Renovate Rather than Buy: American Homeowners

A new study offers encouraging news for the building trade when it comes to home repairs and remodeling. The steep decline in new home starts is a well-known fact that is creating issues for the construction and building sector, but U.S. homeowners may be offering some good news for the trade: they are planning to […]

New Energy Star NextGen Program Debuts

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has just launched its EnergyStar NextGen Certification Program designed to increase energy savings. A new voluntary certification program for the residential new construction sector is now up and running from the EPA, designed to increase national energy and emissions savings. It addresses a multitude of construction areas, including heat pumps, […]

Saving One Trillion Trees Isn’t as Easy as It Sounds

Billionaire Mark Benioff, who runs the giant software company Salesforce, is having trouble meeting his goal of saving one trillion trees by the end of the decade. In 2020, Benioff was sitting in his office in the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco—the tallest building in the city—when the smoke and haze from northern wildfires clouded […]

Home Depot Quarter Financials Show Business Still Tough

Even as there are encouraging signs in the housing economy bottoming out, the big DIY chain is still showing a sales slowdown. If you subscribe to the theory that Home Depot is the canary in the home improvement coal mine – granted a very big canary – then its financial results earlier this month indicate […]

Which Three Retailers Did More Than Half of All Home Improvement Business in 2023?

Together they accounted for just over six out of every ten dollars in consumer spending on home improvement goods and services last year. The retail business for the home improvement sector continues to get more and more concentrated but even those in the industry might be surprised to know exactly how concentrated. New numbers from […]

Wood-Related Materials and Labor Make Up 30% of a New Home Cost

Close to one-third of the cost of building a new single-family home in America involves framing, flooring and other wood materials. Wood materials remain the single largest cost for new single-family homes in the country according to a new study from the National Association of Home Builders. The report is based on the association’s annual […]

Do 15-Minute Cities Represent the Future for Builders?

Mixed-use neighborhoods combining residential, commercial and recreational uses are another post-pandemic trend. Most American cities, particularly in areas outside of the older Northeastern portion of the country, are clearly demarcated into office, retail, residential, cultural and entertainment sectors but a new phenomenon growing out of the work-from-home movement of the pandemic is starting to take […]

84 Lumber Honoring Veterans and Their Families

In marking Military Appreciation Month the retail chain is holding a number of celebrations across its more than 250 locations. As its done for many years, 84 Lumber will mark the month of May with a series of events honoring Military Appreciation Month, including charitable functions and celebrations for its customers and employees. “Their invaluable […]

Georgia’s First Home-Grown Mass Timber Building Opens

Mark it on your calendar when you come to town for IWF this summer: it’s a stunner. Georgia has long been known as one of the leading states for supplying timber to the building industry so it was only a matter of time before the first Mass Timber structure using native supplies opened. That happened […]

Oneida Adds New Dust Deputy Low-Pro Lid Separator to Its Line-Up

The latest addition to Oneida’s product line-up is the most compact separator it’s ever offered. IWF 2024 Exhibitor, Oneida Air Systems says you can “kick dust to the curb” with its new Dust Deputy Low-Pro Lid Separator that promises 50 percent more airflow than other lid-style products. At 4″ tall, the Dust Deputy Low-Pro is […]