H2 Precast — A Precast Legacy

H2 Precast Has Become a Haven Family Tradition

By Kirk Stelsel

When Larry Haven started H2 Precast in 1984 on one acre in Wenatchee, Wash., he never could have imagined his company building a 50,000-sq-ft plant on 15 acres just 23 years later.

His drive was undeniable, but he was also practical. He saw a modest market for precast after the only producer in town went belly up, and set out to meet that need. Through the years, demand has increased and H2 has grown. But, although the new plant sits just 7½ miles down the road from H2’s original location, the journey has been anything but easy.

Through it all, family, quality, pride and perseverance have remained the unwavering principles of H2 Precast. These core values have been passed down from one generation to the next and enabled the company to pull through the tough times, prosper when times are good and accomplish both without compromise. Read More »

Elvis and the Infrastructure

By Ty Gable
President, National Precast Concrete Association

Some years ago on a trip through Memphis, I took the tour of Elvis Presley’s Graceland mansion. Saw the wall of gold records, eyed the outrageous stage outfits, checked out the Caddys and one of his two airplanes, and perused the endless assortment of souvenir trinkets that were everywhere. It was eerie and kind of sad and unfulfilling, because the central piece was missing – Elvis had left the building a long time ago.

This economic recovery is like that trip to Graceland. The economy just barely survived the late-2008 meltdown and is inching forward, and construction is stumbling slowly ahead, but we’re missing a central piece in this recovery: the infrastructure.

Our infrastructure is crumbling, and Congress is nowhere near serious enough about addressing what is a quality of life issue for every American. Not that politics ever made sense, but there’s some simple logic at play here. If we don’t fix it, it will get worse, and it will be more costly to fix it on an emergency basis. What’s the cost of rerouting traffic on a rural route because a bridge is out? How much money is wasted cleaning up sewer overflows? How much fuel disappears in exhaust fumes while people are stuck in traffic on roads that are overwhelmed by traffic? Those are infrastructure costs too, and we’re paying them every day in municipalities across the country. What’s the true cost of NOT doing something – the cost of neglect? Read More »

Lightweight Aggregates: How Do You Make the Right Decision? The Short List…

A decision to use lightweight aggregates rather than normal-weight aggregates is not as difficult as one might imagine as long as there are enough facts on which to base the decision. There are many factors to consider when evaluating lightweight structural concrete for a precast project. Important considerations might include many of the following questions in order to make an informed business decision:

•           How much weight reduction can be expected?
•           Are there structural concerns?
•           Will coarse lightweight aggregate cost more money?
•           Will significant adjustments to batching and mixing procedures need to be made?
•           How will using lightweight coarse aggregate affect current quality control practices?

Expected weight reduction
Aggregates in a normal-weight concrete mix account for 65 to 80% of the weight in a yard of concrete (using 145 lb/ft³ [2,320 kg/m³] as a baseline). If choosing a standard, readily available lightweight coarse aggregate replacement such as expanded shales, clays, slates and slag, one can expect to reduce the weight of a yard of concrete to approximately 95 lb/ft³ to 115 lb/ft³ (1,520 kg/m³ to 1,840 kg/m³) or a maximum potential reduction of approximately 35% by dry weight. Read More »

To Cure or Not to Cure?

Get the most out of concrete’s many excellent benefits with strict attention to proper curing.

By Evan Gurley

To cure or not to cure? This should never be the question for anyone who has an acting role in producing concrete, whether precast or cast-in-place. Shakespeare isn’t the only analogy that works here; medicine is another. Curing concrete may not involve white coats and waiting rooms; it does, however, involve sound treatment for good health. Without proper treatment (sound curing practice to retain adequate internal moisture), the health of concrete will suffer.

Maturity matters in concrete
Precasters pay so much attention to ensuring raw ingredients meet quality standards, calculating the best mix design and training personnel exhaustively on how to batch, place and consolidate. While these are all essential steps in manufacturing quality concrete, it is all in vain without proper curing.

The world’s project specifiers rely on precast concrete because of its exceptional hardened properties, such as its durability, strength and resistance to harsh environments. Curing defines those properties. Read More »

Dust Control

Dust resulting from coring operations (after the slurry dries) and cement loading and storage contribute to dust in precast operations, but controls can be put into place to help suppress it.

Precast concrete production facilities use materials and processes that can be noisy, dirty and sometimes dangerous. Dust, in particular, is produced by a number of processes. Cement dust from conveyors, bins, drop points, saws and mixers are sources of particulate matter in plant air. Material stockpiles and roads in the yard also produce airborne dirt and dust from traffic and wind currents.

These processes and locations must be controlled to protect human health. In this article, NPCA asked Anthony Gentile, safety director for Americast Inc.’s Ashland plants in Virginia, and Chad Jensen, safety director at South Okanagan Concrete Products Ltd. in Osoyoos, British Columbia, to discuss dust control issues in the precast industry.

Q. In your opinion, what is the No. 1 source of air pollution from dust in the precast industry?
A. Gentile: The No. 1 source may vary between different plant operations. For us at the Ashland plant it would be the dust produced by our coring operations. Cutting or coring concrete produces very fine particulates in large quantity. As an industry, I would say the most common source would be leaks from loading or storing cement. Read More »

Sharpening Your Sourcing Pencil

As the economy improves and business picks up, will your company be able to source raw materials in a timely, affordable manner?

By Bridget McCrea

As the U.S economy continues its pokey recovery, and as businesses start to think about rebuilding, manufacturers will be forced to sharpen their sourcing pencils and be more attentive to price, delivery times and availability. That means recovery could be a double-edged sword for precasters who have grown accustomed to a stagnant business environment. Economic activity in the manufacturing sector is expanding month by month, according to the Institute of Supply Management’s (ISM) Report on Business, which highlighted these trends:

• Prices are rising. The ISM Prices Index registered 85% in March, 3 percentage points higher than the 82% reported in February and the highest reading since July 2008 when the index registered 88.5%. This is the 20th consecutive month the Prices Index has registered above 50 percent. While 72% of respondents reported paying higher prices and 2 percent reported paying lower prices, 26 percent of supply executives reported paying the same prices as in February. The ISM reports that commodity price increases are of particular concern right now. Read More »

ACI: Strength through Consensus

By Sue McCraven

Editor’s Note: Work in the precast industry inevitably involves a requirement or specification established by one of many associations with acronyms such as ASTM, ACI and CSA.  This series introduces you to these associations and their histories and a perspective on why they matter to precasters. This article takes a close look at the American Concrete Institute.

For the past 70 years, before the development of precast or prestressed concrete, the vast majority of structures made with cement, stone and water were cast-in-place concrete. Concrete was poured on site into wooden forms to build bridges and other structures. America’s first concrete roadways were tamped (pounded) laboriously by hand. Masons troweled mortar, made with cement, to erect brick and concrete blocks into homes and buildings. With a lot of manual labor and sweat, reinforced concrete played a major role in building our infrastructure. It was understandable, therefore, that the prevailing building codes were written only for cast-in-place construction.

When the Walnut Lane Memorial Bridge (the first major precast/prestressed concrete bridge made in the United States) was built in Philadelphia in the 1950s, there were no applicable U.S. codes for precast concrete. The design, technology and specifications for this bridge were imported from Europe. The successful completion of the Walnut Lane Bridge was the inspiration for more than 200 precast concrete plants being established in North America during the ’50s and ’60s. Read More »

The Future of the Economy and What Precasters Should be Planning

Has the economic recovery groundhog seen its shadow and retreated back into its burrow?

By William Atkinson

In September 2010, the National Bureau of Economic Research, a committee of Boston-based academic economists, said the recession that began in December 2007 actually ended in June 2009. This marks the longest and deepest recession since the 1930s. The 18-month recession was longer than the two 16-month (and more shallow) recessions that occurred in 1973-1975 and 1981-1982.

Despite the recession being “officially” over, the committee:

• Expressed concern over how slowly the economy was recovering;
• Left the door open for a “double-dip” recession (which last occurred in 1981-1982); and
• Noted that housing and commercial real estate continued to remain mired in the recession.

In January, the New York Times noted that even though the recession is officially over, unemployment remains high, home values continue to remain depressed, and state budgets are in deep trouble. This could lead to more layoffs, service cuts and tax increases, the Times added. Read More »

A Concrete Education

The CIM Program is shaping tomorrow’s concrete industry leaders

By Kirk Stelsel

“Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.”
– Coach Vince Lombardi

Coach Lombardi’s famous words apply as much to the business world as they do to the football field. There are no shortcuts to becoming a respected business leader. It takes hard work and dedication, the exact qualities a group of individuals from the concrete industry were looking to instill in young men and women when they developed the Concrete Industry Management (CIM) program in 1995.

The founders recognized a growing demand for young professionals with enhanced technical, communication and management skills specifically suited for the concrete industry. Together with Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), they put together a four-year degree program that launched in 1996 with two enrollees. “MTSU has been a tremendous partner for the industry and for the CIM program as a whole and is our flagship program,” said Brian Gallagher, chairman of the CIM Marketing Committee. “They are really visionaries in terms of embracing the program.” Read More »

Green Piece — Recycled Concrete Aggregates: Sustainability Pays Off for Precasters

By Kyle Kerstiens, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP

The NPCA Sustainability Committee and NPCA staff are committed to helping members navigate the sea of “green” terminology that has kept some from embracing these new practices. As such, we will be including a sustainability page in each issue of Precast Inc. Since aggregates account for about 70 to 80% of concrete’s mass, substituting only 5% of a concrete mix with recycled aggregates can translate into positive environmental stewardship. Recycling reduces materials destined for landfills and saves energy required to remove raw materials from the earth. While recycling requires some modification to mix design, environmentally conscious producers are realizing the benefits of implementing this strategy.

Wausau Tile recycles glass
Wausau Tile, Wausau, Wis., understands the added value of using sustainable products. Terrazzo tile, the company’s most striking glass concrete product, features glass chips ranging in size from 1/16 in. to 3/8 in. (1.6 mm to 9.5 mm). These richly hued tiles have been used in schools, libraries and even art museums, because the recycled glass produces more vibrant color ranges well beyond that of traditional concrete. “Blues, reds, yellows, greens – vibrant colors that Mother Nature doesn’t make,” says Rodney Dombrowski, Wausau’s Terra Paving Division Manager. Read More »