Ever consistently return to a specific business just because of the people who work there, and the exceptional service they provide?  Do those same people do whatever it takes to ensure you have a positive experience; and most importantly know you by name, and know your preferences?  It is our hope that when a driver from Ohio Ready Mix, Inc. arrives at your location, you experience similar emotions.  With a field of over 18 drivers, and an average experience level of over 20 years, we have one driver that stands out for several reasons.

Steve Shoe has been a loyal employee of Ohio Ready Mix since April of 1995. His enormous appetite for continuous improvement and passion for customer satisfaction is the perfect recipe for a great ready mix driver.  Steve is always willing to go the extra mile to help a customer on site, and takes the initiative to lead and complete projects at the plant.  Whether it’s pouring blocks with other members of the team or maintaining his equipment, you can always count on Steve.

It comes as no surprise to everyone at Ohio Ready Mix, Inc. that Steve Shoe has delivered more concrete and has taken more deliveries than any other driver over the past year.  In fact, Steve has lead this category for the past two years largely due to his operating efficiency, overall work performance, and willingness to work overtime.  All while maintaining one of the cleanest trucks in our fleet!  Couple all this with an incessant positive attitude and you definitely have a standout within the industry!  Your hard work and dedication are greatly appreciated, Steve!

To see how Steve can help you, visit www.OhioReadyMix.com.

Concrete is the world’s most versatile and most widely used construction material with total consumption presently estimated at 13.5 billion cubic yards.   Depending on the required strength of the concrete, cement generally accounts for 10% – 15% of a concrete mix.  This is relatively small when you consider it represents about 96% of the total carbon dioxide emissions associated with concrete production.  For over 6 years Ohio Ready Mix, Inc. has experienced great success through the use of slag while helping to reduce the industries carbon footprint.

We have also been participating in a “Green Initiative” that replaces Portland cement with a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) known as Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS).  Slag is obtained by quenching molten iron slag (a by-product of iron and steel making) from a blast furnace in water or steam, to produce a glassy, granular product that is then dried and ground into a fine powder.  With both physical and set characteristics similar to Portland cement, replacement levels for GGBFS can range anywhere from 30% up to 85%. However, 40 to 50% replacement levels are most typically experienced.  Since GGBFS is a by-product of the steel manufacturing process, its use in concrete is recognized by several Earth friendly organizations and certifications most notably: LEED and The Climate Trust i.e. Cool Climate Concrete.

The Cool Climate Concrete (C³) Program is a well monitored and verified greenhouse gas (GHG) offset program based upon the primary principle of replacing Portland cement with supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) in concrete for construction and civil works projects.  The strategy for reducing GHG emissions was developed because the majority of emissions related to concrete come from the production of its key ingredient, Portland cement.  Due to the magnitude of the concrete industry, and the ability to effectively substitute SCMs in concrete, the Program can significantly reduce the associated CO2 emissions.

Ohio Ready Mix, Inc. is very excited to be a part of the Cool Climate Concrete Program and continues to focus on the “Green Initiative”.

Did you  know that the Oldest Concrete Street in America lies right here in Logan County? Located in Bellefontaine, Ohio, Court Street was constructed in 1891.

In 1891, George W. Bartholomew approached the city council in Bellefontaine, Ohio with the proposal to pave the town’s principal streets with “artificial stone” as concrete was called at that time.  Council was doubtful as to concrete’s durability and so approved only an experimental “crosswalk” section, 8 feet wide on Main Street.  The experiment was deemed successful and in 1893, the block-long section of Court Street adjacent to the courthouse was paved and in 1894 the rest of the blocks surrounding Courthouse Square were done. 

Several markers and plaques around the courthouse show information about this fact, but the best explanation comes from the Ohio Historic Marker here. Court Street runs directly behind you if you’re reading the marker. The text of the marker reads: “America’s first concrete streets were those which surrounded this court house. Concrete was first used in 1891 to provide an 8-foot strip along Main Street where horses were hitched. Two years later Court Avenue was paved with concrete made from native marl supplied by the Buckeye Cement Company, 8 miles to the northeast. This marker was erected in 1968 at the 75th anniversary of the paving of Court Street.”

When it comes to decorative concrete, let your imagination go. Dream in colors, full lines, contrast, and design – a design without boundaries, borders or limits. Then pull that design back into a useful border around the home or office. Enhancing concrete floors or exterior landscaping with a decorative border is easy and effective. The border can be a simple edged cut or an elaborate stenciled pattern accented with color. When designing a border without borders, it’s a great way to outline landscaping, define garden beds, or add flair to that old patio, driveway or sidewalk.  

Unlike conflict, we all enjoy contrast. Match a bold border up with an opposing pattern on a sidewalk to create an eye-catching entryway. Spice things up by adding a splash of color.

Choose a unique design in your border. Something with a brick or stone pattern always looks nice but turn up the “WOW” factor with a fancy pattern or grape-vine border. Adding elegance to your patio speaks sophistication.

You frame memories…why not frame the landscaping in the yard where memories are made? Concrete landscaped borders are dual purpose, they outline your garden beds for a clean, defined look and they serve as a mowing edge to keep your lawn separate from your garden.

Wanting a more personal touch? Use a custom stencil with your floor border for endless options to that one-of-a-kind concrete floor. Possibilities include medallions, scroll patterns, monograms and corner accents.

For more information regarding decorative concrete, feel free to contact any of the professional staff members at Ohio Ready Mix  to discuss your options.

It’s that time of year again for the annual Logan County Neighborhood Outreach Christmas in the Park at the Indian Lake State Park. If you haven’t seen the light display, it’s a must see! Several area businesses and organizations donate their time to build a display of holiday cheer for local residents and visitors to enjoy. With over 57 businesses on display and two roads of campsites, the program continues to grow each year marking 2010 the 4^th Annual Christmas in the Park.

All proceeds from the event benefit the children and families from the Western, Chippewa and Russells Point neighborhoods through the Outreach Centers.  Outreach centers partner with neighbors and residents to facilitate and organize programs that promote stability, children safety and strong communities. Locally, the activities include monthly meetings, holiday events, birthday parties, family outings, mentor programs, nutrition programs, job training and homework help.  For more information on the Outreach Center, contact Drew Shick or Aaron Pool at 937-843-9283.

Christmas in the Park is open to the public on December 12, 17, 18, 19, 22 and 23 from 6-9 at the Indian Lake State Park Campground. The group is asking for a $5 donation per car load that tours the display. Drive thru, enjoy the show and send us a picture of you and the family in front of the Ohio Ready Mix and Duff Quarry scene.

From our family to yours – Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Jeff & Roberta Yoder of Yoder Concrete Construction

I was asked to do a guest blog for my friends at Ohio Ready Mix. I was thrilled to do so! Then came the challenge of what to write about that you would want to read. We came up with the idea of talking about the Village of Lakeview S.R. 235 Reconstruction projects.

The first phase of this project was bid in May of 2003. Heater Excavating of West Liberty, OH, was awarded the contract as the General Contractor, and Yoder Concrete Construction was awarded the concrete portion of the work as a subcontractor. The entire street, sidewalk, lighting, fire hydrants and even benches and trash receptacles of State Route 235 that is a portion of Lake and South Main Streets were to be removed and replaced.

The original bid package called for regular concrete sidewalk with a section to be stamped in a brick pattern, similar to brick pavers you often see in downtown streetscapes. Jeff Yoder, President of Yoder Concrete Construction, met with Village administrators to discuss their options on the decorative portion of the sidewalk. After narrowing the options down, he placed two decorative concrete samples at the park on the south end of town for review. Instead of stamping, he convinced them to stencil the brick in the concrete. There are two advantages to stenciling brick instead of stamping this pattern. The first one is the realistic look of stenciling because it gives the look of individual brick pavers with a gray grout line between the bricks. The second advantage, especially for a street setting, is the color hardener that is used to color the bricks is a mixture that includes cement, the ingredient that makes concrete hard. By using color hardener to color the bricks, we added an extra amount of cement to the top layer of concrete, thus, in theory, making it more durable.

Once the details were decided and the general contractor gave us the go, our portion of the project began. It was mid October of 2003. Yoder Concrete Construction placed a total of 10,692 square foot of concrete with 3,904 square foot of it being stenciled brick. Ohio Ready Mix was a great choice as a supplier. Being in Huntsville, they were convenient to the project. The owners of Ohio Ready Mix have also been innovative in the decorative and colored concrete industry. They are one of the only ready mix plants in the area that make adding color to their concrete an easy choice for the customer and contractor. They have many color options in stock and do not charge extra for truck washout. They supplied not only the concrete and color hardener, but also sealer, expansion, caulking, form oil, plastic to protect surrounding businesses from splattering concrete, and even a concrete tool or two. One month later, we were done with our portion of Phase I, and the street opened to the public not long after.

Now fast forward to the spring of 2004. Phase II of the S.R 235 Reconstruction project was out for bid. Again, Heater Excavating was awarded the project and subsequently gave us the concrete portion. This time we were to place 12,133 square foot of sidewalk and driveway approaches with 3,800 square foot of brick stencil. By summer of 2004, this phase was also completed. The Lakeview Post Office even jumped in on the project, asking Yoder Concrete Construction to replace a section of concrete in front of their office while we were in town. Like in the Disney movie, “Cars,” once you get a nice new road, local businesses want to look nicer as well.

I invite you to visit our Facebook page and click on the photos tab to see pictures of these projects. I also encourage you to visit Lakeview to see the work in person. I love how great it still looks.

This was a guest blog featuring Yodering Concrete Construction. To find out more about Jeff and Roberta Yoder and Yoder Concrete Construction, contact Roberta at www.yoderconcrete.com or call 937-362-3210.

Concrete continues to be among the most popular material choices for construction.  It has a wide array of applications; it is completely customizable, extremely durable, requires minimal maintenance, and is relatively inexpensive.  However, as durable and low maintenance as concrete is, following a few simple tips will keep your concrete looking beautiful and performing as expected for several years to come. 

Concrete should be protected from several elements like rain, snow and de-icing salts that are present and become detrimental during the winter months in a freeze/thaw climate.  Due to its porous nature, concrete has a tendency to absorb water.  When it freezes it can expand by as much as 9%.  This can cause the surface to scale (a local flaking or peeling of a finished surface of hardened concrete.)  This same situation occurs when snow is present on the concretes surface.  With daytime temperatures above freezing followed by below freezing nights, this continuous freeze/thaw cycle, common to our Ohio climate, is naturally difficult on unprotected concrete.

There are a number of commercially available deicing chemicals that claim they are safe for concrete.  Simply put, deicing chemicals increase the already high number of freeze/thaw cycles your concrete must endure during a typical Ohio winter.   The use of deicing chemicals is never recommended, especially in the first year of service.  Clean sand and #9 ice grit are great traction alternatives that are acceptable anytime.  Deicing chemicals used for snow and ice removal can cause and aggravate surface scaling.  If your situation requires the use of deicing salts, use them sparingly.  When conditions permit, hose off accumulation of salt placed and deposited by cars on newly placed driveways and garage slabs.

Never use ammonium sulfate or ammonium nitrate as a deicer; these are chemically aggressive and destroy concrete surfaces.

The benefits of applying a quality concrete sealer are numerous.  Not only will it protect your investment from moisture penetration, chemical attack, and staining, but enhance the color and leave an attractive shine on the surface.  A simple way to determine if your driveway requires any sealer is to pour some water on it.  If the water soaks in then this winter could have a serious impact on your driveway.  While a curing compound acts to prevent moisture from leaving the concrete during initial stages of strength development, a concrete sealer is designed to prevent moisture from entering the concrete.  Keeping concrete sealed will help prevent water from soaking into the concrete, where it can do damage either by freezing or by corroding the reinforcing steel in the slab.  Concrete cure and seals and penetrating water repellant sealers can also minimize dusting, protect against damage from chloride (deicing salt) ingress, protect against staining, and they can act as a sacrificial layer to reduce abrasion and wear to the concrete from traffic.  Finally, concrete cure and seals can enhance the color and impart an attractive shine to concrete, especially beneficial on stamped, colored and acid stained surfaces. 

Penetrating water repellent sealers can last five or more years before requiring reapplication.  The exact life expectancy of the seal is impossible to determine, since it is dependent on the quality of the concrete and the amount of traffic and weathering the concrete receives.  Traffic, weather, and sunlight will degrade a concrete cure and seal much faster, and reapplication is required every 2 to 3 years.

If you’re concerned about how your concrete is going to endure the winter that Mother Nature has planned for the Ohio region this year, feel free to contact any of the professional staff members at Ohio Ready Mix  to discuss the best methods to protect your investment.

Top 5 Steps to Successful Pervious Concrete Installations

We asked Bob Banka President of Concrete Management Solutions to answer some important questions in a 5 part series about Pervious Ready Mix Concrete and the best way to get the most out of a pervious concrete installation.

Question:  What are the 5 most important steps for a pervious concrete installation?

Step 5

Well, so far so good!  You read the specs and made suggestions to help the job go smoother such as laying out what the testing labs responsibilities are, I mean, what sense is there is making cylinders right?  Better to have unit weights checked to make sure that they are within the +/- 5pcf that they should be. But wait, +/- 5pcf of WHAT?  I was recently on a job where the specs called for the unit weight to be +/- 5 pcf of 125#/pcf.  Well, that might work well in some areas that have stone with a specific gravity of 2.60 but the specific gravity of the stone being used on this job was 2.95 which made the theoretical unit weight around 135 #/pcf.  These kind of things need to be addressed before a project starts, you would hate to start tearing out concrete because the spec was wrong, right?

You did a test pour and made sure that the mix was workable.  Wait a minute, you didn’t?  You showed up on the job and the mix was full of aggregate/cement balls?  You had to add how much water to the load?  The concrete was how hot?  Test pours are that important.  There is no need to start a job until you are sure that the ready mix producer can produce good quality pervious concrete and your crew knows how to put it down, finish it and cover it up. Sadly, many jobs are done twice because this simple step is not taken.

But these things didn’t happen to you.  You did your homework and went into the job well prepared.  Your crew did a fine job of placing the concrete on the ground.  The mix performed well and they hydration stabilizer did its job.  You stapled the painters’ poly to the forms right away and then rolled the concrete at the right time and then covered it with the 6 mil poly after tooling in the joints. You made sure that no matter how hard the wind blew, your plastic sheeting would continue to protect the concrete for the full 7-10 days.

The following week you went back to the job and removed the poly and the job looks spectacular!  Then you did the best thing you could do for the pervious concrete.  You or your lab performed A.S.T.M.     C1701, the standard test for the Infiltration Rate of Pervious Concrete.  You reported in writing to the owner what the infiltration rate was and told them that you would be back in six months to do the test again and help them develop a proper maintenance plan for their site and reminded them that you would be doing this every six months for two years.  What customer service!  The owner has no idea what they will need to do and before the job, neither do we. Every site is different and will need different levels of cleaning and maintenance.  If you get the same readings in two years as you did when the pervious was first put into service, then whatever the owner is doing is working.  If you went from 450 inches of rain per hour to 48 inches of rain per hour then something is not working and adjustments need to be made before YOU and the ready mix producer get blamed for a job that did not function as designed for it’s life.

I wrote about testing and maintenance earlier in this series but it is so vitally important that it bears repeating.  One good job will sell another job but one bad job can cost you and the industry many jobs.  Help the owners protect your reputation and your work and do your follow up.  Pervious concrete may be the next best thing since sliced bread but we as an industry have to do our part to do a great job every time.

Bob Banka is President of Concrete Management Solutions and has been involved with the development of pervious concrete for over twenty years.   To learn more visit:  http://www.perviousconsulting.com

 Top 5 Steps to Successful Pervious Concrete Installations

 We asked Bob Banka President of Concrete Management Solutions to answer some important questions in a 5 part series about Pervious Ready Mix Concrete and the best way to get the most out of a pervious concrete installation.

Question:  What are the 5 most important steps for a pervious concrete installation?

 Step 4:

 Alright, the specs were written, you and your crew are NRMCA Certified Pervious Concrete technicians or installers; you met with your local ready mix producer and have seen the pervious concrete that they are currently producing.  Either you liked the mix or you had them make a modification that you tested by doing at least a 225 square foot test panel.  Now you might wonder where this random number of 225 square feet came from and the answer is that it takes at least three yards of pervious concrete to get a real feel for the mix.  If you try to batch just a yard or two, so much material ends up sticking to the drum that you won’t get a good test but three yards is just right. 

 The next question is, how are we going to place the pervious concrete?  Choosing the right equipment will make or break you.  For smaller placements either the Lura Enterprises Lightning Strike Roller Screed or the Bunyan Roller Screed are in my opinion the two best on the market.  They have the right weight to properly compress the concrete and the power to the units to spin the screeds at the right speed.  The next question is do you want to buy the equipment or rent it on a daily basis.  Sometimes this is not an issue because one job can possibly pay for the equipment and an added benefit is that these screeds can be used for almost any flatwork and save your crew from having to bend over and rod the mud, remember, we are all getting older.  Another viable option is to find a rental house or a ready mix producer that owns a screed and rent it from them for your job.  This is an excellent idea since the producer is forward thinking enough to want to help you be successful by offering the right mix and the right equipment all from one supplier.

 A third option that is viable in many areas of the Country and especially in Ohio is the Somero Laser Screed with a pervious head on it.  On a large parking lot you can install about 500 yards a day of pervious concrete if your producer can keep up with you.  One of the tricks with this setup is to use a conveyor belt to deliver the concrete to the recharge bed and to unload two trucks at a time onto the belt to keep the screed moving.

 The last thing to think about before submitting your bid is to consider whether you want to do this job alone or if having a consultant onsite to help guide you and share their expertise with you makes sense.  There are four or five of us around the country that have between ten and twenty five years of experience that can keep you out of trouble and make sure that you don’t get a call back because the pervious didn’t work.

Bob Banka is President of Concrete Management Solutions and has been involved with the development of pervious concrete for over twenty years.   To learn more visit:  http://www.perviousconsulting.com

The Ohio Ready Mix team is preparing to make a BIG splash at the upcoming Wacky Boat Races taking place on August 7^th, 2010 at Indian Lake, Ohio.

The seaworthy vessel will be setting sail at noon on the Russells Point Harbor next to Rite-Aid and TacoBell. (Directions here)

We asked team captains Josh Klofta and Jeremy Sloan if they had any words to share about their strategy for victory.   Here’s what they said.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssr___AYRyg

The 12^th annual Wacky Boat Race is sponsored by The Indian Lake Elks Lodge #2792.  The race consists of homemade boats using any material that floats.  The boat must be people powered and must not be manufactured for marine purposes, including the paddling devices.

Ohio Ready Mix is proud to announce that their boat is made from 100% green construction products.  All of the products used in designing this boat are used every day in the construction business and can be found by visiting Duff Companies and the Ohio Ready Mix product showroom located at 9016 St. Rt. 117 in Huntsville, Ohio.

The race starts at high noon at the Russell’s Point Harbor, Indian Lake Ohio.  Come support Ohio Ready Mix as Josh Klofta and Jeremy Sloan hit the open waters with their sights on the checkered flag.  To learn more about this event, please contac the Indian Lake Elks at 937-843-2763.