this may be a long shot (asking here), but we're building a house & ALL construction supplies need to be made in america. it's not been too difficult except for one product: 2-3" exterior deck screws (stainless steel or galvanized). we can find some manufacturers who can custom make them, but lead times are forrrrrrever. i'm trying to find a stock product that we can have in 1-2 weeks & that we don't have to order 10,000 of.

we're open to alternative solutions for made in america subfloor fasteners. i've looked into paslode's tetragrip, but can't find anywhere to order them from.

[Edited on October 25, 2011 at 8:15 PM. Reason : clarification]

10/25/2011 8:05:44 PM

call and ask Fastenal/McMaster-Carr/Grainger

10/25/2011 10:01:12 PM

does this include all the laborers?

10/25/2011 10:03:14 PM

These might work.

http://www.mazenails.com/catalog/catalog.php?page=PAGE15&group=DZH

10/25/2011 10:16:35 PM

I don't understand this. Are you building a house for some raw rawr country singer?

10/25/2011 10:40:12 PM

I think that's pretty cool you're taking the time to source materials made in the US

10/26/2011 8:21:26 AM

^^^^i'm not sure, but i think they're all local boys right now. that's a good point to bring up w/ the boss.

^^^thanks!!! we'll check into those

^^no, just a guy in nash county with a good conscious & a lot of money. it's also going to be LEED certified & energy star rated.

^thanks!! we're a small business (11 employees) in almost BFE, and we've been deeply affected by the economy's crapiness. we had to lay off 2 people & other changes were made as far as insurance & whatnot. bossman loved the made in america series thing on abc w/ diane saywer, so we're going to try to support our economy instead of foreign ones.

10/26/2011 8:32:12 AM

http://www.haydonbolts.com

they may have some off the shelf galvanized/epoxy coated marine-grade hardware that may be suitable for decking. Like most american hardware facticators, they are more into structural hardware where material certs from supplier are a requirement. And yeah if the client wants 100%American-made material utilization, I hope he was advised that the lead times will be longer than usual and the cost will be higher. Not sure what your contractual arrangement is, but I would say pick your battles if you have hard time sourcing America-made material (get all the major items and then fall back on imported stuff for misc supplies)

10/26/2011 8:48:17 AM

100% American is tough.

Even the Fed's Buy American clauses allow 10% foreign materials by cost.

10/26/2011 9:31:59 AM

^we're going to try, but that 10% thing is interesting. can you find a link to that? i'm searching too but so far i haven't found anything that says that. that may be very helpful.

10/26/2011 9:46:19 AM

since you're such an obnoxious asshole about it all the time,

Quote :

"with a good conscious"

the word you were looking for is conscience.

10/26/2011 9:52:38 AM

wtf i'm obnoxious about the use of apostrophe + S when pluralizing. it wasn't underlined as misspelled so i went with it

10/26/2011 9:55:48 AM

PM me your email and I will send you the Buy American provisions for an ARRA project I did for CORPUD.

its a .pdf

10/26/2011 12:01:58 PM

Secton 25 of Federal Acquisitions Regulations (FAR) deals with Buy American Act. Start with things such as "definitions" anhd "exceptions" (Hog bristles for brushes or crude opium, anyone? ) :
https://www.acquisition.gov/far/html/Subpart%2025_1.html

Then move on to "Construction material" subsection (25.2) that's really applicable here:
https://www.acquisition.gov/far/05-51-1/html/Subpart%2025_2.html

Have fun! Just be glad that you are not working under "Buy America" Federal provisions, which are even more restricting that Buy American Act regulations

It seems like the restrictions you guys imposed on yourself (and/or imposed by the client) are tougher than those of the FAR.

[Edited on October 26, 2011 at 2:45 PM. Reason : .]

10/26/2011 2:44:32 PM

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/MadeInAmerica/

[Edited on October 26, 2011 at 5:17 PM. Reason : ]

10/26/2011 5:16:43 PM

^yeah we've been all through that. a few days ago i even emailed the guy that they did an article on about a home in MT completely made in america. i asked him if they used this type of screw & if so, where did they get it. he replied w/ the same spreadsheet they have posted on the abc website, that just says "screws". one of the manufacturers listed doesn't exist anymore & the other doesn't have what we are looking for.

*sigh* we'll see how long the client and/or bossman holds out on this...

oh and that link to maze nails was great, except the threads don't go high enough up the shaft of the screw for their purposes. thanks for sending it though!!

10/26/2011 6:39:23 PM

i hate when they don't go up high enough on the shaft

10/26/2011 6:42:25 PM

Quote :

"with a good conscious"

I still don't get it. Maybe I'm slow. Is it because US materials are guaranteed to not come from the harm of an endangered species or forest?

10/26/2011 6:46:38 PM

No, as in trying to keep the money in he country, help the economy, all that bs

10/26/2011 7:28:26 PM

^^ Keeping manufacturing jobs in the USA.

10/26/2011 7:33:43 PM

Do the products have to come from companies exclusively in the US? Of those that are, are you sure they don't have offshore bank accounts?

10/26/2011 8:26:45 PM

is that a serious question? we're not running audits on their books or anything. if they say the product is made in the usa, then we're good.

10/26/2011 8:36:51 PM

10/26/2011 8:49:57 PM

i heard someone at work today saying that that abc report said you can't find a US flag that's made in america

10/26/2011 9:03:20 PM

Completely untrue.

http://www.annin.com/

10/27/2011 5:16:13 AM

good to know

10/27/2011 8:35:15 AM

The way this works is you have to find someone who is based out of the United States. I know how the FAR is written, but in practice, what this means is that if you purchase from a company that is domestic, generally something will get to you very quickly and your purchase request goes through as long as it falls within certain purchase guidelines (regarding the amount of the purchase and fair competition practices).

That being said, somehow there is an immediate need for something and domestic suppliers simply can't get it done. I was on a project where we needed an antenna manufactured and the American suppliers couldn't get it in on time. Instead, we had to order from an Italian company and a Canadian company. The problem is that our purchase request got knocked back and forth so many times (because it wasn't a "domestic" supplier so we had to have multiple justifications) that it almost would have been faster to purchase from the slower manufacturer.

10/27/2011 8:53:11 AM

I find this thread offensive. Discrimination against foreigners is still discrimination.

10/27/2011 10:13:51 AM

Quote :

"i heard someone at work today saying that that abc report said you can't find a US flag that's made in america"

did that someone say "by god" before of after saying that?

10/27/2011 10:29:11 AM

I'm sure they have uttered the phrase, "dey took our jobs!" in a sincere fashion.

10/27/2011 10:43:39 AM

joke all you want. i think they're doing a good thing by trying to keep it in the US.

10/27/2011 11:14:58 AM

Why would you want to do this? American products are inferior.

10/27/2011 12:00:21 PM

Is that loophole with the Northern Marianias Islands still open?

10/27/2011 12:51:25 PM

^ haha when I was there two years ago I had a conversation with some locals about that whole thing. They said it was all well and good that they decided to enforce minimum wage standards on the sweatshops, but now all the sweatshops closed up and have gone to Vietnam and they're left with a bunch of unemployed people collecting welfare and food stamps instead of making money.

[Edited on October 27, 2011 at 1:03 PM. Reason : a]

10/27/2011 1:02:35 PM

^see this is why the minimum wage hurts jobs

10/27/2011 3:12:12 PM

Quote :

"Why would you want to do this? American products are inferior. "

America makes some of the best weapons systems and ironic t-shirts in the world

10/27/2011 3:24:00 PM

Apple Microsoft and Google sure are low rent.

10/27/2011 11:40:43 PM

None of those companies manufacture anything domestically to my knowledge.

10/27/2011 11:47:22 PM

Z6s suck that's for sure.



Made in Greer, SC.

10/28/2011 8:25:04 AM

IIRC, the United States is still the biggest manufacturer by value of products. China is obviously the biggest manufacturer by quantity.
$1.6 tril vs $1.7 tril: http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/21/news/economy/china_us_manufacturing/index.htm
Chart: http://i.bnet.com/blogs/comparisons.jpg?tag=content;col1


Sidenote: while I was looking for a link, I found this article saying that Samsung has overtaken Apple as the biggest mobile phone manufacturer in the US. DEY TERK UR JERBS! http://www.hardwarezone.com/tech-news-samsung-overtakes-apple-worlds-top-phone-manufacturer

10/28/2011 10:07:21 AM

Coincidental timing but I've been having a debate with some dude on Facebook on whether it's better to buy an American brand car or a Japanese brand car that most of its part and assembly is done in the United States. I argue you're better off buying the car actually built in the United States than buying a car just because it has GM slapped on it.

10/28/2011 10:49:49 AM

^those arguments are always fun.

I think "better" is a very rough thing to define because it's a subject for debate on what equates "better". If Toyota has more plants in the US (not claiming that they do, but let's say they do for the sake of argument), but GM's headquarters is in the US, who should you support in order to support the US economy? Sales and major revenue goes to corporate and is taxed by the federal government to provide "public income". In that respect, you are better off buying the American car and just advocating for the government to tax the shit out of corporate headquarters to boost the public coffers. By making a larger profit, those companies are more likely to invest in new technology and higher-quality products that may require US manufacturing. Either way, major corporations posting huge profits boosts AND investment in high-quality American manufacturing boosts the markets which makes everyone happy and encourages more companies to hire more people.

Likewise, if you purchase the car from Toyota, yes the profts may go overseas, but those profits go to grow a company that builds more facilities in the US and employs more Americans. If more Americans are employed, they can be taxed more to boost the public coffers and the economy will experience greater consumption of private goods which will boost the markets.

If there was a clear answer to this debate, the argument wouldn't have been going on for the past 50 years.

10/28/2011 11:29:42 AM

Lulz I just got a reply back from him. "Well I don't personally know anyone employed by Toyota but I know some guys that work for Chrysler so Chrysler has more effect on the US jobs market."

Yeah that logic makes sense "Yo I know everyone that works at the Cook Out on Western Blvd so they hire more people than McDonald's!"

10/28/2011 1:21:41 PM

^Sounds like an argument from someone who took one too many philosophy courses (which would be exactly one course).... "My perception is my reality."

10/28/2011 2:48:39 PM

It got better. They began to backpedal and say, "Well Toyota doesn't hire as many US engineers as Ford so even if they did hire more people overall it doesn't count." Oh okay

10/28/2011 6:02:09 PM

no matter what car you buy the salesperson, dealership workers in the background*, the mechanics*, and the guy who delivered to dealership* are all American

*or live in the US

10/30/2011 7:51:07 AM

Quote :

"^Sounds like an argument from someone who took snorted one too many philosophy coke courses lines"

P.S. I am not American, so I have no bone in this argument, whether about cars or screws, but I can admire what the client in the OP is trying to do. I would even go so far as to say it is a great thing he is doing, and if people in general emulated him, America could become a much stronger country again and China can sink. There is no debate even about quality here, because

any US product > comparable Chinese product

I think people should aim to spend a bit more money and try to buy American instead of foreign products, because in most cases, they would also get the higher quality product.

I personally don't look at where something is made, and just go for the best quality (shape, taste, reliability, etc) that I can afford, whether it is food, electronics, clothes, whatever. Actually, I do look at where things are made, to avoid certain countries as much as I can. Specifically China and India. And some Arab countries also.



[Edited on October 30, 2011 at 8:42 AM. Reason : ]

10/30/2011 8:34:38 AM