Construction Informer

What do you do if you have taken the process of insulating a home from science to art?  Well, you might try entering a competition. That’s what Ray Blackwater with Durango, Colorado-based San Juan Insulation & Drywall did and he is now the “Best Insulation Installer in America” for 2008.

According to Insulate America, Blackwater defeated last year’s champ Salvador Hererra from Insulating Inc. in Raleigh, NC. This year’s three other regional winners who competed for the crown included:

Jesus Campanero from Chico, CA

Matt Fletcher from West Boylston, MA

Martin Sanchez Soto from Charlotte, NC

The competitors had to install insulation of various types in a mock up of a building that included all the usual things that get in the way or make the job difficult, like electrical boxes, wires, pipes, headers and even a vaulted ceiling. Judging criteria included quality of workmanship, adherence to safety, and speed and productivity. New this year, the sixth year of the competition, was the amount of scrap they each generated.

October is Energy Awareness Month so Johns Manville in association with Insulate America sponsors the competition to draw attention to the professionals that give their all to help make sure buildings achieve their maximum energy efficiency.

To me these are great initiatives. There really aren’t enough efforts that showcase the day-to-day work construction people do. Especially with the slant of showing it in a professional sense. You can find all kinds of people showcasing the negative actions of people in construction, so these kinds of things help to balance the picture for those who are willing to look a little deeper.

Ray Blackwater of Durango, CO. (Photo: Business Wire)

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.

I’m still trying to get my mind around this one so if any of you have thoughts that might bring this into focus please feel encouraged to leave comments.

According to the Triangle Business Journal, and company press releases, the North Carolina-based utility company Progress Energy wants to pay builders and developers to build residences that meet Energy Star requirements. It also wants to pay builders to install efficiency equipment like solar water heating systems. It says that could amount to $1,000 per system.

For commercial and industrial construction the company intends to provide “custom financial incentives.” These efforts will allow commercial builders to recover some of the costs of using energy efficient measures in buildings and will also pay building owners to make their properties more energy efficient.

The company says this is all part of its plans to double the energy it saves through its efficiency efforts. This is to prevent the need to construct new power generation facilities. The other kinds of things it plans to do is upgrade power lines and remotely control customers’ air conditioners, strip heating, and electric water heaters during times of peak demand. Right now the company says participation in that program will be voluntary. Progress Energy serves 3.1 million customers in the Carolinas and Florida and received the Edison Electric Institute’s Edison Award in 2006 for its operational excellence.

Half the costs of these utility company initiatives will be born by the customers of Progress Energy if the whole scheme is approved by the appropriate utilities commissions. So let’s see. If I hire a contractor to build my house and include energy saving features the contractor will receive payback from the utility company and a portion of my bill from then on will help to fund that payback. Is this a convoluted way to fund energy efficiency, or am I missing out on new ways of thinking?

A simpler, and probably lower cost approach would be more like this: People pay contractors to build their houses to be as energy efficient as can be and then reap the rewards of lower utility bills throughout their expected lifetimes. Commercial and industrial building owners will have to do the same. The power company bears the cost of upgrading its infrastructure and does the typical thing and passes those additional costs on to the customers. Then, let customers reduce their energy use at peak times because it costs too much not to do otherwise. That way the utility company can focus on supplying the power and not controlling how much of it people use.

By the way, some of this is coming about because of state governments’ initiatives at lowering their states’ carbon footprints. So there is a better than even chance that government desires and mandates will creep into the mix. This is another stage being set where green mandates can develop and then all builders, and building owners, will be affected, not just the ones getting the utility provider paybacks.

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.

As social networking continues to come of age it isn’t surprising to see networks spring up that mix together buyers and sellers of home improvement products and services. Home Savvi is one that brings together all those with interests in fixing up existing structures…most specifically homes.

According to the release:

Co-founders Villette Nolon and Will Hartmann created HomeSavvi for the purpose of allowing homeowners and businesses to take advantage of new Internet-based social networking and project management tools to facilitate exchange of home remodeling expertise and services over the Internet.

The first market rollout is Seattle and will be followed by Portland, San Francisco, Boston, Miami and Dallas. For your construction business it promises unique ways for you to build relationships with potential new customers. You could answer questions, contribute articles about real projects, add posts to blogs and generally be available as an expert that homeowners would contact for advice on remodeling.

You can create a profile at no cost to you and from there you can expand the exposure you would like to have. This is an Internet area that many have been having a tough time developing. It is essentially local Internet and it has its own unique challenges not the least of which is getting attention amidst already in-place word-of-mouth and established relationships.

It would be a good idea to keep an eye on these types of efforts because there are more and more people who like developing relationships within the comfort of their homes without the challenges of dealing face-to-face. Then, when they are ready, and feel comfortable with the relationship that has developed they will take the next step and ask for an estimate.

Most notably these are thoughtful people who may know as much about the topic as you but they are just not interested in doing it themselves. Talking down, and acting like you are the epitome of knowledge will probably just turn them off. These local Internet efforts are all about building relationships just using a different process then has been typical. Patience will pay dividends here.