Masonry Magazine April 2005 Page. 60
News
Intuit Study continued from page 56 in business. Residential contractors average nearly 15 years, while subcontractors average nearly 18 years.
• Retirement planning: A total of 67% of respondents have no exit strategy in place, although 60% of contractors in business for more than 10 years do.
Successors: Of those respondents with exit strategies, 38% would sell or give their company to family members.
Business outlook
• The economy: 72% see interest rates and the economy as the key factors driving construction industry growth.
Decipher Inc., an independent, full-service market research firm, conducted the Intuit Construction Business Solutions Study from Oct. 14 through Nov. 20, 2004. A sample of 500 residential and commercial contractors and subcontractors accessed the survey via Decipher's online CATI system.
OSHA Unveils Hearing Conservation Web Site
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) unveiled a new web page designed to help prevent occupational hearing loss. The "Noise and Hearing Conservation" eTool (www.osha.gov/dts/osta/otm/noise) is a joint product of OSHA's Alliance with the National Hearing Conservation Association.
"This new tool offers practical information to help eliminate hearing loss for millions of workers who are exposed to high noise levels on the job," says Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, Jonathan L. Snare. "We are fortunate to have worked closely with industry experts in order to provide this information to those who need it most."
Noise is one of the most common health problems in American workplaces. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) estimates that 30 million workers in the US. are exposed to hazardous noise. Exposure to high levels of noise may cause hearing loss, create physical and psychological stress, reduce productivity, interfere with communication, and contribute to accidents and injuries by making it difficult to hear warning signals.
The new eTool features information on what is considered occupational noise and its potential health affects. It also provides detailed guidance on how to properly evaluate noise exposure and what constitutes an effective hearing conservation program.
The site also references OSHA noise exposure standards and employer responsibilities. OSHA requires employers to determine if workers are exposed to excessive noise in the workplace. If so, the employers must implement feasible engineering or administrative controls to eliminate OSHA continued on page 60
Are Your Blocklayers Standing Around?
MASONRY NEWS CONTRACTOR TIP
We've all seen it. There's a better way that saves both time and money. Let's say your crew is scheduled to top out a run at 2 p.m. So, you call the ready mix company ahead of time to make sure grout is delivered precisely at that time. But, the grout doesn't show up on time. (Has this ever happened to you? It has to us.) What is it costing you to have employees wait on grout? If we really put a pencil to it, the cost is enormous at best. And, it's all because we can't completely control the delivery on our job site.
When it is time to grout, we have two options. One is to move to another run while laborers grout. But to do this, there are costs to consider. When a crew moves from one wall to another it is almost like starting a new day. We lose valuable time relocating trowels, levels, mortarboards and, most importantly, people.
The second option is to have grout available so employees can grout and continue on up the wall. The only problem there is controlling the time the grout is available, which is not always so easy when depending on a delivery truck.
At Lang Masonry we like to grout right while we are going up the wall. If the run is scheduled to be topped out at 2 p.m, we have a laborer mixing grout at 1:45. As soon as the last course is laid, we can grout while our bricklayers are building leads and striking over the wall. Then we continue right on up the wall. There's no stopping and relocating people that way. It works great for us.
We have recently been awarded a job that requires 900 yards of grout. We will be mixing virtually all the grout on site. By mixing on site, we estimate we'll have $45 per yard in grout material. This is a savings of $40 per yard on material. That's $36,000 in savings on the cost of the grout on this one job! Not to mention we are in control of the timing, so we will have grout at the precise time we need it, instead of counting on someone else to show up on time.
How do we plan to do this efficiently without adding labor hours to the project? First, we will use a 20-cubic-foot mortar mixer that can mix three-fourths of a yard of grout at one time. We load this mixer with sand and pea gravel by using a skid steer loader and a bucket that measures the amount of material being put in the mixer for consistent PSI breaks. (This can be done with a bucket on a forklift as well.) One laborer can mix three-fourths of a yard in five minutes! Then, we dump the grout into a Grout Hog to deliver it to the wall and down the cores. By the time the Grout Hog gets back to the mixer, the laborer will have another batch of grout mixed and ready to go. We grout the run in minutes, and the men continue right on up the wall.
Try this on your job site. I think you will be amazed at the time and money your employees can save by controlling the wait time on your job.
Provided by Damian Lang, President of Lang Masonry Contractors, Inc. and EZ Grout Corp.
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58 Masonry
April 2005
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