Level: Novice
Fee: Included with full IBS registration or individual tickets can be purchased during registration, learn more.
Date: Wednesday, January 21
Time: 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm
Location: South 219
Speaker: VanderWerf, Pieter
Track: Construction Codes, Methods & Systems
Description: The program will give the plusses and minuses of each major concrete building system (block, ICF, removable forms, precast) so attendees can choose the one best suited to their projects. It will include details and photos of real projects and hard numbers to show how each system works, what it costs and how it performs. The session concludes with a set of rules for picking the system to use in every building situation and information on how to get started with each system.
Handouts
Speakers
VanderWerf, Pieter
Company: Building Works, Inc.
Dr. Pieter VanderWerf is generally recognized as an expert on concrete construction products in North America. He is probably the single foremost authority on concrete walls and deck systems for homes and mid-size buildings. He has written six books and many articles on concrete homebuilding systems and a wide range of other construction products. He served as general contractor in the construction of ICF homes in the mid-1990s. Dr. VanderWerf worked as a young man on carpentry crews building new houses in Maryland and renovating old ones in New Hampshire. He received his undergraduate degree in mathematics and economics from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in Management of Technological Innovation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, after which he joined the National Association of Home Builders Research Center. There he held the title of Business Development manager, and evaluated new construction products and services. He later became a professor at the Boston University School of Management, where he devoted his research to the study of construction systems. Dr. VanderWerf left Boston University in 1998 to form his own consulting company, Building Works, in Brookline, Massachusetts.