Masonry Magazine December 1999 Page. 7
FROM THE PRESIDENT
Donald Larsen
President,
Mason Contractors
Association of
America
There has been a rumble by some misinformed industry representatives over the new Wall Bracing Guideline that was recently published by the Masonry Wall Bracing Council. A letter campaign has been started by these misguided industry officials protesting the fact that the new guideline will force mason contractors to begin bracing masonry walls under construction, adding to the wall cost of masonry, making us less competitive. Those circulating the letter, however, fail to realize that the new guideline does not establish a new standard to require mason contractors to begin bracing masonry walls. That standard is already in existence and has been in existence for a long time. OSHA already had a standard that requires all masonry walls over eight feet to be "adequately" braced. Unfortunately, many in our industry chose to ignore this OSHA Standard and only now are they being mislead to believe that the MCAA is the culprit in requiring masonry walls to be braced.
Let's go back to what caused the MCAA, The Brick Industry Association, The Portland Cement Association, The National Concrete Masonry Association and numerous representatives of local masonry groups to come together to write the "Standard Practice for Bracing Masonry Walls Under Construction". Several years ago, the masonry industry did not have a real problem with a properly built masonry walls falling. OSHA's focus several years ago had been fall protection and scaffold safety.
Wall Bracing Standard
Protects Both Workers and
Contractors
In addition, the industry's focus had been on OSHA's top ten most cited violations (the majority of which had been paper work violations). However, in the January, 1997 issue of Aberdeen's Masonry Construction Magazine, an unsubstantiated article appeared indicting the industry and mason contractors in general of neglecting its workers. In fact, the article states that contractors did not brace and could not care less if their workers were harmed or killed. Those of you who are responsible mason contractors know how utterly ridiculous that statement was.
With this inflammatory article out, representatives of the Mason Contractors Association of America, the BIA, NCMA and PCA met in Charlotte in February, 1998 to begin mapping out a strategy to deal with this this new perceived problem. Incidentally, the author of the article in Aberdeen's magazine later submitted a $100,000 proposal to the Council For Masonry Research to develop a standard for bracing. A request that the CMR rejected and instead turned to industry associations to handle the bracing issue. So formed the Council For Masonry Wall Bracing.
The new Wall Bracing Standard is a good one. It is not perfect. It is a living document, which will undoubtedly be changed over the years. In fact, some changes are already planned in the foreseeable future. It's purpose was to clarify the existing OSHA Wall Bracing Standard by defining the term "adequate" and I believe that it will help save lives.
It is a shame that ill-informed industry representatives choose to attack the associations who helped to develop this new guideline. It is even more shameful that they would attack the motives of the Wall Bracing Council Chairman, Mario Catani of Dur-O-Wal, who was asked to spearhead this effort. Mario did not push for this, in fact, we pushed him into helping us. Not to help sell bracing for Dayton Superior as some accuse, but to rectify a situation started by someone else.
The industry owes a debt of gratitude to those industry representatives and organizations who worked diligently for over two years to develop this new guideline. To those of you who have never braced masonry walls before, just put this new guideline right next to the old OSHA Standard and continue building walls the way you have been! To those of you who had been following the OSHA standard, you now can use this new document to help guide your bracing decisions.
I would like to thank Mario Catani, Gregg Borchelt, Dennis Graber, Joe Martino, John Smith, Jr., Dan Zechmeister, James O'Connor, Brian Grant, Richard Lauber, John Melander, Chuck Ostrander and Jerry Painter for working so diligently over the past two years in developing this new standard. It is proof to me that on issues that matter, the masonry industry can work together.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER, 1999 7