Remodelers, Sharpen Those Pencils: In a survey completed by Opinion Research Corp for Johns Manville 24 percent of consumers said they would consider spending their economic stimulus checks on upgrading or improving their homes. Nineteen percent said they would definitely use the money for a home improvement project. What kinds of projects you ask? Well the top ones included landscaping, kitchen and bath upgrades, improving the home’s insulation, and painting. This month, which is National Home Improvement Month, 31 percent of those polled planned to start a home improvement project. Here’s the complete release.

Sign Up For Some Free Remodeling Training: Atrium Companies, Inc. starts a series of complimentary webinars May 13 that will cover topics for remodelers and others in the home improvement industry. The first one is titled, “Turning Gloom into Boom,” and will offer tips and techniques for succeeding and growing in a troubled market. Atrium makes windows and doors and you can register here.

Increase Your Span: Commercial and industrial builders can now explore the advantages of using a long-span steel framing system from ConXtech. The system has been primarily deployed in residential applications until now. By using larger structural steel members that are robotically welded off-site the company says the product can achieve spans of 65 feet. The system is called an “architecturally flexible” one that uses the same “lower and lock” principle as its residential product. The company claims site welding is reduced along with attendant inspections, and the bolt-together design makes it highly versatile.

If Building Times Are Tough Where You Are, Why Not Explore India: Nova Chemicals, which recently entered into a partnership with Reliance Industries to build joint projects in India, says that market is growing at 20 percent per year. The plan is for the two petrochemical interests to blend NOVA’s green building and construction technologies with Reliance’s production capability (my assessment) to make what basically appears to be SIPs but without the oriented strand board. Instead the rigid insulation is adhered to metal. It doesn’t appear that either of these entities does any actual building so I guess they will need someone to do that.

We Knew It Was Only A Matter Of Time: I have to say I am really tired of seeing that unattractive smoke alarm up there on the bedroom ceiling night after night after night. And the one on the hallway wall drives me bonkers. Thank goodness someone is doing something about these totally style-less life savers. Kidde has announced its first designer smoke alarm. Called Silhouette, the unit only sticks down from the ceiling half an inch. Claiming homebuilders and designers wanted unnoticeable smoke alarms the company rose to the challenge. Buy some stock in Kidde because built into this little gem is a renewable source of revenue. You never have to replace the battery. When it dies, in about 10 years according to Kidde, you replace the unit. Multiply that times a few million installations and it just may be Kidde has found the holy grail of smoke alarms. Since these units are hard wired I wonder who is going to do the replacement installations?

Others Say: A lot of remodeling is done before putting up houses for sale. The business opportunity is great, and it makes for a great addition to the business cards as well. If you plan wisely there is no issue related to debt consolidation at all and you can even continue paying for your hefty health insurance even while remodeling.

Recent News