A bizarre incident occurred near my community last winter that holds lessons for everyone in the business world. A suburban commuter train filled with hundreds of passengers during the morning rush was delayed for almost two hours while local police searched for a man aboard with a gun.
There’s hardly an EIFS job these days that doesn’t use foam shapes in some way. In fact, a lot of other non-EIFS claddings incorporate foam shapes as accents, such as shapes over stucco, block and concrete. Most foam shapes are made of EIFS, while others use non-EIFS materials to create hybrid EIFS-like shapes.
Willem Kymmell is an architect and associate professor in Construction Management at California State University. He was quoted as saying, “Despite many recent developments in project delivery methods, owners are often still dissatisfied with the results of the construction industry; projects still take too long and come in over budget, while the quality frequently is not up to the client’s expectations.”
Once upon a time, architects created a set of plans with a pencil and paper. The process created an intimate attachment and knowledge to the building he was designing. Inevitably, he would make a mistake and things did not quite line up.
Glazed framing systems have undergone tremendous improvements over the metal framed, single-paned energy pigs of yesteryear. The introduction of dual glazed insulating units, low-emissivity coatings, and thermally improved framing systems have resulted in huge energy-saving performance. A single glazed, non-thermally-broken aluminum framing system has a U-value of around 1.0.
Everyone involved in the design and construction business is currently feeling the effects of the economy. Some projects that were started before the downturn occurred are now slowing, and others have been put on hold indefinitely. Owners and developers who have managed to hold on to their financing for projects are finding an abundance of qualified firms willing to slash their fees in order to secure a project. This makes for a very chaotic time in our marketplace. However, the one niche that has seemed to remain somewhat stable is green design and construction.
Sometimes, a project’s specifications require inspection of the EIFS. This type of inspection is a matter of a private contract-part of the business agreement to do the work. Other times, inspection is required by statute, as in cases where the building codes require inspection. Most EIFS jobs are not formally inspected: EIFS has not been relegated to the must-be-inspected world of critical construction, such as structural welds or elevators.
As a long, hot summer eases into fall, the Chinese drywall situation that has impacted North America since the beginning of the year deserves a retrospective review as it relates to domestic gypsum board production.
I was raised in the construction industry and surrounded by men whose handshake was their bond. As a young buck, I looked up to these men. These men were raised through the Depression era and survived wars in Europe and Korea. They were tough, hard-working and they don’t take bull from no one.
When EIFS was first introduced into the North American market in the late ’60s, there was skepticism about its performance. Designers and specifiers asked, “How well would such a lightweight wall cladding perform when subjected to the usual rigors that wall systems are exposed to?”
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