The US government is in the process of converting to the metric system (known as SI) for all commercial purposes including domestic construction. If previous experience holds true, not only will federally funded construction require the use of SI in the near future, the balance of the construction industry will soon follow as materials, codes, and specifications become standardized. Sooner or later, construction firms will be going metric if they want to remain in business. Sooner, if the company competes for federal projects. The U.S. construction industry has expressed concern abut the difficult and inconvenience of converting to metric. But within the last 20 years the British, Australians, South Africans, and Canadians successfully converted from the inch-pound system to metric. Architecture and engineering firms in these countries found that it took only a week or less for staff to learn to think and produce in metric. Most tradespeople adapted to the system in only a few hours.
