2008 CFA Media Coverage

Proper Estimating - New!
It's another busy day at the office, and the phone is ringing off the hook. While you're excited business is hopping, all the calls have been for job estimates. It may be tempting to simply spit out a number based on a couple of details to get this item off your desk, but it could end up being a costly mistake.

Below Grade Residential: Drainage Boards and Footing Drains - New!
Waterproofing membranes are a critical component for keeping basements dry, but they’re only half the solution. In most areas of the country, a complete drainage system should also be installed to relieve hydrostatic pressure and extend the life of the waterproofing membrane. A system typically has three major components: a drainage board or membrane to give moisture an easy path down to the footings, a footing drain that directs water away from the structure, and either a sump pump, French drain, or stormwater collection system to dispose of the water collected.

Landscaping: Its Role in Waterproofing Your Home
Homebuyers and builders need to consider the all-important issue of waterproofing the home—particularly the basement. Any basement that will be finished needs to be effectively and permanently waterproofed. What many don’t realize is that one not only needs to consider an effective waterproofing system, but also external components that will support the efforts of such a system.

Insulating Basements—Truths and Myths
The discussion of how and why to insulate a basement always begins with what is required. Most builders and homeowners ultimately are not concerned with what will perform best for the life of the structure. The guidance comes from the International Residential Code (IRC) in section 402.1.1. The case is clear that for most of the country—except areas roughly south of the middle of Tennessee and along the West Coast up to Oregon—a basement must be insulated to an equivalent of R-10 if continuous insulation is used and R-13 if cavity insulation is used. Thus, direction is given for the vast majority of today's basement market.

Face-mounted Windows in Cast Concrete Walls
Correct window installation is important in preserving the benefits of a concrete building. Particularly the energy efficiency, air tightness, and water tightness of the envelope can be compromised if windows are attached poorly.

Diversity Key to Sustainability
Depending on who you talk to, business for the residential concrete industry is in one of two places—red or black. If you fall into the latter category, you may be one of the few currently experiencing a steady workload in what could be considered an inconsistent marketplace, at best.

Building Concrete Home Developments
These are not the best of times for developers, builders, or concrete contractors serving the residential housing industry. Everyone connected with housing is trying to find ways to increase their revenue at a time when residential construction is in decline. When work is plentiful, companies stick to traditional wood-building methods because they are familiar with it and have relationships with the trades who build that way. During slow times, companies get more creative—either by expanding into new areas or offering products they regard as better or different from the competition. This is bringing about a higher level of interest in concrete home developments.

Tech Talk: Concrete Homes - Controlling Cracks
Part III: This six-part series focuses on details of today’s concrete homes. Over the past two years, this column has provided considerable information on the general benefits of concrete homes, the various methods used for construction and the performance characteristics. We now focus on strengthening the understanding of the decisions, details and results that can affect the quality achieved in the above-grade concrete home industry delivered by removable forms (RCFs). Since strongly entering the market nearly a decade ago, this method of construction offers an ever-expanding variety of architectural and practical construction solutions for today’s homeowner and designer.

Waterproofing Basics
Concrete contractors are always looking for ways to make their businesses more profitable. Beyond cutting costs and increasing revenue from the services they offer now, finding additional profit centers by adding new services can be a good way to grow the business. One service that might be a good fit for contractors who install foundation walls and basements is waterproofing. While some building codes require waterproofing, the benefits it provides in protecting against water intrusion apply anywhere.

Waterproofing: Do it Yourself or Hire a Sub? - New!
Foundation contractors who have been around long enough will tell you of the days when a cool, damp basement was considered ideal—at least by the homeowner who valued a place to store potatoes. But in today’s environment, the basement is just as likely to serve as home to multimedia entertainment centers, bedrooms and exquisite recreation rooms—none of which goes very well with leaking foundations. The rising demand for waterproofing services has led many foundation contractors to extend their reach into the waterproofing realm.

Do Good Jobs on Poor Soil - New!
Twelve thousand years ago, glaciers formed a lake in what would eventually become Amherst, New York. The lake dampened the claylike soil in the area, which had the effect of expanding the soil—none of which had much effect on anything going on in 10,000 B.C. But fast forward to the present day, and much to the consternation of more than 1,000 Amherst homeowners, it turns out that the clay has still not dried. The result is a town-wide calamity of collapsing foundations, for which repairs will likely run into the millions of dollars. The biggest culprit for the problem, according to one local soil scientist, is the typical failure of builders to secure soil samples before building. Expansive clay soils like bentonite and montmorillonite often threaten foundations because builders and homeowners failed to account for their likely behavior when foundations were put in place.

Basement Building Must Haves - New!
Contractors who are building hundreds of basements and pulling in over $1 million a year have one thing in common. If there is a machine out there that will make their life and their worker’s lives easier then they aren’t afraid to embrace it. George Pritchard, Formco Foundations, West Jordan, Utah, says it best: “We make money building and pouring concrete not having our guys spend all their time carrying the forms on their backs,” he says. “If you get machines to lift the labor burden then you gain speed, accuracy and happy healthy workers.” It didn’t take long for Formco to invest in a truck-mounted knuckleboom crane to place their forms. Pritchard knew with the crane lifting the burden off his workers then there would be less injury, less worker’s compensation and less fatigue. “It has more than paid for itself,” he says. “Now we have four cranes that go from jobsite to jobsite.”

How to Survive Tough Times - New!
Today’s housing market is tight, but for contractors who have been around awhile, it’s kids’ stuff. The early 1980s? Now that was tight. “There was no work,” recalls Mike Delaney, president of Marion, Iowa-based Delaney Concrete Construction. “I remember going to the building department in Marion with my dad, and there had only been three building permits taken out all year.” This was in July. Today, permits are averaging 30 a month, so it’s wise to keep lean times in perspective. But it’s also wise to plan for them. Contractors interviewed for this story say they have survived—and even thrived —during lean times for the industry by finding innovative ways to generate revenue and keep their resources productive.

Concrete Concrete Homes: Working with the Trades
There are literally thousands of decisions to make when you plan a new home. Decisions ranging from the type of finish on the doorknobs to what type of system you will employ to construct the building shell. If you made the decision to build your home of concrete, there are just a few additional decisions to make. Notable among them is who your non-concrete subcontractors will be. You need to make sure that the electrician, the plumber, the carpenter, in particular the finish carpenters are “on board” with your decision to build with concrete. Placing wiring and plumbing in concrete presents a unique challenge to the “residential” subcontractor while attaching things to concrete walls is just a little different than nailing into wood studs or drywall. I’ll attempt to give you some advice in this article to make the transition to concrete just a little simpler.

Concrete Basement of the Year 2007
Every year the Concrete Foundation Association holds a competition to judge basement projects on the basis of material quantities, difficult features, and technology used. Once again, in the category of single-family home greater than 5,000 square feet, the winner is a stunner. The foundation of the Pritt residence in Corona Del Mar, California, runs 780 lineal feet, using 3,879 yards of concrete, 215 tons of steel in the walls, with wall heights ranging from 4 to 45 feet and wall thickness from 8 inches to 36 inches. Ekedal Masonry and Concrete Inc., based in Newport Beach, California, was the foundation contractor on the project. Voted “most visually intimidating,” the home with its two-story, 50,000-square-foot basement occupies three oceanfront lots on the edge of Newport Beach Bay. In 2006, the residence was on the market for $75 million.

Opening Reinforcement in Cast-In-Place Walls - New!
Steel reinforcing bar around openings is a critical structural element of cast-in-place concrete walls, whether they are built with removable forms or insulating concrete forms (ICFs). Correct placement of the rebar helps prevent the concrete around openings from cracking from structural loads or shrinkage.

CFA’s 2007 Basement of the Year
With today’s consumers demanding more than ever in their new home constructions, housing plans have become increasingly more complex and detailed to meet those demands. The Concrete Foundations Association (CFA) 2007 Basement of the Year competition salutes some of the most challenging home projects and their cast-in-place concrete foundations.

Decorative Concrete Goes Downstairs
The basement is no longer a place to store Aunt Ida's old furniture. No longer the default storage level, the basement accommodates a variety of lifestyles: an entertainment area with a pool table and bar, a playroom for young children, an office space, a home theater, or an in-law suite. Homeowners are more educated about options and ask how treatments can be applied to the floors and walls, or inquire about concrete countertop options. Contractors evaluate the dryness of the basement, check for the presence of water and mildew, and evaluate decorative options.

Resisting Wind and Seismic Forces - New!
If global warming predictions for weather come true, there will be a greater frequency of hurricanes, tornadoes, and strong storms throughout the coming years. So designing homes to sustain minimal damage resulting from natural disasters will be increasingly important. Building codes prescribe a design wind speed for every location in the United States, and for hurricane-prone areas, the codes define in detail how buildings should be constructed.

Precast and Poured-in-Place Pair up in Midwest - New!
John Hess and his brother Dan are co-owners of Best Way Foundations in Belleville, Illinois. They grew up with concrete construction, having a father and uncle who ran a construction equipment business and were dealers for Western Forms and Wall Ties & Forms. In the early 1990s, the brothers started their own business for poured-in-place foundations.

Concrete Homes: Options for a “Squeak-Free” Floor
A home is very likely the largest investment a person will make in his/her life. As such, it requires considerable attention to detail to get the desired result. Sophistication will be evident in the systems delivering sound quality, temperature control, and lighting ambiance. But, what happens when the homeowner takes the keys, moves in, and expresses frustration because the home they have planned so carefully has noise emanating from the floor system? You can cure this problem with some of the lumber products on the market … or you could make the decision right now to complete the quality of your new concrete home with concrete floors.

Basement of the Year 2007
When a poured wall contractor finishes a basement this huge and remarkably complex, he can only do one thing: submit it to the Concrete Foundations Association’s Basement of the Year competition. This year’s solid competition made for tough judging by fellow contractors. But the 50,000-square-foot basement of the Pritt residence stood above all the rest in more ways than one. The winning basement belongs to the most expensive home currently on the market in the U.S., listed at $75 million. Built by Ekedal Masonry and Concrete, Inc., Newport Beach, California, this two story basement near the ocean in Corona Del Mar, California, caught 50 percent of the votes this year as the “most visually intimidating entry.”

CFA Presents 2007 CFA Announces Summer Meeting in Stowe, Vermont
The Concrete Foundation Association (CFA) – an organization dedicated to improving the quality and acceptance of cast-in-place concrete foundations – will gather for their annual summer meeting in Stowe, VT from August 9-11, 2007 at the Stoweflake Resort.

Precast and Poured-in-place Pair up in Midwest
John Hess and his brother Dan are co-owners of Best Way Foundations in Belleville, Illinois. They grew up with concrete construction, having a father and uncle who ran a construction equipment business and were dealers for Western Forms and Wall Ties & Forms. In the early 1990s, the brothers started their own business for poured-in-place foundations.

CFA Presents 2007 Contractor of the Year Award
The Concrete Foundation Association (CFA) – an organization dedicated to improving the quality and acceptance of cast-in-place concrete foundations – recently presented its 2007 Contractor of the Year Award to Dennis Purinton.

Barrier Island Retreat
Topsail, one of the North Carolina Barrier Islands, beckons to those who love living with the sun rising over the ocean and setting over the Coastal Waterways. When this synergistic combination involves a condominium built of concrete, buyers have the perfect retreat—one that stands up to the Atlantic Coast’s biggest natural threats: hurricanes. Dave Pfanmiller, managing partner of Security Building Group, which is located in Sneads Ferry, N.C., found the ideal spot for just such a retreat—a lot 200 feet from the ocean and 1,000 feet from the coastal waterway, with unobstructed views in both directions.

Tech Talk: Exterior Finishes for Concrete Homes
When you drive by a RCF or almost any other concrete home today you probably will not know that the home is concrete—unless the designer wants to express the concrete as part of his or her design concept. Brick, siding, EIFS, and other finishes are combined to produce modern designs, Victorian motifs, Colonial designs and literally every other form of expression commonly seen in today’s homes. The concrete home does not need to look like concrete—on the inside or the outside.

Warm Winter Trickles into Basements - New!
Whoever said don't sweat the small stuff probably never found a puddle in the basement after a big rain. Near-record warmth and saturated soil from rain, melting snow and ice mean January has felt more like March, at least for the first half of the month.

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