Lessons Learned

Wells Concrete BlogUncategorized

Credit: Original article published here.

After recently completing the Whole 30 diet  – I have come to personally appreciate the difficulty of comprehending what is in the products that you buy and their effect on you.  Even when you are given that actual ingredients it is almost impossible to understand what they are, where they come from, and what impacts they may have.  As part of the Product Development Team at Wells I am tasked with helping to understand and navigate how new products and processes are introduced into the market place.  Wells has dedicated considerable resources in testing existing products and developing new systems, with the goal to provide better solutions for our clients that meets their current and future needs.

I have learned several things going thru this process:

  1. You get what you pay for.  Quality ingredients and proven process results in a better product.  I have seen firsthand how using quality components in our systems perform better during tests over using less expensive materials that offer fewer technical benefits.  As an architect I am looking for results that will benefit the owner, end user, and our environment – both short and long term.
  2. Read the fine print.  Different tests and ratings can be calculated and applied in ways that do not truly represent the overall system objectively.  Using actual test results versus relying just on product literature is key on knowing how assembly will perform in a real world environment.  The ability to use actual test data will help designers better calculate and incorporate that information into the overall building performance – which can lead to savings in other key systems – such as HVAC.
  3. Current codes are only a minimum.  It is impossible to predict how codes may change in the future.  Being able to have flexibility in the system design now will allow for adjustments to be made.  As new codes are being developed to better address our current environmental and manufacturing challenges – products and systems will need to be adaptable to meet those new goals.

As Wells continues to develop new products and systems, we are continually learning how to better improve both.  We are constantly asking questions in regards to how materials perform and what are their benefits – just as you should when you purchase a product.

Ed Muehlberg
Business Development Architect