6th Annual Most Valuable Product Awards
Drumroll ... Please join us in celebrating our 6th Annual MVP Awards winners, which represent the best in innovative building products
Fortera Takes Concrete Steps to Reduce the Climate Impact of Cement
Clean-tech company Fortera, which uses technology to capture carbon emissions form cement manufacturing, will open its first commercial-scale operation on April 12, 2024, in California
Lumber Leads Building Materials Prices Higher in March
Overall, the cost of building materials rose during March, with softwood lumber, gypsum products, and concrete all seeing price increases. Only steel mill materials saw price drops
6th Annual MVP Awards: Connected Home
The Most Valuable Product Awards showcase the best in new building product design, innovation, and functionality. Here are the winners in the Connected Home category
6th Annual MVP Awards: Doors + Windows
The Most Valuable Product Awards showcase the best in new building product design, innovation, and functionality. Here are the winners in the Doors + Windows category
6th Annual MVP Awards: Exterior
The Most Valuable Product Awards showcase the best in new building product design, innovation, and functionality. Here are the winners in the Exterior category
Building Science: Understanding Heat Flow
Never has a homeowner walked a model home and asked the salesperson about building science. New home shoppers expect that their new home automatically includes a living environment as comfortable as it is beautiful. Delivering on this expectation is building science. So what is building science? In this series we will answer that question in detail, but first let's begin with a definition: buil...
Turn-Key Steel Framing
High costs and on-site labor requirements top the list of reasons builders cite for the slow progress of steel framing in the new construction industry. Now FrameMax has introduced a turn-key system designed to eliminate the cost gap between wood and steel in residential construction. The process works like this: Step 1: Import architectural and structural CAD project plans into the company's d...
Floating Floors Simplified
Freestanding, floating floors improves the sound quality in home theaters, however installation of these floors has been time consuming and expensive. U-Boat Floor Floaters from Auralex Acoustics can help shorten the build cycle and reduce the cost of your next floating floor. Made of a specially-formulated rubber compound, U-Boats are designed to support framing members and isolate and decoupl...
Custom Murals
Tile has long been the selected material of designers, architects and home owners to provide a rich, luxurious look. How about adding personalized images or photos to create custom tiles? Imagine adding a family portrait to the tiles located in the foyer. What about adding the beautiful sunset captured on film while on vacation to a tiled bathroom wall? Coastal Murals, LLC specializes in transf...
Used Textures
Appearing to be recycled from a building long exposed to the elements, Stone Mountain Brick Co. introduces four new veneer styles for its brick and stone. "Used textures" have a slightly worn face with a few random indentations in each brick surface. In sharp contrast, the fresh-looking wirecut style has blunt, uneven grooves that stretch vertically across the surface of each piece.
A Year in Review
It is the time of the year where many of us look back and review what was accomplished — what improvements were made and evaluate top priorities for the current year. At Professional Builder this is a most pleasing experience. The look back over the past year brings memories of many positive improvements and achievements by a staff of which I am quite proud.
Color Your World
Brick remains a favorite building material for many home builders and home buyers. Surveys from the National Association of Home Builders show that 60 percent of American home buyers prefer brick homes. When asked, buyers also say they prefer variety in their neighborhoods. Yet the larger the development, the harder a builder must work to differentiate one home from another — not to menti...
From Fantasy to Reality
Some builders view the electronic gadgetry associated with home automation systems as part of a distant, hi-tech future. But for many others, the future is now. This third article on the PATH Concept Home (see sidebar) focuses on modern home automation systems. With its "disentangled" utilities, the Concept Home provides fewer impediments than traditional homes to installing and upgrading a hom...
Supreme Spec
For many high-end custom builders, selling spec houses is an alluring alternative to the hassles of dealing with well-heeled clients: Build what you want and sell it later...Of course, there's that catch. You have to carry the spec until it sells. Here's a Texas builder with some great ideas on how to market highly visible specs, and use the notoriety that brings to drive more custom clients to...
Zero-Energy Homes is Latest Option
San Francisco Bay area's Ponderosa Homes showcases its Zero-Energy home — one of the home builder's newest options — at The Classics at Ironwood in Pleasanton, Calif., through an inviting "Green Gallery." The gallery, located in the garage of a Zero-Energy model home, features comfortable seating, Zen-like décor, and four main exhibits: Energy Efficiency, Natural Resources, Wat...
