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  • Changing Customer Service Needs in an Increasingly Online World
    By Jeff Kaliner - Monday December 17, 2012
    Throughout the past few years, posting reviews of products and services on social media and online consumer review sites has become increasingly popular for consumers, and particularly homeowners researching their options for home remodeling services. From Angie’s List and Yelp to CitySearch and Google Places, not to mention Facebook and Twitter, there is a growing list of online resources where customers can provide detailed reviews of their personal experiences — good, bad and indifferent — for all the world to see. Likewise, the number of people consulting those reviews and personal accounts before deciding on a major purchase or signing a contract for a service is also growing by the day. In fact, according to a recent Nielsen...

  • Help us chronicle Sandy's clean-up
    By Andrea Girolamo - Monday December 10, 2012
    You may have had a delay if you tried to correspond with a few staff members of ForResidentialPros.com around October 29, and for the rest of the week following.  Superstorm Sandy, that Frankenstorm, or Hurricane, or Tropical Storm (depending on where you were when it hit you), knocked much of the east coast of the U.S. down for the count. What a lot of our readers don't realize is that some of our staff weathered this out in more than just words and pictures -- we have staff, including most of the editorial staff of Kitchen & Bath Design News , located on Long Island, who were very much in harm's way during the storm. KBDN Editor Janice Costa said it best in her editorial this month , illustrating the higher truths the storm...

  • Pondering the next four years
    By Todd Vendituoli - Wednesday December 5, 2012
    Well, the election is over and some people are happy and others are not. I can’t say exactly what will happen with the economy over these coming years, but as a contractor for almost 30 years I know it’s going to be interesting if nothing else. However, from my perspective I think the construction industry as a whole is in for more rocky times, and here’s why.   We still have unemployment that is way too high, with no signs that it will come down to reasonable levels at which more people are employed and can afford homes. Many countries around the world have many monetary issues that are major problems, such as Spain, which has an unemployment rate of almost 25%. The United States is no longer a country of prosperity and...

  • Waterfall from the Ceiling
    By Laurie Banyay - Monday December 3, 2012
    After returning from a 10-day trip to Pittsburgh over the 4th of July, I spent my last day of vacation at home doing laundry and preparing for the week ahead. On my fifth and final load, I heard water flowing, but didn’t think much of it. My mistake. A hose had burst off my second-story washing machine and water had seeped through the floor then poured through the kitchen ceiling, dumping what ended up being at least 1/2 inch of water on the kitchen floor. At least 1 inch of water saturated the laundry room floor. The space between the floor and ceiling was soaked and water damage was spreading fast. I watched drywall turn yellow and cracks spread by the inch. After a frantic call to my insurance company, emergency cleanup workers...

  • My firm is (skeptically) moving to BIM
    By Todd Mather - Wednesday November 21, 2012
    My firm just lost a project. I should say another project, because we do not always receive the contract (or commission) on all of our proposals. This one was more abrasive. The reason? Revit does not find a Home at my firm. At least not yet.   We have been holding off from the BIM movement for years. There are a few key reasons for this. One, cost. Two, our projects – custom residences and remodels/additions – don’t seem to demand it. Three, why fix what isn’t broken?   I know all three reasons have been diminished by the CADD gurus of our time in every blog on this topic. Still, we are not alone at our firm … but we’ll be making the move very soon now that we did not receive this large commission based upon this...

  • Hurricane Sandy – How businesses can play a role in recovery
    By Jeff Kaliner - Monday November 19, 2012
    By Jeff Kaliner When Hurricane Sandy hit the Northeast last month, it caused a massive amount of destruction in numerous cities and communities, especially in New York and New Jersey. From widespread flooding and power outages to gas shortages and the leveling of entire neighborhoods and towns — the list of damage inflicted by the storm is long and requires an intensive recovery effort. Businesses in the affected areas are also dealing with additional problems, such as revenue loss, property damage, data loss and employee absenteeism due to hardship. That’s something we know firsthand, as several of our Power locations, including offices in Long Island and northern New Jersey, were hit directly by the storm. We were lucky and only had...

  • What Designers Must Address with Moulding
    - Wednesday November 14, 2012
    Editor's Note: This is the fourth in a five-part series about mouldings, taken from a whitepaper by Fair Lawn, N.J.-based Kuiken Brothers Co. Inc. titled "Using Moulding to Enhance the Beauty and Elegance of a Space and Create New Revenue Streams." Mouldings are used in new home construction when homeowners are trying to create a specific look and feel. They may have a preference for a certain period in history and want to recreate that. Or, they might want to fit into a neighborhood that has a commonality of style. In renovation, mouldings are generally used to change the way a room works and feels. Encourage homeowners to consider mouldings early. Christine G.H. Franck, designer and co-author of Winterthur: Traditional American...

  • Walking the line between architect and showoff
    By Rob Heselbarth - Friday November 9, 2012
    I expect to see architecture on the cover of architecture magazines. Sometimes, however, I see photos that perpetuate a stereotype that many architects I’ve met in the past nine years tell me they wish didn’t exist. This stereotype is one of design professionals who are more interested in selling their vision rather than an ability to make their clients’ vision come to life.   As one might expect of articles that follow such cover photos – photos in which only people are shown with no architecture – the editorial focus is on the person, his or her vision, awards, education, portfolio and interests. These interests might include architectural styles he or she is “into” these days. Rarely is a client’s dream listed as...

  • The Digital Divide
    By Kenneth W. Betz - Monday November 5, 2012
    At some point early on at the Remodeling Show in Baltimore (Oct. 10-12) I was struck by the fact I was surrounded by technology, most of it working only part of the time, if at all. Wi-Fi was not to be had on the show floor, at least not reliably. Now, to be honest, I wasn’t all that concerned because I have neither a smartphone nor a laptop. Then there were the booth personnel, relentlessly thumbing their smartphones. I used to think these were really important people with a lot of urgent messages – until one of them offered to find his company's PR contact for me and engaged in that very same interminable thumbing behavior. It was then I finally realized most of those people intently staring at their smartphones were just looking...

  • Free marketing we all can do
    By Bonnie Pickartz - Thursday November 1, 2012
    One of the most effective ways to increase your visibility in your local market is to get involved with community groups, and to step up when they need volunteers. Most of us do that in our private lives, but don't bring the business name into the mix. If you haven't already done so, now is the time to brand your company locally as a company that cares, a company that steps in when there is a need, a company that helps the community.   So, how do you do this? There are probably more directions you can take than I can count, and many of them are specific to your community, but these three steps will give you a start.   1) Attend community meetings. You can read what happened at the aldermen's meeting and get the short story, but...