From The Construction Zone: March 2001

John Layman stood by the framed condos talking to himself.  Or so it seemed.

Layman is on the cell phone so much he has a hands-free attachment that lets him communicate thru an ear-piece and tiny microphone attached to his shirt. So he now fields calls from foremen and suppliers without breaking his stride.

To the casual observer, he might look crazy. To those who know him, he’s just one heck of a busy guy. That morning, he was busy trying to get hangers to the job site so his crew could finish framing the second floor.

"We had a little problem with the hangers," Layman said. He was talking about saddle hangers that would support the second and third floors of the buildings, holding in place 18 inch Glu-Lam beams.

The project is called Vistana at Rhodes Ranch, a condo community featuring three story buildings with as many as 48 units per building. His crew had framed the first floor of several buildings and stood ready to go up. But to do that, they needed the saddle hangers that had to be sent back to the supplier.

Layman had it worked out that there would be no break in work. The corrected hangers were, in fact, overdue, and now one of the foreman on the job was getting peeved. They weren’t quite ready to start on the second floor, but no one wanted to wait once they were set.

Layman verified that the hangers were en route, and would wait for them to arrive to make sure they would work.

John Layman started as a runner with Bravo, Inc. four years ago, and came to the framing business after a stint in the equipment supply part of the trade.

His knowledge of materials earned him a position doing hardware take-offs. Today, Layman makes sure each job has all the hardware needed for completion while managing the company’s safety program.

"I make sure anything needed for the job -tools, generators, forklifts- is there," he said. "We’re in the process of rebuilding our forklifts, and doing a company-wide forklift training program."

Layman entered the construction trade when his father, a carpenter, started taking him to jobs when he was 15. "I started by helping him," he said. "I actually started doing it myself when I was 17."

Sitting on a slab taking a break one summer day, he saw a thermometer that read 125 degrees. "I said to myself, it’s time to get out of this." He went into the supply business for four years, learning hardware and hardware applications.

"When I started with Bravo, Inc., we had 500 guys working for us," Layman said. "We had 15 to 20 jobs going at once. It slowed down for awhile, now it’s booming back up. We have about 90 guys with us right now and four or five jobs ready to start."

Like most effective safety directors, Layman answers only to the boss. Dean Griffith is Bravo’s construction manager, and Layman says he is all for safety.

"We used to use forklift straps," Layman said. "They get frayed and tore up. I suggested we go with a chain harness as a sling and he agreed. It’s safer."

Layman said that the standard hook used with forklift straps has caused problems.

"We had an accident where the forklift boom bounced and the jib came out of the harness. The joist came off and hit our worker in the foot," Layman said. "He fell, broke through a double top plate and fell down into the garage."

Layman went to using a clamp after that, and now, with a chain harness instead of straps, he feels the forklifts are safe. "With chains, you don’t have to worry about straps breaking. The straps are strong, but they get frayed or torn and you have to throw them away."

To get to the solution, he gathered information from the people who dealt with the issue on a daily basis. "I took opinions from our forklift drivers and foremen. I asked them what they used before, what they’ve seen work at other companies."

Whether gathering consensus or monitoring safety on numerous jobs, Layman has racked up more than 60,000 miles on the company truck since he got it a little over a year ago. He’s logged some 200,000 miles since joining Bravo, Inc.

"We had a great year last year," he said proudly. "We did close to 500 homes for Rhodes Homes, not counting all our other jobs," he said.

His company’s accident rate is a constant concern. Although there were no serious injuries in year 2000, Layman isn’t satisfied. His company was plagued with numerous small accidents. "In my opnion, we had a bad year," he said. "It wasn’t anyone’s fault, and there wasn’t anything any one could have done to prevent or stop them."

Married to Margie for eight years, Layman has three children, Taylor, Caitlin and Zachary, who range in age from two to seven years old.

Not long after talking to the supplier of the saddle hangers, Layman watched a truck pull into the job site, the supplier a friend of his. The fellow had personally made the trip to deliver the parts so Layman’s crew could get the second floor going.

Layman looked over the parts. They’re perfect, and the crew was just finishing the other building. There had been no down time, the parts were on the job as John Layman got another call.

"Hello," he says into his shirt.

Crazy.