Masonry Magazine October 2011 Page. 48
INDUSTRY NEWS
Grant Masonry Contracting
Supports St. Louis
Children's Hospital
Grant Masonry Contracting was one of the 32 local companies that participated in the recently concluded KIDstruction Week campaign. Field and office staff contributed more than $1,000 to help fund programs and services at St. Louis Children's Hospital.
Grant Contracting Co. is a St. Louis-based Certified Mason Contractor that has provided masonry craftsmanship for 60 years.
Masonry Buildings Perform
Well in Earthquake
Reinforced masonry structures performed well during the recent earthquake, particularly considering that most of the buildings were not designed for a 5.8 earthquake.
"This real world experience supports recent testing done on the behavior of properly designed masonry buildings," says David Sovinski, national director of technical service for the International Masonry Institute. "When you apply research from the laboratory to proper training for craftworkers and contractors, you have an unbeatable combination; well-designed buildings that are built according to that design. This improves our public safety and the value of our infrastructure."
The Aug. 23 earthquake centered in Mineral, Va., illustrates some common facts and fallacies about building design and construction. Structural engineers excel at designing structures to handle predictable forces on a building, those coming from the weight of the building itself, the loads from the occupants, and environmental loads.
"Since the building stock on the East Coast was not necessarily built with earthquakes in mind, it is gratifying to see how well the masonry buildings performed," continues Sovinski. "The more massive buildings naturally perform better, and the newer, reinforced buildings withstood the earthquake as well. Combining good design with good craftsmanship is critical. At IMI, we have a special program of Grout Certification for craftworkers, and a Structural Masonry Certificate Program for contractors, which enables members of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, and their contractors to build to the highest standards of design."
What is less simple are the occasional, harder to predict seismic loads from earthquakes. These operate primarily from side to side, with the force and energy coming in waves. As one wave moves the building to the side, it will continue moving, due to inertia, briefly, until it then begins to return to its original position. As the ground shifts, the building will continue to sway back and forth, occasionally resulting in damage or failure.
A common solution for structural engineers is to stiffen or provide enough ductility for the building to resist anticipated drift back and forth from the seismic loads. A cost-effective solution is reinforced masonry, combining the strengths of masonry and steel to provide a building system that can withstand seismic and other building loads.
Q. Why don't we just use west
coast building codes in the
east coast?
A. This is a common fallacy. Actually national model codes use Seismic Design Categories (SDC) in determining requirements for buildings. The SDC takes into account several factors, including earthquake potential, soil types, and the type of building-for example, hospitals may have additional requirements than perhaps a corner carry-out.
Tayler Receives Harry E. Ebright Award
Garth Tayler, technical director at Acme Brick Co., received the Harry E. Ebright Award at the recent South West Section (SWACerS) meeting of the American Ceramic Society (ACerS), in June. The Ebright Award was given to him in recognition of his outstanding services to the South West Section of ACerS.
Tayler has worked for two major brick companies in South Africa, Corobrik and Cullinan Brick, spending 20 years with the former, working his way up to regional production manager. He then joined Cullinan Brick as technical manager, eventually becoming business development manager and, later, CEO of that company. IMAS