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Let's face it, housewrap—the thin sheet of material that goes between the sheathing and the siding—won't save you money or help you sell houses. In fact, if you ditched the housewrap you'd probably save yourself some cash up front. But omitting the product would be a really bad idea, because that...
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From the looks of things, many builders subscribe to a theory about the exteriors of their houses: Buyers can have any siding material they want, so long as it's vinyl. But vinyl isn't the only game in town.
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This month's top shelf products include Fatmax Xtreme Quickspike from the Stanley Works, shower column brackets from California Faucets, and hot new siding materials from CertainTeed.
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THE 2004 HURRICANE season blew the cover off a weakness in the way stucco is usually installed, with a number of Central Florida homes springing leaks despite having suffered no wind damage.
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THE QUESTION THAT WILL BE FACING attendees at the International Builders' Show in Orlando, Fla., next month is a simple one: How do you find time to attend seminars and visit the more than 1,600 exhibitors that will be displaying their wares in a show that feels as big as Rhode Island?
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ANY INDUSTRY WHOSE PRODUCT HAD a 40 percent–plus market share would be dancing a jig. And, in a way, vinyl siding manufacturers are. Here's why: According to the Vinyl Siding Institute, a Washington-based trade association of manufacturers and suppliers, vinyl is the exterior cladding of choice for...
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IF YOU WALK THROUGH MOST NEW SUBDIVISIONS today, you'll see house after house clad in typical colors such as sand, almond, and white—perfectly fine, perfectly boring. Home buyers who want to shake things up can now turn to Pittsburgh-based Alcoa Home Exteriors, which has introduced a new color...
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FLORIDA BUILDERS HAVE A MESS ON their hands. After four hurricanes, many areas need massive rebuilding and retrofitting but lack the labor and materials to get the job done quickly.
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The New Urban Challenge could not have been built without the support of its many sponsors, a select group of building product manufacturers and suppliers that contributed to this innovative project. A list of companies, their levels of sponsorship, and the products they provided, follows ...
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NAVIGATING YOUR WAY THROUGH the sea of new products at the International Builders' Show (IBS) is like looking for a black cat in a dark room: You may find something interesting but only if you stop at every booth. This, we know, is next to impossible—and unnecessary. Instead, let us do the job for...
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AT $300,000 TO $425,000 PER unit, Magnolia Row may not seem like affordable housing. But when you consider that the project is located in the San Francisco Bay area and consists of two-and three-bedroom townhomes, affordable seems like an appropriate term. “The units are inexpensively priced, but...
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Of all the window materials available on the market, vinyl is the hottest. "The vinyl window market continues to grow, especially in the new-construction market, where new-housing starts have been at an all-time high," says Maria Macdonagh-Forde, marketing manager for the windows group at Valley...
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With factories running 24 hours a day to meet demand, makers of plastic-based building materials such as decking, fencing, and siding are moving into the mainstream at warp speed. Are these products the answer to our durability woes, or merely a fresh face shaking up an old business?
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By BUILDER Magazine Staff. Each year, with feedback from builders nationwide, the NAHB Research Center's Annual Builder Practices Survey (ABPS) documents materials usage in new-home construction. A review of 2002 results shows a continued movement toward the use of durable exterior materials.
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The NAHB Research Center has been studying builder buying trends since the 1970s, but that information has remained largely in-house, shared (commercially) with only a few dozen manufacturers each year. We selected some of the results, broken down by construction category from the ground up, that...
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When wildfire swept through Bob Heath's neighborhood in Napa, Calif., a lot of other homes in the fire's path burned to the ground. In recent years, as many as 2,000 homes (annually) have been destroyed by wildfire, a loss inflated by drought conditions in both eastern and western states, along...
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Those who were around in the late '70s probably remember working with heavy tools, energy-guzzling appliances, and under-performing paints. What a difference 25 years makes. Nearly every product or tool used today has been improved, even the lowly hammer, with its new ergonomic designs. Today's...
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By Jim Cory. "Just cutting the dog door for the house was a real chore," Moody says. To attach panels, Moody used a pneumatic nail gun with a flush nailing head that coordinates with the air pressure to prevent overdriving.
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Occupying more than 1.2 million square feet of floor space at the Las Vegas Convention Center, this year's show will be a downright monster.
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Shattered homes left in the wake of a Maryland super tornado point out both the strengths and shortcomings of modern building codes.On April 28, some of the residents of La Plata, Md., discovered the answer to that question, when a monstrous Category F4 (to F5) tornado cut a 24-mile swath through...