Masonry Magazine March 2004 Page. 15
Several times projects have been over budget, but we have brought them back into budget by recommending alternate, less costly material.
Most new building owners cannot afford to spend dollars unnecessarily. We are requested on almost every project to perform value engineering and, even if we're not, we go ahead and evaluate certain material on all of the projects we build. Sometimes we see alternate material that will give them the look they are after, while at the same time saving them thousands of dollars.
Several times projects have been over budget, but we have brought them back into budget by recommending alternate, less costly material. Consequently, these projects moved forward.
Masonry: Central Masonry utilizes a company web site in its marketing plan. How has this tool affected your business?
House: Our short-range plan is to provide a web site that is user-friendly and a place for people to find out about us. Employees can see if we have a job opening, general contractors can request bids from us or review our safety record, and architects can review the size and complexity of our projects and ask questions.
Masonry: On your web site, you stress the importance of safety and training, and actually list the OSHA violations that you have received over the years, which are minor and few. What do you do differently that others might learn from?
House: CMC has given OSHA safety training to our key personnel for years and sent our employees to several safety seminars. We stress safety with all of our employees as a normal part of doing business. Each employee receives a copy of the company safety policy in English or Spanish and signs a form that he or she has read, understands and will comply with company safety policy.
We have never been so careless as to get someone severely injured. We discard, tag or repair all damaged equipment, and our entire scaffold is thoroughly gone through every time it comes into our yard from a project. In addition, CMC employs a safety consultant to inspect our projects monthly, and this consulting company is available to us in an hour's notice.
We also have an attorney on retainer for any issue that we think may be incorrect in an OSHA inspector's judgment.
Masonry: Looking back over the years, what was your most difficult masonry project and how did you overcome the obstacles?
House: CMC has built several large, extremely difficult structural masonry projects over the years. When a project demands us to expedite the schedule, and one or two foremen cannot keep up with the general contractor's progress, we will add enough key personnel to answer the necessary problems. On occasion, we've had to put several foremen, a Project Manager or a bookkeeper on-
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March 2004
Masonry
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