News

Pipe & Precast

Wednesday, 20 June 2007 00:00

Community & Education

Thursday, 07 June 2007 00:00

Young architects will get a helping hand in their aspirations thanks to a $1,000 donation by County Materials to the Wisconsin Architects Foundation in early May. The gift was presented in a special breakfast prior to the American Institute of Architects’ annual state convention held May 16-17 at Monona Terrace in Madison.

The WAF, established in 1953, aims to raise awareness of architecture through funding of architectural education. County Materials has helped the WAF provide scholarships to architecture students and grants for programs. The WAF has awarded more than $325,000 in scholarships to architecture students around the state, established a School of Architecture & Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and restored the Joseph J. Stoner House in Madison, a National Landmark that also is the headquarters for the WAF and the AIA’s Wisconsin branch office.

County Materials operates 30 locations serving the Midwest. The family-owned, American manufacturing company is an industry leader and a diversified supplier of construction and landscaping products for residential, commercial, industrial and municipal project applications.
For more information, call us at 1-800-289-2569

Masonry Products

Friday, 01 June 2007 00:00

Soon the sound of hammers and power tools will fall silent, giving way to the shuffle of curious visitors who will be touring the Wausau Area Builders Association Parade of Homes.

The annual showcase, which will be held June 5-10, is a Super Bowl of sorts for area homebuilders, as well as local manufacturers such as County Materials, who will be represented at 25 of this year’s 26 homes in the tour. County Materials, with locations in Wausau, Weston and Marathon, is a leading supplier of concrete masonry construction and landscaping products in the Midwest, and has been actively involved with the Wausau Parade of Homes for many years.

“It’s the smartest marketing thing we’ve done,” said Scott Ohrmundt of John Ohrmundt Construction in Wausau. “We sell five or six houses a year off the Parade.”

The Ohrmundts have two entries this year, both in Kronenwetter; a condominium (No. 13 on the tour) and a house on Seville Road (No. 12) that features County Stone® Old World Tumbled veneer in a decorative pattern on the garage gable, as well as framing around the garage door and living-room window. The light-colored concrete units provide the aesthetics of hand-cut stone at a lower cost, and complement the brick that comprises the façade.

The tour of each abode begins outside, so driveways such as the one on Green Vistas Drive (No. 16) will stand out. Vistas at Greenwood Hills, the builder, used tumbled Vintage Lexington Stone® pavers for the driveway. This flows into steps of Fairbrooke™ Paving Stones and walkways of Lexington. Both styles of concrete pavers are manufactured by County Materials and comprise a patio of more than 1,000 square feet in back. County Materials also supplied Cultured Stone® manufactured stone veneer for the piers and bumpouts across the front of the 5,000-square-foot home.

Cultured Stone brings a natural element to some of the homes, such as No. 20, on Miles Lane in Ringle. Joey Ninneman, of Joey D. Ninneman Construction Inc., covered the front of the 2,800-square-foot home in a darker blend of the stone’s color, which mixes well with the hue of the home’s wooden accents.

“We knew it would be sitting in the woods, so we wanted a rustic elegance,” Ninneman said. “The Cultured Stone matched the colors around the home.”

One of the most innovative uses of concrete on the tour won’t even be readily visible. Tim Koch, of Tim Koch Builders LLC in Weston, used 1,225 square feet of County Materials’ Hollowcore Roof & Floor Systems as a floor for a garage in his Parade Home on Evergreen Road. This provides additional, and affordable space beneath the garage, which measures 35 feet square, to be used as a workshop.

“It has hydroponic, in-floor heating, too,” said Koch, who also incorporated geothermal heating into the structure. “These days, people are really looking for alternative sources of heating and cooling.”

Prospective home owners will find classic style with budget-friendly appeal in Heritage Collection® Designer Concrete Brick, which adorns Reedy Builders’ entry – No. 14 – on Lexington Court in Wausau. The beautiful concrete brick from County Materials enhances the façade of the 2,500-square-foot home that includes Cultured Stone on the top half.

“We get 3,000 to 4,000 people coming through,” Chris Reedy said. “It means a lot for our exposure. This is my community; this is where I live, this is where I’m from.”

For more information on the Parade of Homes, visit www.wausauareabuilders.com.

County Materials operates 30 locations serving the Midwest. The family-owned, American manufacturing company is an industry leader and a diversified supplier of construction and landscaping products for residential, commercial, industrial and municipal project applications.
For more information, call us at 1-800-289-2569

Awards and Recognition

Friday, 01 June 2007 00:00

Architects from around Wisconsin got to exercise their creativity at the 76th annual AIA Wisconsin Convention & Expo on May 16-17 in Madison. Three designers, and County Materials, came away winners.

The American Institute of Architects show’s theme, “Palimpsest: Reclaim. Recycle. Renew.”, inspired a contest at County Materials’ booth. Of more than 150 booths, County Materials won a blue ribbon as the top display for the third straight year. Dozens of architects participated, and each was asked to form as many new words as possible, in 2 minutes, from the word “Palimpsest,” which is a parchment that has been erased in preparation for new writing.

Joe Sokal, of the Department of Administration/Division of State Facilities in Madison, took the top prize by forming 20 new words. Jennifer Cihasky of Becher Hoppe Associates Inc. of Wausau was second, and Matt Hildebrandt of Potter Lawson Inc. in Madison took third.

“County Materials’ personnel is always fabulous,” judges stated. “They always have uncluttered space, and their use of elements created interactive communication between booth personnel and folks who were visiting.”

County Materials operates 30 locations serving the Midwest. The family-owned, American manufacturing company is an industry leader and a diversified supplier of construction and landscaping products for residential, commercial, industrial and municipal project applications.
For more information, call us at 1-800-289-2569

Community & Education

Friday, 25 May 2007 00:00

MADISON, Wis. (May 25, 2007) – Architects know style when they see it. And visitors to the American Institute of Architects’ Wisconsin branch office on Hamilton Street in Madison will see plenty of it between the building and its garden area.

County Materials, a longstanding associate member of AIA Wisconsin, donated 2,000 clay pavers to the Joseph J. Stoner House, which is home to the branch office of AIA Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Architects Foundation. The pavers comprise pathways connecting the historic house with outdoor garden areas.

The two-story Italianate structure was built in 1855 from indigenous sandstone. It was listed as a Madison landmark in 1973 and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Madison Newspapers Inc. donated the house to the WAF in 1983. While the house fell into disrepair prior to this, one condition of the gift was for the WAF to move the house 100 feet and perform a historically sensitive reconstruction of it, which was finished in 1984.

County Materials operates 30 locations serving the Midwest. The family-owned, American company is an industry leader in the manufacture and distribution of concrete block, brick, stone, ready-mix, hollowcore, pipe, pavers, retaining walls and Aggregate Finish products for residential, commercial and municipal construction and landscaping.

For more information, call us at 1-800-289-2569 and ask for a product guide.

Bridge Girders & Prestress

Thursday, 12 April 2007 00:00

WOODBURY, Minn, (April 12, 2007) – Girders lead not just from one side of an expanse to another; in at least one case they’ve led to an award.

Associated General Contractors-Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Transportation have bestowed a Bridge Award in the $1.5 million to $8 million category for the Valley Creek Road bridge across I-494. County Materials supplied 32 of its 63M-model girders, each 121 feet long.

Aesthetically, the bridge includes a brick veneer and weathered limestone concrete form liner to replicate the look of the Woodbury City Hall complex nearby.

Progressive Contractors Inc. of St. Michael, and subcontractor Lunda Construction of Black River Falls, Wis., collaborated on the project, which included innovative A + B language and was completed within the 100-day time period specified in the contract.

County Materials operates 30 locations serving the Midwest. The family-owned, American company is an industry leader in the manufacture and distribution of concrete block, brick, stone, ready-mix, hollowcore, pipe, pavers, retaining walls and Aggregate Finish products for residential, commercial and municipal construction and landscaping.

For more information, call us at 1-800-289-2569 and ask for a product guide.

Ready-Mix and Aggregates

Wednesday, 14 March 2007 00:00

Marawood Construction Services of Marshfield, and Lewis Construction of Schofield, poured more than 4,000 cubic yards of concrete from nearby County Materials for the exterior and interior surfaces of Mid-State Trucking Services. Mid-State won a Concrete Design Award from the Wisconsin Ready Mixed Concrete Association for its 25,800-square-foot facility, on the south side of US 29 just west of Wausau.

Stevens Point, Wis. (March 14, 2007) – Mid-State Trucking Services has rolled to honors from the Wisconsin Ready Mixed Concrete Association. The WRMCA bestowed a 2006 Concrete Design Award on the Wausau company, which was nominated by County Materials, in January at SentryWorld in Stevens Point.

County Materials supplied nearly 4,000 cubic yards of ready-mix concrete for the 25,800-square-foot office-and-maintenance facility. It sits on a 3.5-acre lot along Highway 29 on the west side of Wausau. The 28th annual competition showcases the best uses of ready-mix concrete in Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Just when Ben Vance of Marawood Construction Services and Steve Lewis of Lewis Construction thought they had figured out all the logistics needed to get hustling on the tight schedule required by the company, they made a startling discovery once work began on the site.

“We got out there and found we had to raise the whole site about 2 feet because of the location of the utilities,” Vance said. “We had two trench drains (inside), so it was critical to get the slope right.”

This was after 1,000 feet of footings and 750 feet of wall already had been poured.

But both Marawood, of Marshfield, and Lewis, of Schofield, finished under deadline. The building features seven triple-deep bays with in-floor heating and drains. It also includes 750 pieces of rebar and a 3,000-square-foot mezzanine that serves as the parts department.

County Materials operates 30 locations serving the Midwest. The family-owned, American company is an industry leader in the manufacture and distribution of concrete block, brick, stone, ready-mix, hollowcore, pipe, pavers, retaining walls and Aggregate Finish products for residential, commercial and municipal construction and landscaping.

For more information, call us at 1-800-289-2569 and ask for a product guide.

Ready-Mix and Aggregates

Friday, 09 March 2007 00:00

STEVENS POINT, Wis. (March 9, 2007) – They reach toward the sky like concrete trees. And in just a few weeks, the 30 piers that dot the path of the emerging U.S. Highway 10 that traverses the Wisconsin River and other low-lying areas north of the city will be connected by massive concrete bridge girders.

But first, workers are braving winter winds and temperatures to measure, pour and test some of the roughly 3,600 cubic yards of County Materials ready-mix concrete that will comprise the footings, piers and pier caps that will support the bridge. County Materials will supply more than 15,000 cubic yards of ready-mix for the entire project. That’s more than twice the 6,000 cubic yards the company supplied for the McCleary Bridge connecting Wausau and Rib Mountain, and it would cover the playing surface of Green Bay’s Lambeau Field to a depth of more than 7 feet.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) is expanding 31 miles of U.S. 10 between Highway 13 near Marshfield to Interstate 39, north of Stevens Point. The new four-lane highway will bypass several small communities, as well as downtown Stevens Point, where U.S. 10 currently runs. Construction began in 2006 and is scheduled to wrap in 2012.

Making workers’ jobs a little easier is an alternate technology employed by County Materials on the project. Maturity testing loggers, computer chips embedded in the concrete, allow testers to hook up a handheld unit to measure the structure’s internal temperature. This helps workers gauge the rate at which the concrete cures, allowing them to accurately measure the pounds per square inch (psi) the concrete can support at any given time. At 2,500 psi, workers can remove the forms, and at 3,500 psi, they can remove the cold-weather protection. For the U.S. 10 project, the final psi will be 4,000.Ü

“It’s an additional tool to determine concrete’s strength,” said Mike Hammitt of County Materials. “It reduces the time contractors need to wait to remove their forms from 10 days to three and a half days. So that benefits the contractors – and ultimately the taxpayer, in that they save so much on time and labor – and the DOT benefits by getting a more accurate record of temperature readings as the concrete cures.”

Maturity testing technology is now being utilized by Lunda Construction and Zenith Tech, Inc., the contractors doing the current Stevens Point and Wausau area bridge projects.

County Materials operates 30 locations serving the Midwest. The family-owned, American company is an industry leader in the manufacture and distribution of concrete block, brick, stone, ready-mix, hollowcore, pipe, pavers, retaining walls and Aggregate Finish products for residential, commercial and municipal construction and landscaping.

For more information, call us at 1-800-289-2569 and ask for a product guide.

Sustainability

Wednesday, 07 February 2007 00:00

MILLADORE, Wis. (Feb. 7, 2007) – The Stanton W. Mead Education & Visitor Center at the Mead Wildlife Area has reaped praise both documented and spoken for its innovative use of concrete.

The Stanton W. Mead Education and Visitor Center at the George W. Mead Wildlife Area in Milladore is a triumph in sustainable design. The primarily concrete facility, supplied by nearby County Materials, recently received a state honor for its environmentally friendly design.

The Stanton W. Mead Education and Visitor Center at the George W. Mead Wildlife Area in Milladore is a triumph in sustainable design. County Stone® Old World Tumbled concrete masonry (shown in pillars and supplied by nearby County Materials) helped the facility earn state recognition for its environmentally friendly design.

On Jan. 17, Gov. Jim Doyle presented project architect Tom Brown with the 2006 Excellence in Sustainable Design & Construction Award for his work on the facility. Brown has called it “probably the greenest building the state owns right now.”

The center utilizes a combination of wind, solar and geothermal energy to greatly minimize the amount of energy required to light, heat and cool the building. It employs 35,000 donated County Pavers® from County Materials, as well as 600 units of County Block® Retaining Wall system. The Marathon-based company also provided 4,500 units of County Stone® Old World Tumbled CMUs and 177 cubic yards of ready-mix concrete.

“Concrete construction products can contribute toward our goal,” Brown said. He added that he’s hoping the 6,208-square-foot facility will earn a Gold certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design® and the LEED Green Building Rating System™.

County Materials operates 30 locations serving the Midwest. The family-owned, American company is an industry leader in the manufacture and distribution of concrete block, brick, stone, ready-mix, hollowcore, pipe, pavers, retaining walls and Aggregate Finish products for residential, commercial and municipal construction and landscaping.

For more information, call us at 1-800-289-2569 and ask for a product guide.

Hollowcore

Friday, 05 January 2007 00:00

MENOMONIE, Wis. (Jan. 5, 2007) – The University of Wisconsin-Stout’s newest residence hall has earned some high marks. American School and University magazine has honored Red Cedar Hall with a special design citation. County Materials supplied all of the nearly 110,000 square feet of 8-inch hollowcore plank that forms the flooring and ceilings in the structure. About 1,000 square feet of the plank is 6-inch solid hollowcore. “There were a lot of irregularities in the plan,” said Roger Davis, structural designer with SDS Architects in Eau Claire. “Precast doesn’t always lend itself to a lot of irregularity. But County Materials’ hollowcore has worked out well for this use. Inside, there is a very low floor-to-floor height. It would’ve been very difficult, if not impossible, to do this without precast hollowcore.” The hall utilizes 19 concrete columns (used primarily for external corners with windows on both sides) and 233 lintels, all from County Materials. The hall also utilizes 75,000 units each of Sahara- and Navajo-colored GlenGery clay brick. “The design really focuses on getting students together,” said one judge from the magazine, “which can be a problem with suite/apartment living.” Red Cedar Hall is showcased in the November issue of the magazine as one of 228 featured projects and one of just 20 citation winners. The issue is online at http://asumag.com, and a list of project winners with jury comments is at www.schooldesigns.com. County Materials operates 30 locations serving the Midwest. The family-owned, American company is an industry leader in the manufacture and distribution of concrete block, brick, stone, ready-mix, hollowcore, pipe, pavers, retaining walls and Aggregate Finish products for residential, commercial and municipal construction and landscaping. For more information, call us at 1-800-289-2569 and ask for a product guide.