Construction Informer

If American Standard has its way plumbers may soon be elevated to celebrity status. Calling them the “superheroes” who go to the rescue of home owners everyday the company has devoted a section of its website to advancing professional plumbers. But there’s more here than just kudos and product information.
There’s an electronic comic book that [...]

There are times when expectations line up and two people look at a finished job and agree that it is acceptable. Then there are other times when two people look at a job and disagree as to whether it is acceptable. Here’s a case in point. A small warehouse job had several utility-type rooms that [...]

Building is one of those activities that when you are “into it” can take you on one of those one-way trips to lost time – like being “in-the-zone.” Everyone has experienced becoming so engrossed in something that they literally look up and can’t imagine how much time has gone by.
With building, once you get going, [...]

Somewhere between nine and 12 months from the time architects start billing on projects the construction spending for those projects begins. So recently when the Architectural Billings Index (ABI) slowed, those who follow these things began predicting a slow down in commercial construction. These numbers are economic indicators of construction activity as reported by the [...]

There is an aspect to the changing climate that gets very little press. As storms continue to become more violent, show up in places they haven’t usually shown up before and occur more frequently the concept of shelter begins to take on new dimensions. As covered earlier in this blog the green building movement is [...]

Everybody wants a roof that keeps the inside of their building dry. What most people never consider though is the amount of rain water these roofs collect in an unnatural way and then channel it into places like storm drains.
Anyplace you put a roof changes the natural ecosystem. Water that used to fall on soil [...]

For everyone in the construction business risk is like a hot potato and it’s handled that way – it’s passed around because nobody wants to take the heat, regardless of their responsibility.
Originally insurance companies recognized they were in the business of insuring against risk and understood that. Today insurance companies are in the business of [...]

There is a long standing debate about whether the low bid is really the right way to go. Granted if you’re a GC and you are combining the bids of subs into a master bid, low bid means a lot. At the very least it can mean more money in your pocket. Ignoring it could [...]

Florida’s governor is bullish on construction. Whether or not the legislature goes along with these stimulus packages remains to be seen, but if you build in Florida there could be a multitude of projects coming up. This tracks along with what we’ve been seeing. The housing sector is attracting bail-out schemes and the public sector [...]

You should always make sure you lock up any equipment you leave at the jobsite… even your steamrollers. Apparently one was swiped from a site in Orange County California and later found abandoned. Hmmmm. I wonder why the thieves left it. Did it run out of steam? Anyway, before it was found it was implicated [...]