From the NY TIMES-Former California Homeowners Lash Out at Builder

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

Published: April 2, 2009

LOS ANGELES — A major home builder that helped fuel the country’s building boom is now under attack for what some homeowners and builders say was its role in the bust that followed.

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Monica Almeida/The New York Times

A protest was held Thursday in Los Angeles during KB Home’s annual shareholders’ meeting.

Several former homeowners spoke here on Thursday about their disenchantment with the builder, KB Home, at its annual shareholders’ meeting. The speakers said the company had pushed them into high-risk, high-interest loans for homes they could not afford and eventually lost to foreclosure.

During the meeting, a few dozen construction workers, many of whom had their work dry up when the home-building market imploded in Southern California, protested across the street.

“I tried to communicate to the board members to try to do better for people in the future,” one of the former homeowners who addressed the board, Santiago Ramos, said after the meeting.


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The Onion's Video Spoof of Wildfire Season

While humorous, this spoof from the Onion on the wildfire problem in California does serve as a serious message...fire's aren't funny.

So have a little laugh and get your home the best building products you can that are fire resistant!

Call Bill Leys for the best fire resistant decking available, Dex-O-Tex, Desert Brand, Pli-dek and Mer-Kote....805-801-2380

AIA 2009 Convention Coming Up April 30th

Moscone Center in San Francisco will be the hub of all activity for the American Architect Institute's 2009 Convention and Show.

Many manufacturer's will be there, to date I've seen AVM, Duradeck, Dex-O-Tex, Excellent Coatings and Parex LaHabra/Mer-Ko as exhibitors for decking/exterior products, I've also seen Tremco and Kemiko listed...

Probably sold out for manufacturer's, but you can register to go-click here to go 's 2009 Convention website for the rates and dates

DeckExpert is Now On Twitter! Tweet's a coming soon and often!

http://twitter.com/Deck_Expert
Paste the link into your browser to se our twitter page...

We'll be tweeting from the field as we go, with all sorts of fun, witty and thought provoking comments.

Or not...
I'm hungry. Time to tweet!

Stamped Deck by Masterseal's Dave DiBaggio is the "Job of The Week"

My friend Dave DiBaggio has a small family owned corporation down in San Clemente...he does deck coatings, floors, stamping, concrete repairs and overlays. Dave is like me, he knows that he needs to be on the job to assure that it goes right and that the personal responsibility is there.

He just sent me these pics of a cool stamp job he just finished on a deck. This is a Dex-O-Tex Barrier Guard job, reinforced and stamped/colored to spec.

Check them out and if your down OC/San Diego way and need a great job on your personal home or business, call Dave DiBaggio at Masterseal at 949-355-5031!

CONSENSUS DOCS Challenges AIA on "Who's in Charge"

Read this article on a new group challenging AIA's dominance on contract documents...

A new challenger to AIA documents

ConsensusDOCS, a new family of construction documents, puts the owner in charge of the project.

By TIM CALDERBANK, JOE STRAUS and JANET KIM LIN
Bullivant Houser Bailey

After an intensive three-year effort, a consortium of owners, contractors and trade groups joined together and have published what they consider to be contract documents based on best practices and proper risk allocation, for the benefit of the construction industry at large. The result is a new family of construction documents entitled ConsensusDOCS, where “DOCS” stands for designers, owners, contractors and sureties.

ConsensusDOCS is endorsed by 22 construction organizations — including the Associated General Contractors of America, Associated Builders and Contractors and National Electrical Contractors Association — that represent a wide selection of industry members, from developers to owners to general contractors to subcontractors.

Despite the wide consensus represented by these national trade organizations, proponents of the long-standing contract documents published by the American Institute of Architects argue that the oft-revised AIA documents are more than sufficient and there is no need for another family of construction documents. For the reasons below, we disagree with that conclusion.

The owner is in charge

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