Masonry Magazine October 1992 Page. 24
Don't Forget to Collect Your Retainer
One of the most common mistakes made by contractors is to get involved in some other ongoing job and forget how quickly a job that "just has to be cleaned up" can drain your resources by nickel and dime-ing you to death. Not only do you lose track of the money you're spending, but by not collecting your retainer you are putting a crimp in your cash flow and adversely affecting your overall financial condition.
Reviewing the Job
A good practice to develop is that of reviewing a project after it's complete. You should review every project when it's finished, no matter how small, preferably in a brainstorming session with the people that estimated it, bought it out, and had to build it. If "the people" are all one and the same person, he should still sit down and review the documentation and the history of the project. This review can serve many purposes and it must be done as coldly and as objectively as possible with the aim of learning and improving without in any way "blaming."
A completion review not only points out weaknesses, it highlights areas that require special care on new and ongoing projects, and it points out extra work that may not have been picked up during the project itself, and if properly claimed, will more than pay for the review of the project.
This Old Pyramid
In a 90 minute special presentation, PBS-TV program Nova will construct a real pyramid on location in Egypt.
ANCIENT OBSERVATORIES? Colossal calculating machines? Giant ouija boards? Extraterrestrial public works projects? The pyramids have inspired countless theories about their purpose-in addition to the more humdrum but well founded view that they were royal tombs for the pharoahs. No less creative have been the theories about how the pyramids were built. Were the countless stones comprising the world's most massive ancient structures dragged, rolled, levered, cast in place or assembled by some other ingenious means?
In a ninety minute special presentation, Nova puts the contending ideas to the test by constructing a real pyramid, on location in Egypt, using conjectured traditional methods in "This Old Pyramid," airing Wednesday, November 4 at 8 pm on PBS. Nova's monument to the most astonishing engineering feat of antiquity was built under the guidance of Mark Lehner, of the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, and Roger Hopkins, a Massachusetts stonemason and landscape designer.
Lehner, who cuts a dashing figure as an archaeologist and Egyptologist, spent fifteen years studying the pyramids and monuments of the Giza plateau. Hopkins, a practical New Englander, is an experienced artisan who knows his stone. The two make a perfect complementary pair for discovering what really works in attempting to create a pyramid in exactly the way it was done over 4,000 years ago albeit one that is not quite so high as its ancient predecessors.
At the start of filming, Nova's construction site was an empty square of sand with 189 newly quarried stone blocks lying about. Nearby, the Great Pyramid of Giza, containing over two million stones, loomed as a daunting inspiration. Nova had three weeks to build a structure about eighteen feet high, versus the estimated twenty-three years that it took to build the towering Great Pyramid, 480 feet high. Hopkins, who directed a construction team of forty-five Egyptian stonemasons and laborers, had much more than a deadline to deal with. He had to endure several notable pyramid theorists whom Nova had invited to demonstrate their pet ideas.
One of the Great Pyramid's most impressive properties is the precision with which it is aligned to the points of the compass. The ancient Egyptians had only crude surveying tools. How did they achieve such accuracy? Pyramid enthusiast Martin Isler of Wilton, Connecticut believes that "they used the simplest tools to do the most complex things." Isler deftly shows how a few measurements with a shadow stick can locate true north.
Isler's demonstration of how the ancient Egyptians may have raised massive stones is not quite so deft. He proposes that stones were levered up, one by one, without the aid of a ramp. The idea is elegant on paper but hair raising in practice. "I've been waiting for that block to get up there for the last couple of hours," remarks Hopkins, as Isler and the construction team struggle with a teetering 2,000 pound block. "I don't think it's going to be a very practical way of bringing blocks up, except in cases where we're absolutely walled off."
French chemist Joseph Davidovits, who believes that blocks were cast in place with concrete (doing away with ramps and levers), also meets with skepticism. If the blocks were cast in place with wooden forms, "why are there tool marks?". Lehner asks pointedly. "Ah, this is another problem that I have to tackle," concedes a still game Davidovits.
In the midst of all the theorizing, Nova's pyramid manages to get built, providing provocative insight into ancient construction methods in the process. Hopkins supplies the most realistic moment, sounding exactly as the foreman of 4,000 years ago must have, when he grouses about his consultants, "They've got some good ideas, they've got some ideas that are full of hot air, but I've got a completion date to fight with."
IRVING M. FOGEL is founder and president of Fogel and Associates, a New York City based consulting engineering and project management firm, serving as construction claims consultants to architects, engineers, owners, contractors, insurance companies, government agencies and attorneys. The firm also offers other construction consulting services.
Predict Continued Housing Rebound
ANOTHER positive prediction concerning the housing market was made by William D. Toal, chief economist of the Portland Cement Association in his latest forecast of economic trends and construction activity.
Toal predicts that the interest-sensitive area of housing should continue to rebound. He says the fundamentals are in place for home-building's recovery, particularly in single family construction.
Lower interest rates have put housing affordability at its highest levels in a decade, and pent up demand is driving a surge in housing.
Toal predicts an increase to 1.2-million starts by 1994.