September Construction Slides 7%

New construction starts in September retreated 7% to $399.1 billion (annual rate), slipping back after the improvement shown during the prior two months.

Nonresidential building in September fell 7%, given more weakness for the commercial structure types (stores, hotels, offices) as well as a diminished amount of school construction.

Offsetting some of the downward trend was strengthening for healthcare facilities, public buildings, and manufacturing plants.

Transportation construction climbed with help from ARRA funding.
Courtesy of McGraw-Hill Construction Stimulus Special Section

Visit Concrete Form Exchange

Whether you have idle concrete forms you'd like to sell, or whether you would like to purchase used forms to increase your inventory, the new ConcreteFormExchange.com site might be the place for you!

For a small fee, you can post a list of equipment with photos, add contact information, and you're set! It's fast and simple, and there's no middlemen and no commission.

Searching this new site for used forms is free! You have direct access to sellers, and it's easy to find what you need by form type or manufacturer.

13th Annual Construction Financial Management Conference

WHO: AGC of America and the Construction Financial Management Association
WHEN: October 22, 2009 thru October 23, 2009
WHERE: Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada Jointly sponsored by AGC and CFMA, the 13th Annual AGC/CFMA Conference was developed in response to a need for programs and workshops designed specifically for financial professionals in the construction industry.

Get the latest information on:

• Strategies for Economic Downturns
• Construction Tax Update
• Ownership Transfer Techniques
• Investing in Today’s Volatile Markets
• Risk Management

Find out more!

Environmental Foundations

The construction of the Manitoba Hydro Downtown Office Building signaled a revolutionary change in the way Canadian architects approached building design. Targeting a 60% reduction of energy compared to the Model National Energy Code for Buildings, the new Hydro office tower surpasses C-2000 requirements.

Manitoba Hydro has a mandate to promote energy efficiency and this is represented in the design and construction of their new office tower in downtown Winnipeg. In an effort to meet the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold status, which promotes expertise in "green building" through a comprehensive project certification, the Rapid Clamp forming system was a natural choice. Rather than use a traditional low re-use, job-built plywood system to form the foundation walls of the building, the contractor chose the modular, reusable Rapid Clamp forming system with a reusable Taper Tie. The steel Rapid Clamp frame and resin-coated plywood face of the panels allow for maximum cycling before re-facing. The Rapid Clamp system features a simple, hand-operated clamp system to configure gangs, eliminating the need for electric or pneumatic tools.

Through the use of the Rapid Clamp forming system, combined with all the special design features of the new office tower, Symons is helping to reduce energy consumption and promote sustainable development for generations to follow.

Free Online Courses from the SBA

For many years, the SBA has provided classes in a wide variety of important subjects for small business owners. Many of these classes are now available online for free at http://www.sba.gov/services/training/onlinecourses/index.html. In general, the courses are self-paced and take 30 minutes to complete. Most courses require a brief online registration.
Topics covered include:

• Starting a Business


• Surviving in a Down Economy


• Business Management


• Financing and Accounting


• Marketing and Advertising


• Government Contracting


• Business Planning


• E-commerce


• International Trade


• Federal Tax Training

Symons is the Best Buy

In 2001, Best Buy contracted with architects Perkins & Will and Opus Architects & Engineers to design a new corporate headquarters to consolidate their operations which were scattered around the Minneapolis area.

A unique design element of the Best Buy Campus is the 215,000 sq ft, two-level connector called the Hub. The Hub is intended to create an environment that is "fun, flexible and productive, while acting as a catalyst for learning, collaboration, community and creative solutions." Best Buy wanted the Hub to be an interaction space promoting what they call "casual collisions" between employees fostering a sense of familiarity, teamwork and an open exchange of ideas. The 1000 foot long Hub also links the four office towers to the 7,000 car, 2 million sq ft, five-level parking ramp.

Government Loans Available

As part of the the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the U.S. government has provided extra funding for business loans. See http://www.GovLoans.gov for types of loans, qualifications, and applications.

ENR Features Economics of Construction

Like many construction-related sites, ENR.com is keeping a close eye on the economic health of the industry and publishing their analyses. Their latest 2nd Quarterly Cost Report, Razor-Thin Margins As Contractors Fight For Stimulus Projects, details how intense competition for projects has driven bids down to levels that threaten profitability.

More information from the Economics section of ENR.com is available at
http://enr.construction.com/economics/default.asp

Earth-Friendly Release for Concrete Forms

It used to be that "going green" meant paying a premium for poor performance on the jobsite. Symons new bio-based technologies can contribute significantly to LEED Credits while out-performing other older technologies.

Environmental Release EF

Environmental Release EF is an Earth-Friendly (EF) form release agent that contributes to LEED EQ Credit 4.2. It is designed for use on a wide range of forming materials, including wood, fiberglass, steel, aluminum, plastic and architectural form liners.

Environmental Release EF is a truly green, biodegradable material, containing no petroleum products.

Environmental Release EF is a water-based formula containing no VOCs, making it VOC compliant in all regions. It is ideal for architectural concrete, precast and general forming applications. The material is non-staining and minimizes concrete dusting.Environmental Release EF is NSD approved for use in potable water structures.

This and all the other Symons chemical products can be referenced from the Internet at: http://www.symons.com/products/brochure/chemical/chemical.htm

What To Do If the Bank Says "No"

It's no exaggeration to say that cash is in tight supply. The credit crisis has left customers, lenders and investors skittish, forcing businesses to re-examine their cash flow. But untapped sources of funds remain.

It's been increasingly difficult to find funding, whether from banks or private investors. If your business is short on capital, consider these alternative funding sources.

Read more in the article on Thomasnet.com

Quick and easy Round Pads

When Winnipeg contractor, Westland Construction Ltd., contacted the local Symons branch, they needed advice about forming two large round pads for tanks. It was a small job, but it had some unique requirements.

The forms for the two tank pads could not utilize turnbuckles with stakes anchored in the ground. Because of the geo-textile membranes underneath them, driving stakes for turnbuckles to plumb the forms was not an option.

Symons immediately suggested Steel-Ply. Because of the low pour height and the slow concrete placing time, it was suggested using 1" steel strapping, the kind used with banding machines, to wrap around the circumference.

Subsequently, the tank bases were completed ahead of time and under budget. Westland commented, "Had we done these in wood, it would have taken a lot longer and the results would not have been nearly as good".

The Projects Are Out There!

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is the most sweeping economic recovery package in history. What makes the plan important to Symons is that a large portion of funds are targeted at construction projects.

The ARRA includes the largest new investment in America’s infrastructure since the interstate highway system was built in the 1950s. Plans include construction and modernization of roads and bridges, dams and levees, water treatment facilities, transit systems, high-speed rail lines, military facilities, and power plants.

As of mid April, nearly $60 billion of ARRA funds have been OKd for "shovel ready" projects, with about $12 billion of it already disbursed. In addition, states have already started work on some highway projects in anticipation of ARRA funds.
With these developments in mind, we all need to be looking for opportunities, including:

• Contractor customers who are changing their focus. It’s not unusual for a contractor to target treatment plants when there are fewer commercial projects. Let’s ask customers what they’re doing.


• Contractor customers who are expanding their business. It’s not unusual for a contractor to add capabilities, like a tilt-up contractor adding a structural forming division. Let’s watch for growing companies.


• Bridge and transportation projects with Max-A-Form applications. A rush to build these structures will likely create a rush to quote, engineer and supply materials. Let’s have some typical plans ready in advance.


• Power plants establish some long-term revenue streams. The size of these concrete-intensive projects can keep equipment-on-rent for months at a time. This balances the short duration of other smaller projects.

Stimulus plans centering on funds for construction projects are also an International phenomenon. Governments all over the world are looking beyond short-term stimuli and toward programs that will lay the groundwork for sustained growth, including infrastructure projects aimed at job creation and economic expansion.

2009 will be more competitive than ever, but it looks like it will be a year full of substantial opportunities for Symons to sell or rent concrete forming systems!

Find Construction Projects Through The Blue Book

BB-Bid is an Intenet-based service designed to help you work smarter during the bidding process! BB-Bid allows you to upload and message your private vendors, find qualified vendors in The Blue Book database, and easily create an online plan room. Throughout your workflow, BB-Bid offers free solutions designed to meet your specific needs.
BB-Bid can simplify your bidding process by helping you:

• Vendor Management - have an organized, current list of vendors
• Communication Management - send information to vendors without faxing and phoning
• Document Management - distribute and track plans

Register for your free BB-Bid account now!

DeckFast With Composite Face Smooths Out the Job

DeckFast™ is a forming system for the temporary support of concrete decks during construction. With just 2 primary members, a panel and a post shore, crews can set up the system very quickly.

In a side-by-side comparison of the finish provided by a conventional panel face and a special composite face, the DeckFast with the composite face created a smoother, shiny concrete surface.

For more information on the Deck Fast system, see the Symons site.

Earth-Friendly, High-Performance Cure & Seal

It used to be that "going green" meant paying a premium for poor performance on the jobsite. Symons new bio-based technologies can contribute significantly to LEED Credits while out-performing other older technologies.

Cure & Seal 30

EFCure & Seal 30 EF is an Earth Friendly (EF) non-yellowing 30% solids acrylic copolymer curing and sealing compound that contributes to LEED EQ Credit 4.2. This material uniquely combines high performance with "green" attributes.

Cure & Seal 30 EF is low odor and contains VOC <>

Cure & Seal 30 EF is designed to be used on freshly finished concrete as an Earth Friendly membrane forming curing compound that surpasses the requirements of ASTM C-309.

Cure & Seal 30 EF can be used on both interior and exterior concrete surfaces.

This and all the other Symons chemical products can be referenced from the Internet at: http://www.symons.com/products/brochure/chemical/chemical.htm

Steel-Ply® is a contractor's workhorse

Per Del Construction, a busy concrete contracting company based in Lemont, Illinois, owns some Steel-Ply equipment, and supplements their inventory by renting additional forms when they need them. This arrangement provides the contractor more flexibility and better cost-effectiveness than either renting or owning all of their forms.

For large jobs or when they have several overlapping jobs, Per Del uses a combination of Steel-Ply forms that they own along with rented forms. They have found that this arrangement provides several important advantages. They can arrange to have only the forms they need delivered to the site when they need them, and they do not have to store the forms between jobs or tie up their money in idle equipment.

Although the contractor appreciates the flexibility possible with renting forms, they acknowledge the advantages of owning much of their equipment. Because the strong steel frame lasts a long time and the special ½" HDO plywood face can be replaced when necessary, they know that the money they put into their Steel-Ply inventory will benefit them for years. In addition, when they have occasionally rotated equipment out of inventory, they found the resale value for their used Steel-Ply was high.

Per Del Construction depends on Steel-Ply every day to contribute to the continued success of the company.

A Good Place to Look for Your Next Forming Project

The 2009 Stimulus Package is the most important piece of legislation in the history of the A/E/C industry—and no one can match McGraw-Hill Construction’s ability to help you benefit from it.

The special section of the www.construction.com/ site includes news and analysis from 17 McGraw-Hill publications, plus BusinessWeek and Standard & Poors. You’ll also find the most comprehensive list of shovel-ready projects and in-depth market forecasts and economic research. Information is available by region or market sector, making it easy to find what you need. See http://www.construction.com/stimulus/default.asp to find out more.

Seeing is Believing!

The Concrete Step Wizard and Riser Splice Angle dramatically reduce labor and material costs when forming concrete stairs. These simple components are easily positioned and attached to lumber to create an entire stair form assembly. This assembly minimizes lumber waste and provides more room for placing and finishing. The components can be repositioned as dimensions require and reused from project-to-project. Watch a simple demonstration at www.symons.com/products/demos/concretestepwizarddemo.wmv to see for yourself.

Symons Irons Out the Details

The Mesabi Nugget plant, in the Mesabi Iron Ore Range in northeastern Minnesota, will be the first full-scale, high-grade iron nugget plant to be built. The construction project started in October, 2007 with the Rotary Hearth Furnace (RHF) building. This portion of the project was awarded to Oscar J. Boldt Construction located in Cloquet, MN. The RHF building consisted of a 33' wide circular footing with an inside radius of approximately 82' with two ring walls that sit on top spaced approximately 16' apart. Because of an environmental permit expiration date that was very close, the contractor was given just five days from the award of the project until they had to be on site, starting the foundation. Because of the unusually narrow time constraints, the contractor needed a forming system with a true radius very quickly. The Minneapolis-area Symons branch immediately shipped Alisply™ Circular forming system components to form the wide footing. To build the ring walls that sit on top of the footing, the contractor chose Flex-Form® panels, which were shipped to the site already set at the required radius so that the project could continue moving along quickly. Symons provided all of the forming and shoring systems for the RHF construction.

Steel-Ply® was used to form the equipment ramp walls and other structures. ShorFast™ supported the elevated slab over the equipment ramp and the discharge chamber. Hammerlund Construction from Grand Rapids, Minnesota has been awarded the contract to construct five buildings on this project. As a previous user of the Symons Alisply™forming system, Hammlund has selected it again on this project. The buildings they are constructing are a Raw Materials Preparation building, Pelletizing building, Warehouse, an Electrical Substation and a Product Cooling Tower. The ability to quickly reconfigure the Alisply system for each of these different structures has kept the project moving.

See video and more photos at http://www.steeldynamics.com/index.php?page_id=117

Green Construction

With many sectors of the construction market down, don't underestimate the growing importance of "going green"!

• The U.S. Green Building Council is a non-profit organization dedicated to sustainable building design and construction. They are the developers of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system.
• Need to know more about green construction to begin the process of making the switch? Check out the federal requirements and other information at the FedCenter.gov site.
• McGraw-Hill recently published "2009 Green Outlook: Trends Driving Change Report" which estimates that the overall green building market could more than double in 4 years. See their site for more details.
• To help you find products for green buildings, Sweets has a special SweetsGreen Collection.
• To get a better understanding of the costs and benefits of acquiring LEED certification, see the GreenBuildingSolutions.org site.
• Check out the environmentally friendly concrete construction chemicals available from Symons. Bio-based release, cure & seal, etc. can help you earn LEED Credits.

A.H. Harris & Sons Promote Concrete Step Wizard

AH Harris & Sons and Symons have actively promoted the Concrete Step Wizard by setting up displays in over 20 AH Harris locations. In addition, the Step Wizard was displayed at the Cranston Rhode Island open house. The display was a hit with the contactors in attendance. Contractors such as Algar Construction who have purchased the product love the labor saving features of the Step Wizard.

Who Would Have Thought Symons Red Would Be So Green

• Every steel product (form frames and faces, ties and all) from Symons has 90% post-industrial and/or consumer recycled scrap content.


• Every sheet of HDO plywood from Symons is considered green by most industry definitions, too. It's harvested from trees grown in sustainable North American forests.


• Not only are individual components green, but entire forming systems are considered green. They're reusable, so they contribute very little to the waste-stream, which conserves resources and reduces disposal costs.


• And Symons has a line of environmentally-friendly concrete construction chemicals that will help earn LEEDS Credits, too!

Big Solutions for a Big Job

The heavy-duty Max-A-Form^® forming system was used for the mat foundation, support columns and tie beams. The contractor reconfigured the Max-A-Form system for each of these structural elements to maximize equipment usage and minimize the total amount of equipment needed on the site.

To support the mid- and upper-level construction, a "work platform" of Max-A-Form panels, Symons Soldier construction beams, Versiform^® walers and Symons aluminum beams was designed. This work platform kept the mat foundation free from any obstructions, supported the column and tie beam construction, and provided a stable base for shoring the vessel slab.

The main component of the work platform design was a Max-A-Form panel. The panels were used on edge as stringers, supported from the columns with Anchor Brackets. The Max-A-Form panels were used in this self-spanning application for all four bays in the structure, with only minimal support from Symons Soldier towers below. A walkway was added to the work platform and exterior columns to provide safe access around the entire building perimeter.

The biggest construction project in Texarkana

The IH30 in Texas project consists of new construction and reconstruction of frontage roads. Austin Bridge and Road was given the contract to build 22 bridges, consisting of main lane crossovers, turnarounds and flyovers. The project also includes reconstruction of State Highway 59 at the IH 30 interchange and the installation of 25 retaining walls. The bridge and road work is the both the biggest construction project Texarkana has ever had, and the largest contract that Austin Bridge and Road has ever signed.

Like many bridge construction project designs, there are many repetitive elements, such as stems and pier caps. Austin talked to Symons about forming them as productively as possible. They knew that even small ways to simplify construction add up to big savings over the duration of the project.

Symons also proposed using a combination of Max-A-Form^® for the large areas on the pier caps and Steel-Ply^® on the "ear wall" details. Most contractors use wood forms or come back later in a separate operation, but Austin Bridge and Road knew that those methods slowed them down. They immediately recognized the value of this simplified plan. They knew that even small ways to simplify construction add up to big savings when utilized repeatedly.

How to Increase Productivity Before the Job Even Starts

There are many ways to increase job productivity, and it all starts with planning ahead to avoid potential problems. It isn’t hard, but it is very important in the early stages of a job. Time is money, and a little planning can save a whole lot of both!

• Make sure you have what you need. Consider renting forms to provide extra panels and fillers for those big jobs to keep up a good pace.


• Make substitutions. For instance, if you need an 18" filler that you don’t have in stock, use a 10" and an 8" filler.


• If you need to order construction materials, make sure that the order is placed with sufficient lead time to avoid backorders, schedule changes, and construction delays.


• Make sure that the forming system is being used correctly. Using Wedge Bolts at every slot in your Steel-Ply forms increases setting and stripping time, and requires unnecessary parts.


• Have enough forms and accessories on hand. If you skimp to save a few dollars in rental or purchase, you will pay in lower productivity.


• Preplanning the form drop-off point can speed form setting. Stage forms close to where they will be set to reduce handling.


• Similarly, when stripping forms, move the forms to the next pour location to eliminate handling the forms twice.

What are "Symons forms"?

You hear the term "Symons forms" all the time, but what forms do people really mean?
Most of the time, contractors are referring to the steel-framed and plywood-faced Steel-Ply, which is manufactured by Symons.

Symons makes many other concrete forms, so why do builders call Steel-Ply "Symons forms"?
Steel-Ply has been around for over 50 years, they are Number 1, and they are everywhere, so it is only natural for them to be called "Symons forms".

Why are they so popular?
Instead of contractors having to build forms out of plywood and lumber and drilling holes for ties and for bolting them to each other the way generations of concrete contractors had to do before Steel-Ply, they can buy a bunch of standard forms that are reliably strong and easy to connect up. In the building boom that was going on in the 1950's when Steel-Ply was introduced, and in all the ones since, contractors snapped it up. It stays popular because it's a great form.