Bilco Company Celebrates 85 Years
The Bilco Company is pleased to announce that it has marked 85 years of service to the building industry. A third-generation family-owned company, Bilco is widely known for designing and manufacturing high-quality specialty access products for residential and commercial construction markets.
What began as a neighborhood iron shop in 1926, when George W. Lyons, Sr. started The Builders Iron Company in New Haven, Connecticut, now has grown into an ISO 9001-certi# ed company with more than 200 employees, multiple manufacturing facilities, and worldwide sales and distribution.
The spirit of innovation was at the heart of Bilco’s initial success when Lyons, Sr. introduced the first metal basement door to the market. After World War II, Lyons’ five sons joined the business and the product line was soon expanded to include commercial roof hatches, floor doors, and automatic fire vents, many of which featured patented designs. Now managed by the third generation of the Lyons family, the company continues to build on the innovative spirit of its founder. Among its accomplishments, the current management team has added emergency egress window wells to the residential product line, expanded sales and distribution to markets worldwide, and implemented LEAN manufacturing principles to eliminate waste, lower costs, and optimize productivity throughout the organization. “Over these 85 years, Bilco has continuously improved existing products and designed new products that operate safely and easily to exceed customer expectations,” said Robert Lyons, Jr., President of The Bilco Company. “We have been successful in growing the business by being responsive to our domestic customers and by expanding our presence in international markets.”
With headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut, Bilco now has manufacturing facilities in Trumann, Arkansas, and Zanesville, Ohio, and international sales offices in Canada, Mexico, China, and the UK. In addition, the company has established a network of dealers, distributors, and sales representatives to serve the building industry worldwide. “As we look toward the future, Bilco will strive to develop new products to satisfy the ever changing needs of our customers and continue to expand domestic and international markets by applying the high-quality product standards and innovative thinking passed down by my grandfather,” added Lyons, Jr.
CFA Loses Member Dana Pelletier
Dana Gerard Pelletier, 62, of 5 Rollingreen Rd. Greenville, SC., died unexpectedly Sunday, February 6, 2011 of natural causes. He was the owner and founder of Action Concrete Contractors Inc. Mr. Pelletier is survived by his loving wife, Libby Childers; his mother-in-law, Lib Childers of Rock Hill, SC; two sons, William Dana and wife Mollie, Dustin Thomas and wife Tabatha; two daughters, Danielle Maxine Pelletier-Thomas all of Greenville and Caroline Elizabeth of Sneads Ferry, NC; eight grandchildren, Skylar Norris, Ansley ! omas, William, Amelia, Rylan, Henri, Lillian, and Avery Pelletier; one brother Renaud Pelletier of Vancouver, WA; three sisters, Sister Annette Marie Pelletier, IHM of Annendale VA, Regina Foster and Celeste Leonardo, both of Clearwater FL; and his two beloved Schnauzers, Jack and Jill.
Funeral services were held February 11, 2011.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to The Thornwell Home for Children, 302 South Broad Street, Clinton, SC 29325 or The Wounded Warrior Project, 7020 AC Skinner Pkwy, Suite 100, Jacksonville, FL 32256.
THE UN-COMFORT ZONE
This month we feature another article by the talented author, Robert Wilson. Writer of The Un-comfort Zone, Mr. Wilson is always able to convey a message of focus, growth and sensibility that can be applied to each of our businesses. What is your company doing to educate key individuals? What steps is your company taking to educate all personnel?
World of Concrete has come and gone once again. The CFA Annual Convention for 2011 is nearly upon us and the CFA is looking ahead to the next fiscal year. There are a great many opportunities for you to make a difference in your company through education that is specifically generated to and for your company, you as a residential foundation contractor.
The CFA Management Committee encourages you to read this article and think about your commitment to education and continually improving the ability for your company to compete in the elite. Among many other ways this can happen, CFA Company Certification demonstrates and maintains a quality assurance of that commitment to excellence described by Mr. Wilson.
Change Please
“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”
These are the words of the woman who became the poster child for overcoming adversity. A woman who was isolated into the two dimensional world of touch and smell at the age of 19 months. Yet, she went on to inspire millions around the world. Sightless and deaf, Helen Keller resolved to make something of her life. She lived with a keen understanding that change is inevitable, but growth is intentional. Unwilling to give in to her blindness, she chose to strive for a normal life.
Motivation is all about motion or movement. In other words, if you are comfortable, if you are happy and content, then you DO NOT move. You do not change. Why would you? On the other hand, if you are uncomfortable, if you’re unhappy, then you want to change. You want to move back toward your comfort zone. ! ere are millions of motivators in the world and all of us at any one time is being motivated by a dozen or more: Hunger, Safety, Sex, Love, Enlightenment to name just a few.
Interestingly, you can take all those motivators and boil them down to a variation of two basic emotions: Fear and Desire. You are either moving toward something you desire; or you are moving away from something you fear.
Fear, however, can become paralyzing and will keep us in one un-comfort zone because we fear the perceived discomfort that comes with change. We fear that change could open a Pandora’s Box of more and scarier changes. I’ve seen it in relationships and in business.
I know a married couple who over the years have drifted apart and their marriage has become stagnant. I know they both desire greater intimacy with the other, but they both fear rejection and so they do nothing.
I know a small business owner who watched his business shrink in the recent recession. His self-esteem is closely tied to his success and his falling income triggered fears of inadequacy. Frozen by fear into doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, he has not adapted to the changes going on in his market.
Helen Keller once again has wise words for such situations, “When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
When couples try new things together they actually stimulate the receptors in their brains that invoke the feelings of romance. Taking a class or starting a new hobby together is a great way for couples to renew their feelings for each other and discover a greater depth of intimacy.
For small business owners, a recession is a great time to try out a new idea or innovation. It attracts renewed interest in the business and can even create new customers and open new markets.
The trick is getting comfortable with change a little at a time. Start engaging in simple changes at home. Low risk changes will generate immediate rewards. Here are a few you can make that will help you get into a habit of adapting to change:
If you drink coffee every day, switch to tea for a week. If you always listen to rock music on the radio, switch to country, jazz, or classical for a week. Rearrange one piece of furniture in your house. Read a section of the newspaper that you’ve never read before. Take a continuing education class in a subject not related to your career. Join a hobby group on MeetUp.com. Taste an ethnic food that you’ve never tried before, (as an alternative revisit a food you think you hate).
OSHA RULES: A New Normal
by Jim Baty, CFA Technical Director, jbaty@cfawalls.org
In an increasing environment of employee protection and conservatism for risk management, OSHA has completed work on two major areas affecting the residential foundation industry. Depending on the scope of your business and the project types you are involved, your company should immediately begin taking the steps necessary to educate and ensure compliance.
Your CFA membership can be a vital part of the success for implementing changes to your plan. What follows is a summary of the action OSHA has taken on fall protection and crane certification/inspection and what the CFA is currently doing to provide resources for you. Additionally, the Annual Summer Convention this year in Wintergreen, Virginia will offer content on these potentially significant changes to your work environment and an excellent forum for you to see how others are evolving their methods for compliance and advantage.
OSHA STD 03-11-002 COMPLIANCE GUIDANCE FOR RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION
In June of 1999, OSHA issued an instruction standard STD 03-00-001 as a revision to the language of STD 3.1 for interim fall protection compliance guidelines. This instruction released the foundation contractor from fall protection requirements on work under 10-ft in height. As most residential foundations are well under this form height, the standard revision was a significant benefit to the cost of forming foundation walls without such items as certified planks, toe kicks, safety railing, fall arrest harnesses and other such safety measures.
What resulted, however, was more than a decade of risk for the foundation contractor where employees were permitted to walk atop unsteady wall forms eight to nine feet above the ground and to place concrete, often under the pressure of an activity that “cannot wait for them to be properly positioned or secured to their structure”.
STD 03-11-002 sets a new bar of sorts for the foundation contractor. Under the provisions of this instruction, any work conducted six feet or more above a lower level must be protected by conventional fall protection or the employer must demonstrate that such fall protection is infeasible or presents a greater hazard. Under the later condition, the contractor is then required to have a fall protection plan in place that includes a documented action plan prepared by a qualified safety director and a safety monitor on the job-site that has the sole responsibility of monitoring the activities of the crew. This latter method of compliance can be found in OSHA Std 1926.502, paragraph (k).
Stepping back to providing a system for the purpose of complying with OSHA Std 1926.501, however, we need to take a look at systems and measures. Conventional fall protection measures include guardrail systems, safety net systems and personal fall arrest systems. These are well documented and available from a variety of sources. We are certain that if you’ve been to World of Concrete in the last five to six years, you’ve seen plenty of options to consider.
However, we also are aware that the foundation forms that you erect on a jobsite are not the most stable structure to guarantee the performance of these systems.
Still, the importance is that this is a federally mandated requirement for compliance. The burden is on you as the employer to provide the protection. What we can and will provide is the network to test your solution and to provide support for your decisions.
Interpreting the requirements and options can be tricky and ultimately remain at the discretion of the OSHA Field Inspector for determination of final compliance. Many CFA members have already been hard at work determining what options they have. Consider some of the following thoughts that are already being tested through local compliance officers:
Scaffolding – perhaps the easiest solution.
“Our guys will be erecting scaffolding set below the heights of 10-ft. These will be fully-planked, with no toeboards or guard rails. We covered this with our local OSHA inspector yesterday and he confirmed acceptability.”
– Mary J. Wilson, Michel Concrete
Waler bracket system –
“Up to 10-ft high, we are looking at a proposal to provide a 12” wide waler board on a bracket system. This will minimize the labor cost to install and the complexity of the system. At heights of 10-ft or less, no handrails or guardrails are required and no toe boards to protect workers below are required. We’re now seeking a review at the OSHA District Office to determine if our approach might be acceptable”
– Lance Jordan, Stephens & Smith Construction Company
Both of these companies have researched fall arrest and other barricade or guard rail systems to determine what type of performance they need to meet the requirements and keep the impact to their projects minimal, since in the end the customer will not pay for an increase in the cost of their foundation for worker safety.
What is clear are the aspects of this ruling for application to your scope of work:
- Effective on all residential work. This defines residential work as dealing with structures built as a home or dwelling. Also, the construction is for traditional structure built of traditional wood-framed construction and systems to support wood-frame construction. Any other construction system (i.e. an all-concrete house) would be assessed as a commercial structure from the OSHA enforcement perspective.
- The employer carries the responsibility for system selection, application and maintenance as well as having a program in place to describe and educate on the purpose and performance of these systems. A professional responsible for the program is required if the employer has determined to make the case that fall protection system would create a greater hazard or are not feasible for a specific project.
- Fall protection must be provided at heights of six (6) feet or more.
- Falling object protection must be provided at heights of ten (10) feet or more.
The CFA is underway with a ‘Management Moves’ piece to provide you with a baseline program to consider implementing and sharing with your local OSHA field inspector. Once completed, we intend on this being available to you as an active member of the CFA and available for download when necessary from our website.
OSHA 29 CFR PART 1926 – CRANES AND DERRICKS IN CONSTRUCTION
In August of 2010, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) completed a complete rework of the requirements for cranes and derricks in construction. This work has a mixed impact on the residential concrete industry that is largely based on the equipment each company owns and the purpose that equipment serves.
The federal document comprising the final ruling is available for download and review by logging in to your membership account at www.cfawalls.org and then selecting ‘Articles’. You will find this information under the category of ‘OSHA Regulations’. A pamphlet summarizing the provisions that largely affect the residential concrete industry has also been made available from Cranes & Equipment Corporation at this same location. The documents are lengthy but quite informative.
What follows is a summary of the primary issues that we believe impacts our industry specifically.
CLASSIFICATION OF USE: The first issue to address is that of the use of equipment. The primary crane involved in residential concrete construction is the articulating crane or knuckle-boom truck crane.
These are largely used to deliver form baskets from the equipment yard to the job-site. They normally are used to deliver the baskets into the excavation to facilitate a quicker set of the foundation wall, and then they haul the baskets back out of the excavation once the wall forms have been removed.
If this describes the limited use of your piece of equipment, it can be considered excluded from the scope of this standard under 1926.1400 (c) (i). That section states the following as the point for exclusion:
Articulating/knuckle-boom truck cranes that deliver material to a construction site when used to transfer materials from the truck crane to the ground, without arranging the materials in a particular sequence for hoisting.
However, if your piece of equipment is used in any way to facilitate the positioning of formwork, applying materials to a structure or other use that is different than the basic delivery or removal of construction materials, it cannot be excluded. Under 1926.1400 (c) (iii) (A) the following statement removes your equipment from the exclusion as stated: The articulating/knuckle-boom crane is used to hold, support or stabilize the material to facilitate a construction activity, such as holding material in place while it is attached to the structure:
One example prevalent in our industry for this application would be that of the gang form or big panel form. These are not delivered in baskets but rather are brought to the project site and set in place with the crane, often held there until the workers on the job-site secure them. Under the provisions of this standard, your equipment and operator will need to meet the requirements if you are involved in this type of delivery.
Once you have determined the use of your equipment and the resulting classification for exception or not under these standards, you then need to assess the impact of its classification on your requirements as owner and employer. Should your equipment be subject to the regulations of this updated standard for use as more than material delivery, the next section with significant impact is that of certification.
TRAINING: A significant component of the new Standard deals with training of intended operators. In section 1926.1430, the employer is directed to provide training for critical areas and for each specific piece of equipment such as:
- Overhead powerlines
- Signal persons
- Friction equipment braking
- Crush/Pinch points
- Grounding of equipment
- Site hazards and access
The operator-in-training must be provided sufficient training time to meet the requirements of the Standard for these and other areas and at all times be continuously monitored by a certified operator or an individual that passed written examination and is familiar with the specific piece of equipment. In addition, the program for training employees to become an operator must be reviewed every three years by a nationally recognized accrediting agency.
As an employer, the programs that assure training and verification of acceptable performance for operators-in-training are to have been in place by Nov. 8, 2010 if your equipment is not exempted from this Standard. For those pieces of equipment that are exempt, you have until Nov. 10, 2014 to have programs in place for demonstration of compliance with these training requirements.
CERTIFICATION: Found in section 1926.1427, are the requirements for certifying the operator for use of the equipment. Additionally, in section 1926.1428 are the requirements for certifying any signal person involved in the use of the equipment on a job-site. These two sections require a considerable increase in the education process for these persons. Consider this bullet list highlighting some of the areas that may affect your company the most:
- The employer must provide the qualification or certification at no cost to the operator or signal person.
- Employees must be certified by a testing organization that can assure nationally accreditation for written examination, practical examination and facilities, equipment and personnel.
- Exception: If the capacity of the equipment is 2,000 pounds or less the operating person is not required to be certified.
- Any signal person must have documentation from a third party qualified evaluator showing that the person meets all Qualification Requirements.Note: This is an individual qualification and not a company-based assessment. Each individual described as a signal person must have this qualification.
- The employer must make the method of documentation available on every job site the signal person is involved, in whichever form is selected. Such documentation must indicate the type of signaling the person is qualified to provide.
- Any misuse or demonstration of less than the qualified requirements is noticed, the employer must suspend the signal person from such a role on jobs until retraining and/or requalification takes place.
MAINTENANCE: There are additional requirements in this OSHA Standard for the maintenance of these pieces of equipment. Owners must be able to provide documentation of annual comprehensive inspections of each piece of equipment that are held for a minimum of 12 months or until the next comprehensive inspection. They must also keep an active log of regular maintenance to the equipment on a weekly and monthly basis as well as logging any repairs or excessive maintenance caused by project-related conditions or issues.
This is a brief summary of some of the key features of the new ‘Crane and Derrick OSHA Standard’ that has been put forth. CFA will have a Tech Note available soon that attempts to put even greater clarity to this issue for our members. If you have information stemming from conversations with any authority on this issue that may increase the relevance and the appropriateness of our direction, we welcome your input.
Voice Over Internet Protocol (Tech Bit 50)
You would think everyone has heard about VoIP, Voice Over Internet Protocol. It is advertised on TV by a number of companies, especially Vonage.
But apparently not. If your long distance bill is more than $30, it might be worthwhile to investigate VoIP as a cost saving opportunity.
One option in VoIP is a service like Vonage, Broadvoice, etc. Most cable companies also offer “digital phone service” that is VoIP. And many regular phone services are coming up with VoIP options.
These services are typically in the $20-30 per month range. They all include unlimited calls within the US, usually Canada, and some offer Europe (Broadvoice offers most of Western Europe and China in their package).
Unlike Skype, which requires your computer to operate, these services come with an adapter box (or they sell it to you for under $100). That adapter box plugs into your cable or DSL modem and you plug your computer or wireless router into them. You plug a regular telephone into the jack and you are ready to start calling. By putting the box between the modem and computer/router, they can ensure a better quality telephone connection despite your kids downloading the latest movies.
Vonage also has the slick V-Phone for traveling. It looks like a USB flash drive, which it is. But on one side is a small jack for a special cell phone headset. All the Vonage software is preinstalled. Just plug your V-Phone into a computer and start making and receiving calls. When you unplug the V-Phone it and all your call history/phone book go with you. That makes the V-Phone a great way to make calls using a hotel workstation or a computer at an Internet café. Load Migo’s software (www.migosoftware.com) on the flash drive and you can even take your desktop settings with you.
Many of these services can now transfer your existing telephone number to the service so no one will notice your switch to VoIP. Another plus is if you travel a lot, or have a summer cottage you stay at, you can take your adapter with you and your phone number stays the same no matter where you are in the world. You can even get a second telephone number in another area code (when my daughter was in Nova Scotia we got her Yak service that had a Nova Scotia number for friends at school and a 303 number for her friends in Colorado). Most of these services have voice mail and caller ID as standard options included in the monthly fee.
Watch ViaTalk’s web sites. About every 60-90 days they’ll do a buy one year, get one year free promotion. Sign up under that promotion and your average monthly bill drops below $10 per month ($199 for 2 years), although ViaTalk bills you an additional $2.50 per month for regulatory fees recovery.
I recently switched my VoIP service to Ooma (http://www.ooma.com/). They have a different business model than similar services such as Vonage. With Ooma you pay about $250 for the adapter, which includes unlimited US calling for life. For less than $10 per month you can upgrade to Ooma Premier which adds a second line and additional features. Calls outside the US are comparable to other VoIP services and Skype.
My experience with my VoIP service has been generally good and certainly less expensive than maintaining a regular telephone line and paying for long distance. I have, however, had instances of dropped calls or occasional drop outs (where the connection goes quiet for a few seconds before coming back).
Gregg Marshall, CPMR, CSP, is a speaker, author and consultant. He can be reached by e-mail at gmarshall@repconnection.com, or visit his website.
CFA HEADQUARTERS GOES HI-TECH
This spring, the CFA joins the world of high technology as we go VoIP with our phones. High speed technology is a must in our world of servicing your membership needs. With that comes the availability and advantages of taking our phone service to a new level as well. We look forward to seeing this benefit you as we improve our reliability and service.
CFA Is At Work to Change The Foundation Industry
Spring is finally here, the snow is melting, flowers are blooming and the CFA is growing!! That’s right, thanks to the dedicated efforts of members like Dennis Purinton and Jim Bartley, the CFA already has 10 new members this year. Ten more companies about to discover how the CFA is at work to change the foundation industry.
From “raising the bar” with our Certified Contractor program to the ongoing work to develop a top notch risk management and self insurance plan, the CFA is steaming ahead through these uncertain times. Or how about member Lance Jordan’s efforts to insure proper interpretation of OSHA’s updated fall protection requirements? This issue, and that of the new regulations on cranes and signalers, is addressed in this issue of Concrete Facts and will soon be available in Tech Notes from CFA HQ.
Another spring arrived 150 years ago and with it the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, one of America’s leading presidents. But to his contemporaries he was viewed as a gawky, second-rate country lawyer, brought into office by a convention compromise and seen as no more than a figurehead. Those were no ordinary times for sure. Decades of bitter dispute boiled over into armed revolt and yet the Union was ill prepared for such a war. In fact, most military and political leaders expected a quick resolution, only signing up initial recruits for 30 days.
Instead, the Civil War proved to be a long and protracted affair. Lincoln saw that strong executive leadership would be required to get through the dark days ahead. He had to change outdated systems and motivate generals not ready to fight. His self-confidence, character and willingness to innovate proved crucial in that day and that battle.
As we all know, history repeats itself, so let me encourage each of us to look to Lincoln’s example as we tackle our day and our battle.
Tim Parrish, CFA President, Cornerstone Foundations
Wintergreen, Virginia — Summer 2011
Our goal is to make certain you come away with at least one tip, idea, or contact that will pay for the entire trip – hopefully several times over.
In the last “From the Director” I expounded on the beauty of the area and the very reasonable rate for rooms this year ($119 for a single room). We are still working on the budget but we hope to be able to be able to lower the price of attendance, even with fewer exhibitors and sponsorships.
The program, however, is taking shape. We have a wide variety of presenters and presentations this year. If you don’t take home useful information this year, then you simply weren’t paying attention.
The speed networking session introduced last summer received rave reviews and will be repeated with additional time. For those of you who missed last summer, speed networking is a lot like speed dating. We organize everyone in two opposing lines so that you are opposite someone who you may never have met. You then have 5 minutes to introduce yourself, exchange information (business cards speed that process), explain your business, and discuss whatever is on your mind. ! e purpose is to establish new relationships and bring new attendees, or ones you have never spoken to, into the concept of networking.
David Whitlock, an attorney from Atlanta who enlightened us in past years on immigration law is returning. His presentation this year will be LUZERS (Lazy, Uninspired Zero-interest Irresponsible Rude Slackers). Hopefully you have gotten rid of the losers in your organization by now but if haven’t, his presentations will focus on how to evaluate and move LUZERS along and how to discipline and fire them. His down-to-earth and entertaining presentation style will keep you interested.
Doug Staebler, CFO for Custom Concrete and a staple at our summer meetings (except last year) will return to the podium. He will present on developing risk management practices as a culture within your company. RM is a buzzword in industry and it is a concept that can be applied to all aspects of business.
A project profile will presented by Sean and Scott Smith. They recently completed a riverside project that was a basement of the year winner with some unique challenges.
A new presenter this year, Doug Herbert, will share his marketing tips and successes with attendees. He titled his presentation, “How To Reduce Your Advertising Costs and Increase Your Sales With Effective Marketing.” I’ll work with him to develop a shorter, more catchy title.
We are currently planning a panel discussion with several short presentations and a large group discussion on the new OSHA regulations and boom truck safety. This will be an opportunity to find how others are dealing with the regulations and provide the basis for a new Tech Sheet. We are also trying to work in a presentation by Mike Hancock on Lower Level Living plus a possible live demonstration.
Your executive director will make a presentation on the CFA self-insurance captive. Every conference call and presentation I hear on this concept makes me believe this is the most valuable benefit we will ever provide for our members. Once you truly understand the concept, it will become apparent. This is not an insurance program – it is an insurance company, owned by its members, providing real-time accident loss and risk management information, better insurance coverage, better claims investigation, and more – all at a savings.
There will be several extra cost social and networking events but we are working to keep them reasonably priced. We are looking at a local brewery, a local winery, a possible group tour of Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, and finally, a relaxing closing reception on the patio of the resort with its great vista of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
I hope to see you there. It will be worth your while.
Ed Sauter, Executive Director, CFA esauter@cfawalls.orgOSHA Rescinds Fall Protection Exception for Residential Construction OSHA RESCINDS FALL
This past December, the rules for safety have changed significantly for all residential construction. The statement below summarizes the movement made to rescind a significant rule exception that exempted residential foundation contractors from fall protection requirements. We at CFA have just been alerted to this information and are researching it further to identify any further opportunities that may limit the exposure of our industry to this change set to be effective June 2011. If you have an interest in reading the full information, please do so at http://www.osha.gov/
If you have questions that you would like to pose to us, please do so by emailing Jim Baty, CFA Technical Director to jbaty@ cfawalls.org or contacting CFA headquarters at 866-232-9255.
Executive Summary
This Instruction cancels OSHA Instruction STD 03-00-001, the Agency’s interim enforcement policy on fall protection for specified residential construction activities, and replaces it with new compliance guidance. Under the new policy, employers engaged in residential construction must comply with 29 CFR 1926.501(b) (13).
Under 29 CFR 1926.501(b) (13), workers engaged in residential construction six (6) feet or more above lower levels must be protected by conventional fall protection (i.e., guardrail systems, safety net systems, or personal fall arrest systems) or other fall protection measures allowed elsewhere in 1926.501(b). However, if an employer can demonstrate that such fall protection is infeasible or presents a greater hazard, it may implement a fall protection plan meeting the requirements of 1926.502(k). The fall protection plan’s alternative measures must utilize safe work practices that eliminate or reduce the possibility of a fall. The plan must be written and be site-specific. A written plan developed for repetitive use for a particular style/model home will be considered site-specific with respect to a particular site only if it fully addresses all issues related to fall protection at that site.
For purposes of determining the applicability of section 1926.501(b)(13), the term “residential construction” is interpreted as covering construction work that satisfies the following two elements: (1) the end-use of the structure being built must be as a home, i.e., a dwelling; and (2) the structure being built must be constructed using traditional wood frame construction materials and methods. The limited use of structural steel in a predominantly wood-framed home, such as a steel I-beam to help support wood framing, does not disqualify a structure from being considered residential construction.
Significant Changes from the Enhanced Enforcement Program (EEP)
This Instruction cancels OSHA Instruction STD 03-00-001, dated June 18, 1999, the Agency’s interim enforcement policy on fall protection for specified residential construction activities, and replaces it with new compliance guidance.
Employers engaged in residential construction who wish to use alternative fall protection measures must meet the requirements in 29 CFR 1926.501(b)(13) and 1926.502(k).
Fall protection plans used to comply with 29 CFR 1926.501(b)(13) and 1926.502(k) must be written and site specific.
This instruction interprets “residential construction” for purposes of 29 CFR 1926.501(b)(13) to include two elements: (1) a residence requirement; and (2) a wood frame construction requirement.
CFA Member Gene Gore
Daniel “Gene” Gore age 51 of Bellevue, Ohio, passed away Tuesday, December 07, 2010. He was born September 3, 1959 in Bellevue the son of Billy & Darlene (Ridings) Gore.
Gene was the owner of Solid Foundations in Bellevue. He was a member of Providence Baptist Church where he was a Sunday school teacher and headed up the buildings and grounds committee, a member of the Gridiron Foundation and a 1977 graduate of Bellevue Senior High School. He enjoyed hunting with his sons and loved calling his daughter “baby girl”. He was a born again Christian and the spiritual leader in his home and was a father figure to many young men in the community. Gene will be remembered as a big hearted man who became softer hearted over the years.
He is survived by his wife Valerie (Valko) Gore whom he married Oct 1, 1983 at Lyme Village, his sons Dawson Gore, Chase Gore, daughter, Rachel Gore, mother, Darlene Gore, brother, Ray (Jeannie) Gore, and nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his son, Tyler Gore, father, Billy Gore and his sister Linda Smith.
Memorials may be made to Providence Baptist Church, 6994 Gardner Rd., Bellevue, OH 44811 or The Gridiron Foundation, 419 Euclid Ave., Bellevue, OH 44811
Memories and condolences may be shared at www.foosfuneral.com.
I Can Hear You Now! (Tech Bit 49)
Cell phones have become an
integral part of society… There
are over 200 million cell phone
users (that’s two out of every three
people in the United States).
When I sold the family rep agency in 2000, I decided to use my cell phone as my primary business phone number. With as much traveling as I’ve done since, it was a good choice. My phone works almost everywhere in the world—except inside my house. Even though there are more than 180,000 cell sites, when I’m in my home office my cell phone barely works. On a good day, I get one or two bars of signal. On a bad day, my phone shows no signal at all.
Most of the time I get voice mails, not a ringing phone. T-Mobile, my carrier, is nice enough to show their coverage map, you can see exactly why I have problems.
I used to have the same problem in our offices/warehouse, but that could easily be explained by all the metal in the building’s construction.
As we become more dependent on our cell phones for our business, locations without good cell coverage can mean losing a lot of business—especially when those locations are where you spend a lot of your day.
There have been solutions for in-building cell coverage issues, but they have been expensive costing between $10,000 and $25,000.
Now there are solutions inexpensive enough to make sense for an office or house.
The first unit I tried was a simple cell phone repeater. It operates with two antennas (one outside the house/office, one inside) and amplifiers. The outside antenna, which I mounted on the top of our fireplace chimney to give it the best view of existing cell phone towers in my area. The antenna is Omni directional so it can pickup more than one tower. The signal is then fed into the amplifier inside and rebroadcast inside. When I’m making calls the reverse is true, my signal from the phone is picked up by the inside antenna and rebroadcast using the outside antenna. This all happens so fast there is no delay added by the system.
The negative of this approach is that if your neighbors all find out what you have and decide to get their own repeaters pretty soon they are going to be interfering with each other. Similarly you shouldn’t use several repeaters in the same office/warehouse building.
The other approach is a new smart repeater from Spotwave. Using the same basic technology as their commercial (all building), the Z-1900 costs a lot less at $399. The Spotwave unit uses a square directional antenna outside (the NAU–network access unit, its intelligent amplified antenna) and a very small amplifier antenna combination inside (the CU coverage unit, the miniature indoor cell tower). I did notice the mounting hardware for the outside antenna (which I have mounted on the second story of the house) only allows mounting at 90 degree angles, so my outside antenna is not pointed exactly at the cell tower, I suspect lowering my signal a half a bar or so.
The big difference between the Spotwave unit and a simple repeater is it prevents feedback between the two antennae. You know the squeal of a PA system when sound from a speaker makes its way into the mike to create a loop. The same thing can happen to cell signal boosters that aren’t smart enough to counter the problem; for them, feedback effectively blocks any desired communications from happening. Echo Feedback Cancellation happens in the Spotwave cell-band booster through patented interference & oscillation protection technology.
Both of these units were designed to operate in the PCS 1900 MHz range. There are some services using the older 850 MHz range (even new installations where there are spectrum availability issues). Obviously these units won’t work with those services, so check with your carrier what band you are actually on before getting one. I guess now that I have 4 bars of reception anywhere in the house, even the basement, I don’t have any reason to miss that call of yours. Maybe this isn’t an improvement after all…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gregg Marshall, CPMR, CSP, is a speaker, author and consultant. He can be reached by e-mail at gmarshall@repconnection.com, or visit his website at www.repconnection.com.
AT&T 3G MicroCell™
CFA Headquarters is currently using the AT&T MicroCell to improve our cellular signal performance. This is a great option when the building interferes with your signal strength (we have an old brick building); the building is relatively confined (60-ft radius); or where the available cellular towers are not sufficient to get you consistent strength. We have delivered full bar strength with a 3G network all through our existing DSL line.
One key to note, be sure to consider canceling the required minutes contract that comes with this MicroCell after you have applied the rebate. You likely don’t need the additional minutes for your phone plan and it will eliminate the monthly fee.
