PR January 2005
Features
The hurricanes that pounded the Gulf and Atlantic coasts in 2004 left contractors and their customers pondering how to avoid damage when the next storm blows through. "There's no better time than when rebuilding to incorporate construction changes that will make a property less vulnerable to wind or water," says Bill Carwile, federal coordinating officer for the Federal Emergency Management Age...
Merillat introduces the Accent Collection featuring three distinctive styles. Estero is modeled after the Mission style, Tapestry has a more traditional look and Windemere has a delicate rope design. The collection enhances cabinetry style and design with accessories such as feet, corbels, ornamental onlays and molding inserts.
Allison Perry Iantosca is a second-generation manager of F.H. Perry Builder Inc., a Hopkinton, Mass., residential remodeling and custom home building firm founded by her father, Finley Perry. With annual revenue of about $5.5 million, F.H. Perry employs 14 people, six in the office and the rest in project management.
Reaching full growth potential as a company requires having more than one person — especially if that person is the owner — who can sell jobs. At Blackdog Design/Build/Remodel in Salem, N.H., president David Bryan has a whole team of design consultants who double as salespeople and triple as estimators.
Milwaukee introduces four new Rotary/Demolition Hammers with 19.9 foot-pounds of blow energy. The new models —¾-inch hex demolition hammer, 2-inch spline rotary hammer, SDS-Max demolition hammer and 2-inch SDS-Max rotary hammer — also have a speed control that matches the tool speed to the job.
Colleagues who trust each other. Managers who mentor. The chance to develop new skills and advance professionally. These are just some of the basic elements of the price of entry on our annual Best Companies to Work For list. Basic, you say? These are some of the hardest things in the world for a company owner to provide for his or her employees.
Makita has released a new 7¼-inch metal cutting saw, model 4131, which has a 13 AMP motor that cuts through a variety of metals, including sheet metal, steel studs, pipes and rebar, with a no-load speed of 3,500 RPM. The "tool-less" heavy-duty blade cover insulates against high temperatures. The saw comes equipped with a Makita Blue Steel CERMET tipped blade.
Nearly 20 million people worked at home at least once a week in May 2001, according to the most recent available data from the U.S. Department of Labor. Combined with the number of homeowners who need space from which to manage personal and household finances, you're looking at a lot of home offices.
Newborn Brothers' new Gator Trigger Series has all steel construction with a patent pending dual component comfort grip and comes in nine models. The caulking gun series consists of a ratchet model in two sizes, a parallel frame model, a Drip-Free model, a revolving barrel model, an industrial grade ratchet model, and a bulk loader in three sizes.
With company crimes both big and small regularly making headlines, nothing says "trust us" like an ethics and integrity award from the Better Business Bureau. When Firstcall Construction Inc. of Urbandale, Iowa, took home the 2004 Des Moines Better Business Bureau Integrity Award in the 1–50 employees category, the company promptly e-mailed press releases describing the achievements for w...
Revere recently launched Sovereign premium vinyl replacement windows for residential and light commercial remodeling. Steel-reinforced interlocking meeting rails and thickset multi-chamber extrusions add to the window's structural integrity and strength. An insulated glass unit with a high-performance PPG Intercept Warm Edge Spacer System and multi-layer weatherstripping provide added thermal e...
In each new episode of HGTV's "Designers' Challenge," three designers picked by the producers present their concepts for the same remodeling project to the homeowners. Though the scenario resembles the three-bid sales process that many remodelers prefer to avoid, Construction Concepts Corp., a full-service remodeling firm in Stamford, Conn.
Brilliance Series garage door windows from Clopay offer the look of beveled glass using 3M's Accentrim technology. The optically enhanced glass filters light and casts a rainbow of colors that create the illusion of cut glass. Available in both long and short panel styles and insulated or non-insulated glass, the window is available in three design patterns: Solitaire, Marquise and Trillian.
Creating a remodeling company with sellable value continues to challenge even the best contractors in the business. Some remodeling company owners have turned to purchasing, rehabbing and selling or renting properties to grow personal wealth and ensure a comfortable retirement. Steve Jordan, former owner of Dirty Work Construction Company in southern California, has taken that model to the extr...
Offering MDF and wood doors that are built with traditional stile and rail construction, TruStile has created Authentic Designs, which categorizes the company's more than 300 door styles into nine distinct door series: Arts & Crafts, Colonial, Modernist, New European, Southwestern, Traditional, Tudor, Tuscan and Victorian.
The story is typical: The owners of this 1,500-square-foot English Tudor needed to expand their living space, but setbacks and architectural controls in their Denver historic district restricted what could be done with an addition. So they turned to the 1,280-square-foot basement as the likeliest candidate.
Crossville's handcrafted wall tile Savoy comes with a 1×2-inch Pinwheel Pattern and a 1×2-inch Running Board or Brick Pattern — both are sheet-mounted for easy installation. Available in 3×6-inch and 6×6-inch field tiles and in 6×6-inch beadboard. The tile comes in five colors: White, Linen, Blush, Sea Mist and Café.
Chicago's North Shore is well known for teardowns, and this 1950s ranch home set on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan seemed a perfect prospect. The roof leaked, windows needed replacing, mechanicals were out of date, and the house was about half the size of those surrounding it in the community of Glencoe.
Missel combines design and technology with COLONNA's standalone bathroom design. Elementary components include triangular Missel compact elements that are grouped in a square column (46×46×115 cm). The four compact elements of washbasin, bidet and compact toilet cistern as well as the hot and cold water pipes and drainpipe are fitted with Missel's structure-borne sound insulation.
Supporting a world-class work force requires a world-class work environment — one that is safe, healthy, comfortable and productive. Adapting the workplace to meet these criteria and create working conditions that suit the worker is what the study of ergonomics is all about. Using ergonomic tools, equipment, work layouts and methods can cut remodeling firms' long-term costs by reducing in...
LP's Vinyl Norman Rockwell siding collection is now available in a premium shingle line. The Perfection Shingles are made from a heavy-grade polypropylene material. A water-management system designed to prevent damage to internal walls comes standard on the siding, which is made to withstand wind loads up to 160 miles per hour.
Alcoa Home Exteriors introduces DreamColor, a line of premium siding, shutters, designer accents, soffits and fascia available in 700 baseline colors such as Tropical Coral, Lemon Ice and Lavender Crème. DreamColor allows for custom colors to be created and paint hues to be duplicated to match existing siding with Alcoa's Color Cue tool.
Peachtree Doors & Windows adds a new design to its Newport entry door collection, featuring the look of a wood door inside and the appearance of a smooth door on the outside. The exterior is pre-finished and available in six standard colors, while the interior panel can be stained in Dark or Red Mahogany, Early American and Golden Oak.
Pella's Vivid View window screens are virtually invisible, so the view to the outside is crisp and clear. The windows allow up to 50 percent more natural light and provide up to three times the airflow according to Pella. Backed by a five-year transferable warranty against chalking, fading, hazing and corrosion, and can be cleaned by hosing them off with water.
Warn Industries introduces an all-in-one portable winch and carrier combination, the Warn Works 3200AC-R. With an attached carrier that features an integrated mounting plate, roller fairlead, handle and built-in remote dock, the tool has a pull capacity of 3,200 pounds. and runs off a standard wall socket.
As a card-carrying member of Generation X with a baby face that belies my age, I've been upholding the work ethic, drive, maturity, skills and knowledge of my cohort for more than a decade. I've never noticed the lack of initiative and attitude of entitlement that I've heard many employers claim to see in younger workers.
Armstrong introduces its new designs for the Memories and Successor flooring lines, which mimic the appearance of real stone, ceramic and wood. Memories has an overall thickness of 0.065 inch, felt backing, and a 10-year warranty and ToughGuard performance. Successor has an overall thickness of 0.06 inch, with Interflex backing and a five-year warranty.
The Solid Core Fluted Lineal is the newest addition to the Architectural Essentials line from Crane Performance Siding. Available in 20-foot lengths, the Aspen White lineal comes with a 1 1/8-inch and ¾-inch pocket and can be used in conjunction with Crane vinyl sidings. It may also be paired with the corner connector for a three-piece corner post system, offering a more decorative colonia...
Looking at metrics for accounts payable, accounts receivable and working capital efficiency over time and against benchmarks can tell us if we are headed toward being cash strapped or if we can safely grow our business. They draw attention to payment and collection policies that might need closer investigation to keep us solvent and financially flexible.
The new Rheem Prestige Series and Ruud Ultra Series 16-SEER Condensing Unit was designed for homebuilders and remodelers specializing in upscale housing. Both are equipped with an Emerson Climate Technologies Comfort Alert on-board diagnostics system that continuously monitors the system. Contact: 479/648-4900 www.
Vetter Windows & Doors Insulated Hurricane Impact Products are designed to meet wind-borne debris codes in the Eastern U.S. They have a layer of 0.9- or 0.1-inch gauge PVB bonded between two panes of annealed, laminated glass. Should the glass break, the laminated interlayer is designed to remain intact.
At Professional Remodeler, we've always been committed to providing you with the best information, business strategies and innovative ideas to make your business as successful as possible. That's why I'm pleased to announce some exciting changes we're making that will strengthen our ability to bring you the best and most comprehensive information for your business and its future in the growing ...
Epoch has added a new hue — Weathered Wood — to its color palette. The new shade is a natural brown and can be used alone for a traditional look or with lighter EverGrain hues to create contrast. Made from a combination of plastic and wood fiber, EverGrain is available in four colors including Redwood, Cedar, Cape Cod Grey and now Weathered Wood, and is made in multiple grain patterns.
Pi Tape measurement tapes are engraved and acid etched on a ground surface featuring a fixed reading that does not require periodic adjustments. Styles are available for low-light environments and stainless-steel tapes for use in corrosive settings. Available in inch or millimeter measurements, they have accuracies of 0.
If there's one thing we know about remodeling, it's that the schedule always changes. At the same time, if there's one thing that we know about customers, it's that they hate it when contractors go over schedule. Smart scheduling can prevent this irresistable force and immovable object from ever meeting.
With a lean staff and regular use of temporary labor supplied by a staffing agency, Louis Krokover of NewDay Development runs his remodeling and new-home business more like a big corporation than many contractors. Based in Encino, Calif., NewDay specializes in remodeling single-family homes for the upper-middle to "upper-upper" class.
Two new darker colors — Venetian Red and Classic Brown — have been added to Gentek's Sequoia Select vinyl siding line, which comes with a lifetime limited warranty that includes lifetime fade protection. Sequoia Select is available in 20 colors in four profiles: Double 4-inch Clapboard, Double 5-inch Clapboard, Double 4.
Fire Control Instruments' NetSOLO Broadband is designed to deliver full-network control and communications, digital messaging, live voice instructions and fire fighter telephone communications through a distributed network fire alarm system — all on a single pair of wires. As the user's application grows, the scalable nature of the product allows contractors to purchase the system in stag...