At the start of this year, the Metal Roofing Alliance (MRA) predicted this would be the year when the concept of the “durable home” will become reality.

Most contractors find themselves operating in two work modes: Get work. Do work. As the economy stands now, many shops are in the do work phase. But, the problem is, neither mode allows time for an improve work phase.

I recently ran a 5K on runway 26L at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Although a 5K race isn’t as intense as a full marathon, training for and completing this race will no doubt help prepare me for something bigger down the road. 

Last month, at the annual Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors' National Association (SMACNA) convention in San Diego, California, I had the pleasure of meeting many of SNIPS' longtime readers. To you I say: THANK YOU.

Projects labor agreements are a form of collective bargaining agreement, generally between a local building trades council, or a group of unions, a general contractor and sometimes the end-user of the project.  PLAs are often limited in scope and duration to a particular project, or similarly financed projects, such as school construction.

If there is one saving grace, dare I say it, a silver lining to the shortage of sheet metal workers, it's this: now, more than ever, contractors are taking note of the talent they have on their shop floors.

As immersive technologies like augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) continue to advance, many business leaders recognize the value of these tools as fundamental elements for visualizing complex data and supporting more information-rich experiences. 

New technology can be intimidating. This is even more true for many HVAC contracting companies who operate off tradition and legacy: This is how I was taught to manage projects, so this is how I’ll keep managing projects.

If there is one conversation we love to explore in the pages of Snips, it is how the industry is changing. Yet since officially taking over the editorial reins of the magazine this summer, I’ve spoken with enough contractors to know that the industry has already changed — and those changes are far from over.

Too often we find ourselves making important decisions based on cost, not value. Ironically value engineering has become a common term used by cost-conscious building owners and specifiers as they move away from plumbing materials with proven performance track records, toward reinvented, cheaper and, most of the time, inferior products.