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Recycling as much debris as possible has become part of the process of demolishing structures in this day and age. Some items taken from buildings, such as steel, wood and concrete, are in high demand and command fairly nice prices. Then there are items left behind that the demolition contractor can salvage and sell. Pat Clauss, owner of Clauss Construction in Lakeside, removed a pair of wood and glass doors that once served as the entrance to Steve Wynns art collection at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas. The doors, including frames with inlaid gold, and magnificent beveled glass designs, were installed at his new Lakeside office, along with glass sconces retrieved from the same project. At several sites he has found workable heavy equipment and other machinery easily sold, or re-used by the company.
Cleveland -- ShoreBank Enterprise Cleveland (SEC) has been awarded a $700,000 grant from the United States Department of Health and Human Services to expand its efforts to develop and nurture small businesses, especially minority-owned construction firms in the Cleveland community. ShoreBank Enterprise Cleveland, a non-profit affiliate of ShoreBank Corporation, will use the federal grant to fuel ShoreGrowth, a small business loan fund. Through the fund, SEC increases the accessibility of loans, investments and other financial resources that helps foster the success of young and growing companies in Clevelands urban neighborhoods. The new money will augment our ability to provide seed capital and business advisory services that will develop new opportunities for residents in the construction sector that will benefit the entire community, said Chris Warren, President, ShoreBank Enterprise Cleveland. The grant represents our ongoing commitment to helping Cleveland companies and residents to secure a larger share of the construction contracts and projects throughout the region, added Warren. Roni Thompson came to ShoreBank Enterprise Cleveland for help two years ago as she was just beginning R.L.
Interior designer Sheena Jenkins zips through the county in a Beemer until she arrives at an enormous house on Callawassie Island. Her tan crocodile-skin heels crunch into an oyster shell driveway as she walks toward her nearly completed mega project. With an architect, a builder and a barrage of subcontractors, Jenkins helped to finish a three-story Callawassie home for a couple from Maine before they ever set eyes on it. "It's one of the biggest turnkey jobs I've ever done," Jenkins, 44, says as she waves a hand flashing an angular silver ring. There was really only one stipulation, she says. "They wanted it to look like they'd lived in it forever." Tuesday, Jenkins met with owner Pat Ano to discuss the final touches on an adjoining guest house. With the exception of hanging wall coverings in the bathroom and picking out fabric for patio furniture, the guest house is complete after more than a year of methodical labor.
Lack of skilled workers is the biggest risk to the growth prospects of one of Australia's largest construction companies, the John Holland Group, forcing it to start projects later than it otherwise would have. But this is being offset by significant increases in productivity under new regulations governing the building industry and from changes to workplace laws, company executives say. With boom conditions in Western Australia and strong conditions in other parts of the country, the problem is not in finding projects, it is in finding people, says group managing director David Stewart. "We can go and buy as much equipment as we want, we can buy construction materials from all over the world, we don't have any shortage of clients in the current market, but we haven't got enough quality people," Mr Stewart said yesterday.
Home buyers hopeful to recoup their earnest money from shuttered home builder Turner-Dunn have found themselves at the back of a long and frustrating line.
The Phoenix-based builder walked away from hundreds of home lots in Pinal County last spring, leaving in its wake millions of dollars owed to banks and subcontractors, lawsuits, an ongoing Arizona Department of Real Estate investigation, unfinished homes and home buyers who paid thousands of dollars each in hopes of finally getting their big dream home. .
Federal Ministry of Water Resources is now to give clearance for the construction of dams in all parts of the country. Minister of Water Resources Mukhtari Shagari stated this in an interview with the newsmen in Abuja. Shagari said the directive had become necessary to ensure adherence to the existing rules and guidelines on dam construction. “It will also check the abuse of maintenance standards by states and private organisations as well as prevent floods and collapse of dams in the country," he said. The minister said experts in the ministry had attributed the prevailing cases of floods in the country to negligence and bad design by the state or private firms that handled dam construction. He cited the Birnin Ruwa dam in Zamfara State which, he noted, was among the oldest state-owned dams that suffered neglect by the government, resulting in its collapse.
(AXcess News) Washington - An economic slowdown has caused homebuyers to think twice about buying a new home as inflation drove up living costs for most Americans thanks to a spike in energy prices and growing concerns in the workplace. New-home construction in August fell 6 percent, the Commerce Department reported, with new-home construction down nearly 20 percent compared to the same period last year when the boom inhousing was still at its peak. Total housing starts dropped 6.0 percent in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.665 million units, according to figures released by the Commerce Department today. The pace of new-home construction was down 19.8 percent from a year earlier, which was a record-breaking year. Builders slowed the pace of single-family home construction by 5.9 percent for the month to 1.360 million units, a 20.6 percent drop from a year earlier.
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