A publication of the Concrete Foundations Association
Concrete Facts Magazine Online
Feature
Angela Fante appointed Ballinger’s Chief Structural Engineer succeeding Ed Zinski
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 23, 2016 Angela Fante appointed Ballinger’s Chief Structural Engineer succeeding Ed Zinski PHILADELPHIA, PA — The architecture/engineering firm Ballinger is proud to announce the promotion of Angela Fante, PE, SECB, LEED AP to the position of Chief Structural Engineer. Ms. Fante began at Ballinger in the year 2000 and is […]
Formed Finish Not a Structural Concern
As published in Concrete Contractor Magazine, April 13, 2016. The Concrete Foundations Association explains the references supporting the decisions to form cast-in-place concrete with any material and why aluminum is not a structural concern when used as the form. Question: I constructed a basement foundation for a home owner last week with a new set […]
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 […]
Magazine Issues
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 […]
What’s Keeping You Awake?
by Robert Evans Wilson, Jr. The other day on the radio I heard these lyrics from the Shinedown song, If You Only Knew “It’s 4:03 and I can’t sleep… I toss and turn like the sea.” I thought, “Yeah, why is it always 4AM that I wake up when I’m worried about something?” The singer of this top 10 pop rock song […]
Achieving Greatness: The Value of Association
By Don Yaeger “You’ll be amazed by what you can achieve when you surround yourselves with those headed in the same direction.” Association leaders and corporate executives have long recognized that great lessons – lessons in leadership, team building, handling adversity, and managing success – can be learned from their peers in the world of sports. This explains why some of the most sought after […]
Only the Remarkable Thrive
by Mike Foti A crowded marketplace. Hyper-competition. Trying to do more with less. The competitive treadmill has not just been taken up one notch, it’s been cranked up to full-blast! How do you not only survive, but more importantly, thrive in this environment? What are the winners doing to get results in this “full-blast” world? Recently, before a speaking engagement I delivered to a group of fast-growing companies I […]
Membership = 1000x Return
“There is a disease – an enemy – that is eating away at your knowledge, wisdom and professionalism each and every day. This disease – known as commoditization – reduces your offerings to the lowest common denominator, the competitive bid. A stinking price.” F. Scott Addis Here I sit in front of a blazing fire relaxing after a wonderful Christmas weekend spent with family and […]
CertainTeed(R) T-Roc(TM) Thermal Laminate Foundation Insulation System Achieves ICC-ES Approval
Leading North American building products manufacturer, CertainTeed Corporation, has received an evaluation report from ICC Evaluation Services, Inc. (ICC-ES), confirming that T-Roc(TM) Thermal Laminate Foundation Insulation System is building code compliant. T-Roc enables building professionals to bypass several costly, time-intensive tasks involved with turning foundations into finished walls in a livable basement space. Through the analysis of T-Roc, including testing, […]
Industry Loses Pioneer Marion Myers
Poured wall and aluminum forms pioneer Marion Myers passed away July 5th, 2010. Marion was 89 and had lived in Middletown, Ohio. He served as a pilot in the U.S. Army Corps during WWII. He established Myers Construction Company and ran a successful business for twenty years. In 1970 he bought the first aluminum forms in the state of Ohio. After his retirement he moved to […]
Dream Once Again
And “there was a man named Jabez…” In 1916 Anheuser Busch produced over more than one million barrels of beer. Production was up and the market bursting. But storm clouds were on the horizon. The Temperance movement was gaining political clout; World War I brought rationing and anti-German sentiment, which sent production downward drastically. By 1919, sales had dropped to 218,000 barrels. Then came prohibition. Events […]
CFA Elects New Board Members
Parrish Assumes Presidency CFA has announced the newest terms for its Board of Directors as well as a new President to direct its next two-year period. During the CFA Annual Convention, held earlier this year at Chateau on the Lake in Branson, Missouri, the attending members elected Van Smith of Smith Brothers Concrete in Alden, New York to a one-year term to replace Jim Rowe […]
CFA Moves On Insurance Captive
The CFA Board of Directors voted at the summer board meeting to take the next step in the CFA self-insurance program. Business may be slow but if you are doing business, you are still buying insurance. The CFA program will be modeled after the highly successful CSDA (Concrete Sawing and Drilling Association) insurance captive. That program, which suffered a setback […]
CPMA WARNING LABELS AVAILABLE
The Concrete Pump Manufacturers Association (CPMA) has standardized two warning labels dealing with the hazard to the placing crew of the release of trapped air from the concrete hose during pumping (commonly referred to as ‘hose whipping’). The labels are intended to educate the drivers of ready&mixed concrete trucks about the severity of the hazard of air in the concrete system, how to avoid the hazard, […]
HOSE HAZARD!
There are two types of hoses commonly used in concrete pumping: Concrete Delivery Hoses (usually referred to as Double-Ended Hoses), and End Hoses. A concrete delivery hose has a connector on both ends of the hose, while an end hose has a connector on only one end, as shown below. Concrete hoses hanging from a boom can be […]
