Contractor articles from April 2001

Contractor archives from April 2001

Legionnaires' scare.(Legionnaires' disease as Ford Motor Co. Ohio plant)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... CLEVELAND -- Ford Motor Co. reopened its Cleveland Casting Plant in Brook Park, Ohio, in March after Legionnaires' disease killed two workers. Ford hired an independent contractor who performed three days of disinfecting work on the...

Arsenic rule watered down?(acceptable level in drinking water)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration angered environmentalists by postponing rules that would lower the acceptable level of arsenic in drinking water. The rules, due to take effect in late March, would have lowered the acceptable level of...

Bush reverses ergonomics rule.(George W. Bush)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... WASHINGTON -- While contractor associations uniformly cheered President Bush's March reversal of OSHA's controversial ergonomics rule, labor unions voiced outrage. "Ergonomic injuries are our nation's biggest workplace safety problem --...

Miller Park ready, come rain or shine.(construction accidents and park construction details)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... MILWAUKEE -- Miller Park, home of baseball's Milwaukee Brewers, officially opened this month, almost a year behind schedule. A crane accident in July 1999, which claimed the lives of three construction workers, was the chief cause for the...

Who installs remodelling jobs?(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)(Illustration)
April 1, 2001... Who installs remodelling jobs? (Residential projects in last two years) Remodeled bath/ powder room Contractor 34% Contractor/Homeowner 23% Homeowner 43% Remodeled kitchen Contractor ...

Deal allows CPVC pipe inside California homes.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... SACRAMENTO, CALIF. -- The California Building Standards Commission in March granted continued approval of the use of CPVC piping for hot- and cold-water distribution systems inside residential buildings on a limited basis. The action is a...

`Ordinary people' key to success.(annual conference of mechanical contractors)
April 1, 2001... WAILEA, HAWAII -- The theme of the Mechanical Contractors Association of America's annual convention alluded to the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey," but a more fitting film reference might have been "Ordinary People." That's because a number...

Home building drops in 40 states.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... THE HOUSING MARKET lost some of its oomph throughout the nation last year, but the declines were moderate in the context of the extraordinary gains that have been realized since the current economic expansion began almost 10 years ago. As...

More firms recruiting on the Web.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... LAS VEGAS -- It's not surprising that the president of an Internet recruiting service would tout its benefits, but Marc Sampson, founder and CEO of MECHdata, had all the statistics on his side. Sampson founded MECHdata, which runs the...

School, lab for deaf pose sound challenges.(heating, ventilation, air conditioning system)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... ST. LOUIS -- A noisy HVAC system would seem to be of little concern in a facility dedicated to deaf people. Yet the design/build group of C&R Mechanical Co. had to go to extraordinary lengths to design and install an exceptionally quiet system...

Service Experts creates ISL best practices group.(International Service Leadership)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... NASHVILLE, TENN. -- Service Experts has announced the formation of International Service Leadership. ISL is an industry-wide HVAC contractor organization that intends to offer "unparalleled services and unprecedented levels of support to HVAC...

IN BRIEF.(wages, publications, standards, license agreement)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... * Increases in construction wages and fringes last year moved upward from other recent years, according to the Construction Labor Research Council. Rates rose 3.8% in 2000, up from 3.3% in 1999. Already scheduled future increases average 3.7%...

FYI on toilets.(for your information)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... FYI on toilets (Poll of 500 respondets) 65% say they are prone to use the phone from their "throne" 85% read in the bathroom, 90% prefer magazines to books 52% who claim to clean the...

New idea makes geothermal cheaper.
April 1, 2001... FORT WAYNE, IND. -- WaterFurnace has agreed to form a joint venture with Hardin Geotechnologies to market a breakthrough technology using municipal water to dramatically lower the cost of heating, cooling and refrigeration. The joint...

Rheem names marketing chief.(Rheem Manufacturing Co. hires Dave Martin)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... MONTGOMERY, ALA. -- Rheem Manufacturing Co.'s water heater division named Dave Martin to head its marketing department. Martin has held several posts in the areas of finance and marketing during his 11-year career at Rheem, including...

A computer isn't the magic bullet.(choosing computers and software)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... IF YOUR BUSINESS is out of control, computers are not the answer. I know there are busloads of computer types who will disagree. While I think computers are magic, if something is wrong, then you must fix it before you computerize it. I've...

LETTERS.
April 1, 2001... Dial-a-Plumber story has another side to it MANCHESTER, MASS. -- As always, I enjoyed David Yates' article, "Learn to hang up on Dial-a-Plumber," (February, pg. 16). I got to thinking about the night calls that we receive and how we...

Holy crusade.(Bishop Plumbing seeks to educate consumers)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... Bishop Plumbing's mission is to educate customers to buy quality over price. Bob Melko, president of Bishop Plumbing in Des Plaines, Ill., is on a mission. He wants his customers to understand that differences really do exist not only in...

Corrosive cleaners can destroy coils.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... DURING THE PAST year, I've been in the commercial-service sales business. I've been traveling my local area, getting up on a lot of roofs to look at equipment and trying to sell maintenance agreements. Although most of the equipment I've looked...

York to stay independent.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... YORK, PA. -- York International Corp. announced in late February that it has concluded the process of reviewing various alternatives to enhance shareholder value and that it will remain independent. In October 2000, York engaged UBS Warburg...

N.J. utility offers energy financing.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... FOLSOM, N.J. -- South Jersey Gas has announced a new energy-efficiency financing program available to its customers to finance home improvements including switching to high-efficiency natural gas units, new natural gas appliances, and other...

BGE Home workers vote against IBEW.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... BALTIMORE -- A majority of BGE Home employees in late February voted against representation by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The single voting unit was comprised of 320 BGE Home employees characterized as full- and...

Louie Rheiner.(Short Story)
April 1, 2001... EDDIE HAD ONLY been with the supply house a couple of days so he didn't know about Louie Rheiner yet. When Eddie needed some help getting the bundles of half-inch pipe off the truck and into the rack he shouted inside and Louie Rheiner was...

Proper circulator sizing in closed-loop systems.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... IN LAST MONTH'S article (pg. 31), I promised that I would explain the installation and operation of a pressure-activated bypass valve. It then came to my attention that I had not yet explained the procedures for properly sizing a circulator for...

Service management here, there, everywhere.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... SERVICE MANAGEMENT Series 6.0 (by WennSoft, www.wennsoft.com, 262/821-4100), is a comprehensive service dispatch, scheduling, invoicing and maintenance contracting program for service industries with employees in the field. The software works...

Computer Product News.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Right-Suite Commercial is an automated HVAC system designer that converts commercial floor plans into system proposals, complete with parts lists. Beginning either with CAD diagrams or manual floor-plan input, the software carries out...

AA Advance Air joins Encompass.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... POMPANO BEACH, FLA. -- AA Advance Air is now part of Encompass Services Corp. Founded in Pompano Beach in 1976 by partners Robert Burrow and Robert Drew, AA Advance Air specializes in air conditioning design and construction, comprehensive...

Cal-Air opens East Bay branch office.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... LOS ANGELES -- Cal-Air opened a new service and construction branch office in February in Livermore, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay area. The branch's full staff includes service technicians, construction and project managers, service sales...

Product NEWS.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... For more information please use the reader service card The Vizion whirlpool bath features a 10-in. flat-screen television that can be angled to meet the bather's preference. Other standard features include a DVD/CD player, AM/FM stereo...

Ergonomics rule disabled, but injuries won't go away.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... BEHIND THE INFLAMED rhetoric of union leaders outraged by the rescinding of OSHA's ergonomics rule is an issue that won't go away. The problem is that just because Congress and President Bush eliminated the ergonomics standard barely two...