Construction Informer

The people who own apartments and multi-family housing told the Senate Finance Committee yesterday that the nation’s housing policy of "home ownership for everyone" is the cause of the current housing finance woes. They also are urging the Congress to rethink federally insured zero-downpayment loans. Such loans are pending as part of an FHA reform [...]

A Site You ‘Wood’ Want To Visit: Wood has long been the material of choice for residential construction and now the Wood Products Council has an initiative underway to support architects, engineers and contractors who want to use wood in non-residential buildings. The program is currently available in California, Georgia and the Carolinas and [...]

It looks like there is a movement afoot that might help to stimulate new ideas for funding the repair of the nation’s aging infrastructure. This is good news as we wait for the government to start functioning again and taking care of things at home.
The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates the country needs [...]

Don’t Rely on Inspectors For Contract Compliance: In South Dakota a road contractor was required to remove two miles of roadwork and re-grade the base that didn’t meet the contract specifications even though the DOT inspectors had checked grades at randomly selected grade stakes and verbally approved each layer. This one went all the [...]

Sometimes if you have enough regularly recorded data you can see patterns emerge that can offer opportunities to predict the future. One crystal ball of statistics resides with the Census Bureau Mining and Construction Division.
If you study the tables that show the number of housing building permits issued for every month since January of 1960 [...]

Let’s face it there is a lot that can happen to your computer when you work in construction. Drops, spills and getting left in the cab on hot days are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. So, you need a tough machine. Here is a rundown of some currently on the market. If you [...]

A poster on one of the construction forums recently wrote about Internet lead generation companies and claimed to have reached about a 14 percent close ratio on 330 leads provided by one of these companies. He also cited the sales as being higher dollar value than the company’s typical average sale.
Another poster explained he was [...]

The oldest, known operational bowling center in the U.S. was recently re-discovered at the Georgian Court University in Lakewood, NJ. The three lane alley is being restored to its original grandeur dating back to 1899 when it was built by the Brunswick Balke-Collender Company. The lanes will be resurfaced, the ball returns repaired, gold-finished [...]

Well, just as we might have expected, the whole water thing has come full circle. On Valentine’s Day students across the country were encouraged to "take-back-the-tap." This is good news for  plumbers who can now pick up add-ons by installing more whole-house filtration systems. However, that is not the main drive of the campaign.
Many are [...]

If you aren’t working today then you are probably playing ball with your dog. You are also in the minority since President’s Day seems to be a banks, schools and government employees day off. Most people who work in offices say they would rather have their own birthday off in place of any of [...]