Page 22 - HW July 2020

fasteners & xings
Bremick Fasteners’ Steve Williams basically agrees when he says the market has been “pretty buoyant”.
“ ere’s obviously a lot of projects still going on, and it’s reasonably buoyant at the moment, de nitely.”
Despite admitting reservations about how much business will be written this September – election month don’t forget – Steve says: “ e way I see it at the moment, the builders that we talk to say they’ll be really busy until the end of the year and that they can’t take any more work on.”
In terms of a retailer-merchant outlook, he adds: “I do hear a couple have noted that foot tra c is quietening down a bit [but] funnily enough, I was at a big store yesterday and they mentioned that they were 30% up on last year.
“So go gure...”
As a result Steve Williams describes his outlook as “cautiously optimistic”.
Not one to pull punches or beat around the bush, Simpson Strong-Tie’s NZ Sales Manager, Rob Lawson, pays tribute to the company’s US owners, who simply said at the beginning of lockdown: “Stay safe – we’re going to pay everyone the full amount.”
Still, admits Rob: “We’ve kept everyone, but we still have a bit of a hole in our P&Ls, obviously, which we need to fill back in.
“We’ll plan to get through the year and get back to square one. We feel like, if you’ve kept everyone employed and everyone paid, you’ve done okay!”
Indeed.
“Builders have worked out that they’re better off paying a little bit more and having the back-up of tried and tested products... So we don’t seem to get knocked around like we used to”
WHERE HAVE THE KNOCK-OFFS GONE?
Asking around the traps about one old chestnut that we’ve reported on fairly consistently over the last 10 years in xings & fastenings – product knock-o s and direct imports with razor-sharp prices – and the current situation seems relatively positive.
Says Bremick’s Steve Williams: “There’s always the cowboys that come along with that container of bugle batten screws that sort of resemble ours, but they’re shut down pretty quickly.”
So, do the end-users, the builders, still need persuading about what to buy and where, or are they pretty clued up, operating as they are these days in a risk averse climate?
“ ey know the product. ey know the name. ey know the quality. ey just get on with it,” insists Steve Williams.
Rob Lawson and Simpson Strong-Tie o er a more moderated response: “ e Chinese copy product seems to have grown a bit quieter,” says Rob.
“I think builders have worked out that they’re better o paying a little bit more and having the back-up of tried and tested products.
“So we don’t seem to get knocked around like we used to,” he says, with just a hint of relief.
Screw it, don’t hammer it!
Recognising the increased convenience and safety of being able to use cordless drill-drivers on- and offsite, MiTek speci cally developed the engineered StudLok screw a couple of years ago now.
Initial testing facilitated the development of the yellow coded StudLok SL125 screw for top-plate to stud hold down xing in prenail frame production facilities.
MiTek also provided manufacturers with a StudLok stamp and accompanying paperwork for each project, to help Building Inspectors identify correct installation and therefore compliance at the same time as saving builders time and money on-site.
This xing option was further developed into the blue StudLok SL170 170mm screw. A longer version of the StudLok SL125, it allows the same top plate to stud xing to be made on-site, but after the topmost plate is installed, allowing installation to be completed by builders, but still offering ease of inspection by building of cials.
The latest element of MiTek’s StudLok screw range is the lintel uplift xings range. Using the yellow StudLok SL125 screw, in this application the screw is installed through the trim stud into the end of the lintel.
All of these xings sit within the thickness of the panel so they don’t get in the way of the wallboard and can all be installed offsite, which makes for both improved quality control and reduces the opportunities for nail gun related injuries.
www.mitek.co.nz
20 NZHJ | JULY 2020
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