Getting Customers Stuck On YOU

Voice mail, email, snail-mail, direct mail, in person calls – there’s never been more possible ways to reach and grow customers. Then why all the sad faces? You know – unreturned calls, emails, direct mailers flushed down the circular file. Are your methods not working like they used to? Buyers are too busy to win […]

Martinson Construction Provides T-MASS System Basement Demo

Energy performance is becoming increasingly important in residential construction. A critical component in this effort is insulation of the basement or foundation. Several systems exist to accomplish this including interior furring with insulation and exterior insulation. The Thermomass Sandwich wall system has been used for nearly twenty years with traditional modular forming systems but this […]

Saving the Environment

CFA MEMBERS NETWORK AS THEY DO THEIR PART TO SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT Snow Geese have multiplied to a point they are destroying the Arctic breeding grounds for other wildlife. So four CFA members felt it was their obligation to help control the snow goose population by going on a Spring Snow Goose Hunt. Maybe they […]

Building Concrete Homes With Removable Forms

Building homes with removable forms is just one of several concrete wall building systems. But there are advantages to building homes this way. For home builders, removable form construction is fast, saving as much as 30 days on the construction of an average home. In Mexico, which is increasingly using removable form construction, houses can […]

Balmer Brothers Win CFA Basement of the Year Again

Jerry Balmer, President of Balmer Brothers Concrete Works, Inc. in Akron, Pennsylvania, knows what it’s like to build a basement from hell – he’s done it before. In 2000, Balmer Brothers was voted the winner of the Basement of the Year for their 29,000 square foot basement, which was complex as well as mammoth. This […]

Bontrager Concrete Specialties, Inc Named Contractor of the Year

Bontrager Concrete Specialties, Inc. of Nappanee, Indiana was named Contractor of the Year by the Concrete Foundations Association (CFA) based in Mount Vernon, Iowa. The Contractor of the Year Award recognizes an individual or company who exemplifies the ideals, goals, and standards of the CFA, a voluntary nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of the […]

CHBC to Hold Plant Tour

Have you ever wanted to tour a cement, a forms, and an expanded polystyrene manufacturing plants; as well as a quarry and state-of-the-art concrete homes? If so, the opportunity awaits you. The Concrete Home Building Council, a council within the Building Systems Council of the National Association of Home Builders, has chosen residential concrete systems […]

CHC Attends the 2005 International Builders Show

The Concrete Homes Council (CHC) exhibited at the National Association for Home Builder’s International Builders Show held in Orlando, Florida, January 13-16, 2005. With 104, 922 attendees and more than 880, 000 net square fee of exhibits, it was the largest Builders Show yet and the world’s largest residential construction expo for the their consecutive […]

Concrete Paradise

By Wendy Shannon, Shannon & Company I’ve traveled many times to the Florida Keys for rest and relaxation, but this time I was flying in to meet with the developer and the design architect of SeaSide Key West, a highend residential project constructed entirely of concrete. Towards the end of the 90-minute direct flight from Atlanta […]

Agreements – Changing the “Take It or Leave It” Format

Doug Staebler, Custom Concrete Company, Inc., Westfield, IN In previous articles, we looked at the growing use of Subcontractor agreements by builders. In addition to the typical clauses dealing with schedules, work defects, payment provisions, and other construction related matters, most of these agreements contain extremely potent indemnification clauses, which impose nearly unlimited liability on […]