Masonry Magazine October 1977 Page. 20
STRAPPING CONCRETE BLOCK
Continued from page 19
foot basis. I have not, however, really dug into comparative costs. Once I made my decision to strap block, I no longer cared what pallets cost.
Q.-Do you know how much each block costs you for strapping?
Olson: Absolutely. Considering the cost of wooden pallets, the cost of pallet repair, and the cost of returning pallets, my costs were approaching 30 to 40 cents a pallet to get it back in the yard. All costs have gone up, so I still believe the cost of strapping is less than the cost of wooden pallets. Maybe it isn't enough to use as a marketing tool against competitive materials, but I know darned well the higher our costs per square foot the less masonry is going to be used.
Q.-What are some of your pallet costs now?
Klos: Pallet costs now are $3.87.
Q.-What about yours, Paul?
Bronson: Anywhere from $3.50 to $5.50, depending on the type of pallet. Repairs cost us about 50 cents a pallet. Pickup and delivery is somewhere between 25 and 30 cents. But if I put in strapping equipment tomorrow at three plants and discontinue wood pallets, I am sure a number of contractors wouldn't buy block from me, and my selling costs would increase to pay for the strapping and the equipment to strap.
Zivkovic: Maybe some mason contractors don't understand the concept behind packaged block. It is to their advantage as much as it is to yours. You get rid of pallets and repair costs. You can utilize your fork truck and hauling equipment better. In other words, you don't have to go to the job site to pick up pallets, drive them all the way back, unload the pallets in the block yard, and then sort out the broken ones for repair.
Q.-What is a mason contractor to do when it involves the job site and he's got to drop blocks in a basement? The next thing he knows they are in a foot-and-a-half of soupy mud.
Smith: Put a plank under them. If you work in the winter time, you've got to put a plank underneath to prevent the skids from freezing to the ground.
Dufour: Another thing, most of the time there are no masons on the job when block are delivered to a residential site.
Lunde: I see a rather happy situation in Wisconsin. Pallets seem to be well accepted. We used to make a lot of block and we palletized them. Sure we battled the contractor on pallets and went through the whole bit with repairs. You ask why did we go into packaging. We did so because there seemed to be a demand for it.
Q.-Have you mason contractors noticed any reduction in breakage or chippage of the product when your block suppliers switched from pallets to strapping?
Smith: We don't experience chipping problems with packaged block at all. I don't think it is a problem. Sometimes the bottom block is slightly crushed or chipped, but other than that it is not any worse than it was with the skids.
Harrison: Occasionally you do run into fork damage.
Smith: You've got to weigh the cost of taking block up to a skid and throwing them in a wheelbarrow. I think if you weighed the two, the laborers handling the material against what is packaged, I would say that there's no advantage either way as far as chippage goes.
Q.-We were talking about safety awhile ago. Do any of you feel there are people who use strapping for safety reasons?
Zivkovic: I have seen palletized block fall off a truck when the truck turned a corner too quickly. You can eliminate this problem with strapping. Also, when you're lifting a strapped cube on the job site, there is no chance-unless the strap breaks of anything falling off and injuring somebody.
Smith: A broken strap is pretty rare. It may happen if there are some busted block in the load and those block crumble while you've got the load in the air. Then you'll drop block. But I don't think I've seen a strap break once in the last five or six years.
The NCMA did a survey in 1970 to determine the extent to which strapping was used. The survey showed that 47 percent of plants did not strap any of their production while 53 percent did strap cubes of block. Of those who said they strapped, 54 percent strapped less than 10 percent of production, 20 percent strapped between 10 and 40 percent, 16 percent strapped from 40 to 99 percent, and 10 percent strapped none. We don't understand the 10 percent.
As would be expected, most plants that strapped cubes did this manually. The breakdown was as follows: manually 60 percent; semi-automatically, 16 percent.
Olson: The statistics are a little misleading. I used to strap by putting a belly strap on. You could say that was strapping.
Q.-What percentage of block is strapped today versus, say, seven years ago?
Zivkovic: We estimate that about 20 to 25 percent of all block producers strap.
To be concluded in the November/December issue.
PRAYERFUL RETORT
The eight-year-old lass was being punished and sat in the corner of the dining room at a table set especially for her. The rest of the family paid little attention to her during her period of penitence, but they couldn't ignor her prayer before settling down to the meal. "I thank thee, Lord," she was heard to say, "for preparing a table before me in the presence of my enemies."