][<en

Speaking of jobs how is Spring Street coming along?

Ken

-----Original Message-----
From: The Louis Sullivan Smiley-Face Listserv!
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gabriel
Orgrease
Sent: Monday, April 09, 2007 7:28 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [BP] my mixer can beat up your mixer

Mike,

I'm laughing.

I am a great fan of prebagged mortar mixes. I am a strong proponent of 
idiot proofing of materials. That said, one of my personal career 
decisions that has made a big difference for me is to never work for 
anyone that cannot read the backside of a cement bag. You may note that 
I do not extend that to the ability to read an MSDS sheet or to being 
able to delve into Ken's 50 books on the esoterics of 19th century 
American mortar. I had a brother-in-law one time who liked to read tax 
code... we came up with a theory that the more one is able to read 
terribly boring material (even the electrical code for some) the more 
likely there would be job security and decently high pay.

I have no problem with sand blends, within reason. The example I 
mentioned of 5 sands blended put a real crank on the multiple suppliers 
who did not want to mess with such small quantities. (I had a similar 
problem one time with a composite patch material supplier who could not 
understand why the conservator did not understand that the desired goal 
of Irish green in the mix would greatly reduce the strength of the 
material that the conservator had spec'd and that said supplier was at a 
point of not wanting ever again to talk to the conservator) I put the 
excessive sand blend up there with the dinkbrains that made us clean the 
brickwork 80' in the air with toothbrushes. Sometimes it is all about 
ball busters. I don't think it made one whit of difference to the 
Portland/Type S lime mix if it was one sand blend or another and even 
though it was a church I doubt that god cared. It is not a question of 
'like' it or not, it is a question of project management nightmare to 
the extent that one wants to leave the business and go work for Disney 
in the Bahamas. Before a few folks came along, such as yourself, with 
preblend bag mixes there was the do-it-yourself method. My feeling is 
that if you do not know the do-it-yourself method then you do not know 
your ABC's. Just like if you don't know how to use a chisel and mash hammer.

I remember distinctly at one point I had a particularly fine sandstone 
that I had to composite patch and that I contacted EVERYONE in the 
manufacturing and supply side for composite patching material and not 
anyone was terribly interested in my problem and/or would actually 
listen to what I was telling them was the problem, and we ended up with 
a do-it-yourself mix. We assigned one person, one person only to mix the 
batch and it was to a precise formula with addition of a combination of 
inorganic tints measured out by the tablespoon. The project won several 
awards. You don't need to stress me about being bothered. I would much 
rather the world respond perfectly in a pinch but the fact is when you 
are under pressure to complete a project there is not always time for 
doing the fine politics. In the end I look for solutions that make my 
clients extremely happy to pay their bill and to hire us for the next 
job. Mostly for me it has to do with the integrity and desire of good 
people, decent mechanics who rarely are literate as they are more 
tactile oriented, to do the best that they know how, to take pride in 
the craft of their work. And, before you get anxious, the last composite 
patch job that I did myself I told the architect up front when he wanted 
to know what it would look like I said, "It will look like shit. Do you 
know what shit looks like?" He came back a few months later and told me 
I was right. But, mind you, Edison 45 won the day for me on that one... 
it was not the composite patch material that was the problem, it was the 
crappola overpatched mucked up jumble that we had to use it on. Plus the 
fact that our assignment was to fix up the mess that the very 
prevalently everywhere doing it idiot had left behind when he abandoned 
the job. The client should have thrown the areaway fence away and done 
precast or stone but after 6 years of rehabilitation they were tired to 
death. It was not the money, they simply wanted to get on with living in 
the house.

The majority of maintenance work on masonry buildings happens off the 
charts. To think otherwise is a romantic delusion. You want to capture 
some of that market, I want to catch some of that market, and so do the 
lime guys. We can all work together on that and try for a better way. In 
the mean time we can have these little mock fencing matches.

I don't know how many schools in NYC are being worked on right now but 
if they are $10 M each it has to add up to a hole of money that we don't 
have a whole lot to do with... and I can say that is not natural cement 
I am knocking off the finely crafted letters in the side yard. And it 
ain't lime neither.

The laborer, who thought sheetrock was masonry because it has the word 
'rock' in it, was let go the next day.

I am not in any respect against thinking, I get accused of it all the 
time. Problem is that thinking is not what goes on in a whole lot of the 
construction industry. Even folks that we would think think don't think.

][<en

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