Construction Informer

During the time I have been writing these posts I have had many requests for the URLs to other construction-related blogs. People would variously complain about not being able to find construction very well represented in the blog world. I already knew there were many construction blogs out there because I had casually come across them but I hadn’t been collecting the links so I really wasn’t sure just how many existed. More importantly I didn’t know how many had any meaningful information posted with any consistency.

Today, after many hours of roaming the web and engaging in cataloging kinds of activities, I have answers to those question that at least satisfy me for the time being. I have compiled a list of these blogs and called it the Orangelist Spring 2008 Construction Blog Directory. It is available in MS Word and MS Excel for $12.99.

Some may say this a rather counter-revolutionary concept for creating directories in the computer age. I have to admit it feels like going backward yet it also feels like it gives some meaningful results. In this case a human, me, has viewed every blog, scanned all the posts, compiled all the posts for each month the blog has been active, recorded the Google ranking and ranked each one on three criteria. So, instead of clicking on a blog link and getting a 404 error, or finding a few posts and then nothing, or finding a computer-generated directory with a bunch of irrelevant content, you get what you were expecting.

I went out looking for construction blogs using the simple premise that each one must be clearly labeled as a blog and have a typical blog structure consisting of posts, comments, archives, and the other attributes that we think of as being unique to blogs. Many of you are probably already seeing how such a list might be valuable to you and here are a few of the things I came up with:

• It can help you to network and get your own blog spread around a bit;
• It can help you to monetize and promote to the construction world;
• It can introduce more depth to your current repertoire of sources;
• It can put you in touch with others who have a passion for the industry and a willingness to share insight and perceptions;
• It can offer directions to some valuable tips, tricks and insights related to all kinds of challenging construction things; and more…

It seems construction may be one of the last bastions of the pre-computer age! I found a little more than 60 blogs related to construction that fit my criteria for a blog. I haven’t deluded myself into believing that’s all there are but these represent what a typical person would find using the same techniques and applying the same standards.

Early on I realized you can’t divorce architecture/design and engineering from construction. They are linked and you have to view them all in their own contexts but also as they relate to each other…so I have included blogs about those disciplines as well. Because I found so many legal blogs I limited them to a few and included a law blog directory.

There are many blogs out there done by contractors and material suppliers and others in construction businesses that are just focused on promoting their businesses and they aren’t included.

There are many blogs with a very local focus so they aren’t included and also not included are blogs that focus on a particular project like the building of a hotel.

If the blog is primarily aimed at homeowners, it won’t be in the list and not included are directories although I did pull some blogs from directories because they had some compelling content.

Other than that, if you want good reading, pictures, tips, tricks, techniques, commentaries and inspiration related to construction businesses then you will find all of that and more in this directory. There is much more about this product at the link above.

You only have to look at main street USA to see examples of how adaptation allowed some to survive. In city after city when a Wal-Mart store was about to move in small businesses and governments would band together to try to prevent it. But the consumers voted with their wallets, as they will most often do, and in the end the giant retailer prevailed. And while local business after local business closed up, some changed their focus, adapted and thrived. The difference was refining their niche and doing it better than the big store, or anyone else could do it for that matter.

Now home building/remodeling construction companies face the challenges of a shrinking pool of customers due to more people not owning homes and fewer people purchasing them. The nation’s infrastructure builders find there is ample need, but no money or political will to tackle the necessary construction. Commercial building projects are fading and there is already a long- slow decline in the offing.

The first thing that happens in these times is the less competitive close up. Those who absolutely have to get top dollar because of their skill level, belief in the superiority of the product they deliver, and unwillingness to meet market demands, either find a niche with top-end clients who recognize and appreciate their value, or they fade away. Those who charge competitively but don’t deliver enough quality to match what they charge, move down the chain and struggle, or fade away. There is a fate allotted to every firm in the hierarchy and they all can end up out of business.

These are exactly the times when the really creative and thoughtful companies find new opportunities. These are fertile times for those people who like to walk around the edges of your business pushing on the envelope and asking questions that nobody has dared ask before. These are the times that belong to companies that actually listen to that hair-brained idea someone in accounting has been talking about for the last three years.

These are the times that test businesses and without times like these most businesses would devolve into inefficient bureaucracies that no longer adapt quickly enough for the market. If that sounds like your company it may be time to look for other work, or roll up your sleeves, and open your mind.

Assigning meaning to the various colors of hard hats seems to fall into the realm of necessity. I recently read where some transportation departments assign colors to specific stations on the job. So, a visitor’s would be green and a manager’s would be white, etc. California DOT actually spells it out in their regulations:

• White with the Caltrans logo for most employees, used in most settings;
• Yellow for electrical crews;
• White without the Caltrans logo for people who participate in Adopt-A-Highway;
• Orange for, well, what California refers to as “Special Program People,” who pick up litter, (some suggest that’s probably done so they have a matching hat for their outfits).

There are very large jobs where the colors are also assigned so that different players can be easily identified. For example red hats might be designated for first aid responders.

I don’t know but I’ve never been impressed with the various hard hat knock-offs like the cowboy and NFL ones. OSHA has some requirements for hard hats (American National Standards Institute, Z89.1-1969, Safety Requirements for Industrial Head Protection) that one can only surmise are in effect because they help with safety. One note is that they should be inspected regularly for dents, cracks or deterioration. Some maintain that putting stickers and labels on the hard hats will prevent you from being able to do that. I’ve seen a lot of hard hats with all kinds of stickers on them and I have to admit I don’t think I could have seen a dent or crack in most cases.

There is a program called Helmets to HardHats under the direction of the Center for Military Recruitment, Assessment and Veterans’ Employment (CMRAVE). CMRAVE is funded by Department of Defense dollars to the tune of $5.4 million in 2007. The idea is to help transition military veterans to the needs of the construction sector. The organization doesn’t seem to have a particular color in mind for the hard hats it advances. But the website colors are green and yellow.

Believe it or not the very first hard hat was most likely black. Bullard, a 100-year old manufacturer of personal protective equipment, claims it perfected and popularized the concept of protecting heads from damage while working. In 1915 one of the company owners used a design based on the helmets worn by soldiers in World War 1. It seems miners were interested in these devices. The hats were made by blending together steamed canvas, glue and black paint. A suspension device fit inside the helmet. At least 18 years later the very first U.S. “Hard Hat Area,” was set up during construction of the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge, according to Bullard.

I’m not sure how much more anybody can stand regarding hard hat colors on a Monday morning but even if it reminds one person to put theirs on then maybe it has some value.

I don’t usually subscribe to common sayings since they are usually made from the narrow perspective and experiences of the person saying them. There are some exceptions though and here is one: One man’s trash is another’s treasure.

On a large remodel job I was faced with the disposal headaches associated with hundreds of still useable bathroom fixtures, single pane windows and kitchen cabinets. The things take up a huge amount of dumpster space and once they go to a landfill they’ll literally remain in-tact forever. Believe it or not, depending upon the entity that owns the material there are potential liability issues associated with just releasing them to the general public. At that time there wasn’t any reasonable alternative that wouldn’t have busted the budget and so they went to the landfill and unless someone went out there and picked through the garbage to recover them they ended up staying one man’s trash forever.

I was curious about the current state-of-the-art available in locating salvage opportunities for such materials. You can always find someone to take Victorian bath tubs and other antique kinds of every man’s treasure off your hands “at virtually no cost to you,” but when it comes to things that might have to be reworked, or turned into something else, or just held for awhile until someone wants them it’s a really different story.

Some municipalities are actively involved in this. For example the city of Oakland, CA lists on their site salvage and demolition companies and markets for discarded materials. Up in Vermont they have the non-profit building materials re-use store and deconstruction services provider called ReNew Building Materials and Salvage Inc. This is a remarkable effort that consists of a building materials store, deconstruction services (we used to call it demo), a public education initiative, job skill training and support to other non-profits.

Sometimes you need to get an idea of what the salvageable materials might be worth in order to justify the expense of sending them through salvage streams instead of through waste streams. In the project I referred to above I used this publication from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center is another non-profit that serves a particular area and offers solutions that link people up to recycle and reuse opportunities.

There are companies of course that specialize in handling the demolition aspect of your jobs and you can find some of them at the National Demolition Association.

This is an area where we are going to see an immense amount of interest in the next five years. Just sending things to the landfill isn’t working any more. The time is just around the corner when we are going to have to view everything we do in construction from a cradle to grave perspective.

Home Improvement Month Nears: May is National Home Improvement Month and based upon the foreclosure news it might just be that banks will be spending more time in those efforts than homeowners. But in all seriousness the alarm bells are being sounded to warn consumers about shady contractors.

NARI, National Association of the Remodeling Industry, claims the FTC says homeowners lost a little over a billion dollars last year to home improvement fraud. Mr. Handyman, billing itself as a national service provider for too-busy homeowners came out with a 12 point list of things to focus on around the house while adding that if the homeowner doesn’t have the time…well, then the company has 200 locations in 35 states ready to do battle with those chores.

For he rest of you in that business it may be time to get those flyers printed up and check with some previous clients for referrals.

Tree Legislation Gets Endorsement: As part of its efforts to highlight the importance of trees, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is encouraging Congress to get with it and pass the Energy Conservation Through Trees Act. The measure creates a grant program to help electric utility companies to target residential tree planting.

Apparently there is a lot to consider when you decide where to plant a tree in an urban environment. You have probably all seen instances where trees had to be removed because not enough thought was given to their siting. The legislation requires science-based decisions so trees do not end up disrupting existing infrastructure, blocking solar and wind efforts, and damaging power lines. It sounds like a tall order in often already over-crowded environments. Still ASLA has the people who can figure out those kinds of things.

In a draft of the legislation residential power providers must have legal agreements with nonprofit tree planting organizations that will in turn provide tree-siting guidelines, coordinate volunteer tree planting efforts, educate the public, and provide periodic tree maintenance services to residential participants among other things. Residential participants have to sign an agreement that they will care for the trees for at least three years.

The non-profit Casey Trees serves as a model for other communities’ efforts at improving their tree canopies. The site includes a tree map and a tree benefits calculator.