For almost 15 years I have said that of 100 civil or structural engineers there are less than 5 that truly understand the repair, restoration, strengthening and stabilization of exiting projects using Stabilize-In-Place principles rather than a Rip-Out-And-Replace mentality (SIP vs ROAR). I have now come to the conclusion that the same can be said of restoration contractors regarding the acceptance and implementation of new concepts especially when they are not specified but rater fill a need or provide a better way on a project.
Recently I had the please of providing a material on a project, to a major restoration contractor, where I had tried to get them to consider using for almost 4 years resulting in the comment “I wouldn’t use anything else!” which was the subject of my last article. On another project I worked on a spec for a new rehabilitation concept for almost two years and am now waiting for it to come out to bid while just this past week I was called out on a similar project, suggested this same concept then; 1) The contractor immediately called his structural engineer, 2) The concept was accepted immediately by the structural engineer even though it was his first introduction to the product/process, 3) The change in product/process will be installed within the next two weeks and again, also reinforces the validity of the SIP vs ROAR concept, resulting in considerable savings in both time and money while maintaining the structural integrity and fabric of the structure.
When the right Means, Methods and/or Material, even new in concept, are proposed for a particular repair or stabilization application, time should not be the limiting factor rather implementation of the item proposed when it is sound, based a structural, process, sustainability and/or cost basis.
