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The "Temporary Workers Deserve a Permanent Voice at Work" campaign waged by the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, since April 2000 has led to a host of legal battles in several states for Labor Ready, the country's largest employer of temporary workers in the construction...
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Washington, D.C., police last December charged Virginia contractor Walter Thomas Godbey with second-degree murder in the death of AOL executive Douglas Small. Small had hired Godbey to remodel his Washington home months earlier, the Washington Post reported. According to a series of articles by...
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The International Code Council member organizations -- BOCA, ICBO, and SBCCI -- are working to develop a merger plan to present for a vote at their Joint Conference in the fall of 2002. "We can only proceed at a pace that will result in the strongest possible single organization," says Jon S. Traw...
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Home improvement is one of the top sources for consumer complaints. That's according to 70% of consumer protection agencies that responded to a survey from the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators (NACAA) and the Consumer Federation of America. "It's always in the top three,"...
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An economic recovery may be coming earlier than expected. Ten indicators make up the Index: average weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance, interest rate spread, money supply, average weekly manufacturing hours, index of consumer expectations, building permits, stock prices, vendor...
By now, most of you are up to your eyeballs in tax forms. Part of the problem is that a lot of small remodeling companies operate as sole proprietorships using a cash accounting system. Cash accounting is OK for reporting taxes, but you need to watch your numbers every month.
Bill Wilder of the Case Handyman Services franchise in Minneapolis has found that a relatively new online consumer rating and referral service is a source of good leads and repeat calls. Of 98 leads he has gotten from Angie's List, he has closed 70 jobs.
Michael Weitz of DW Development in Willimantic, Conn., says the $17,000-a-month overhead for his Design Center East showroom/retail store is a huge nut, but there are plenty of pluses packed into 1,500 square feet of storefront.
An $8,327 investment in an LCD projector, projection screen, and other audio-visual equipment turned Riggs Construction's new conference room into a "Closing Room." Three weeks after its opening, $1 million in work had been sold in the room, says owner Tom Riggs, although some projects had been in...
Sending clients and business partners smoked salmon or candy for the holidays brought little response at the $2.5 million-a-year Crane Builders of Nashville, Tenn. Clients' kids and current and prospective architect partners now fight for the plastic baby dolls hidden inside the generous sweet...
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Ebuild, the interactive product catalog, and Builderfinish, maker of product selections software, have created an online tool for remodelers offering the best of both systems."Although the companies have nearly 75,000 products online--and expect to double that by year's end--remodelers can specify...
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When Tom Turnage needed design help, he turned to the user group at the Web site of SoftPlan Architectural Design Software. Although Turnage's design/build firm, The Turnage Co., is based in Jacksonville, Fla., he contracted with two designers, one in Texas and one in Pennsylvania. This allows us...
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A digital camera plus imaging software like Paint Shop Pro (www.jasc.com) goes a long way toward eliminating project misunderstandings. Created as a video/chat product, Netmeeting moonlights as an excellent remote control package, and it's free, unlike LapLink or PCAnywhere. --Joe Stoddard is a...