Masonry Magazine January 2007 Page. 53
MASONRY COMPUTER ESTIMATING
Masonry Computer Estimating
That Does It All... in 3D!
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CIRCLE 163 ON READER SERVICE CARD
January 2007
Masonry
What are some factors that affect masonry's market share? Many people immediately think about competitive materials, other mason contractors, or union versus non-union contractors. While all of these affect the masonry industry's market share, there is another very large factor that often is overlooked: building codes and standards.
Tom Young of the Northwest Concrete Masonry Association often uses the quote, "Building codes activities at the national and state level are often the single most effective manner to maintain and increase market share for construction materials and systems." There is no one thing that has a greater impact on the manner in which you do business than codes and standards, yet many contractors refuse to get involved in this process.
The national building codes are adopted by each state, making them a mandatory, minimum standard for designing structures. Imagine if overzealous designers were able to determine this minimum standard without any contractor participation. This is a harsh reality within the masonry construction world; the constructability of a masonry project usually is determined by designers who possess little, if any, masonry construction experience. Designers often hide this inexperience with performance specifications and shop drawing requirements for more difficult aspects of the design.
The national codes and standards rarely are written with the contractor in mind.
While this phenomenon is not new, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to build masonry structures as they are being designed currently. When situations such as these arise, who's at fault? The engineer has designed the structure according to the adopted building codes. The architect specified the project according to the ASTM standards and OSHA regulations. This leads to only one conclusion: The national codes and standards rarely are written with the contractor in mind. Taking this one step further, one could conclude that not only do the designers not have masonry construction experience, but the authors and developers of many building codes, standards and safety regulations do not possess this hands-on masonry construction experience either.
Often, contractors are encouraged to attend and participate in various code- and standard-writing committees, yet rarely do they show. However, when an impossible-to-build design crosses your desk that is designed using the current building code, you are frustrated and blame those engineers and profes
The Voice of the Masonry Industry