Lakewood Poster DisplayCivic Center South, 480 S Allison Parkway, Lakewood Description: Lakewood Housing Authority will be hosting a reception to kick off a photo and poster display featuring Affordable Housing Week poster entries from children living in LHA properties.For more information contact: Sabrina Pierre-Louis
Tuesday, June 3
11:30 am – 1:00pm: The Housing LandscapePPA Event Center, 2105 Decatur Street, Denver Description: Join CHFA and the Division of Housing for a discussion of key topics including: federal funding for affordable housing; green initiatives in affordable housing; foreclosure prevention at the federal, state, and local levels; and CHFA loan product updates. For more information contact: Ryan McMaken
Wednesday, June 4
7:30 am – 9:00 am: Affordable Housing: Best Practices in Urban EnvironmentsMarriott City Center, 1701 California Street, Denver Description: Presented by Downtown Denver Partnership, and the Denver Office of Economic Development, Tony M. Salazar, President of West Coast Operations for McCormick Baron Salazar will be the featured presenter. Salazar has been instrumental in developing over 4,000 homes in mixed-income and mixed use developments in Los Angeles, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Phoenix and San Francisco.For more information contact: Brian Phetteplace
9:00 am – 1:00 pm: Buying HUD Homes – a Tutorial4300 E. Warren Road, Denver Description: Presented by, Denver Board of REALTORS®. Realtors are invited to participate in this special affordable housing HERO class on purchasing HUD homes. Participants will be eligible for three continuing education credit hours. For more information contact: Chantel Babb
1:00 pm – 4:00 pm: HUD Open House1670 Broadway, 25th Floor, Denver Description: Presented by, U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Learn more about HUD’s programs and products and meet the local HUD team at their Open House.For more information contact: Linda Cluck
Thursday, June 5
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm: Hard Hat Site Tour702 Lowell Boulevard, Denver Description: Join Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver for an insider's look at the sustainable building practices and energy-efficient features that are incorporated into every local Habitat home. Habitat homeowners save hundreds of dollars each year in utility costs due to these energy-efficiency upgrades. For more information contact: Robyn Burns
6:30 pm – 9:30 pm: The Denver Project Fundraising PerformanceCurious Theatre, 1080 Acoma Street, DenverDescription: Join Mercy Housing Colorado for a special presentation of the Curious Theatre’s The Denver Project, a rich portrait of those living on the city’s margin that breaks the bounds of traditional theatre, fusing poetry and theatre, politics and choreography. For more information contact: Kurt Kaczor
Friday, June 6
8:00 am – 9:30 am: Housing Stars Awards BreakfastHilton Garden Inn, 1400 Welton Street, Denver Description: Presented by Enterprise, the Housing Stars awards recognize the institutions and individuals who make affordable housing possible in Denver. Award categories include Leader, Volunteer, Resident and Project of the Year. The winner of the annual children’s poster contest is also recognized during this event. For more information contact: Christopher Young
6:00 pm – 8:30 pm: Bowling Tournament “Housing Strikes Back” benefiting Housing Colorado!Falcon Rock and Bowl, 3295 S. Broadway, Englewood Description: Presented by, Housing Old Guys (HOGs) and Dames in Support of Housing (DISHES). Shake the dust off those old bowling shoes, press that bowling shirt that’s been hanging in the closet and feed your inner Big Lebowski by joining in a bowling tournament to raise funds for Housing Colorado! – and have fun in the process! For more information contact: Jim Mercado

There's sustainablilty and durability for you

Archaeologists in Sinai near the Palestinian border have recently let the world know that they have a new find. A 3,000 year old fort made out of mud bricks. Who says masonry isn't a sustainable, durable material? The Egyptians certainly knew their architectural detailing and structural engineering to make their masonry buildings last so long. Here it is 3,000 years later, and the 550 yard by 275 yard fort with 13-foot tall towers is still standing.

It's rainy today, photograph your masonry walls

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.

Time to Sponsor the 5K

It’s time to sign up to sponsor RMMF’s Run Around the Block 5k. Sponsorships range from $2,500 for title sponsor down to $250 for a variety of small categories. This is the big event for getting your company name in front of the public and RMMI members while raising funds for apprentice programs.
Click on www.rmmi.org to link to the sponsorship form. For more info, email info@rmmi.org

Bricklayer500 notices Masons speak Spanish

After all these years, the Spec Mix Bricklayer 500 has finally noticed that some masons and tenders speak Spanish. This year the rules and competition wall drawing is available in Spanish. They are buried a bit on the competition's Web site, but they are accessible at www.smbl500.com/documents/2008_bl500_rules_spanish.pdf and www.smbl500.com/documents/2008_wall_drawing_spanish.pdf

The rules have also been revised for the Bricklayer500 this year, with a new brick deduction formula for quality infractions. The new rules and wall diagram in English are posted at www.specmixbricklayer500.com

The Denver regional Bricklayer500 competition will be Saturday, Sept. 7 at the usual place

New Home Construction on the Rise

The Associated Press is reporting new home construction has increased. Here's part of the story

WASHINGTON - Construction of new homes posted the biggest increase in more than two years in April. While it was a rare spot of good news for the housing market, analysts said it’s far too soon to declare an end to the prolonged slump.
The Commerce Department reported Friday that housing construction rose by 8.2 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.03 million units. Building of single-family homes continued to weaken, however. The growth came from a big jump in apartment construction.
Analysts predicted the surprising rebound in April would be temporary given the headwinds builders are still confronting, from slumping sales to soaring home foreclosures.

A bit of history

Dating back to about 4,000 BC, the first masonry arch of sun-baked brick was constructed in the ancient city of Ur, located in what was then Mesopotamia.
One of the great engineering feats of all time was the stone masonry structure known as Stonehenge. Stretching the concept of “unit” masonry, Britain’s Stonehenge was constructed over 4,000 years ago of 80 bluestones weighing 4 tons each and dozens of giant sarsen stones weighing as much as 50 tons each. Modern studies suggest that at least 600 men were needed to transport just one giant stone from its source to the temple site.
The famous Great Wall of China is possibly the greatest example of masonry’s impact on history. Constructed around 210 BC, it stretched for 1,400 miles and contained 3,873,000,000 brick. Durable and resilient, brick was chosen as the building material for the structure that protected an entire civilization.
As civilization advanced and cities arose, the need for buildings increased. Many cities that built first with lumber learned early on about the tremendous costs of rebuilding. After the great fire of the late 1600s, London rebuilt with brick and stone. Chicago’s great fire also transformed it into a masonry city and strict building codes were enacted, some of which are still on the books today. Denver’s great fire of 1863 had a similar effect. Masonry ordinances requiring that all buildings within the city limits be built of fireproof materials, i.e., brick and stone, remained in place for nearly 80 years.

Flashing (the construction kind, not the illegal kind!)

We like to give generic advice whenever possible but I do have some flashing preferences. Do NOT use any flashing with vinyl in it. The high pH of wet mortar eats holes in vinyl. This eliminates any PVC flashing products from my recommended list. According to Architectural Graphics Standards, mortar is also corrosive to pure aluminum and pure zinc. Alloys with these materials do not seem to have trouble with corrosion. I recommend metal flashings only for the longest lasting buildings (like cathedrals and university buildings). Although the metal flashing is slightly more expensive than flexible flashings, the time required to cut it, fold it and weld it accounts for the real price jump between flexible flashings and metal ones. Flexible bitumen flashings are my personal favorite for Colorado’s climate. The material is cost effective, easy to
work with, long lasting and tolerant of the high pH of mortar. The tar coating will
even self-heal small holes and cracks once the sun comes out and heats the wall.
The manufacturers tell you to peel off the backing and install the flashing sticky-side down on a clean, dry substrate. You must also hold the flashing back 1/2” from the face of the wall so that the sun doesn’t melt the tar and have it drip down the face
of the building. If you want the flashing to continue to the face of the wall, you can either pair the bitumen flashing with a 1” wide galvanized metal drip edge or you can use Hyload flexible flashing, a bitumen-based flexible flashing system that comes with an integral drip edge. Go to their web site at www.hyloadflashing.com to see more.

Masons Build More Habitat

This week we begin work on the second Habitat for Humanity project here in Denver. The first, a tri-plex which was veneered by apprentices, is complete and will be presented to its new owners on May 21. This second project is a duplex and it will be veneered by masons. These Habitat projects really underscore how masonry reduces lifecycle and ownership costs, making it a very important material for inclusion in affordable housing projects as well as sustainable projects of all kinds.

We do Not condone the use of bricks in this Manner

From today's news in Colorado Springs:
"A woman abducted from a Target parking lot by a man who hit her head with a brick, bound her with tape and threw her in the back of her car used a cell phone to alert police."

This is not the appropriate use for a brick.

The New OSHA 10

The world of safety training has changed with the times. Gotta keep the training relevant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOF2AKBV2vI

Protect Your Community

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.

Do I need weep holes or dampproofing for a retaining wall?

You probably need weep holes OR a foundation drain—not both. Weep holes are cheaper but they are also more visible.
If you choose to use weep holes, you need to know that these are not tiny little plastic tubes. They are surprisingly large chunks of PVC pipe—1.5” diameter, minimum. You need to install them at about 6’-0” on center. The tubes should extend about an inch beyond the face of the wall to keep water from drooling down the face of the wall. If you don’t like PVC pipe, you can install metal lamb’s tongue pieces at the face of the wall.
You will need drainage fabric installed on the back side of the weep tube to keep soil from clogging the tube.
You need to install a continuous line of gravel on the back side of the wall at the weep tube elevation. This line of pea gravel is usually about 6” wide and 12” to 18” high.

H2B Problems Spreading

This story from MetroNorth Newspapers takes a look at how Congress' failure to revive the H2B program has impacted many industries.

Fielding a workforce: As growing turns to harvest, labor needs crucial

By Sara Crocker Editor's Note: Today begins the first installment of a four-part series on immigration. While the series is centered on the impacts of illegal immigration in the Adams County region, it will also explore some immigration issues in general. The first part looks at labor, which will be followed by education, health and crime. April 29, 2008 18:10

Each month that goes by, employers at Northglenn-based D&E Steel Services have to turn away about four perspective employees. But D&E is not fully staffed. The applicants are skilled, President Steve Thoutt says. They are hard working, too. What these people can't provide, however, is the proper documentation to prove they are allowed to work in the states. "We're having a tough time finding more workers," said Thoutt, whose company specializes in design, supply, detailing and installation of steel. In January, D&E applied for 10 H-2B workers - a federal program which lets employers hire foreign workers temporarily - but was denied, Thoutt said. Dave Tollefson, president of Thornton-based landscaping company Urban Farmer, said he was approved for the 250 H-2B workers he applied for, though he didn't expect to get them all. Still, when the 66,000-person cap for the program was met, his workers were still in Mexico, he said, and that's where they'll have to stay. Tollefson was able to extend the visas of 100 H-2B workers here for the winter season. Still, he's short 190 people. "That means that we're scrambling right now," he said. It's a fear that most employers who rely on a large, labor-intensive workforce have echoed throughout the region. The problem, they say, is they try - and must prove to the government to use the H-2B program - to hire people living in the area first. Those people can be hard to find because of the kind of work and time commitment these jobs can have, employers said. "We are seasonal employers and the product that we grow requires much hand work and hand harvest," said Dave Petrocco Sr., president of David Petrocco Farms based in Brighton. The third-generation vegetable farmer said the June to September season has always made it hard to find workers. "Secondly, it's work that's out in the fields that requires early hours, late hours and holiday work and much of that is work with the hands," Petrocco said. "So the American workforce to fulfill those type of jobs seasonally is very limited."

You can read the whole story at www.metronorthnews.com

Do-It-Yourselfers hit by Housing Slump

Home Depot has announced plans to close 15 of its stores across the nation, but will keep its other 2,185 stores open. The stores to be closed are in Wisconsin, Ohio, New Jersey, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota and Vermont. The low-performing stores are being shut down as a direct result of the retailer being hurt by the slump in the housing market. In addition the Do-It-Yourselfers' Heaven has announced that it will only open 55 stores this year instead of the planned 100 this year. Apparently, the more homes that are foreclosed, or sitting on the market not being purchased, the less people are buying tools and toys to fix them up. If there was ever a motivation to fix the housing market this may be it. Where would we all be without Saturday trips to cruise the isles at Home Depot?