The new home industry is like the car industry without a bailout: stuck at the bottom with no improvement. Warranty expenses continue to contract, but so does sales revenue. And some companies seem to be artificially managing their accrual levels.

North Carolinians, like many Americans, are concerned that opening the door to foreign companies will result in the loss of jobs, hurting the economic livelihood of the state and its residents. North Carolina’s elected officials have reflected their concerns on free trade through their voting patterns.

Both the voters and their representatives should rethink their position on free trade. While expanding on trade relations with other countries may, in some circumstances, lead to a decrease in employment for certain sectors, the overall benefits far outweigh the costs.

North Carolina continues to be a shining example of this concept. In an economy that has relied on textile production since the aftermath of the Civil War, increased competition at the international level provided the North Carolina economy the chance to diversify into new market ventures. Today, North Carolina ranks 10th in states whose employment is most driven by foreign direct investment (FDI) and has enjoyed consistent long-term growth in GDP, ranking in the highest quintile of economic growth among the 50 states in 2010.

Openness to foreign investment and trade can also aid in alleviating the state’s current employment woes. Many of North Carolina’s strongest job-creating sectors, namely retail and manufacturing, are heavily dependent on their ability to procure imports or put their exports on the open market. FDI itself accounts for more private-sector job creation than any sector in North Carolina other than retail. In fact, foreign investment from such companies as Daimler Trucks, Electrolux, and Syngenta have led to the creation of thousands of jobs in North Carolina.

With contributions from these and other foreign companies, North Carolina continues to grow and prosper. Yet the protectionist mindset continues to push representatives in the opposite direction. Taking a lesson from the Tar Heel State, Americans should work to change this anti-trade sentiment if they want to see continued improvements in overall economic output and the standard of living.

Wesley Gwinn

May 5, 2012 at 9:00 am

The countdown to this year’s Kitchen and Bath Industry Show is now in the single digits. As an estimated 20,600 manufacturers, designers, dealers, and custom builders and remodelers prepare to descend on the city of Chicago, we asked the show’s managing director Jim Scott what trends attendees are likely to spot. Also, check out our slideshow for a preview of high-end products that will be debuting on the show floor.

• Technology is making appliances and other home products both “fun” and “smart,” says Scott. And the recent industry-wide push towards sustainability suggests that a melding of the two should yield efficient and attractive designs that help consumers manage their households.

• Sure, attendees are hot for high-end products. But affordable design, spurred by what Scott calls “practical discretion” incited by the economic downturn, is surfacing as a way to remodel while remaining innovative and budget-conscious.

• It may be too soon to judge the quality of the economic recovery, but Scott says that visitors should seemore new products this year. “Exhibitors have been cautious in the last few years,” he says. “They’re seeing [that] now it’s time to get back in the market. It is what it is, [and] it’s still a large market.”

• The popularity of recyclable and engineered materials is closing in on traditional surfaces like granite.

• Plus, universal design takes on new importance as designers and manufacturers begin to better understand and serve a market with highly diverse needs and varying abilities.

The show’s UNcontained exhibit puts a creative twist on the rising challenge of offering products and design services to the different generations that make up the U.S. housing market. Featuring vignettes of five prototypical home buyers, generational narratives will be displayed in 20-foot shipping containers in the center of show floor. “The containers reflect how you would approach a design project with these different generations,” Scott says. “What’s important to them; how do they see their lives playing out.”

The exhibit classifies these groups as: Gen Now, ages 15 to 34, who seek an urban setting and want products that save on space; Generation X, ages 35 to 44, focused on balancing work and  personal life and enjoying decorating and renovating; Zoomers, ages 45 to 65, emerging from the recession with savings possibly damaged and retirement postponed but still desiring efficient products; Prime Timers (ages 66 and older) who are living longer, moving back in with younger family members, and changing the conception of the aging process.

 

By Hallie Busta

The buzz surrounding “smart” home energy management systems is feared to have worn off – but not so fast. A recent survey suggests that with a little know-how, consumers may want back in the game.

Energy market intelligence firm Pike Research, Boulder, Colo., looked at what U.S. consumers want from energy management systems, their opinions of current products on the market, and how likely cost affects purchase decisions when it comes to smart meters, home energy management, demand response, and smart applications. Its “Smart Grid Consumer Survey,” which is based on responses from more than 1,000 adults, suggests that knowing how the products work and having quantifiable energy savings are key for homeowner engagement with smart technology.

Energy information displays (EIDs) saw the most consumer interest, with 47 percent of respondents claiming that they were “very interested” (16 percent) or “extremely interested” (31 percent) in the products weighted toward consumers with energy bills upward of $300 monthly. Six in 10 respondents interested in EIDs would prefer dedicated in-home display units and Web-based dashboards, the survey found. Barriers to product use included concern that outsiders could monitor homeowners’ energy use and a lack of system knowledge.
Smart appliances ranked second in consumer favorability, with 45 percent reporting that they were “extremely interested” (12 percent) or “very interested” (33 percent) in the products based on price point and electric bill savings. More than two-thirds reported that they’d be willing to pay at least 10 percent more for a smart product as opposed to a conventional one. Of those not interested in smart appliances, four in 10 expressed energy-monitoring-related concerns.

In the other categories, three in 10 respondents conveyed interest in the separate categories of demand response services and smart meters. For more information on the survey, read the press release online.

The hesitancy may be the result of energy-related indecision among the American public at-large, according to a Gallup poll released mid-March. Half of the Americans surveyed expect that the U.S. will experience a critical energy shortage during the next five years, a concern largely spurred by rising gas prices and representing an 18 percent dip from a year ago—that’s 2 percentage points below Gallup’s decade average. The other half of respondents (46 percent) said the U.S. is not likely to face an energy crisis in the next five years.

Yet views on the seriousness of an energy crisis seem to increase by age demographic, the survey found, with one-third of 18 to 29 year olds finding the situation “very serious” while 49 percent of respondents 65 years old and up responded similarly. Read more Gallup energy data online.

 

By Hallie Bust

Explaining Negligence in the Construction Industry

The construction world can be regarded as one of the most dangerous industries to work in. Because of the inherent hazards that come with working on a construction or repair project, both construction professionals and laborers uphold certain standards to ensure a safe working environment.

Contractors, surveyors, engineers, project managers to employers–all have a duty of care to observe. They make sure that assessments of risks involved in any facet of construction are made. Laborers, on the other hand, benefit from the assessments by exercising preventive measures.

Still, accidents happen.

Some of the most common accidents that occur in construction sites involve six-feet-or-more falls from ladders or stairs. Other accidents are caused by the failure to implement safety precautions, such as improper building of scaffolding, use of dangerous tools and unsafe machinery, and other hazardous issues.  Without proper implementation of safety precautions, working on an elevated surface may result to debilitating injuries and even death.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), it has been estimated thatfatal accidents involving construction workers accounted for 15 percent of all job-related deaths in the U.S.  Such injuries or deaths may not have happened if a certain construction or repair project employed safety rules or standards of care. Such occurrence is categorized as construction negligence.

Determining Liability

When a serious accident happens, usually all parties involved are brought into the litigation, as cross-allegations of construction safety issues, construction defects, and construction administration/observation/inspection issues.  In North Carolina, an employee cannot sue his employer for a workplace accident (but instead seek a workers’ compensation recovery).  The employee can, however, bring a negligence action against any/all (other) responsible third parties.  [Editor's Note: The parties may have rights to recover against each other if one is actively negligent and one is only passively negligent.  Otherwise, joint & several liability applies.]

To establish negligence, the injured party must prove the following four factors:

1. The construction professionals involved have a duty of care;
2. They breached or violated that duty of care;
3. The breach of duty of care resulted to an injury; and
4. The injury was the result of the construction professionals’ negligence.

Anne Roberts is a freelance writer

The America Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the commercial sector continues to lead the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) which has remained in positive territory for the fifth consecutive month. As a leading economic indicator of construction activity, the ABI reflects the approximate nine to twelve month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending.

AIA said the March ABI score was 50.4, following a mark of 51.0 in February. This score reflects a slight increase in demand for design services (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). The new projects inquiry index was 56.6, down from mark of 63.4 the previous month.

“We are starting to hear more about improving conditions in the marketplace, with a greater sense of optimism that there will be greater demand for design services,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “But that is not across the board and there are still a number of architecture firms struggling so progress is likely to be measured in inches rather than miles for the next few months.”