Working with Exotic Materials

Chances are you have a number of materials that you work with regularly on the job site. These are likely your standard go-to materials because you know them inside out; you know exactly how they perform and can work with them on a job site with confidence. What do you do when a customer wants something a bit different, though? If they want exotic materials that you’re not used to, how do you manage the job without potentially wasting money on expensive materials that could get damaged or even ruined if installed incorrectly?

While it might sound like a pretty precarious situation, most exotic materials aren’t actually that bad, provided you do your homework. Since the pressure’s on to get it right the first time, here are a few things to keep in mind when you’re working with exotic materials.

Consider Material Safety

When working with most materials, skin and eye protection is a must. Breathing protection is pretty common on the job site as well. If you’re working with exotic materials for the first time, though, be sure to put an extra focus on researching the safety of what you’re using and getting all of the right safety gear in place. Some unfinished exotic woods and other exotic materials can contain natural compounds that will irritate the skin, eyes and throat if they come in contact.

Learn About Finishing

You might not realize it, but the finishes you commonly use on the job site might absolutely ruin that expensive exotic wood your customer requested. This is because a lot of oil-based finishes react with the wood surface and some exotic hardwoods contain different chemical compounds within them than the woods you’re likely accustomed to. Find out whether you can use oil-based finishes or other common finishing compounds on the exotic materials you’re working with before you start applying. If you can’t use them, you may need to stock up on shellac or other finishing products that will work much better with the new material.

Take Weight into Account

One common experience with contractors working with exotic materials for the first time is to be surprised at how much some of them weigh. Unfortunately, they don’t necessarily realize this until they’re already on the job site. The added weight of some of these materials means that they sometimes need a little extra support behind them. Investigate weights beforehand so that you have all of the mounting supplies and supporting materials on hand before the job starts.

Measure Twice… Twice

Any waste on the job site is wasted money. When you’re wasting expensive exotics, though, the cost you have to absorb can really sting. Depending on the material you’re working with, it may not hurt to add an extra round of measurements before making cuts. Don’t just measure the material you’re cutting, either; take the time to measure the area it will fill to double-check its dimensions and ensure that you won’t be left with a cut piece that doesn’t exactly match.

Watch That Surface

When a customer wants exotic materials for a job, it’s almost always because they want to capture the look of those materials. This can be a headache if the nails or screws you would normally use to install similar materials stand out from that look. Even worse, in some cases, the tools you use can actually scratch a fine surface and leave it visibly marred. Consider heavy-strength glues or other alternatives for installation to preserve the unique look of the materials you’re using.

Have you ever worked with any exotic materials before? What were they, and did you think they were hard to work with?

Working with Exotic Materials syndicated from http://www.constructionbuilding.net/

Working with Exotic Materials syndicated from http://www.constructionbuilding.net/

BKT at ConExpo 2020: EM 936 Super tire for excavators, telehandlers

BKT EM 936 Super

BKT’s EM 936 Super, to be shown in the company’s Central Hall booth C22705 at ConExpo 2020, has been specifically designed for excavators and telehandlers in digging and loading operations as well as transport applications.

With an 8 to 10 percent increase in tread width, the tire is designed for stability and riding comfort. It also ensures a high level of handling comfort and provides excellent traction even under heavy-duty service conditions, the company says.

Other BKT products to be displayed include the Mud Power HD, Earthmax SR 25 PLUS (G-2/L-2), Lift Star and the Earthmax SR 32 and SR 45 M.

(You can see more of what OEMs have in store for ConExpo 2020 in our show preview page by clicking here.)

BKT at ConExpo 2020: EM 936 Super tire for excavators, telehandlers syndicated from http://www.constructionbuilding.net/

BKT at ConExpo 2020: EM 936 Super tire for excavators, telehandlers syndicated from http://www.constructionbuilding.net/

Improve Your Bookkeeping for 2020

January is over – so are most of your New Year’s resolutions.  It’s ok, it happens.  Now that you’ve shed those fantasies you resolved to accomplish during a holiday season full of too much food, too much drink and far too much celebrating, you can focus on actually making changes that stick.  When it comes to your business, the best change you can make this year is creating an ecosystem that improves the pain of preparing your small business taxes when 2020 closes.

This year, set yourself up for success by improving your bookkeeping.

Improving Bookkeeping Habits

Bookkeeping can be tedious when you’ve got a lot of receipts, several subcontractors and other random bills to pay, but it doesn’t have to be chaotic.  Designing a bookkeeping system that helps you stay organized is the key and, unless you’re the rare contractor who has way more work in the winter than the rest of the year, now is the time for it.

Tracking all the bits of paper and transactions that you handle during the week is the foundation of bookkeeping for contractors.  That’s why it’s so important to have a system for receipt entry, storage, and retrieval.  When it comes time to file your taxes, you’ll have all those expenses at your fingertips, rather than having to sort through a bucket or box of paper slips you’ve accumulated all year.

Make sure you devote at least one day a week to handling your bookkeeping, that way you don’t get overwhelmed by it all.  Once a week might demand an hour of your time, rather than the hours or days of painful work in one go.

Using a software package that allows you to categorize income and expenses, as well as preserving an image of the actual original receipts and invoices can be game-changing.  Scan those images in religiously, categorize them immediately and file them away in case the IRS shows up wanting to see your originals.

Breaking Out the Tech

Beyond the bookkeeping software, there are lots of tools to help you track the pieces of information that will be required for your business throughout the year.  For example, mileage tracking apps are abundant and they’re easy to use on a smartphone, giving accurate mileage reports based on GPS data.  Many are designed to not only be used by you, as a business owner, but also for your employees or contractors who may require mileage reimbursements.

A few recommended apps that handle mileage tracking and more:

Everlance.  Not only does it stop and start automatically as your car moves, allowing you to categorize each leg of your trip as personal or business, but it can also keep track of business expenses and images of receipts, too, to help you get into a great bookkeeping habit this year.

Stride.  It’s all about car-related expenses, from those miles to things like car washes, parking fees, and tolls.  When it’s time for taxes, it’ll generate an IRS-friendly report you can then take to your accountant or use to prepare your own return.

Hurdlr.  Do you want a more real-time picture of where you are with your mileage and expenses?  Hurdlr might be the answer.  It can link to your bank account, track your mileage automatically and is available on both Android and iOS, so there’s no excuse to not be up to date on your mileage and expense reports.

What changes have you made to your bookkeeping practices to make it easier to swallow?  Let’s talk preparing for tax season all year long in the comments!

Improve Your Bookkeeping for 2020 syndicated from http://www.constructionbuilding.net/

Improve Your Bookkeeping for 2020 syndicated from http://www.constructionbuilding.net/

Ritchie Bros. Asset Solutions tackles used equipment inventory management, with integrated pricing data

The largest global seller of used equipment is now offering a broader suite of services centered around asset disposition.

Ritchie Bros. Asset Solutions provides a suite of collaborative tools to give users real-time control over their inventory and optimize their sales of used equipment, the company says. This includes a cloud-based inventory management system, inspection app, personalized ecommerce sites, data analytics and valuation tools.

“We give our customers access to what is the largest real transaction marketplace data set in the world,” says Matt Ackley, chief marketing officer, GM platform business, senior vice president product management for Ritchie. “It’s a full suite of software, data and services that helps companies manage the disposal of used equipment.”

Features include:

• An inventory management system that allows a company’s inventory to be managed in one place. It is also easily integrated with existing systems, according to Ritchie. Users can choose to trade within a network or sell to the public.
• Using its summarized auction activity, users get insights on current market prices, volumes and conditions, equipment age and usage. Users can also track trends as assets age and receive input into Fair Market Values and Forced Liquidation Values.
• Access to multiple sales channels, both within the Ritchie divisions and third-party vendors. Ritchie also offers branded e-commerce websites, which can be either public or private. “We now power over a thousand dealer websites around the world, including catused.cat.com,” Ackley says.
• Users can capture and publish detailed inspections with photos using a mobile device. They can also request a Ritchie machine inspection.

Scope increases

Launched in late 2018, RB Asset Solutions has been honing its offering by working with large customers in a number of sectors, including rental, dealers, oil and gas, agriculture, construction, transportation and government.

While its focus to date has been on larger clients, the division will start to broaden their attention to smaller entities this year. “You’re seeing everyone become more sophisticated about the use of data and the tools they need to manage their equipment,” Ackley says. “Between all of our services we’ve sold more used equipment online and offline than anyone else and we want to make that expertise available to others, whether they decide to sell it with us or sell it on their own.”

Ackley says he hopes users are lured away from their present-day spreadsheets now employed to manage assets. The RB Asset Solutions system easily integrates with a client’s existing system, he says, and can be used with internal workflow protocols. “We offer a solution that can be easily set up within a client’s workflow and they can have all of their pricing information and machine photos in one place,” Ackley says. “And when it comes time to sell it, they can use the platform to send it to the marketplace of their choice, whether it’s RB or a third-party marketplace.”

An example of one present user is Quanta Services, a global utility, pipeline, energy and communications contractor that signed up for the RB Asset Solution’s inventory management system.  Explains David Meisel, executive vice president, operations: “At any given time, we have thousands of pieces of equipment on jobs all over North America. We can now easily redeploy assets across jobs and subsidiaries before we go looking outside our company to purchase new equipment.” The result, says Meisel, is enhanced efficiencies and increased fleet utilization.

What’s your equipment worth?

“Everyone wants to know that their equipment is worth, and how to incorporate the latest pricing information directly into their inventory management system,” Ackley says. “We’re working on incorporating more pricing information at the equipment level. If you look at a particular asset, you’ll get pricing information on it.” One goal in the coming year is to take RB’s data set and incorporate machine learning algorithms to better predict the price a machine can attain at a certain time.

The platform can be customized to accept internal system and data. “It allows you to import your own third-party pricing data so that you can see a range of retail and auction prices,” Ackley says. “We want to be their trusted advisor; we just give them the information and the tools and let them make the decisions.”

RB Asset Solutions announced in December that the division now includes RB Inspection Services, an evolution of the former IronPlanet IronClad Assurance equipment inspection service, acquired when Ritchie bought IronPlanet in 2016. In 2019 Ritchie says it inspected more than 215,000 items, taking 7.5 million photos and analyzing approximately 30,000 oil samples. It now has more than 300 fulltime and contract inspectors.

RB Inspection Services are offered to third parties. “Even if you’re selling the item yourself, you can use our inspector network to do an IronPlanet-type inspection and then use that report to sell it,” Ackley says.

Ritchie Bros. Asset Solutions tackles used equipment inventory management, with integrated pricing data syndicated from http://www.constructionbuilding.net/

Ritchie Bros. Asset Solutions tackles used equipment inventory management, with integrated pricing data syndicated from http://www.constructionbuilding.net/

The Importance Of walkie talkies

Every workplace will have health and safety procedures with rules and regulations to follow because employees and employers must be able to work in safe environments. However, some workplaces are far more dangerous than others and require extra measures; construction sites are considered one of the more dangerous working environments hence why we see workers in their high visibility vests and hard hats. There are, of course, many other safety aspects that need to be considered when working under such extreme conditions amongst hazardous surroundings. Amongst them are safety harnesses to prevent falls and equipment pieces that have emergency stop buttons to try to lessen the chances of anything untoward happening to an employer.

 

Communication matters

One of the most important ways to help keep workers safe is good communication. When working on a construction site, this can be problematic since they are generally very loud and hectic with lots of things going on at once. Walkie Talkies are ideal for such environments since they allow good solid communications, enabling easy access and reach between workers.

 

Emergency calls

Emergency situations happen more often on construction sites than most other working environments due to the dangerous surroundings. If something happens, alerts must be sent to workers pronto. And this is where two-way radios are quite effective; they can be used for one on one conversation or group chats, they are also fast and highly reliable, hence why they are also used on the battlefield of a war zone by Special Forces.

Although mobile phones can do pretty much the same thing, they are not as effective in these particular environments since background noise can overshadow ring tones and using phones requires more time and effort to find numbers, etc. It can even be dangerous to answering a mobile phone while up on a lather or driving a vehicle. Walkie Talkies, however, are fast and precise, they are ready to work with a single touch of a button, and they can operate by drowning out background noise.

 

Easy reach

Construction sites can be a nightmare when trying to locate individual peers or even the whole crew at the same time. It’s virtually impossible when you’ve got workers on all different levels, some up ladders, some operating noisy machinery etc. Workers are usually spread out, and construction sites tend to be quite large, so a good means of communications that enables all workers to be reached fast and efficiently is a godsend. Two ways radio control is ideal for such situations; it cuts time and sends out instant assessable alerts amongst the crew.

 

The Importance Of walkie talkies syndicated from http://www.constructionbuilding.net/

The Importance Of walkie talkies syndicated from http://www.constructionbuilding.net/

The Importance of Researching Your Business Name

One of the most important things you can do when starting a business is to thoroughly research your business name. It will be on all your advertising, legal documents and equipment. It’s how people will find you, rate you and pay you. And in the event that you do choose a name and later regret it, it can be an absolute nightmare to change it. So, start off right and devote some time to making sure the business name you’ve chosen is one you won’t regret.

Once you have a list of potential business names, do a thorough internet search, keeping these things in mind:

Does Someone Else Already Use the Name?

Obviously, if a business with the name already exists, it might not be a good one to use. You want your name to be unique enough that customers can find you when they do a Google search. If “Dave Can Fix It” is already at the top of the search results for an electrician in Texas, it can be very difficult for you to get any traction on Google with that name, even if you’re located in Delaware. If you’re set on a name that’s used somewhere else, consider adapting it by adding the city or state where you’re located.

It might be difficult to find a completely unique name, but as long as customers can find you online and know that you’re the business they’re looking for, the name will probably work just fine.

Is There a Similar Name That Pops Up That You Don’t Want to be Associated With?

Be careful, even if your exact business name isn’t taken, that the first page of Google results and images doesn’t bring up anything that concerns you. If you’re considering “Renovations by Mac,” but “Max Renovates” in the next state over was just caught swindling customers out of thousands, you might want to rethink your new business’s name. The internet never forgets. Even though the name isn’t exactly the same, if customers see something questionable when they search for you, they may get confused or write you off before giving you a chance.

Similarly, if a business with a very similar name comes up, see if they have reviews on Google, Facebook, Yelp, etc. If someone is consistently getting bad reviews, you might want to avoid having a similar name. There’s a chance that your customers will get mixed up and think you have bad reviews, or worse, that the other business’s customers will accidentally find your business and leave you a terrible rating.

Are the URL and Social Media Available?

This is a little bit less of a big deal, but you want your website to be easy to find and remember, and using the business name is the best way to fit both criteria. Just type YourBusinessName.com into a search bar and see what comes up. If the URL isn’t available, you could try a few variations (such as adding your city’s name or using .biz) and see if you find something that’s not taken.

It’s also a good idea to search the name on Facebook if you plan to use social media in any way (you should have a Facebook business page at the very least). See if a similar business has the Facebook business page you would want to use and look for variations if necessary. Facebook is an increasingly popular platform to market businesses, so making sure the page name is available and grabbing it as soon as you can will help you start off strong, even if you don’t plan to use it for a while.

Do you Have Legal Rights to the Name?

Once you’ve got a name that will give you good online traction and not bring up anything to worry your customers, you’ll want to ensure you’re all set on the legal front. Do a Google search for “secretary of state [Your State] business search” to find the business name database in your state. You might have to click through a few pages, but this is where you can find out if a name is already registered in your state.

You’ll also want to search the U.S. Patent and Trademark website for the name. Even if the name is taken, you may still be able to use it if it’s in a different state and industry.

The Bottom Line

Naming your business is important, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to ensure the name you’ve chosen will work well for you. The Internet has made this incredibly easy, so take advantage of the resources available and be certain you have a name you’ll be proud to use!

How did you decide what to name your business? Have you heard any horror stories about a business that didn’t think through their name before registering it? We’d love to hear in the comments!

The Importance of Researching Your Business Name syndicated from http://www.constructionbuilding.net/

The Importance of Researching Your Business Name syndicated from http://www.constructionbuilding.net/

TyBot is an autonomous rebar tying robot that delivers huge productivity gains (VIDEO)

“This is not science fiction,” said Advanced Construction Robotics co-founder and president Jeremy Searock. He’s near the back of the Las Vegas Convention Center’s North Hall and standing in front of TyBot, speaking to show attendees gathered in curiosity around his machine. As the name suggests it’s an autonomous rebar tying robot.

“This is a real product that you can buy right now.”

Check out all the details and see the TyBot in action in this video, or read on below.

While autonomy is still in its infancy and has yet to prove to most people that it can be scaled in the real world, Searock compares the work being done there and in robotics to the dawn of a new industrial revolution. He says that construction work in particular is on the verge of a massive transformation thanks to robotics.

“The original Industrial Revolution gave us modern construction equipment through electricity, motors and combustion engines,” Searock says. “You did work the way you did it before, but you added electricity and engines in order to do the same business in a different way. That led to a huge disruption in the world for the better.

“I’m sure none of you guys want to go back to hand shoveling foundations,” he says to laughter and nodding heads.

Apart from getting the TyBot into position to start its work and telling it what direction you’d like it to work in (all done through a small remote control panel), the robot works completely autonomously.

In fact, the machine doesn’t even use BIM or plans of any sort to do its work. It can actually see the rebar using computer vision just like a human would see it.

ACR says the robot is capable of approximately 1,000 ties each hour, and can do the same amount of work that would normally require a crew of 6-8 workers. It has primarily been targeted at the bridge industry, but it’s now ready for any horizontal rebar work, Searock says.

So what’s it cost? Searock told us the machine is available for lease or for purchase. And while the leasing terms can be negotiated based on job size and other factors, Searock says a purchase will set you back $796,000. The good news is that most sites only need one.

Plus, because of the huge increases in productivity and the cost savings it provides, Searock says the typical return on investment companies are seeing is only around one year.

But ACR isn’t stopping at rebar tying. Searock tells us that the company plans to release another robot called IronBot that will carry and place rebar in 2021.

Searock says sites that use IronBot to install rebar and TyBot to tie, will see a 400-percent productivity increase, allowing you to do twice the amount of work in half the time.

Those are huge gains in an industry that Searock correctly notes has consistently ranked near the bottom among all major industries when it comes to productivity.

TyBot is an autonomous rebar tying robot that delivers huge productivity gains (VIDEO) syndicated from http://www.constructionbuilding.net/

TyBot is an autonomous rebar tying robot that delivers huge productivity gains (VIDEO) syndicated from http://www.constructionbuilding.net/