Columnists
How many zone valves can be put on a transformer?
Get a room full of plumbers together and ask, “How many zones valves can we put on a transformer?” Answers fly out with absolute certainty: “Three, five and finally, it depends.”...
Writing press releases to promote your business
Getting your company mentioned in the local paper or on local news websites is one of the best ways to promote your business. Before you can submit a newsworthy item, you need to know how to write a press release....
Increasing income through diversification
How do you make your money these days? Are you a service shop? Are you a commercial, residential or industrial contractor? How about a retrofitter or a remodeler? While it is difficult to pigeonhole what we all do into one of these groups, it is also true that many companies categorize themselves in this way. ...
Gray water encounters
Several very important safety issues are often ignored out of ignorance during DIY installations. Professionally installed gray-water systems incorporate three primary points of protection: a potable water-line back flow device installed in the make-up water feed that (in my opinion) should be a testable reduced pressure zone back-flow preventer to protect the potability of the home’s drinking and bathing water....
Estate plan can be your best investment
All estate plans are not created equal. This article is targeted to help everyone who has a completed estate plan in place, but is not 100% delighted with the plan....
Change order basics — Part 2
A common belief among owners is that contractors love changes so they can mark up costs to whatever the market will bear to make up for low initial bids. Contractors, on the other hand, often believe that owners use the change directive process to get a lot of extra work without having to pay for it or at least not without first putting contractors through the wringer. Yet changes are almost inevitable....
It’s time to refocus
Little did I or anyone know how big that inflating egg on the ever-growing high wall actually was or how big a mess it would help create, then foster The Great Recession. All we knew was that the level of new residential expansion was totally unsustainable and that we all better make the best of the situation because if we didn’t someone else would....
The Jetsons go green
Over the years, I have chronicled all of the unique projects I have had the opportunity to work on. From smallest to largest, I have seen and done them all. I’ve never actually had the opportunity to work on any properties that were on the designated list of Historic Places. Until recently that is. ...
The decline of housing as a factor
As I write this, I’m getting ready to attend the International Builders Show in Orlando with clear memories of last year....
Business blogging basics
If you have not started a blog for your company (and those who already have can still be considered early adopters), here is some food for thought. ...
Important change order basics — Part I
Few construction projects are completed as planned. Unanticipated problems can and often do arise, like differing site conditions, an incomplete design, or a dwindling budget. This means even the simplest construction project can require scope of work changes to account for these inevitable contingencies. ...
Five levels of project management hell
Spend enough time in middle management in the mechanical contracting industry and you'll eventually find yourself in project management hell, something similar to the underworld described by Dante in his "Divine Comedy."...
Reducing commercial building's energy consumption by 90% — Pt. 3
commercial buildings under 200,000-sq.ft. consume 75% of the energy consumed by these types of buildings. ...
Forecast is cautious but at least it’s up
Associated Builders & Contractors reported that total nonresidential construction spending increased 0.9% in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $555.7 billion, according to the Jan. 3 report by the U.S. Commerce Department. However, total nonresidential spending is down 0.1% from one year ago....
Building automation, control and GPS
HVAC service contractors familiar with building automation and control have lots of opportunities to expand traditional energy service offerings by adding the installation of information and analytics hardware and accompanying software to their mix. A growing number of software developers offer solutions that address building systems monitoring and optimization....
Making hydronic controls easy
Are you or someone you work with a bit confused about all the hydronic controls available — thermostats, controllers, circulators, zone valves, zoning panels, outdoor reset, energy-saving pumps, snow melt? Don’t be! Hydronic controls, or any other controls, for that matter, are easier than you think....
Marketing techniques for finding the best employees
Even in a down economy, it seems plumbers continue to be plagued by a shortage of labor. This isn’t a labor problem. It’s a marketing problem. The proper application of marketing to the recruiting and hiring process will dramatically improve your results. Below is a list of marketing techniques you should apply to your recruiting process in order to find the best of the best employees. ...
Your service truck is a shop on wheels
Are your vehicles just trucks or are they platforms from which your personnel conduct your business?...
Ways to sustain lean construction activities
The challenge, to those contractors implementing Lean, is to make and then sustain the improvement. Here are five ways to help sustain the changes, once you have implemented them....
Solar Decathlon is changing with the times
With energy use being closely monitored and judged for the Solar Decathlon competition, the entire home’s systems-package must be one that enhances efficiency while still maintaining comfort and required dehumidification. ...
Create tax-free wealth while legally sidestepping the IRS
Well, we are about to borrow the fusion concept to create great tax results, while generating a huge amount of cash for your kids and for your grandchildren. We call it the Tax-Fusion concept (T-Fusion for short)....
Why you need an ethics awareness system
Times are tough and good jobs are harder to come by. Could a little show of gratitude or friendship somehow be misinterpreted as unlawful or unethical and land you in the newspaper? You bet. ...
My economic, industry predictions for 2012
I’m not going to sit here and pretend to have a clue what that or those things might be that will help The Great Recession turn the corner and eventually stabilize not just the economy in general, but our middle-management mechanical contracting employment section in particular....
John Smith prospers on the green road
John Smith is our Contractor of the Year for becoming the Arizona Green Plumber and becoming such a leader in the field that GreenPlumbersUSA named him its national Green Plumber of the Year for two years in a row....
Turning a negative into a positive
A full-page ad in a national weekly magazine stopped me cold. The ad's headlines said, "Five years after you quit smoking, your risk of stroke is like someone who's never smoked." A bit below the headline were these terse words, "But right now, you’re a stroke waiting to happen." ...
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