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How to Get Lawn Care Customers: Simple Ways to Turn a Budding Business Into a Lucrative One
Starting a lawn care business requires a business plan, a well-thought-out budget, and the right equipment. But lawn ...
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The 11 Best Warm White Paint Colors, According to Designers
Choosing the best warm white paint color can transform your interior into a cozy, welcoming sanctuary of comfort and ...
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How to Grow a Landscaping Business: 13 Steps to Cultivate a Successful Landscaping Company
A career in the landscaping industry can be stable and lucrative for those who enjoy physical work and being outdoors...
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What Licenses Are Needed to Start a Landscaping Business? A State-by-State Breakdown
Q: I’m thinking about starting a professional landscaping business, but I’m not sure what I need to do in terms of li...
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Do I Need a License for a Lawn Care Business?
Q: I want to start a lawn care business in my local area, but I’m not sure of the legal process. What licenses do I n...
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How Much Does It Cost to Start a Landscaping Business?
Highlights The average cost to start a landscaping business can fall between $5,000 and $8,000. The main factors th...
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How to Get Landscaping Jobs and Cultivate Experience
The best landscaping companies are out there in your neighborhood, maybe even right now, working hard to beautify yar...
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Ready to Turn Your Love for Lawns and Gardens Into a Career? Here's How to Start a Landscaping Business
Whether someone has been working in the landscaping industry for years or has just completed one of the best online l...
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How to Become a Landscaper and Turn Your Green Thumb Into a Blossoming Career
A landscaping career can be ideal for anyone who loves the great outdoors, working with plants, and staying active. F...
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The Best Accounting Software for Cleaning Businesses of 2024
While cleaning-business owners might have all the cleaning under control, delivering high-quality services to satisfi...
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How to Get a Landscaping License: Requirements by State
One of the many landscaping job requirements business owners need to address when starting a business includes obtain...
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How Much Does Electrical Contractor Insurance Cost?
Highlights General liability insurance for electrical contractors costs, on average, $48 per month. The total cost ...
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How Much Is the Average Electrician Salary?
Highlights The typical annual salary range for an electrician is $37,440 to $102,300, with a national average of $60...
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How to Become an Electrician: What to Know Before Launching a Lucrative Career
A career in the trades can be extremely rewarding. The pay is good, the work is interesting, and there’s a steady dem...
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How to Get a Business License in Florida: Every Step to Take Before Applying
For entrepreneurs in the Sunshine State, applying for a business license is one of the first and most important steps...
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You're Thinking About Becoming an Electrician...But What Does an Electrician Actually Do?
Q: I’m considering my career options and know I want to work in the trades, so I’m looking into how to become a licen...
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Certified Electrician vs. Licensed Electrician: 9 Differences Pros Should Know About
Certifications and licenses are an important part of an electrician’s career journey. They’re more than just symbols ...
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How Much Does Electrician School Cost?
Highlights The average cost for electrician school ranges between $3,000 and $19,000. The main factors that affect ...
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How to Get an Electrician License in 7 Steps: Requirements by State
Getting a license is an important step in an electrician’s career. However, it does take time and dedication to becom...
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Taking the Next Step: How to Become a Journeyman Electrician
Becoming a journeyman electrician is more than a rite of passage. “Journeyman” is a medieval term used to describe a ...
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How to Start an Electrical Business: A Guide for Prospective Entrepreneurs
Electricians are well-compensated tradespeople—the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the median annual pa...
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6 Crucial Tasks BobVila.com Readers Are Doing Right Now—Including 1 That Shocked Our Editors
Once the frenzy of the holiday season has passed, many people experience a change of pace in the first couple of mont...
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Does a Handyman Need a License to Legally Work?
Q: I’m thinking about starting a handyman business in my home state, but I’m not sure if I need to apply for any spec...
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What Does a Handyman Do? 8 Types of Tasks That Can Be Tackled by a Handyman
Q: I’m in need of help with some odd jobs around my house. Should I look for someone who offers general handyman serv...
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How to Get a Handyman License: Steps and Requirements by State
For an aspiring handyman, obtaining a license is an important part of launching a business in the world of home repai...
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Ready to Turn Your Talent Into Income? Find Out How to Become a Handyman
With their repair expertise and versatile home improvement skill sets, handymen help keep people’s homes in tip-top s...
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How to Start a Handyman Business and Set Yourself Up for Success
Individuals who have repair skills and a knack for home improvement might consider going into business for themselves...
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How Much a Business License Costs By State, and What It Takes to Get One
Highlights The typical cost range for a business license is between $25 and $550. Some of the factors that affect t...
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7 Steps to Successfully Grow Your Client List as a Handyman
The journey to becoming a successful handyman involves much more than just possessing the right skills and tools. It ...
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21 of the Most Common Jobs to Add to Your Handyman Services List And Get Paid For
A reliable handyman can be an asset to any homeowner, but not all homeowners know the types of home repair services a...
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How to Get a Business License in California in 8 Steps
Like in any state, it’s important for entrepreneurs in California to know the legal requirements they need to meet be...
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Every Factor That Goes Into the Cost to Start a Business—And How You Can Save
Highlights The cost to start a business has a wide range of $100 to $400,000, though the national average cost is $4...
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A Fresh Start: How to Start a Cleaning Business And Get Ahead
Starting a cleaning business can be a lucrative venture for aspiring entrepreneurs. In a world where cleanliness is i...
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How to Grow Your Plumbing Business and Boost Your Income in 11 Steps
Plumbing is a growing industry that is essential for the ongoing function of individual residences, businesses, and i...
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How to Get a Plumbing License: Steps for Every State
Many skilled trades require a specific certification or license as proof that an employee has had official training a...
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“Jobber Saved My Company”: Is Jobber Really the One Tool That All Home Service Pros Need?
From house painting to lawn care, the home-service industry thrives on offering property owners specialized services ...
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DeWalt Rotary Hammer Drill Review: Is It Worth It? We Tested it to Find Out!
Standard drill drivers can handle most hole-drilling tasks in wood, but they don’t do so well when used to drill hole...
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Klein Hard Hat Review: Is this Vented Hard Hat Worth It?
When it comes to jobsite safety, a hard hat is one of the most important tools one can own. These devices sit suspend...
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Housecall Pro vs. Jobber: Which Business Management Software Should You Choose in 2023?
Running a small business is no easy job; between scheduling, invoicing, and estimating, managing a business can leave...
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The Best Hard Hats Tested in 2023
The jobsite can be a danger zone, and various home improvement projects come with their share of injury risks as well...
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2022 Outlook: This is How Inflation Will Affect the Prices of Home Improvement and Maintenance Services
Inflation—a steady uptick in prices for goods and services, and the corresponding dip of our purchasing power—is high...
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The Best Anti-Fog Safety Glasses
Safety gear is required on job sites for a variety of professions, and DIYers are strongly advised to follow that lea...
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5 Signs It’s Time to Call in a Professional
You might think of yourself as pretty handy around the house. You can build your own shed foundation, you’ve mastered...
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The Best Safety Glasses for Debris and UV Damage, Tested
Many common DIY projects around the home, and in professional trades as well, require the use of safety glasses. Whet...
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These 6 Best Tool Bags Offer More Organization Than Any Tool Box
There comes a point when collecting a complete DIY set of tools starts causing storage issues. A tool box might do th...
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12 Dreaded Home Maintenance Tasks You Never Thought to Hire Out
Find the right pro for every household chore—big, small, majorly messy, or just plain pesky! This content is paid advertising created in partnership with Thu...
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Solved! Why Do Painters Wear White?
Q: Every professional painter I’ve ever encountered has worn a white uniform. Why do painters wear white? And should ...
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10 Times Doing It Yourself Doesn’t Save You Money
The do-it-yourself ethos is one we heartily applaud. Most services provided by home maintenance pros aren't cheap, so taking care of small fixes on your own can s...
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The Truth About Clog-Free Gutters
As the first line of defense against stormwater damage, gutters play a vital role in the infrastructure of just about...
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12 Things Your Plumber Wishes You Knew
Why does it seem like the times you really need a plumber are late at night, early in the morning, or on weekends, when fees can cost twice as much as normal. Cha...
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How To: Magnetize a Screwdriver
Few things are as frustrating as trying to drive a screw into a tight corner or over your head, only to have it fall ...
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9 Unexpected Turnoffs for Home Buyers
When you put your home up for sale, you need to put in quite a bit of work to make it an attractive competitor on the real estate market. Location, price, and a h...
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6 Things You Didn't Know Adhesive Can Do
Construction adhesive: It's a do-it-yourselfer favorite, a labor- and time-saver that long ago earned pride of place in the workshop. The best part? As advanced t...
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Cool Tools: Is This the Only Adhesive You’ll Ever Need?
Imagine that you’ve just spent several hours—the better part of a weekend afternoon—painstakingly adhering ceiling ti...
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Are You Buying the Right Amount of Lumber?
Once you’ve managed to secure the necessary approvals for your renovation or construction project, it's time for the ...
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16 Improvements Most Homeowners Get Wrong
Don't do what these homeowners did! Learn how to avoid costly mistakes and design disasters before you begin your next DIY renovation.
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7 Tools That Contractors Swear By
Do-it-yourselfers rely on tools to get the job done. But for contractors, tools are much more than a means to an end—they are nothing short of a livelihood. Contr...
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How To: Mix Sand with Paint for Non-Slip Surfaces
Slippery when wet! Those words of caution may be most familiar in the context of hospital and airport floors, but the...
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7 Ways to Set Up Your Home Workshop
Where do you keep your workshop? It's best to set it up in a place where noise, dust, and space aren't an issue. But there are other considerations to keep in min...
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Get to Work! 13 DIY Workbenches, Craft Counters, and Potting Tables
Whether you’re a woodworker, gardener, craftaholic or avid DIYer, you need a comfortable area where you can do what you love to do. Sure, there are loads of craft...
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How To: Install Pegboard in Your Workshop
Does it look like a bomb went off in your workshop? Even the best tools are useless if they are nowhere to be found w...
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How To: Store Your Tools in Your Workshop (and Keep Them Accessible)
One of the great advantages of a workshop—as distinct from a tool­box carried to a workplace—is the opportunity to pu...
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Workshop Electricity
Power tools swallow up power the way dogs consume their food: in great, huge gulps. Most tools have two kinds of dema...
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Setting Up Shop: The Ideal Layout for Your Woodworking Workshop
A landscape designer friend of mine tells a story about the college he went to. During his years there, the universit...
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Complying with the Code
A building code is a collection of regulations regarding building construction that is intended to ensure public safe...
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To Hire or Not to Hire an Architect or Designer
If know what I want, why do I need a designer at all?Perhaps you don't. But understand that, strange as it may seem, ...
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Contracting the Contractors
Do you need contracts? Yes is the short answerContracts are a crucial part of the paper trail that will help assure t...
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How To: Settle a Dispute with Your Contractor
So, you tried to anticipate everything. But the fact is, no one can plan for every exigency. So here are some ways to...
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Sorting Waste After Remodeling
Homeowners who plan to undertake a do-it-yourself job should know the difference between waste and salvageable buildi...
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Working with Your Architect
Hiring an architect should save you time and money, minimize bumps, streamline the building process, and provide an a...
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Check the Label: A Guide to Green Designations for the Home
What is a green home? While “green” has yet to be given a universally accepted definition, a green home would be defi...
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Protect Your Home from Job Site Theft
Job site theft is a rampant and growing problem that costs the construction industry more than $1 billion a year, acc...
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Creating the Ultimate Garage Workshop
 To some, a garage is much more than a place to park the car and store junk. To the car enthusiast, it is a nerve cen...
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Inexpensive Ideas and DIY Tips for Storing Sandpaper
When you first start tackling home projects, it's no problem to hit the hardware store for one of those sandpaper mul...
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16 Workbench Plans Perfect for Big or Small Home Shops
It’s hard to say that a workshop is actually a workshop if there isn’t at least a small workbench somewhere within th...
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Which PEX Is Best? Choosing the Right Type of Tubing for Any Job
This article has been brought to you by SupplyHouse. com. Its facts and opinions are those of BobVila. com. Polyethyl...
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Bob Vila Radio: DIY Dolly
The next time you need to move something big and heavy in the workshop or around the house, save your back and build ...
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What You Might Not Know About HVAC Filters
Everyone agrees that you should change your HVAC filter on a regular basis, but not everyone agrees on the type of fi...
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How To: Clean Your Toolbox and Workshop
While spring is generally considered the month for cleaning windows, airing out the house, reorganizing the cupboards...
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How To: Clean Your Power Tools
Like everything with moving parts—your car, your computer, your body—your power tools will last longer and work bette...
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Manage Noise in Your Workshop
Noise is an occupational hazard in any shop where power tools are used. Strategies must be employed to minimize the d...
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When Remodeling Uncovers Hidden Treasures
Ask any seasoned renovator or restoration contractor and they will have at least one good demolition story to tell—no...
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Touring the Waldun Forest Products Shingle Factory
Bob travels to British Columbia and tours the Waldun Forest Products Company shingle manufacturing plant.
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Installing a Decorative Inlaid Vinyl Floor and Reviewing the Workshop Layout
The generously sized workshop has a functional layout and a unique vinyl floor designed by architect Gregory Rochlin.
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Building an Energy-Efficient Florida Home
Bob meets with Bill Zoeller to discuss the ways this property will be 50% more energy efficient that a typical Florida Home.
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Impact-Resistant Windows and PGT Factory Tour
Bob visits PGT Industries to learn what it takes to make impact-resistant windows.
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Modular Home Construction Basics
Bob tours the Simplex Industries modular home plant and learns how the different pre-fab parts are made.
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Tour of the Simplex Modular Home Factory
Bob tours the Simplex Industries manufacturing facility where workers are precutting the plywood as they construct the interior and exterior walls.
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Touring the Tremont Nail Mill
Bob and crew travel to Wareham, MA, to visit the Tremont Nail Mill. Tremont Nail, manufacturer of cut nails.
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History of the North Bennet Street School
Bob takes a trip into Boston to visit the North Bennet Street School.
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Furniture Making at the North Bennet Street School
Bob visits with Alex Krutsky at the North Bennet Street School in Boston. Bob and Krutsky discuss the school's admissions process, which requires previous carpent...
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Hand-Carving a Mahogany Drawer Front
Furniture maker Tommy MacDonald demonstrates a few of the techniques he employs to create hand-carved furniture details.
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Crown Point Cabinet Factory Tour
Bob visits with Brian Stowell at the Crown Point Cabinet factory in Claremont, NH.
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Antique Brick Work at the Burtch-Udall House and Sumner Mansion
Bob and Professor Tom Visser (UVM) visit the Burtch-Udall house in Quechee, VT, and the nearby Sumner Mansion-- suitable locales for a running discussion on prope...
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Tour of the Premier Building Systems Factory
Bob tours the Premier Building Systems plant with general manager Steve Thompson.
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Manufacturing MDO Plywood
Bob visits the Simpson Plywood plant in Shelton, WA, where Jim Langenberg shows Bob how plywood, especially MDO, is made.
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Touring the LP Engineered Wood Siding Plant
Bob visits Two Harbors, MN and tours the plant where Louisiana Pacific manufactures a line of exterior trim products.
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Tour of the Simpson Door Factory
Bob visits McCleary, WA, where Jim Fielder (from Simpson Door) takes him on a tour of the company's manufacturing plant.
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Tour of the Perstop Flooring Factory
Bob visits the Perstop Flooring Factory to see how Pergo, wood laminate flooring, is made.
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Building Code Check
Bob meets with the general contractors and the architect for the project house to discuss mid-construction changes to the building plan.
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Tour of the Buderus Boiler Factory
Bob tours the Buderus factory in Wetzlar, Germany with Herr Schulte, vice president of research and development.
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Building for Hurricane Safety
Bob and contractor Ed Weller tour of another work in progress, a home being built using construction techniques unique to tropical climates.
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Tour of Boston Sand and Gravel
Bob takes a tour of the Boston Sand and Gravel concrete plant, located on the Charles River in Boston.
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Installing Baseboards and Making Moldings
Bob meets with carpenter Bob Ryley to install baseboard, then visits Paul Morse's workshop to see how specialty moldings are milled.
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Tour of the Georgia Pacific Pressure-Treated Lumber Plant
Bob visits the Georgia Pacific pressure-treated lumber plant in Sterling, GA to discover how pressure treated lumber is made to resist weather and rot.
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Tour of the Withers Industries Factory
Bob meets with restoration contractor Richard Marks to review the reproduction shutters that will be placed on the project house. They also visit the Withers Indu...
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Indiana Limestone Factory Tour
Bob tours the Indiana Limestone factory with Dave Kern, who explains the fabrication process for the limestone columns being used in the greenhouse.
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Brick Plant Tour
Bob takes a field trip to East Windsor Hill, CT, where the bricks for the cabin project were made. Along the way, he learns about the manufacturing process bricks...
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Tour of the Weather Shield Window Factory
Bob meets Lee Shield of Weather Shield Windows in Medford, WI to find out how the company makes its special custom windows.
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Lumber Mill Tour
Bob tours the Ralph A. Esty & Sons Lumber Corporation in Groveland, MA. Operations Manager Ken Monaco explains the process of aquiring and milling the lumber. The...
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Discussing the Manufacture of Glulams
Bob visits the Willamette Industries glued laminated timber facilities in Eugene, OR to learn first-hand how glulams are manufactured.
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Plywood Testing Facilities Tour
Bob tours the American Plywood Association testing facilities with Tom Williamson, the Executive Vice President of Engineered Wood Systems. Tom explains the diffe...
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Tour of Vermont Castings
Bob tours the Vermont Castings factory in Randolph, VT in order to learn about the manufacturing process for the type of wood-burning stove being used in the Mart...
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Wallpaper Factory Tour
Bob visits a wallpaper factory, where the design, paper-milling, and printing aspects of the wallpaper fabrication process all take place.
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Tour of the Georgia Pacific Plywood Plant
Bob takes a tour of the Georgia Pacific plywood plant near Savannah, GA to see how birch veneer plywood is made.
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Tour of the Tile Factory
As tiling begins on the bathroom floor and in the shower, Bob takes a field trip to the factory where the tiles being used in the project house were made.
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Shopping the Architectural Salvage Yard
Bob shops an architectural salvage yard for used, inexpensive doors and bathroom vanities.
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Touring a Roofing Shingle Plant
Bob takes us on a tour of the IKO roofing shingle plant in Wilmington, DE.
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Visiting a Wooden Window Factory
Bob visits the Wes-Pine wooden window factory in Hanover, MA.
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Tour of the Parallam Beam Factory
Bob joins David Parker at Macmillan-Bloedel’s Parallam plant in Vancouver, BC to see how the special engineered beams are manufactured.
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Touring the Georgia-Pacific Drywall Plant
Bob tours the Georgia-Pacific drywall plant in Marcus Hook, PA with Monty Palmowski.
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Touring Salvage One Architectural Warehouse
Bob travels to Chicago’s South Side to tour the Salvage One architectural warehouse with Anne Steinweddel.
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Congoleum Factory Tour
Bob tours the Congoleum plant in Marcus Hook, PA with Jim Kogut.
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Touring the Parallam Beam Factory
Bob visits Dave Parker in Vancouver, BC to see how Parallam beams are manufactured.
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Tour of the IKO Roofing Shingle Plant
Bob visits the IKO roofing shingle plant in Wilmington, DE, where he becomes familiar with different types of shingles.
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Tour of Republic Window Factory
Bob tours the Republic Window Factory in Chicago. Ron Spielman, vice president, explains how the windows are manufactured.
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Converting Steel Shipping Containers to Housing
Bob meets with David Cross of Tampa Armature Works (TAW), a company that converts shipping containers into intermodal steel building units (ISBUs).
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Building a Hurricane-Resistant Home
Bob talks with Leslie Chapman-Henderson from the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH) about the technologies involved in securing a roof. Chapman-Henderson exp...
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