A publication of the Concrete Foundations Association
Concrete Facts Magazine Online
Feature
Recapping the CFA Convention 2008 What Defines Success?
The 2008 Summer Convention has come and gone and with all the concern building up to this event for the industry, the economy and the ability to make such a business decision weighing; ask anyone in attendance and they’ll say the CFA hit a home run. We don’t need to convince you of the scenery or the quality of the hotel that was chosen […]
PROVIDE UP TO 8 FEET OF HYDROSTATIC HEAD PROTECTION …UP TO 8 TIMES GREATER THAN COMPETITION Breakthrough Product Formulations
Tremco Barrier Solutions, North America’s leading provider of residential new construction waterproofing, is taking basement waterproofing performance to a new level by protecting below-grade foundation walls from up to eight feet of water pressure! New TUFF-N-DRI® H8 is the industry’s first and only national brand of polymer-modified asphalt emulsion membrane with the ability to withstand up to eight feet of hydrostatic pressure. That’s more than eight times greater […]
THERMOMASS BUILDING SYSTEM
The THERMOMASS Building System is a patented, highly energy-efficient insulation system for concrete sandwich walls, developed and manufactured by Composite Technologies Corporation (CTC). The two components of Thermomass are rigid insulation and CTC manufactured fiber-composite connectors. They combine to create a load-bearing, durable, moisture resistant, highly energy-efficient concrete sandwich wall. This remarkable insulation system offers unlimited design flexibility and is durable […]
PUTZMEISTER AMERICA, INC. INTRODUCES 70Z-Meter Truck-Mounted Boom Pump
PRODUCTION BEGINS ON WORLD’S LARGEST BOOM PUMP Further expanding the reach and capabilities of its broad line of truck-mounted concrete boom pumps, Putzmeister America, Inc. will launch its innovative 70Z-Meter truck-mounted concrete boom pump in mid 2008. Continuing in the Putzmeister tradition, and as seen at the ConExpo-CON/AGG 2005 release of the BSF 63Z-Meter, the company will again take the […]
Big Capabilities in a Small Package!
The Trimble® LM80 Layout Manager is pocket-sized, personal layout manager that lets you carry, manage, work with, and lay out your jobsite blueprint, regardless of the method and instrumentation you use. The LM80 lets you: input blueprint dimensions to build a digital replica of the layout plan guide the layout of the major points, add string dimensions […]
PALFINGER TEAMS UP WITH NORTH AMERICA’S LEADING TRUCK MANUFACTURERS ULTIMATE IN POWER AND REACH
PALFINGER North America, a proven world leader in building truck mounted cranes, has teamed up with North America’s leading truck manufacturers. The result is to offer the ultimate in power and reach with superior performance for extreme applications featuring the PK 85002, PK 100002 and PK 150002 knuckle boom cranes. Palfinger engineers design each truck and crane to withstand the maximum torque and load to tackle the […]
Magazine Issues
Plan of Action for Implementing OSHA’s Final Rule on Crystalline Silica Exposure
On March 25, 2016, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, issued its final rule on exposure to crystalline silica in the workplace. The final rule is decades in the making, and has seen many stumbling blocks along the way, but Dr. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of OSHA, saw the new standards as one of […]
CFA Member Benefit: The Employee Manual
One of the most important parts of any business is establishing the boundaries between management and employees that protect both in times of discipline. The policy manual is the tool used to provide prospective employees with the picture of expectations by the employer, as well as maintaining an ongoing and effectively positive relationship. Employee manuals […]
This National Association Has Your Back…
I just returned from a week in Chicago where just about every concrete and masonry industry group was represented at combined meetings for the Alliance for Concrete Codes and Standards (ACCS), the Masonry Alliance for Codes and Standards (MACS) and the Concrete And Masonry Related Associations (CAMRA) executive council. These are bodies that I interact […]
Getting the Last Word…
Eight years ago I accepted the encouragement from Ed Sauter, Jim Baty and the incoming President at that time, Dan Bromley, to enter the officer track for the Board of Directors. After joining the Board in 2004, I have looked back on the past twelve years to see unbelievable transformation for both this Association and […]
Management By Objectives ‘MBO’
Management by Objectives is a well-established, effective set of principles for bringing an organized approach to business management. As the name implies, MBO establishes objectives as a means for guiding and directing the business toward achievement of desired results. Vital Signs and Short Interval Management are also introduced in this article as companion approaches for […]
Emergence of Risk
In the dynamic world we live in today, the only constant is change – whether it’s yourself, your industry, or the environment around you… Take a moment to think about your business. How has it changed in the past five years? Is your environment the same? How will that environment change in the next five […]
Lead From Need: Four Ways to Motivate Employees
His CEO performance review is in and Scott is clearly alarmed. Unless next quarter’s KPI goals are met the Governance committee will ask for his resignation. He grabs his phone and calls Jarin, his gregarious college roommate and the person who transformed Silicon Beach’s most dysfunctional company into one of its most electric. “Jarin, I […]
Elevating Board Form Concrete to a Marketable Aesthetic
If the Great Recession has taught us anything as a company, it is that a concrete construction company can be extremely resilient when everything is on the line. In order to be resilient, our company had to be creative and apply ourselves to finding work and finding uniqueness any way possible. Out here in the […]
Previewing CFA Convention 2016
Spring has sprung and no doubt your company is headed out the door in a frenetic pace. Most of the U.S. residential market is ramping up for a solid 2016 forecast as we have heard from so many of you. While PCA has tempered their projections from the Spring of 2015, all indicators are for […]
A Tale of Two Events
Each year, one of the things my crew members look forward to is a chance at an annual trip to World of Concrete. This year was no different and we ended up taking a total of fourteen guys that did their very best in this past year. World of Concrete has continued to be an […]
Letter from the President: Why We Persevere
This issue’s letter from the CFA Board President: Why We Persevere David Martinson Martinson Construction davem@martinsonconstruction.com I read a history document not long after joining the Board that talked about the original ideas for forming this Association. I found it of great interest to see how we compared today with the ideas such strong industry leaders had […]
Where We Are Headed
All indications at the moment support the concrete industry maintaining a steady climb through the winter, into the heart of 2016 and extending in that same way into the 2020 to 2021 neighborhood. That is five to six years of constant growth, pressure, advancement and yes, change. Is it possible? Is it realistic? Let’s assume for a moment […]
