Good afternoon. Welcome to PCI's webinar series. Today's presentation is PCI Architectural Certification Program, a Total Quality Assurance Program. I'm Royce Covington, Manager of Member Services at PCI, and I'll be your moderator for this session. Before I turn the controls over to your presenters for today, I have a few introductory items to note. Earlier today we sent an email to all registered attendees with handouts of today's presentation. The email contained a webinar sign-in sheet, a guide to downloading your Certificate of Continuing Education, and a copy of today's presentation. The handouts are also available now and can be found in the handouts section of your webinar pane. If there are multiple listeners at your location, please circulate the sign-in sheet and send the completed attendance sheet back to PCI per the instructions on the form. The attendance sheet is only for use at locations with multiple listeners on the line. 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Also, a pop-up survey will appear after the webinar ends. Today's presentation will be recorded and uploaded to the PCI eLearning Center. PCI has met the requirements of the AIA Continuing Education System and can offer one HSWLU for this presentation. We are a registered provider of AIA CES, but today's presentation does not contain content that has been endorsed by AIA. Any questions about the content of this webinar should be directed to PCI. Credit earned in completion of this program will be reported to CES records for AIA members. Questions related to specific products or publications will be addressed at the end of the presentation. Our speakers for today are Randy Wilson and Gary Reed, who both have 35 years experience in the precast, prestressed concrete industry serving multiple roles including estimating, project management, and sales. Gary Reed currently serves as Vice President of Construction Management for Architectural Precast Innovations. They are an architectural precast producer in central Pennsylvania and services the mid-Atlantic region. I'll now turn the controls over to PCI's Architectural Director, Randy Wilson. Thanks, Royce, and thanks everyone for attending today, and I apologize for scrolling too fast on the slides. So anyway, today's learning objectives are going to be to discuss the purpose and benefits of certification programs. Also, we'll be explaining the outcome of a quality assurance program when finished products, quality, safety, and overall construction processes. We'll describe the basic differences between the various PCI certification categories, specifically the architectural certification categories, and explain how to specify architectural precast concrete using the appropriate PCI certification categories in the new program. But first, what I want to do is just start off with the basics, and that's what is architectural precast concrete. Architectural precast concrete is prefabricated concrete components. Prefabrication is a buzzword today in the construction market, and architectural precast, structural precast, total precast structures have been prefabricated since the 1950s. As you go back even further than that, when you start talking about bridge work, where PCI got it started, got it started was with bridge work. So, when anyone talks about prefabricated products for commercial construction, the first thought should be precast concrete. So, what's the term architectural precast concrete? Well, architectural precast concrete refers to any precast concrete component that, through the application of shape, finish, color, or texture, contributes to the architectural form or the finished effects of the structure. It's anything really that could be interior, could be exterior, so it can be anything that you actually use that's concrete prefabricated into a plant. A lot of times what you would see with an architectural precast panel is you could actually use it as more of a structural component equal to an architectural component. So, it gives you the maximum freedom of architectural expressions with the economy of mass production to create a durable, near-maintenance-free exterior envelope system. Like I said, it can also be used as an interior component. So, it's not only just architecturally versatile, it's also structural versatile. It is concrete. So, like in the picture in the center there, you see that's a parking garage where the structural columns, which are precast concrete columns, actually have an architectural finish to it with architectural concrete mix. So, using architectural precast concrete is a great way of maximizing the product for what the product really is. It's really a structural component that's serving as an architectural feature. And then going backwards, it can also just serve as your exterior envelope. Now, what we're going to talk about today is going to be primarily about the new certification program that we have that PCI has implemented in 2021 and as it starts to get rolled out over the next few years. So, this is the primary topic of this discussion today. But PCI has a lot of actual learning units that you can earn through our education tab on our PCI.org website. So, if you were looking for a little bit more in-depth information about precast concrete, whether it's connection design or it's more how you panelize a project, then we have an educational program for you at PCI.org. And again, just tap that educational tab. So, who is the Precast Concrete Institute? Well, Precast Concrete Institute was formed in 1954 and it is the technical institute for the precast concrete structures industry. So, we've had the distinct honor of establishing and developing and maintaining the body of knowledge for the precast concrete industry. And we're recognized as one of the top technical institute and trade organizations in the United States. So, basically, we are the people to call whenever you start to look at considering precast concrete, whether it be structural, architectural, it be for bridge work or any other type of project. We do possess the body of knowledge. The body of knowledge are our technical manuals. We have over 50 technical manuals that you have access to as a PCI member. And you can go to our website and go to our bookstore and you could purchase any of those manuals and use those as you need to design your structure. So, this program that you're looking at today has been developed over several years. Actually, it's accumulation of several years of work utilizing knowledge from over 150 certified architectural precast plants in the U.S. and Canada. So, it's just not one guy in the basement came up with something. It's not a couple of engineers in a lab. This has been a labor of love for literally hundreds of people over the last few years to develop this certification program that aligns our producer capabilities with your project requirements. And that's the whole purpose of this is making some better alignment. And it was definitely done through a peer-reviewed process. So, if you're somewhere in North America, you've got a precast plant close to you and those individuals are very familiar with this process. So, what is certification? Well, certification means a lot of things to a lot of people. Sometimes when you buy a new pair of clothes or a pair of pants, you got a little tag in there that says, you know, inspected by, you know, number 42. Well, this is not just an inspected by number 42 process that we have at PCI. So, the different types of certification programs are out there as you can certify a product, which that means that the assurance that each product meets a specification and it has been inspected like maybe the pair of pants you have on today. You can inspect people or certify people. That means that you're assuring that that person can perform specific tasks or functions such as conducting an inspection or operating machinery or teaching others how to do something. And that's the certification of a person. But what PCI does is we certify a process. A process is a lot more intricate. This means that we audit the quality assurance program that each precast producer has in place to ensure that the process is complete and it functions to industry standards. So, we're ensuring that every single product, regardless of what architectural or structural category the product falls under, has met certain specific quality standards through the manufacturing process. And one of the key components to that process is making sure that you have a quality assurance system. A quality assurance system includes a written process, the certified personnel, and a third-party auditing process. So, without those three components, does the certification program really have any meat? Does it have a bite to it? And some argue that it does not. And I believe that, personally, I believe it does not. I think the idea behind a quality assurance system is that you have those three components. A written process, which PCI has through their technical documents, certified personnel, which can get trained through our certification process, and also a third-party auditing company that actually goes out to our precast plants and audits them. When they do audit those plants, what they're looking for is a complete, is a quality control department. And the quality control is the operational activities used to fulfill the requirements of the quality system. It includes testing, inspection, and documentation. So, QC is only part of the larger QA system, but that's really where the rubber meets the road. So, the individuals have to be trained. They have to be, they have to define exactly what they're doing on a daily basis. They're measuring and they're quantifying every step of the manufacturing process, and they're documenting those in alignment with PCI's manuals. And what are those manuals? The three main manuals for production are the PCI Manual 116, which is the quality control manual for structural precast concrete, PCI Manual 117, which is the quality control manual for the architectural precast concrete products, and Manual 135, which is our tolerance manual. So, every one of our precast concrete plants follow these manuals to ensure that every single day, every single step of the process, meets the certification process, or the certification, aligns with the certification program. So, what are the benefits of certification? Well, there's, there's many, and we'll just list a few here to get things started. It's, it really boils down to this. It assures that what is designed is what is being built. So, it enables pre-qualification of bidders. It reduces the designer's risk. It gives you the highest possibility of a successful project. It helps ensure that the finished product meets your expectations, and designed with worker and public safety in mind. And I could elaborate on each one of those for the next hour, but I definitely will not do that, because not every, every one of those benefits are, are for everybody. But I think it's for most every project that you would do on a commercial project across the country or North America, you could see where each one of those would be a huge benefit. And it's the reason why you want to use a prefabricated product in a controlled environment that meets a highly audited certification process. But the number one thing we all should be doing, it's a little bit of a soapbox moment, but you know, I do have a heart. Some people say I don't, but I do. So, the number one thing is safety. And it should be the number one thing we think about when we construct projects, because I think society relies on us as the AEC community to keep them safe. When they walk into a building, they, they want to know that they're, they're going to be safe. It's not going to fall down on them. But it's also about what is the total safety package you deliver as a designer, as a construction manager, or as a precast concrete producer, or a construction, in the construction trades. Number one is you want to make sure that you've designed in a safety factor during the construction process. The second thing is you want to make sure that that building is going to be safe for the structure's life, life cycle. And then you want to also make sure that you have an opportunity to safely deconstruct the project. Deconstruction is a big term these days, especially in the environmental market that we live in, being under, understanding the full life cycle. And I say cradle to grave instead of cradle to gate. And I think safety needs to be part of that, that design. And architects have a big, big role in that. Do you want to have 100 people out on the job site that you have to be liable for, or do you want to six or eight people rely, be relied upon? Precast concrete in the photograph you're seeing there, those are very large panels. There's about six to seven people on the job site installing those, very easily controlled, very easy to control the area they're working in. And there's many safety precautions built into, to the installation process. The other part about safety is, is long-term maintenance. You know, precast concrete has little or no maintenance. I don't know how many projects you all do where the, when you're talking to your owners and they say, what's your maintenance budget? And they go, oh, we've got thousands, millions of dollars a month for maintenance on our projects. I think most people who build buildings don't want to spend much on maintenance once it's up. And when we talk about precast concrete, the only maintenance that you're going to need is, is to inspect the caulk joints on a regular basis and replace those every, I don't know, roughly 10 years, eight years or so, depending on the materials and the type of joint that you use. So when you have no maintenance on a project, there is, there isn't a safety risk because those people aren't out there. Thermal efficiency to maintain consistent interior temperatures. We don't, we think about that from a R value perspective, but do we think about that from a safety perspective? Protects from natural disasters. And precast concrete can be designed as FEMA shelters. You can actually design a portion of your building to be a FEMA shelter or a safe room, whether it be safe from a gun, potential gun situation or a potential tornado situation or a flood situation. So there's a lot of safety factors that can be built into precast concrete that's very difficult to quantify on a very broad basis as in a webinar. So safety and quality kind of go together. So when you design with quality, when you design with certified quality products and systems, then you're also building against safety and quality. It goes hand in hand. When you utilize prefabrication, you limit the number of workers on site. When you work with a certified specialty contractor early in the design, you can design in these safety factors as part of the precast concrete components. It's not an add-on. It's not a tack-on. It's not an either or. It is part, integral part of the reinforcement. It's integral part of your connections. It's integral part of how you build your structure. And you can also request that the installer provide a preconstruction plan. Where's my crane going to be? How many days is the crane going to be at this location? Where's the crane moving next? How are we going to rope off that area? How many people are going to be within that crane swing radius? Once you leave an area, can we get other workers in there to put in windows or to start putting in my roofing or my HVAC or my electrical? So can I use precast concrete stairs to get people from floor to floor? All of those things can be determined very early in a design assist program so that you won't have to be thinking about it at the end of the day and you won't be standing on a job site and say, you know what we should have done? We should have used precast concrete stairs. So all that stuff can be done early, early on. So as you can tell by the heading, selecting a certification program, you all probably could tell me what this slide is going to talk about, right? And the most effective programs are those that are part of a comprehensive quality system and tied directly back to the industry's body of knowledge. And that's the main reason why specifiers all across North America utilize the PCI and PCI certification program. So PCI certification program provides assurance that precast concrete components will be manufactured, installed according to stringent industry standards. If you want to know what those specific industry standards are, definitely call your local producer or get one of these manuals and you can glaze through it. And then you'll be able to understand exactly what we do on a daily basis down into a very finite detail. So the PCI certification program started back in 1967. PCI, the organization started well before that. But around the 60s, it got to the point to where, you know, the producers all got together and said, you know what, we're not really a one size fits all organization. We've got some producers that are doing bridge work. We've got some producers that are doing parking garages. We've got some producers that are doing complete multi-story office buildings. We've got some producers just doing architectural products. So maybe the way we audited a bridge producer is not the same as we audited an architectural producer. So what they came up with back in the 60s through a peer-reviewed process is they came up with different certification categories based on the manufacturer's quote-unquote bread and butter. So we came up with this. So when it came to architectural producers, it was a one size fits all A1 category. Okay, so every one of these processes or certification programs included two unannounced audits per year by an independent third-party engineering company. What I was referring to earlier, they're making sure that you're the producers following the certification program per the manuals. We also added an erection certification program. What we make in the plant is great. We can certify that and inspect that process. But we also came up with a program to inspect the erector installation process. So what our program is, is a complete program that includes the process, the people, and the installation, which is very rare in the industry. So what's changed in 2021? Why do we have this new architectural precast program? Well, since 19, from 1967 to 2021, designer creativity and advancement in production techniques have expanded the expressive potential of architectural precast concrete. So we're doing stuff, precast producers across the country are manufacturing products now that, that, you know, in 67 that the producers didn't even envision, but now that's what we're doing. So the goal is to improve the alignment between the designer expectations and the PCI certified plant production capabilities. It has nothing to do with enhanced quality. It has nothing to do with, you know, quote unquote better, it's about complexity. Can a precast producer produce a more complex product versus a product that has less architectural complexity? And to kind of explain how that process goes, I'll turn it over to Gary. Thank you, Randy. So architectural precast certification 2021, what does it do? So the new program will maintain the current high level of quality. In other words, as Randy just explained, this new program doesn't give you less quality for a lower, we'll call it letter, right? This is all about your ability relative to articulation and sophistication. You know, so let's think about it from this perspective. Over the past 30 years, architectural precast has basically evolved from what some people would have believed to have been big flat gray panels to more colored mixes with complex finishes, 3D forming, right? And integral things like brick, cherokee, or stone. And so up until now, as we had just noted, we were a one size fits all A1. And through some requests from the industry, we've now moved that to a more sophisticated, let's say delineation between what the plants can and can't do and what they've basically been able to be certified into. So that being said, the new program will work for all the market segments, right? We're not gonna let any segments out, but it's going to actually help us understand which plants have the abilities to do which types of products. So in this case, we're gonna go just the facts, the new categories. The new categories are AA, that's basically gonna be for heightened tolerances and shape complexity. We have AB, which is basically a greater emphasis on shapes and alignment tolerances. AC is similar to what we would have had as our all-inclusive A1 category. AD would be the high quality products meeting the PCIM and L116 standard requirements for structural product and industrial wall panel applications. And AT would be for the small products that we would recognize as things like coping, trim, and small accent pieces. And this category really didn't change. Now, the certification process. Each plant is audited based on architectural certification categories that they chose to be included in. In order to go through that, there were three mock-up panels that are produced to demonstrate the actual aesthetic capabilities of the plant that they're trying to certify in this category. And as of 10-1-2021, all of the precast producers are certified in one of these four new architectural categories. The architectural certification process. The producers are still audited two times per year by a third-party auditing firm. All the plants must demonstrate the capability of producing key aesthetic features over four audits to maintain their certification. In other words, if we don't maintain what we're doing, we could potentially lose our certification, so it's in our own best interest to do a good job and to maintain this ability. The AA and AB, every two years, basically has a little extra that they need to do via project surveys or site evaluators, which are third-party independent people that actually go out and evaluate projects when they're made, and their surveys sent to the people that are part of the project, like contractors and architects. PCI Certified Erectors are to be used on all of these projects. They are certified with the PCI M&L 127 Standards and Guidelines. If you go onto the PCI website, you can actually get a list of the PCI Certified Erectors that we have to choose from. They do have a series of criteria that you can see there in the bullet point list of things that they have to meet along with the rest of the things in the actual project. Supplemental requirements. So, kind of jot this down, the www.pci.org ART cert. This is where you can go online to find the information that we're talking about today, along with a fair amount of other information that we're talking about today. So, if you go to www.pci.org ART cert, you can go to the website, and you can go to the ART cert website, and you can go to the ART cert website, and you can go to the ART cert website, along with a fair amount of additional information. But in here, you're gonna be able to see some of the things we're about to show, like the mock-up drawings for each category. And what's nice about that is when you start to look at these drawings and delineations that they share relative to them, it'll help you as an individual understand the differences between the AA, AB, AC, and AD relative to the visual aspect. This makes it a lot easier for people to understand. To fully describe each one of these categories, PCI did establish the certification program in this document. So, in this picture, you can actually see, this is the initial certification mock-up panel for the AD type plant, type one. And when you look at this, you can see it's a relatively flat panel. It's gonna be one color. It has a couple of reveals in it. Typically, these panels are eight feet by 12 feet, and so this is an example of what an AD would be like. In the next slide, you're gonna see quite a difference. This would be what one of the AA plants would need to do, and the difference here is there's a lot of three-dimensional geometry that the AD one didn't have to produce. So, examples of that would be the curvatures, the bullnoses, the returns, the different finishes, and different colors. So, you can see there's quite a bit of difference between an AA and an AD. Along with that, you can see that there's a matrix on the right-hand side that kind of shares, not just with the geometry, but all the different things that you have to do relative to the features, and there's a call-out that kind of gives you an explanation relative to direction so you can see what each one of those items are. The corresponding matrix for each one does describe the requirements to pass the actual certification process. In this process, each of the plants actually has to produce a series of three mock-ups, not just one. So, so far, we've shown you one of the three types of each of the certification panels. So, here's a quick reference. So, if you wanted to say, hey, what's the difference just in a quick, you know, 30,000-foot-level view, AD, AC, AB, and AA, you can kind of look at the geometry of these and see that the differences are not terribly difficult to see, but sometimes when you get close from one category to another, you might have to dig into the details to say, well, am I an AB, or am I an AA, or am I an AC, or am I an AB? And that's where these documents that we're sharing with you can come in handy to help you really hone in on where you need to be. So, this is the type two mock-up that had to be done for each of the categories. So, AD is a relatively flat panel. It has brick on the face, right, as you can see. AC, you had to be able to return the brick. AB, you had to have longer returns with brick. And then AA, not only did you have to have the returns, but you also had to have a significant amount of articulation in the panel to go along with it. Certification requirements for mock-up type three. So, this one, again, was showing a different series of abilities. So, the AD category is still relatively flat with a reveal. AC, again, very, very similar, but it had a small return. Now, AB and AA get a little bit more complicated where they both now are starting to carry quite a few more components that they have to provide in that third mock-up. It kind of starts to set them apart in this third mock-up type where they both have some articulations, but the AA goes way beyond all of the rest in that when you go and look at the final information relative to those, you're going to find not only is it different articulations, but there's also different finishes and colors involved. And then the certification for the visual mock-ups for AT are relatively straightforward. There were three different types. One is curved, one that has some articulations, and one that has some articulations and some, let's say, openings or recesses in them. So, specifying the proper category. This is important, and we know that a lot of people are going to have a lot of questions. So, the first bullet point we put on here was, hey, when you don't know, consult your local precast producer early in the design and have them help you walk through the process. Ask them all the questions and let them answer them and help you kind of get a guide to walk through this. Review your design requirements and compare them with the literature that we have to kind of see where does it fit, and then review the category-specific master specification to ensure that the expectations that you are looking for in your project will actually be met. So, again, this website is kind of important, the www.pci.org arc cert. That's where you can go to find all this information. The photo on the left kind of gives you the idea of what the, these are actual mock-ups for AA and the three different ones. So, these are all the pictures. Now you can see what the actual mock-ups look like. Each of the AA producers had to make a set of these and all be graded relative to how they did on each one of these mock-ups that you can see on the left. The specific requirements are found in this diagram. On the left, you can see where it talks about color finish and face mixture, single color texture versus multiple. And then if you look over to the right, you can actually look through the matrix with the Xs and kind of see what is involved with each category relative to each of the requirements and what has to be done to basically get to the finish line as a producer. The tolerances, MNL 116, 117, and 135, just like Randy talked about earlier, they're kind of the guidelines for what we're following. And when you go down and look at the matrix, you can see which one of those applies to the categories of vertically versus horizontally in the chart. The architectural precast concrete, four different specs, AA, AB, AC, and AD. When you go to www.pci.org.arccert, you actually have the opportunity to download these specifications and it'll help you get started going through just like we had before with the A1, but now we have them for each of the four different categories to help guide you through creating the specification that works best for you and your project once you've made the decision on which one of these, or if you're going to have more than one of these in a project. So we'll get to that portion of it a little bit later, but ultimately we have specs here to kind of help you get started and we can help you walk through the process the first couple times till you get comfortable with it. Now we're going to look at a couple project examples in real life, right? So these are buildings that would fall into a category and it gives you another set of visual references. We're going to have some more of these to help you understand that an AD would be on the far left. That would be what you would see as a painted warehouse as an example. AC still relatively flat panels, but they have some artistic things happening on them. AB has cornices, it has exposed, it has brick. And then of course, AA has the multiple articulations, multiple finishes in a given panel. So AD projects, we'll kind of go through these again. They're relatively flat panels. They have reveals. You can use form liners. They're typically a one color mix. They have a consistent finish. You can have the thin brick. They follow the PCI MNL 116 for tolerances relative to structural tolerances. You need the level one and level two PCI technicians and for pre-stressing, right? And then no survey or site evaluators are required for AD style projects. And then you'll see here are a couple more photos. We have an Amazon warehouse on the left. And then what the production facility looks like to make an Amazon warehouse style panel, right? It's a large flat form, has some openings in it, and it's gonna get a relatively simple long line effect when you work on this style of panel typically. Here's two more projects that would be AD. Here's an elementary school on the left and a data center on the right. Again, there's larger box style facilities and typically they're either painted or they'll have one standard color on them. Whether it's painted or colored really doesn't matter. That's really just a matter of what finish do you need to apply on the product itself prior to it going to the field to meet the job requirements. So now we move to AC projects. So still relatively flat panels with reveals and form liners, still typically a one color mix. It needs to be consistent. Again, you can use thin brick, but now we move to the PCI M&L 117 for your architectural tolerances. You do need level one and level two PCI QC people. And then of course you have the pre-stressing. No survey or site evaluators are required for AC projects just like they aren't for AD projects. So there isn't anybody that has to go out and satisfy a need for you to maintain your certification through doing site evaluations of your actual projects. And then you do have to use a PCI certified erector whenever you're erecting one of these buildings. And now you'll get to see a couple of photo examples of an elementary school on the left and a TV station on the right. The one on the right, the uniqueness of it is it's able to withstand the F5 tornado, right? So in the current world that we're living in, we just had some hurricanes and heavy wind forces. So these folks would have been right in line with having the right kind of building to satisfy or survive those types of conditions. Some more AC projects to take a peek at. Here we have a credit union with offices on the left, and we actually have a 5th and Race Street development project on the right that's more of your office building type look with the spandrel and vertical column sections in Cincinnati, Ohio. But these are both good examples of how an AC producer can add tremendous value with today's trends, right? They incorporate brick into the precast. They have that modern look to them and they're still our modular building, right? So they go up fast, they look clean and they meet the requirements. So the AC producers can make quite stunning buildings to be quite honest. AB projects. So the AB projects were still relatively flat panels but they do have reveals and form liners. They also can have more of the 3D effect, right? With buildup services, projections, we can have radiuses and we can have more than one color in the face mix. We can install thin brick, terracotta, stone, tile, pretty much any one of those types of products into the face of the panels. We also are now with the PCM NL 117 architectural tolerances. The other difference here is you have a level three PCI QC person that's required when you move to the AB. And that's a lot to do with the more stringent requirements around the articulations and the need for the form building. The survey and site evaluators are required for AB. So when you finish an AB project, there actually will be surveys sent out to the groups that we talked about earlier, right? It would be the general contractors, architects, people that worked on the project. And they're gonna fill out a series of questions that kind of make sure that the building came out and was in line with what they anticipated it being. And there's a whole program we have relative to how that survey works. And then a PCI certified director is also required for all of the AB projects. So some examples of AB projects, we have a learning library and we have a cancer center in the hospital. So now you can see some of the differences. We're getting away from so much of the flat panels with let's say plain reveals or some exposed. And we now have some articulation in these panels along with some different finishes that are available on these different types of finishes. But the difference between the AD and AC that we were seeing before in these AB projects, I think you can visually start to see how they've changed and why we have this additional need for whenever the plants are being reviewed relative to their abilities. Another example of the AB, it seems to be repeating, but the precast can replicate any architectural style, right? In this one, you're getting to see things like arches, a lot of brickwork, and a lot of different form work that you wouldn't see in one of the flatter style buildings. But it does help, kind of help you understand that the AB projects are gonna be a little bit more complex in each of the different design modes and portions that we have to do while we're producing them, and actually while we're detailing them as well. And then AA projects. So AA projects are the most complicated as far as articulations are concerned that we have to deal with. So not only can they be flat panels, they also have reveals and form liners, 3D panels with built up surfaces, projections, radiuses, concave, convex. Pretty much, if you can dream it up, this is where your AA projects are at. They will have sometimes one mix, sometimes two mixes, or more, right? In any one given panel. You have the same as the AB, where you can cast in the thin brick, the terracotta, the stone, or the tile. We are still following the MNL 117 architectural tolerances, but there are some additional AA tolerance requirements that you'll find in the literature, where things like, let's say the joints, for example, might go from three quarters of an inch down to a half an inch, but you still have to maintain certain standards while you're pouring them. So things get a little bit tighter and a little bit more complex when you go from AB to AA. So you can see that the examples of these products in these buildings are just looking a little bit more sophisticated. These tend to showcase the cleanliness, the precise alignment between the panels. It maybe doesn't look like it's any more difficult, but when you're actually producing these and lining these up and working with them, you're gonna find that these are a little bit more complex than what your ABs and AC projects were in the past. So this is really where you can discuss your vision of what the project needs to look like, what the tolerance really needs to be, and working as a team between the architect, engineer, and the producer, you can really get your vision to come to life. So today's presentation was focused basically on the PCI certified program, but it's part of a great example to discuss on how we can utilize things like our BIM software to help us create some of these new facades that we probably hadn't been doing in the past, along with other new technologies that work with the BIM software, to design it and help simplify, at least in our design side, how we're gonna be able to actually make these things in the plant. On the left, you can see the Statue of Liberty Museum is a very unique project that was built out on the island in New York City. It had a lot of unique requirements, but at the end, I think it came through in shining colors, but it has all those elements that you'd be looking for in an AA project. So we have a couple of things, right? What if, what if you're unsure of what is the correct category for my building? What if the structural product or an architectural finish? What if multiple types of products are in one project? And what if limited bidders are in any specific category? So there's a series of what ifs that you may or may not have on your specific project, but if you do, and you don't know what the answer is, the first thing we would encourage you to do is call your local producer. If your project is one of those where you are not allowed to talk to a producer, PCI also has area representatives that you can call that can give you answers relative to your area, but wouldn't be tied to any one producer, which allows you to do that. So those regions can be found again on the PCI website with those specific contacts for each one. But at the end of the day, we encourage you to call us early, talk about the project, right? Use the pci.org arc cert to help you find the answers to the questions that you have, right? It's gonna give you the supplemental requirements. It's gonna give you guides. It's gonna give you FAQs or designer notebooks. It'll help you find a plant. And when you can find the plant, it helps you find the right people. You also can reach out to the How Precast Builds site at pci.org, How Precast Builds. And of course, you can always contact national or regional PCI members to help you with your projects. We encourage that reaching out and creating those conversations and getting them started, honestly, because this is all new, it's new to everybody. And we wanna just help you get to the finish line. And we have a lot of tools and we wanna help you understand how the tools can be used to get you to point B on your projects. So what questions might you have? Well, thanks, Gary. I wanted to pop in real quick before we get to the questions and just... Gary mentioned it and I mentioned it, but I definitely wanted to close with this comment. Excuse me. Is that an AD, AC, AB or AA producer, they're all equal in quality. It's the same quality of precast concrete. In fact, it's enhanced because of technology that we've been relying upon since the 1950s. These are projects that have been standing the test of time for decades. It's the same quality across all categories. The category is measuring the complexity, the capability within the specific plant. But just because a plant's been certified as an AC producer does not mean they cannot make a more complex product. It's just that PCI, that producer did not decide to be graded upon or certified upon a category of AB or AC. Or AB or AA. They felt that AC was a category that was something that met their needs, their local requirements or their local customer needs. So there are plenty of AC, AD producers out there that can make a complex form, a 2D, a 3D form or multiple mixes and finishes. They were just not certified in that specific category. So I know that becomes a little bit complex to their listeners out there that aren't familiar with the category. That's why it's really important to talk to your local producers, see what their capabilities are local, see some of their completed projects that they've done in the history and visit their plant and see what they actually can do and make sure that they can meet your requirements and then you can add them to your specification. And with that, I'll pass it back to Royce to see if there's any questions out there. Thank you. First of all, thanks, Randy and Gary for a great presentation. We'll start the Q&A portion. We have a few in so far. The first one is, can you please highlight some of the differences between architectural versus structural precast certification, i.e. M&L 117 versus M&L 116? Oh, that's a really good question. There are some great differences and some minimal differences and it's a big question. But the primary of the two is because of the architectural finish and the tolerances. A structural component is going to be something that's going to be load bearing. So now you're talking about a panel that's maybe 10 or 12 inches thick. Maybe it's an insulated wall panel and it's going to support load. It's going to support your floor loads, your roof loads. So think of a parking garage when you've got all those vehicle loading on a structural component that's also has an architectural finish. So trying to manufacture that product within the same tolerances as a, like a column cover, like the vertical piece you see there in the center of the picture. Producing those 10, 12 inch thick panels versus a four to six inch thick panel, the mass is different, therefore, the reinforcement's different, therefore the tolerances are different. So the main difference is tolerances of the panels. Okay, thank you. We have another question here. Do all of the A-type certifications have the same timeline requirements for initial certification and recertification? Yes, they have the same timeline. The process for getting certified under the new category was a 18, about an eight, 16 month process. Because of COVID, it was delayed a little bit, but they had a one year window to get certified in the new category. And now that everyone has been certified in the new category, it is a two year rolling out. It's really a four audit process, but the first two years they have to maintain their certification, and then after that, every six months they have to obtain a certain amount of points in the certification point system to maintain their certification. So it is in the same timeline, it's just a rolling, and now it's a rolling timeline. So the fourth audit falls off and the new audit is added. So every six months they're re-audited. All righty, thank you. We just had a question come in, and it says, is sound barrier wall panel considered as AD? The difference between AD, AB, AC, and AD is not the use of the product, it's the complexity of the product. So if you have a wall panel that's serving as a barrier wall or a sound wall and it's flat, has a simple form liner on it, it's considered an AD product, given you follow the manual 116 tolerances. As soon as you move that into a three dimensional design or shape or complexity, and you move to the 116 or 117 tolerances, it becomes either an AC or an AB product. So if it's just, if it's flat, it's one mix, one finish, one color, simple liner, it still falls into AD. Now to that end, you can take that same AD panel that you may put on a barrier wall and you can still put it on a high rise. It's not a matter of where that panel is used, it's the level of complexity that that panel is required to provide the architectural aesthetic that the designer is looking to achieve. All right, thank you very much. We have another question here. Can each of the architectural precast concrete certifications be pre-stressed and still meet PCI M&L 117 tolerances? Yes and no. It really depends on the individual component. The architectural design, the architectural precast producers that have pre-stressing capability and they meet the AA certification, then they typically will have the pre-stressing capability to meet the requirement of any project. However, it's up to the engineer of record, that's the specially structural engineer, the precast engineer, working with the precast plant to determine what's the best way to reinforce a panel based on that panel's use. So again, using a typical structural parking garage panel that's spanning 30 or 60 feet, those are typically pre-stressed. And if those are pre-stressed and you've got a look like what you see on the middle of the screen there with brick and exposed stone looks and bullnoses and 3Ds, I've seen those pre-stressed before and still meet the tolerances of 117. So that would fall under that category, but you wouldn't necessarily pre-stress a panel just to be pre-stressing it. It's based up to the specially structural engineer to determine what the reinforcement is required for that product to perform on your structure. Awesome. Okay, next question is, can architectural precast products include insulated wall panels? Definitely. Most anything that our producers can produce, so it's AD or AA or AB or AC, it doesn't matter. Most anything can be, insulation can be added to create a complete continuous insulation envelope. A lot of our producers can actually pre-glaze the products with insulation. Therefore you do have a kind of a one-stop shop when it comes to manufacturing those products. Pre-fabricated offsite, shipped to the site, lifted off on a truck directly from the truck to the building without any wasted energy. So, but just about anything that we manufacture as a precast concrete producer can be insulated. Now there's different types of insulation, different ways to do that within the production facility. That's why it's important that you share with the producer very early in the design to say, look, I'm looking for a project that has R13 or R17 or R20. Is it more of a passive house design or is it more meet the building code design? Are you looking for to put interior finish in that structure or would you like to be able to eliminate the interior finish and just have the architectural precast panel serve as the complete building enclosure? Those are all great Q and A's that you can't really answer on a webinar. We can just give you what those options are. But for your individual project, you may find that a complete single wide unit of precast concrete unit would work well for your project. I've seen it in schools, I've seen it in office buildings, I've seen it in warehouses, I've seen it in many different types of projects where you just have a single wide precast concrete panel that's fully insulated and that performs very well. All right, thank you for that. The next question is, do you think one day that they will have interchangeable replacement parts for precast? Like if I go to my local producer, or shop to replace anything the same day while everything is still within specifications? Well, that's a pretty cool question. I would think that the answer is maybe, because I don't want to say no. There's a lot of thoughts that go in my head because I've thought about this many ways and had a lot of conversations about people about how can we standardize precast concrete? And it's almost impossible to do that because they are custom products and each individual unit is extremely expensive. And so, I mean, can you have a bank of columns out there that where you, if you needed a new column, I don't know how, why you would need a new column and why you'd want one that's 24 by 24 when an 18 by 18 might work. So because we're just completely customized, I don't see how that would be a viable option. It would be cool though. All right, another question is, can you please highlight a couple key differences between architectural versus structural precast certification? I think you spoke on this a little bit earlier. Yeah, it's primarily the finishes and tolerances. When you dig into that 116, 117, 116 really talks about, you know, think of a column if you're going to have, or a beam. If you got a, if you're walking in your parking garage and you happen to look up and you look at a beam or underside of a double T or underside of a hollow core slab, you're walking along a wall that's not have any architectural finish at all. That's maybe a sheer wall inside a parking garage or enclosure wall around a elevator shaft or a column. Those components are to look like cast in place concrete. That's what we're accustomed to seeing. However, when you do cast the panel, just think if you had a column that was four foot tall for whatever reason you needed one, the side form of that column is going to be very hard to get a consistent finish on. So you may have some bug holes that may need to be rubbed out, you may have some swirl marks in there because of the concrete mixture as it hydrated, you might have a little bit of a minor separation between the sands and the cement. So you might get a little swirl marks in there, which may be a little unsightly. That stuff should be rubbed out per the manual 116 requirements because in the manual 116 requirements, it does have some specific requirements for aesthetics. How many bug holes can you have? They got to be, they have to be, some specs says you have more, some say you have less, it's up to you to determine what that is. But when you go to 117, now you're looking at architectural finish, you're looking at a face down on the form, you're looking at a specific color mix, you're looking at a specific form liner. So it's primarily that. The other thing is aesthetics. The other part is when you look at the tolerances between a beam set on a column, those tolerances don't need to be as stringent as a cock joint on the outside of a building. So those are really the main things. Now, if I was a structural engineer, I'd probably tell you about difference in pre-stressing and conventional reinforcement and connections, but from an architect's perspective, those are the main things, aesthetics and tolerances. Well, it looks like that's all the time we have for our Q&A presentation. All unanswered questions will be forwarded along with contact information to our presenters. I'd like to thank both Brandy and Gary for a great presentation. As a reminder, certificates of continuing education will appear in your account at www.rcep.net within 10 days. If you have any further questions about today's webinar, please email marketing at pci.org. Thank you again. Have a great day and please stay safe.

PCI Architectural Certification Program

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architectural precast concrete

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architectural precast certification

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