There She Stood!

Amazing! Well done! We never cease to be amazed at the creativity and workmanship displayed in the jobs you guys (and gals) send our way (perhaps that’s why they say “ya’ll” in the south, to save time).  A long time consultant and friend of our company was planning for a wedding for his son Josh on his land and they decided they needed a pavilion for the proper setting. Sounds perfect to me! So with the same focus and quality he uses in his custom homebuilding, Rocky Turnage, of Turnage Construction, set about to make a beautiful place for the ceremony!
This circular pavilion is 20’ in diameter The columns are 9’ tall so it won’t look or feel short as they enter it. He used our Flex-C Header to make the ring around the top of the columns. One of the most impressive parts of this project, beside the amazing appearance, is the way he secured the Flex-C Header to the top of the columns. You certainly don’t want the header to slide right off the columns, so he made some steel saddles on the top of each column. Set inside these, there’s no way it will fall off! The column covers are fiberglass with foam cornices above for the EIFS coating.
He even bent and welded up the ornamental ironwork dome over the top! Nothing easy about that! But, beautiful, it is! This was actually the hardest part. The Flex-C Header, by comparison, was easier and quicker to shape and install. It comes fully assembled in 8’ lengths, with extra steel hanging out on each end so you can overlap it to make spliced curved headers as long as you like. Just shape it, secure it with screws or nails, make the splices and it’s ready to lift into place. We even have load numbers for the different spans and configurations. Just be sure to read and follow all the instructions. This is over your head, after all, literally!
Just add some lights, some flowers, the perfect evening, the perfect couple and of course the minister, and you’ll have these perfect moments to remember.

Frank

Easy Curved Wood Framing

So why do we make Quick Qurve, a wood version of Flex-C Trac? Flex-C Trac works with wood studs, so is there an advantage to using Quick Qurve when you are framing with wood?
You aren’t the first person to ask me that! Quick Qurve is just plain more compatible with wood framing. First, since it is the same dimensions as a 2×4 or a 2×6, you don’t have to buy studs that are a few inches longer than usual to go down into the metal Flex-C Trac. Pre-cut studs will work just fine. Also, who likes to break out the air nailguns and the drywall screwguns at the same time, not to mention the tin snips and circular saw. It just doesn’t seem right. Actually, it just makes sense and it is a lot easier, when you are doing wood framing to use wood framing tools! Quick Qurve uses the same tools that you already have strung around the site. Just cut it to length with your saw and nail it in place with your nailer. No more difficult than a regular piece of lumber.
So that’s our hope, that we’ve made it just that much easier for you to do your job, so you can look good to your customer as you frame the impossible with a smile!

Frank

Quick Qurve Plate

Building a curved wall with Quick Qurve Plate

Completed building featuring curved wall.

Curved wall

Curved Wall

Barrel Vaults Are Easy With Flex-C Trac

Don’t feel bad if you were one of the callers, but I’ve had so many people call and ask me if they should put the arches on 16 or 24 inch centers to build a barrel vault.

 I’m always glad I can catch them before they start the framing and let them know they don’t need near that many!  If you did try to build a barrel vault by setting a number of Flex-C Arches all in a row, not only would it be rather expensive, but it would also be needlessly difficult trying to line them all up perfectly. 

So, Great News!  You just need one piece of Flex-C Trac at each end of the barrel vault and then just add your studs, like little ceiling joists, and you’re done framing!  The studs are cheaper than using ribs all along the vault.  If the barrel vault is longer than 8 or 10 feet, you can just add 2 pieces of Flex-C Trac screwed together back to back to continue it as long as you need.

The framers who did the job in the photos really knew what they were doing!  For smaller radii, like in this tunnel to a wine-cellar (really it is), they put their studs/joists close together so the gyp board would bend smoothly without breaking.

Enjoy it, not everyone gets to make fun stuff like this!

Frank

Anybody Want a Peanut?

 That is one of my favorite classic lines from “The Princess Bride” movie.  Well, recently I was talking to a carpenter on the phone and he said they had a lot of peanuts on their latest  job.  I didn’t know if this was some slur about the intelligence of his co-workers or what.   Or maybe he was remodeling one of those steak house restaurants where they tell you to throw your peanut shells on the floor.  Fortunately, he explained before I could display my ignorance with my remarks.  He was talking about framing what I call “clouds”.  And when he sent me some photos of the clouds, I could see why he called them “peanuts”.    The most exciting thing I noticed was that he had used our Flex-C Arch to build these “peanuts”.  That is one of the easiest shortcuts I know of!  All he had to do was turn our Flex-C Arch on its side and bend it around to the desired “peanut” shape, lock it, hang it from the structure and cover it with gyp board. And you don’t have to cut and install all those little uprights.   It’s all just about finished when you begin! We make the Flex-C Arch in every standard metal stud width from 2½” to 6” and every standard wood stud width from 3 ½” to 11½”.  So if your cloud height matches one of these you’re off and running! 

PS. – I’ve learned to be more creative in my listening, so when someone says they have a lot of hourglasses, amoebas, cucumbers or dog bones on their job, I’m not so bewildered.

Easy Clouds to you! 

Frank

Cloud (Peanut) using Flex-C Arch

Cloud using Flex-C Arch

Finished Clouds using Flex-C Arch

Finished Clouds using Flex-C Arch

Can you build a Groin Vault? Sure. What is it?

Okay, so let’s get into some challenging stuff! One of the most challenging architectural features I can think of to frame, or even figure out, is a groin vault.  When you consider that it is just two (or more) barrel vaults intersecting, it doesn’t sound that tricky.  But then, just as you think you got it made, that joint or groin, where the two barrel vaults meet has to be framed.  Then, come to find out, the arc it forms isn’t even a regular curve!  It’s a partial ellipse!   It’s hard enough to lay-out a full ellipse on the ground, but how do you draw just part of one, and lay it out up in the air?  You need to get that precise line where they meet just right or it’s going to look bad!  Hurray!  Software and large format inkjet printers to the rescue!  If you can send us the radiuses (some say radii, I prefer tomato) of the two barrel vaults, we can mail you a full-scale printout of the elliptical arc formed at the groin joint where they intersect.  Makes it real easy (by comparison) to build that groin vault!  It’s fascinating to just daydream about how they used to do it in the old Roman days.  But don’t let your boss catch you standing there for too long, with a look of awe and amazement.  You can order a template from us and we’ll keep you framing rather than doing calculations.

I’ll cover more aspects of the groin vault later in other blogs.  There are a lot of interesting aspects to them!  All the more fun when you know what you’re doing! 

Competent curves to you!   

Frank

Groin Vault Framing

Finished Groin Vault

Repurposing That Sounds Better

 With everything going more “Green” except your profits and  your bank account, I’ve got a little suggestion that can help you jump on the bandwagon and enjoy it at the same time.  Recycling is good they claim, but re-using or repurposing an item is even better!  That means that instead of trucking it off to a center where they have to shred it or melt it, you simply re-use the item for another use than for what it was originally intended.  Now,  consider the often resented Hard Hat.  Sure it protects your head from bumps, scrapes and falling objects, but other than that, not much fun, except for the stickers you can put on them.  I’ve found a great use for the old “brain-bucket” when it’s not on your head doing its day job.  Turn on your Ipod or smartphone to a favorite tune.  Pretty “tinny” sounding, but after all, what do you expect from such microscopic speakers?!  Well, now, just set your little squeaker into your lonely hard hat and stand back and cover your ears!  That hardhat is now a Thumpin’, Boomin’ party hat!  Well, I’m exaggerating, but you gotta admit, it sure is a lot louder than before, at least loud enough to irritate your fellow workers.  No batteries required and built to withstand abuse like no other speaker system!  If nothing else, this could save you some battery life since you can turn the volume way down on your phone or Ipod and still enjoy the tunes.  See, we’re not only interested in helping you build better curves, but we want you to relax in leisure while you ponder your next radius while on break.  Refreshed?  Hoppin’?  Now,go get’em!   

Frank

 

How to Build a Curved Wall

How to build a curved wall quickly and easily using Flex-C Trac by Flex-Ability Concepts.

How to build what used to be a real pain,

For those of you who have worn out countless tape measures and take your tin snips to bed with you, because they’re you’re favorite tool, this video will seem too simple! However, remember back in the days when you didn’t have Flex-C Trac and had to build curved walls the old way? Remember that dread as you put on a good face, acting like you could frame anything they could throw at you! And I don’t doubt that you could. But sometimes, we forget how much harder it used to be, unless we’re telling a cub about the “good old days”. (When you could walk in the snow, on stilts, uphill both ways, just to get to work) Well, we made this video for those who are still cutting their teeth on curves and are still a little uneasy about taking on a creative framing job. This video shows just how easy it is to frame a curved wall using Flex-C Trac. And if you’re one of those galvanized old framers, let me know if we left out any shortcuts you think we ought to share.

Happy Curves to you!

Frank