Standing Test of Time

Words: Bronzella Cleveland

Subject: Standing Test of Time

Jerry Painter  

The other day I was sitting and pondering, and the subject of Quantum Theory breezed its way thru my mind. You folks did not know that I might be a Quantum Physicist. Well, calm yourself down. I am not that kind of brainy person. I was thinking about the Quantum Theory House. It was a masonry house owned by the local university that was the housing for guest researchers each school term. It was fully staffed because people this smart don’t know how to operate a washing machine. Anyway, the reason I was pondering the house is because it some of the earliest masonry projects we performed for the school. In the late 1960’s we remodeled it and put a couple of additions on it. It was CMU with some brick. That was 50 years ago, and it was at least 20 years old at the time. What I’m saying is that ‘masonry’ is forever or at least a couple of millennia or more. Today we, the masonry industry, continue to lose market share. We are the oldest, most flexible in design and use, economical and durable system available. Yet people are still swayed by the empty rhetoric of other building systems. The current attack now is from the wood industry. As most of you are aware the state of Oregon has approved the use of a wood system in mid-rise buildings of at least 18 stories. But just recently they had portions of a 12-story building under construction collapse. Ooooops! A little research will show a regular happenstance of buildings under construction catching on fire and burning down. One such fire in an east coast state caused heavy damage to the existing buildings on either side of the burning building. To be able to withstand this tremendous push for more wood structures we MUST be more diligent in our support of the Masonry industry. What is it that you can do? Support you MCAA as it monitors the National Masonry Code and Standards, continues to develop and make available education and training materials, supports manpower training and fight in Washington for fair treatment of our industry in the massive maze of bureaucracy. Be active in your state and local associations. If there is not one, contact your MCAA and I’m sure we will help. One of the reasons to work locally as well as nationally is that sometimes big issues start as small issues locally. An example was in Florida last year. The wood industry came down with a trainload of money and quietly began to hire many lobbyists in the state capital. They were preparing for the last state building code commission meetings. Fortunately, our code consultant got wind of it and the state masonry industry hired an ex-senate president and we went to work, albeit behind the eight ball. The wood industry came within one vote of removing the term ‘noncombustible’ from the state school construction manual. One board member stated that he had gone to a two-room wood schoolhouse and it was just fine. The issue is we now have multi-floor schools educating thousands of students. Most schools now are designed with parts of them as storm shelters. We must be DILIGENT and COMMITTED to protecting our industry. Support your industry to keep it alive and well. We are counting on you to guarantee masonry’s future. Send in your questions, comments and concerns to your MCAA. And remember to Raise the line and come on around the corner.  
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