PRESIDENT’S LETTER

The Tipping Point for New Homes Over Existing
Nick Brown, Merlex

Used to be homebuilders found buyers who wanted the new-car smell of a new home with community parks and the ability to customize features, like an inlaw suite or home office or granite countertops. Today’ís homebuilder has more advantages over existing housing stock than ever before, as I learned from a seminar I attended of the American Society of Building Designers.

We have reached the tipping point where existing homes should not be able to compete with a new home. Think of all these features possible with new homes that existing homes can’t touch:

• No gas and electric bills (Zero Net Energy)
• Luxurious comfort from even heat distribution, elimination of harmful chemicals
• Proper site orientation and shading to allow sunlight in where and when it’s needed
• Open floor plans
• No moisture problems from a new, well-designed building envelope
• Community amenities made famous by The Irvine Company, such as parks, pools, and new schools
• Pleasing planned communities with open spaces, designed to encourage social interaction
• Home automation for the technophile buyers

Existing homes may have a few advantages of their own — locations closer in to jobs and fire-sale prices for the moment. But as Sam Rashkin demonstrated in his passionate blueprint for the building industry, the ownership cost of a new home, after taking into account reduced utility bills and maintenance expenses, is surely lower than that of even a short-sold existing home. Sam is head of the U.S. EPA’s energy efficiency program called Energy Star for Homes, and has contributed to USGBC, NAHB, and DoE programs with energy efficiency goals. Sam made an impassioned case for the homebuilding industry to seize the moment, elevate their craft, and permanently leave existing housing stock in the dust.

There is much work to be done. Many homebuilders are still focused largely on getting low bids and trying to sell directly against these distressed existing homes. As a result, there is pressure on subcontractors not to innovate, but to focus mainly on keeping costs low. And material manufacturers feel that pressure as tight margins, commoditization of our products, and more tough times ahead.

But there are good signs if you look hard enough. Several major homebuilders in the Greater LA area (Meritage, Woodside, KB) are using continuous insulation stucco systems on all their projects, and highlighting that feature in selling their homes. Of course, these “one coat stucco” systems have been in use in other markets for decades, but Title 24 and the demand for “greener” homes have driven their adoption in Southern California in recent years. California’s Title 24 energy code ratchets up the energy efficiency mandate on homes in 2014, with additional code cycles set to take effect in 2017 and 2020. By 2020, California’s Title 24 will likely mandate Zero Net Energy home performance. Forward-thinking homebuilders will get there sooner and establish their brands as synonymous with energy-efficiency, much as Volvo has with car safety. As stucco manufacturers and allied companies, the challenge for us is to provide products and technical assistance to encourage this metamorphosis of our industry.

As the homebuilders go, so go our businesses. If we can help builders seize this opportunity now, when we’re at the tipping point, we can strengthen our industry, decommoditize our products, and gain some competitive advantage for our own companies.

Sam Rashkin’ís book is titled Retooling the U.S. Housing Industry, and is a great place to start this process for your company.

 

Lath & Plaster Committee

The Lath & Plaster committee is off to a great start. SMA took the last quarter of 2012 to develop this committee, create marketing materials, revise old bylaws and bring them current, and at the same time expanded bylaws to incorporate the Lath & Plaster folks into the SMA.

Our new and very expanded benefits of both SMA and Lath & Plaster follow below. Any L&P company will benefit widely from joining. Networking, topics of great interest at our meetings, various benefits such as insurance, legal, HR, environmental services at member rates — and in some cases initial consultations are at no cost. See below all the new benefits of the SMA.

We encourage you to attend a meeting and see what we are about. Please remember, as a non-member you may only attend 2x in a year. It is to your benefit to become a member of SMA or the Lath & Plaster Committee of SMA.
Please view/download the following [.pdf] flyers describing the Benefits of Membership in the Stucco Manufacturers Association and the Lath & Plaster Committee:

• About Us
• Knowledge Is Power
• OSHA Compliance
• Human Resources Management
• Member Insurance Options
• Environmental Consulting
• Legal Representation
• SMA Benefits of Membership Brochure and Application
• Lath & Plaster Committee Benefits of Membership Brochure and Application

Executive Director’s Report

Norma S. Fox, Executive Director

SMA is off to a very good year. We welcomed two new members to the Board of Directors — Jim Oberdank of Res Wall who is chairing our Lath & Plaster Committee and Buck Buchanan of ParexUSA, Inc. Both of these gentlemen bring years of industry experience and ideas that will move SMA to the next level. I am very excited about that. By bringing the Lath & Plaster folks on board and working toward building a committee structure for the board of directors, we will operate at the next level.

SMA will miss Ted Jones on our board of directors. Ted gave 100% of himself to make SMA what it is. He has either been in charge of projects or worked with others in creating many of our Technical Papers and DVDs. I personally will miss Ted and wish him all the very best in his partial retirement. He has worked hard enough and deserves it. Now Ted and his wife can put the top down on the car and see the country.

Now that we have many more benefits to offer to all members, we have started a membership drive to increase our numbers in all categories of membership. If you would like one of our new Benefits brochures, please let me know and I will mail it to you. The actual inside pages are in this newsletter for you to see sooner. We have three remaining excellent meetings planned for this year and hope both potential members and current members attend. Can’t beat the food at Antonello’s for lunch.

Mark September 19 on your calendars for our first SMA golf tournament. We will tee off at noon at Strawberry Farms in Irvine, CA. We expect a full house for the tournament with excellent raffle items. Check our ‘Calendar & Events’ page for sponsorship opportunities and additional details.

SMA Releases New Video on YouTube!

SMA releases first of many YouTube videos on Crack Prevention Systems. View this video to see ways to cut cracking of exterior stucco by 90%. The video runs for seven minutes where you will see ways to eliminate future cracks. Base coats are designed for flexibility and bridging small cracking in brown coat. Polymers are a key ingredient, less brittle with more flexibility. Thicker mesh can also be used for more crack and impact resistance, although it requires a thicker base coat. Side benefits of base and mesh include flatter wall, increased water resistance, even suction to minimize color variation in finish coat. Base and mesh also can be used to recolor existing stucco. Proper execution of lath, scratch, and brown also help minimize cracking. This system is ideal for smooth finishes, but also helps with textured cement finishes, acrylic finishes, and lime finishes. Click the image in the right sidebar to view on SMA’s YouTube channel.

 

Feature Articles

Cal/OSHA Heat Regulations – Sec. 3395

John McCoy, Quality Wall Systems DBA Residential Wall Systems

Cal/OSHA is reminding all employers to protect their outdoor workers from the risk of heat illness, as temperatures in the Central Valley and parts of Southern California have recently been in the 90s and summer temps are just around the corner.

Cal/OSHA takes a comprehensive approach to preventing heat illness among outdoor workers, with an award-winning heat illness prevention campaign that includes enforcement of heat regulations as well as outreach and training for California’s employers and workers. “Heat illness can easily be prevented,” says Cal/OSHA Chief Ellen Widess. “What’s essential is access to adequate water, rest and shade, training for workers and supervisors on the signs and symptoms of heat illness, and ensuring emergency response procedures are in place in case of a medical emergency.”

California’s heat regulation (sec. 3395) requires all employers with outdoor workers take basic steps to protect outdoor workers including:

• Train all employees and supervisors about heat illness prevention.
• Provide plenty of cool, fresh potable water and encourage employees to drink water frequently.
• Provide a shaded area for workers to take a cool down recovery break(s).
• Ensure that workers are given enough time to get used to the heat, or “acclimatize” (adjust) to the heat. This is especially important for new workers — and always during a sudden spike in temperatures — and can mean the difference between life and death.
• Prepare an emergency heat illness prevention plan for the worksite, with training for supervisors and workers on the steps to take if a worker shows signs or symptoms of heat illness.

Special “High Heat” procedures are also required when temperatures reach 95 degrees and workers are at greater risk. At these times, supervisors must take extra precautions:

• Observe workers for signs and symptoms of heat illness.
• Remind workers to drink water frequently.
• Provide close supervision (monitor) of workers in the first 14 days of their employment (to ensure acclimatization).

It is important to remember that every worker is a unique individual and will react differently to heat depending on age, health, medications, type of work, exposure and degree of heat. 80 degrees F can be high heat for some while other individuals and body types may not experience high heat until 90 degrees F or more.

Cal/OSHA consultation will conduct free worksite inspections in outdoor industries such as construction-especially in heat season. A Heat Illness Prevention e-tool is available on Cal/OSHA’s website (http://www.dir.ca.gov/DOSH/HeatIllnessInfo.html). Cal/OSHA’s Consultation Program provides free and voluntary assistance to employers and employee organizations to improve their health and safety programs. For assistance from the Cal/OSHA Consultation Program, employers can call (800) 963-9424.

Significant New California Construction Indemnity Law Changes

With respect to most private and public works construction subcontracts entered into on or after January 1, 2013, changes to existing laws (Civil Code ß 2782) and a new law (Civil Code ß 2782.05) will limit contractual indemnity provided by subcontractors to general contractors, construction managers and other subcontractors.

In general, the new laws prohibit requiring subcontractors to indemnify most parties to the extent that claims:

1. arise out of the active negligence, sole negligence or willful misconduct of general contractors, construction managers and other subcontractors;
2. are for defects in designs furnished by those persons; or
3. do not arise out of the scope of work of the subcontract.

These changes do not apply to residential projects, which have other rules and limitations on indemnification agreements. Many construction contracts will need to be revised as a result of these changes in the law.

The Un-comfort Zone

Robert Wilson, Author/Speaker/Innovation Consultant

What motivates you? That’s the question I’d like to ask in this inaugural column on motivation. Are you motivated by fame, fortune or fear. Or is it something deeper that fans the flames inside of you. Perhaps you are like Jeanne Louise Calment whose burning desire enabled her to do something that no other human being has done before. A feat so spectacular that it generated headlines around the globe, got her a role in a motion picture, and landed her in the Guinness Book of World Records. A record that has yet to be beaten.

Jeanne Louise, however, did not initially motivate herself. It was someone else who drew the line in the sand. But, it became a line she was determined to cross.

In motivation we talk about getting outside of one’s comfort zone.
It is only when we are uncomfortable that we begin to get motivated.
Usually to get back into our comfort zone as quickly as possible.

Born into the family of a middle-class store owner, Calment was firmly entrenched in her comfort zone. At age 21 she married a wealthy store owner and lived a life of leisure. She pursued her hobbies of tennis, the opera, and sampling France’s famous wines. Over the years she met Impressionist painter Van Gogh; watched the erection of the Eiffel Tower; and attended the funeral of Hunchback of Notre Dame, author, Victor Hugo.

Twenty years after her husband passed away, she had reached a stage in life where she had pretty much achieved everything that she was going to achieve. Then along came a lawyer. The lawyer made Jeanne Louise a proposition. She accepted it. He thought he was simply making a smart business deal. Inadvertently he gave her a goal. It took her 30 years to achieve it, but achieve it she did.

Are you willing to keep your goals alive for 30 years? At what point do you give up? Thomas Edison never gave up, instead he said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Winston Churchill during the bleakest hours of World War II kept an entire country motivated with this die-hard conviction: “We shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches… in the fields and in the streets… we shall never surrender.”

Many of us give up too soon because we set limits on our goals. Achieving a goal begins with determination. Then it’s just a matter of our giving them attention and energy.

When Jeanne Louise was 92 years old, attorney Francois Raffray, age 47, offered to pay her 500 per month (a fortune in 1967) for the rest of her life, if she would leave her house to him in her will. According to the actuarial tables it was a great deal. Here was an heir-less woman who had survived her husband, children, and grandchildren. A woman who was just biding her time with nothing to live for. That is until Raffray came along and offered up the “sucker-bet” that she would soon die. It was motivation enough for Jeanne, who was determined to beat the lawyer. Thirty years later, Raffray became the “sucker” when he passed away first at age 77.

When asked about this by the press, Calment simply said, “In life, one sometimes makes bad deals.” Having met her goal, Jeanne passed away five months later. But on her way to this end, she achieved something else: at 122 years old, she became the oldest person to have ever lived.

Robert Evans Wilson, Jr. is an author, speaker/humorist, and innovation consultant. He works with companies that want to be more competitive and with people who want to think like innovators. Robert is also the author of the humorous children’s book: The Annoying Ghost Kid. For more information on Robert, please visit www.jumpstartyourmeeting.com.

Member News – Merlex Celebrates 50th Anniversary

Merlex Stucco, the leading manufacturer in stucco and waterproofing products in Orange, CA, is celebrating 50 years in business this year.

Merlex Stucco is a small, family owned and operated business built from the Midwestern tenacity of its founder, Merle VerBurg, who opened its door in 1963 taking over the historic Olive Hillside Groves packing plant that built the brick building in 1928 after the original wooden structure was built in 1914 and burned down in 1927. In 1992, Merle passed away after suffering from ALS, and his daughter Susan VerBurg, took over the company and has carried on his legacy ever since.

Even though sales have doubled, the staff has increased, new products have been formulated, and Vero, a subsidiary of Merlex offering high-end Venetian plaster products, which opened in 2001 under Susan VerBurg’s leadership, she credits the company’s foundation, reputation, and work ethic to her father.

With our dedicated staff of knowledgeable employees, Merlex offers the finest stucco products, paired with superior service and reliable, on-time delivery. We believe that a small business serves its customer better than larger competitors because we all meet directly with our customers and arenít hidden away in a multi-layered corporate structure. We hear about your problems, what’s working and what’s not, and we get to know our customers better. We tailor our service to you, the customer, so that we are sure we meet your needs with the best possible products and prompt, value-added support.

At Merlex, sustainability is more than an industry trend; it’s a shared passion. We see it as an energizing challenge ñ to create new products that make better use of natural resources and improve the built environment. You’ll see this focus in our products, and you’ll hear it from our sales representatives. We are well-informed about green building programs and regulations, and we are excited to apply our knowledge to your project.
Having been a child of the Depression and a World War II prisoner of war, Merle VerBurg was thrifty, hard-working and a stickler for quality products and customer service. To this day, Merlex continues to perfect its color matching and customer service with the recent addition of a new waiting lounge showcasing products, samples, and even some historical memorabilia. Merlex has been part of the community for so many years and has been an integral part of the area’s growth, including donating its time to Olive Elementary’s tutoring program and nurturing relationships with the citizens of Olive as well as the surrounding businesses.

The anniversary celebration will take place on Thursday, March 21 from 11:30am – 6pm, and will include plant tours, food truck, giveaways, and more.

Jerry Pozo Leads a Double Life

Jerry Pozo of BMI Products in Milpitas, CA, has a double life. Jerry is an expert on exterior plaster systems, but you may not be aware that Jerry has a second identity — as the Reverend Peter Y. Cool, a circuit-riding “Saddlebag” preacher of the California gold rush era.

After moving to gold country, Jerry became curious about the origins and improbable name of his small town, Cool. After some research he learned about its namesake. Since then, Jerry has been re-enacting Rev. Cool at James Marshall Gold Discovery Historic Park in Coloma and at a variety of regional events. He is a member of the Auburn Parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West, which stages these re-enactments.