Builder articles from July 2005

Builder archives from July 2005

Job no. 1: no one can afford to ignore jobsite safety anymore.(Occupational safety and health)(Editorial)
July 1, 2005... BEFORE THE PROJECT TEAM COULD VISIT THE JOBSITE, we were subjected to a safety briefing in a conference room. We would be expected to wear hard hats and safety gear on the site at all times. If we witnessed any unsafe conditions, we were...

Mullray Builders Corporation: communication is key to success for this PA builder.(SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION)(Brief Article)(Advertisement)
July 1, 2005... Mullray Builders Corporation has been in business about 25 miles outside of Philadelphia for three years. A veteran builder, owner Bill Mullray says the market is strong and business is good. "Like most builders on the east coast, land is...

Affordable housing.(B MAIL)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... WHY IS IT THAT BUILDERS CONTINUE to identify components of regulatory costs as the greatest threats to affordability? While I think it is extremely unfair for cities to charge impact fees in excess of the actual costs that the new-home impact...

Thank you.(B MAIL)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR A SUPER article ("Virtual Care," May 2005, page 75)! You captured the customer loyalty by design concept very well and covered all the salient points in a fun-to-read fashion. We have already had a number of calls and...

Calendar.(BOOK IT)(Calendar)
July 1, 2005... JULY 15 Brick in Architecture Awards Submissions Deadline The Brick Industry Association's call for entries for its biennial Brick in Architecture Awards ends July 15. Any work of architecture completed since Jan. 1, 2000, in which...

Complaints up: national reports say complaints are up, but discrimination is still dramatically underreported.(HOUSING DISCRIMINATION)
July 1, 2005... TWO NEW NATIONAL REPORTS ON HOUSING discrimination indicate that complaints have increased in the past year, and that the overwhelming majority of housing discrimination is never even reported. Plus, one report detailed "striking and pervasive"...

Workforce training.(HOUSE BLEND: TRENDS, TIPS, COOL STUFF)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... The U.S. Department of Labor has awarded a three-year, $235,000 grant to the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) to establish seven construction career academies. Funded under the High-Growth Job Training Initiative, the academies...

Info bank.(HOUSE BLEND)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... As part of its ongoing effort to combat the increasing number of mortgage fraud cases, the Mortgage Bankers Association has launched the Mortgage Fraud Against Lenders Resource Center http://mbafightsfraud.mortgage bankers.org), a Web site...

Healthier plywood.(soy based adhesive for plywood production replacing formaldehyde)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Columbia Forest Products, a Portland, 0re.-based company, recently announced that it will no longer use urea formaldehyde in its plywood production. This type of formaldehyde is widely used in plywood, but the International Agency for Research...

Spring sales.(BIG DEALS)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Irvine, Calif.-based Standard Pacific Corp. entered the Bakersfield, Calif., market with a bang this spring, acquiring local builders Probuilt Homes and Advantage Homes. The Probuilt deal--which includes ownership or control of more than 1,000...

Stretched thin.(HOUSE BLEND)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... The May report on material prices and demand has good news and bad news for builders. The good news is that the residential construction industry shows no sign of slowing. But a number of forces, including tariffs, petroleum prices, and rising...

Rest easy: the ultimate high-tech toilet gets its own store.(Toto USA Inc. advanced toilet Neorest)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... WHAT IS ARGUABLY THE WORLD'S MOST advanced toilet, Neorest, now has its own store where consumers can kick the proverbial tires and experience the products firsthand. Introduced last year by New York-based Toto USA, Neorest is a line of...

Power in numbers: a successful custom builder cooperative brings its formula to cities across the country.(CUSTOM BUILDERS)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... INSPIRED BY ITS SUCCESS IN pooling purchasing power, a group of Northern Virginia custom builders is helping others start their own purchasing cooperatives. In 1996, seven members of the Northern Virginia Custom Builders Council formed a...

Partial impact.(impact fee bill)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... The Florida HBA lost a round in this past spring's legislative session when impact fee reform died in committee. The impact fee bill would have provided builders with credits on previously paid taxes, fees, assessments, liens, charges, or...

Clear story.(HOUSE BLEND)
July 1, 2005... Centerpoint Translucent Systems, a Knoxville, Tenn.-based manufacturer of residential roofing products, has announced a product supply and marketing agreement with specialty chemicals producer Cabot to use Nanogel translucent aerogel in...

Unwelcome neighbors: for decades, NIMBY homeowners have complained when industry moved in next door. But what happens when industrial only property is rezoned to allow new homes adjacent to existing industry?(Not In My Backyard)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... REZONING INDUSTRIAL PARCELS FOR RESIDENTIAL use isn't new. But here's an unusual snafu that came up in Pennsylvania: If the land to be rezoned for housing abuts other, viable industrial-zoned land, home builders can end up on the opposite side...

Mandatory charity: Lennar requires Southern California buyers to donate to housing foundation.(COMBATING HOMELESSNESS)
July 1, 2005... NEW-HOME BUYERS SEE dozens of charges on their closing statements. For buyers of Lennar homes in Southern California, the statement includes a unique charge--an "endowment fee" for the Lennar Charitable Housing Foundation. The fee, which...

Stolen honor.(HOUSE BLEND)
July 1, 2005... In September 2004, we wrote about an organization called Homes for Our Troops (www.homesforour that is raising money and building homes for U.S. soldiers wounded in the American invasion of Iraq. A few weeks ago, thieves broke into a trailer in...

Group thought: in Loudoun County, Va., developers ante up homes for people with disabilities.(ENTITLEMENT DEALS)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... BRAMBLETON, ONE OF THE nation's first fiber-optic-wired communities, is proving to be forward-thinking in more ways than one. The 2,000-acre planned unit development is one of several in Loudoun County, Va., proffering land deals that promise...

Cabin fever: outdoorsmens brand sets its sights on the second-home market.(luxury log cabins mail-order business)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... WHAT'S HOT IN INTERIOR DESIGN? IF SPORTING gear giant Orvis hits its mark, the future looks bright for taxidermy and fluorescent orange. Through a partnership with Hamilton, Mont.-based Rocky Mountain Log Homes, the 149-year-old purveyor of...

Fee fight: builders challenge local governments' formulas for assessing inspection and planning fees.(GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS)
July 1, 2005... TWO CASES CURRENTLY BEFORE CALIFORNIA courts could alter the formula many cities and counties use to assess planning and inspection fees, common regulatory fees imposed on home builders. In January, a superior court judge sided with San...

Waterlogged: Sun City Summerlin homeowners in Las Vegas seek $70 million in damages in construction defects case.(INSIDE STORY)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... A LAWSUIT AGAINST DEL WEBB FOR ALLEGED defects throughout its Sun City Summerlin community in Las Vegas is now up to more than 1,400 homes. The $70 million in damages sought by the homeowners is the largest construction defects case ever filed...

One man's castle: wanted: one extremely wealthy buyer interested in fortressing.(Paolo Tiramani, Castell'Arquato project)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Is it art or is it kitsch? That's a question that will undoubtedly arise, if the "Castell'Arquato" ever moves off of the drawing board and into construction. Like its medieval predecessors, this castle is not intended to house peasants and...

Steal this.(TOP SHELF: THE LATEST AND GREATEST BUILDING PRODUCTS)
July 1, 2005... THE MANUFACTURER HAS CREATED AN ANTI-THEFT PROTECTION mechanism for its line of rotary hammers. Operating like the system on a car, CODE! functions by a one-touch infrared remote-control key. Users can enable or disable several rotary hammers...

Fine finishes.(TOP SHELF: THE LATEST AND GREATEST BUILDING PRODUCTS)
July 1, 2005... PAINT IS A VERSATILE PRODUCT, BUT SOMETIMES IT NEEDS A LITTLE help. The manufacturer says its new Studio Finishes line of glazes and surface effects products brings that to the contractor market. Available in latex or alkyd bases, the glazes...

Buddy system.(TOP SHELF: THE LATEST AND GREATEST BUILDING PRODUCTS)
July 1, 2005... EVERY CONTRACTOR HAS BEEN there: You do a job, pack away the tools, and discover you nicked the wall with a ladder or a paint stick. You could drag all that stuff out again, or you could use this handy device. Paint Buddy is a small plastic...

Light it up.(TOP SHELF)
July 1, 2005... USE THESE PENDANTS TO BRING A LITTLE PIZZAZZ TO YOUR KITCHENS, DINING rooms, or bar areas. The line-voltage pendants can be used in a ceiling or connected to the manufacturer's rail system. Each has a dome-shaped transparent glass shade over an...

Lock tight.(TOP SHELF)
July 1, 2005... BIONIC WRENCH, ITS MANUFACTURER SAYS, COMBINES the versatility of an adjustable wrench with the simplicity of pliers. It replaces 16 U.S. and metric wrenches and weighs less than 1 pound. The 8-inch tool operates with a one-handed squeeze and...

Fire from water.(TOP SHELF)
July 1, 2005... UNDER NORMAL CONDITIONS, FIRE AND WATER HAVE NOT MIXED--UNTIL NOW. The Aqueon fireplace, the manufacturer says, is the world's first commercially available in-home hydrogen appliance. It burns the hydrogen found in water, so it does not produce...

Real deal: Vistancia LLC builds out its major community amenities to give prospects a true sense of its vision.
July 1, 2005... ONE OF THE CHALLENGES OF A LARGE-SCALE master plan with a 15-year build-out is effectively articulating the project's vision to prospective residents. But instead of using renderings and scale models to entice visitors and offering little more...

Island incentive: a divisionwide internal promotion for D.R. Horton's associates reaps home sales and esprit de corps.(MARKET SMARTS)(D.R. Horton Inc.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... WHEN THE ORANGE COUNTY/INLAND EMPIRE (CALIF.) division of D.R. Horton (the nation's largest home builder, based in Fort Worth, Texas) created a six-month incentive campaign among its sales associates around the promise of an expense-paid trip...

A-list attraction: Corinthians grand-opening party made Philly's finest take notice.(MARKET SMARTS)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... YOU'D THINK THAT CORINTHIAN, THE FIRST NEW CONDO project in Philadelphia's exclusive Main Line district in nearly 20 years, would garner the 108-unit complex enough attention by itself. But the developers wanted to make sure the city's elite...

Say hello to Dr. Mold: scientist, author, and expert witness Nicholas Money scratches the surface on fungi, mold litigation, and job security.(mold litigations, expert witness)
July 1, 2005... THERE IS SOMETHING DECIDEDLY fascinating about a man who can write the following about mold: "Industrial hygienists like to measure indoor moisture levels, because, though this is simpler than making a sandwich, the use of a hand-held meter...

Time to tilt-up: the possibilities of tilt-up concrete walls for use in new homes have only begun to be explored--but the field is ripe for innovation.
July 1, 2005... IN COMMERCIAL CONSTRUCTION, THE USE OF SITE-POURED, TILT-UP concrete walls is growing at record speed. But residential builders, for the most part, haven't joined the tilt-up revolution. It's still primarily a commercial construction tool. ...

Risky business: bank regulators warn lenders to take a closer look at home-equity loan applicants and say new rules for mortgage lending may be coming.(United States. Federal Reserve Board)
July 1, 2005... MANY HOMEOWNERS HAVEN'T been content to watch the dramatic run-up in value of their homes. Instead, they've cashed out, pouring that equity into other purchases, including renovations and down payments on second homes. The rapid growth of...

The other side of (vinyl) siding: vinyl siding manufacturers go for the gold with a high-end insulated product.(PRODUCTS: PRODUCTS AND TOOLS EVERY BUILDER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT)
July 1, 2005... ANY INDUSTRY WHOSE PRODUCT HAD a 40 percent-plus market share would be dancing a jig. And, in a way, vinyl siding manufacturers are. Here's why: According to the Vinyl Siding Institute, a Washington-based trade association of manufacturers and...

One, two, three ... pull! The cabinet hardware you use says something about your houses.(PRODUCTS)
July 1, 2005... GOOD ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS use a trade secret that is so simple you could hardly classify it as a secret: They put money into products that home buyers touch every day and go thrifty on items that they don't (such as crown moldings). This...

Complementary voice: Alarm.com's partnership with Vonage gives builders an easier way to offer VoIP and home security.(voice over Internet protocol)
July 1, 2005... MOST BUILDERS COULD NOT care less about how voice traffic travels over the Internet. All they know is that many of their customers are asking if their new homes can run voice over Internet protocol (VoIP)--the new service that lets people make...

iPort focus.(Dana Innovations Inc.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Dana Innovations, parent company of leading in-wall speaker company Sonance, has formed a new division to focus on the iPort. The iPort is essentially an adapter that lets home buyers hook an Apple iPod into any audio system. System buyers can...

Latest buzz.(ZigBee Alliance)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... The ZigBee Alliance passed an important threshold this spring when the wireless home-control standards group announced that four ZigBee-compliant semiconductor chips passed interoperability tests. Products from Chipeon, CompXs, Ember, and...

Come together: mealtime pilot finds that technology brings the family together.(Internet Home Alliance Inc.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... SOME CRITICS HAVE COMPLAINED THAT home technology isolates family members. The stereotype is that technology leaves Morn alone in the kitchen, with Dad in his home office, teenage Johnny zoned out in his room playing video games, and tween...

Core link.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Corecon 4.0, a Web-based estimating, project management, and job cost control system for small home builders, can now integrate with Intuit's QuickBooks accounting system, says Corecon Technologies. The software will work with QuickBooks Pro,...

Wise team.(BeHomeWise)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Lead management vendor BeHomeWise and contractor services portal ServiceMagic.com have formed a partnership to strengthen online marketing for custom and modular builders. Under the agreement, ServiceMagic will generate and match leads and...

Sales aide: Hovnanian's California division creates a position to follow up Internet sales leads.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... THERE ARE ANY NUMBER OF SOFTWARE PROGRAMS that can help builders more effectively manage Internet sales leads, but Hovnanian Enterprises' California and Arizona group, based in Ontario, Calif., decided that what it really needed was a person....

It's a process: builder MT's upgrade automates real-world builder practices.(Builder MT Workflow Management Suit 4.0)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... THE LATEST RELEASE FROM BUILDER MT aims to help home builders run their day-to-day sales, purchasing, and jobsite operations more effectively. The new version, Builder MT Workflow Management Suite 4.0 for Timberline Office, began shipping...

Golden years.(demand for residential construction)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... The age-50-plus housing market is transforming the way builders design and develop active adult homes, according to experts with the NAHB's Seniors Housing Council. Builders and architects say demand is growing for smaller communities with...

Young at hearth.(survey of home buyers)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... American Housing Survey data from the Commerce Department show that households headed by Gen Xers and members of the "echo boom" (those born after 1979) purchased 55 percent of all newly built homes sold in 2003. Further, NAHB research...

Help roll this code back: the NAHB is working to defeat proposed insulation requirements that would increase building costs but provide negligible savings.(National Association of Home Builders )
July 1, 2005... ONE OF THE NAHB's MOST ENDURING strengths is the ability of its grass-roots members to mobilize and take quick, decisive action on behalf of the housing industry and the housing consumers it serves. Today, we need that grass-roots...

This bubble shouldn't pop: a recent study finds that house price booms generally don't lead to busts. This time around should be no exception.
July 1, 2005... HOUSE PRICES CONTINUED THEIR RAPID ascent in early 2005, provoking yet another wave of charges about dangerous "bubbles" in U.S. housing markets as well as characterizations of housing as "the next NASDAQ." Everybody seems to know that...

Buckeye bargains.(housing market )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... According to the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index, for the first quarter of 2005 the metropolitan statistical area comprising Youngstown, Warren, and Boardman, Ohio, was the nation's most affordable housing market among major metro...

Energy-efficiency elite: the EnergyValue Housing Award competition offers a chance to improve your business practices and receive plaudits from your peers.(THE NAHB RESEARCH CENTER CORNER)
July 1, 2005... THE APPLICATION PERIOD for the prestigious Energy Value Housing Award (EVHA) has officially begun. Now in its 11th year, the EVHA offers builders the opportunity to improve their business practices and be recognized by their peers. ...

Three wishes.(National Association of Home Builders Research Foundation)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... May was American Wetlands Month, and so the NAHB released its Wetlands Wish List, three reforms that would improve the permitting process: 1. Don't give ditches, curbs, or gutters the same protection as wetlands. Congress needs to provide...

Hot sellers: sold out! Fast-moving communities.(real estate industry)
July 1, 2005... * Land of Lakes Bellalago, Kissimmee, Fla. WHY IT WORKED: Avatar Properties pulled out all the stops with this 1,313-acre community. Bellalago ("Beautiful Lake") boasts conservation preserves, lakes (man-made and natural), a...

Working without a net: more workers die on construction sites than in any other industry, but that grisly statistic can be changed. It's up to you.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... MAKE NO MISTAKE: Working on a home building jobsite is a matter of life and death. Someone is killed on a home building job every other day of every workweek. In fact, construction is one of the most dangerous occupations in America. Some...

Deadly hazard: more common than you might suspect and more dangerous than you might fear: trench collapses are as serious as a heart attack.(Occupationa Safety and Health Administration, excavation work)
July 1, 2005... THE REPORTS COME IN WITH AN almost numbing regularity. Gilbertsville, Pa., April 2004: Two men are running a sewer pipe to a home when the trench wall splits off and buries them. Forty-three-year-old Brian Bealer dies in the trench; after...

Latin lament: Hispanic workers are dying at an alarming rate on your jobsites. Think they aren't working for you? Think it doesn't really affect you? Think again!(United States. Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States. Occupational Safety and Health Administration)
July 1, 2005... ALFREDO ALVAREZ'S LAST WORDS were, "Help me, I'm going to die. Talk to my family." At the time, Alvarez was an employee of T.C. Construction Co., a San Diego-based general contracting firm that was doing waterline tie-ins for Brookfield...

Women at work: jobsites present the same safety hazards for women and men, but women don't always have equal access to the equipment they need to keep them safe.(JOBSITE: SAFETY)
July 1, 2005... IT WAS A CRY FOR HELP IN CYBERSPACE: "Anyone know where I can find a pair of safety glasses that will fit me?! I am so tired of mine slipping down while my hands are too busy to push them back up!" A volley followed, with tradeswomen...

Safety enforcers: nothing can sink a small business faster than a big fine from OSHA. Get your jobsite in order before lack of precautions puts you in the poorhouse.(JOBSITE: SAFETY)(Cover Story)
July 1, 2005... YOU CAN LEARN A LOT BY TALKING with OSHA inspectors. First, they're not jack-booted thugs who are out to get you. Second, they do have a mission, and if you get in the way of that mission, you may pay the price. That's a fact that J.B....

Double jeopardy.(JOBSITE: SAFETY)
July 1, 2005... Test your knowledge of OSHA safety standards by taking this short quiz. These are photos taken by OSHA inspectors where citations were issued--dangerous situations that also resulted in a fine. See if you can name the violation AMD the...

Cutting injuries, cutting costs: builders save money by stressing safety.(JOBSITE: SAFETY)
July 1, 2005... THE INJURIES WERE FRIGHTENing in both their severity and their frequency Framing crews were the most common source of accidents. One framer fell from a scaffold, breaking his wrist and tearing the rotator cuff in his shoulder. Another tore...

Oregon's safety trail; the state is a national model for how cooperation between government and the private sector can lead to reduced workers' comp and accident rates.(JOBSITE: SAFETY)
July 1, 2005... GARY STONEWALL, SAFETY DIRECTOR for R&H Construction in Portland, Ore., says that back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, home builders really didn't have much of a choice when it came to workers' compensation insurance. "You just paid the...

Dynamic duos; occupying a middle ground between detached dwellings and massive multifamily structures, paired homes are carving a new niche.
July 1, 2005... DUPLEXES HAVE COME a long way since the days of floor plans that resembled Rorschach inkblot tests. Fueled by demand for higher density and a diversity of housing types in master planned communities, twin homes are making a comeback. But...

The new world market: stronger competition for resources and unrelenting demand could challenge decades of U.S. market dominance in building products. Amid potential changes in pricing, quality, and availability, can the United States keep its competitive edge?
July 1, 2005... KOREAN MANUFACTURER SAMSUNG has been in the U.S. white-goods business for 20 years--sort of. The company didn't sell any major appliances of its own, but it was one of the largest manufacturers through "original equipment manufacturer" (OEM)...

Nine minutes ... and counting: builders have just under nine minutes to make an impression on home shoppers in a model home, which is why they have to start thinking more like retailers.
July 1, 2005... HERE'S SOMETHING YOU SHOULD know: New-home buyers spend more time shopping at a Wal-Mart, Best Buy, or Blockbuster than they do at one of your model homes. Average shopping time in model homes is so short--just eight minutes, 58 seconds in...

What's new on Builder Online: lists, lists, and lists.(missing links)
July 1, 2005... OUR READERS GO TO BUILDER ONLINE for many reasons: for dozens of daily home building news articles, for building product specs, for our deep BUILDER magazine article archive. But month in and month out, one of our most popular online...

Builder plans: featuring new plans from the nation's leading designers.
July 1, 2005... Great Room Concept Brick with shuttered windows on the outside creates old-fashioned appeal on this plan. Inside, the great room serves as the focal point, located directly off the foyer. Windows looking out to the rear frame a fireplace,...

Roofing and siding.(SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION)(Advertisement)
July 1, 2005... Homes should make a good first impression and reflect the pride homeowners take in their property. With the right roofing and siding, you can turn a simple home into one that makes a statement. Roofing and siding products come in a wide variety...

Kensington Heights, San Diego.(WALK THROUGH)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... IN CONTRAST WITH TODAY'S HOUSING SITUATION IN SAN Diego, where prices rise so quickly they should only be written on a chalkboard, Kensington Heights was conceived in 1926 to appeal to buyers in a declining market. Interest in the new...