Mark A. Wallace

Mark A. Wallace's Posts

• Features

  The Nashville Concrete Playoffs

  by Mark A. Wallace

  The Nashville Oilers' new 67,000-seat stadium on the Cumberland River's east bank hosted its first competition long before its fall 1999 opening. You might call it the Nashville Concrete Playoffs because two separate construction teams, both working for the same contractor, squared off to build the concrete superstructures for the stadium's east and west grandstands.

• Features

  For Pasta Al Dente, It's Concrete Presto

  by Mark A. Wallace

  In 1998, when the world's largest pasta maker, Barilla, started to build its first plant in the United States in Ames, Iowa, rapid construction was essential since Barilla was losing more than $1 million in import costs each month.

• Bringing Reinforced Masonry to Home Building

  by Mark A. Wallace

  Dave Seitzinger of MJD Development Inc., Tigard, Ore., is helping his son, Mitchell, create a market niche for structural brick homes.

• Products Solving Problems

  Concrete Warehouse Requires No Heating

  by Mark A. Wallace

  Though built near Chicago, where temperatures can plummet below zero in the winter and exceed 100° F in the summer, the 430,000-square-foot warehouse of Roman Inc. has no heating or air conditioning units. Yet the temperature in the warehouse stays about

• Features

  Concrete Chain Saws Cut Deep

  by Mark A. Wallace

  Equipped with hard-biting diamond-studded chains, hand-held chain saws specially designed to cut concrete can make some cuts that hand-held rotary power saws simply can't. For example, concrete-cutting chain saws can cut square corners in openings without overcutting the corners. They also can make plunge cuts up to 19 inches deep into a concrete wall, allowing contractors to slice through thick walls in one pass. The chain saws can cut irregular shapes as well, and have even been used by sculptors to carve concrete statues.