MARTHA'S VINEYARD, MASS. — For Northeasterners, Martha’s Vineyard is a top vacation destination. The third largest island off the East Coast of the United States, Martha’s Vineyard hosts an estimated 15,000 residents and the population can balloon to more than 100,000 people in the summer months. More than half (56%) of the Vineyard’s estimated 14,620 homes are seasonally occupied. The remaining year-round residents brace for extreme winter conditions....More
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — On Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson (JBER), near Anchorage, Alaska, construction is booming like the sound barrier being shattered. The USAF’s 3rd Wing is stationed at JBER, ready to deploy at a moment’s notice. The unit includes F-22 Raptors: the world’s most advanced stealth fighter aircraft. ...More
On a recent business trip to Ohio, driving west on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, I departed my Philadelphia office early in the morning, atabout 4:30 a.m., in hopes of making it to Akron, Ohio, by noon. During my first rest stop, on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, I decided to buy a fresh cup of coffee. The woman who worked the food counter had a great sense of energy and enthusiasm, she was obviously a morning person....More
PHILADELPHIA — Few family businesses have the staying power of the Zildjian Cymbal Co., noted Michael Bohinc, a Cleveland, Ohio, accountant and CFO of a family owned contracting firm. Zildjian was formed in Turkey in 1623 and moved to America in 1929. Only about 30% of family businesses make it to the second generation and only 10% to the third....More
CARLSBAD, CALIF. — Nobody wants to see Cinderella with a cigarette in her mouth. Dennis Snow saw a smoking Cinderella during the 20 years that he worked at Disney World, but it was in an employee break area. Similarly, service contractors have internal issues that their customers should never see.
Consultant Snow provided contractors with a how-to for creating a service-driven organization during the Mechanical Service Contractors of America conference and exposition here in October....More
BOSTON — It was the winter of 1991 when Jeff Chase made a motion to divert Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning Contractors — National Association advertising funds to U.S. troops in Desert Storm and their families at home. He had no idea that the program he started would last for 21 years....More
For the automotive industry, the fall season means new vehicle models arrive at dealerships across the nation. It’s time for contractors to see what the new trucks and vans have to offer. With 2013 models, automotive companies are offering contractors plenty of cargo space and low gas mileage, plus, there are a variety of alternative-fuel vehicles on the market too....More
On a recent business trip to Ohio, driving west on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, I departed my Philadelphia office early in the morning, atabout 4:30 a.m., in hopes of making it to Akron, Ohio, by noon. During my first rest stop, on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, I decided to buy a fresh cup of coffee. The woman who worked the food counter had a great sense of energy and enthusiasm, she was obviously a morning person....More
One of the single greatest customer retention tools is a consumer newsletter. It will keep your name in front of people who have already spent money with you. It will stimulate additional sales. Here’s how you can create one....More
Fishing and hunting clubs in remote locations where no electricity is available can present unique challenges for adding creature comforts. Maintaining the rustic appeal desired by their members is often a high priority. A huge snowfall caused the collapse of an old 1800s-era log cabin a few decades ago and in its place a new log cabin had been constructed by the members of the club....More
This is the last in a series of articles on the hidden consequences of water and energy retrofit considerations in mid-rise multifamily buildings....More
PlanGrid 2.0, www.plangrid.com, a cloud-based service available both as an iPad and an iPhone app, is a blueprint viewer that enables users to maintain one master set of blueprints in the cloud (on the web) and publish them to a team, keeping all members in the field up to date....More
So you’ve gone and scored that first big project. Congratulations are in order … assuming you’ve done it right. What’s that? What do I mean by, “done it right?”...More
THIS ENGINEERED WATER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM is designed to manage harvested rainwater, stormwater, graywater, process and foundation water for reuse as cooling tower, toilet and irrigation makeup....More
THE BUMBLE BEE HIGH-EFFICIENCY CIRCULATOR is a variable speed, wet-rotor circulator that uses the latest in ECM, permanent magnet motor technology....More
THE ENDURA PR (PRESSURE BOOSTER) CONTROL PANEL is designed for commercial pressure booster applications using 1-4 VFDs, and includes the VFDC-4000 controller and one VFD for each pump....More
THE 2013 DODGE RAM 1500 PICKUP TRUCK is offered in regular cab, quad cab and crew cab body styles, 3.6 L, 4.7 L and 5.7 L Hemi 16-valve V-8 engines....More
THE GRUVLOK KNX SERIES HYDRONIC HOOK-UP KITS integrate 54 components required to connect piping to hydronic heating or chiller system equipment in a pre-engineered, pre-assembled package....More
THE ELECTRIC EEL CABLE AND TOOL SELECTION GUIDE is a two-page guide for matching the right cable and cleaning tool for the company’s complete line of drain and sewer cleaning machines....More
