For Construction Pros

Home Depot Offers Contractor Perks with Its ‘First for Pro’ Services

By Rebecca Wasieleski - Wednesday May 2, 2012

I recently went on a Home Depot store tour in Madison, Wis., with Renee Swanson, Home Depot regional Pro Sales manager for the Northern Plains region, and one of the Madison store’s pro account representatives, Jack Hindert. They showed me the services Home Depot offers its contractor customers through First for Pro , a program initially launched in 2010 but one the company is continuously improving and expanding. First for Pro is available in all of Home Depot’s nearly 2,000 stores nationwide and caters to professionals involved in remodeling, homebuilding, painting and other construction trades. Swanson says pros make up 4% of Home Depot’s customer base but account for 30% of the company’s sales. First for Pro is designed to...

Construction Haiku

By Rebecca Wasieleski - Tuesday April 17, 2012

In honor of National Haiku Poetry Day , I wrote a couple construction-related haiku on my drive into work this morning. Concrete A simple mixture: Cement, water, aggregate. The world's foundation. Construction equipment Big, yellow metal. Horsepower to move the earth. Listen for that beep. Exercise your brain and write your own construction-related haiku. Leave it in the comments section below. The first line is five syllables, the second seven, and the third five.

5 Things I Learned at World of Concrete 2012

By Rebecca Wasieleski - Monday January 30, 2012

The 2012 World of Concrete was my sixth visit to the concrete industry's largest gathering of contractors, equipment and product manufacturers, and industry experts and educators. There is a lot to soak up at the show — new products, manufacturer news and job story ideas from contractors just to name a few. Here are five things I learned at the show that I would like to share with you. Asphalt paving no longer has a cost advantage over concrete. According to a new report by Portland Cement Association Chief Economist Ed Sullivan, "Paving, The New Realities," concrete beats asphalt on both initial bid and life-cycle costs . Due to several factors, however, DOTs are not taking advantage of this cost savings. The concrete industry...

ACI-WI Group Hears Talk on Electrically Conductive Concrete

By Rebecca Wasieleski - Monday November 21, 2011

Imagine a world where you could drive cross country in an electric car, never stopping to recharge your battery but instead taking advantage of induction charging through electrically conductive concrete roadways. This glimpse of the future isn't as far off as you might think. True, electric car technologies have a long way to go before this type of future can be realized, but the concrete end of it has been making advancements over the last several years. At a recent meeting of the Wisconsin Chapter of the American Concrete Institute (ACI), Art Covi, P.E., Principal Engineer, Coal-Combustion Products Team Leader for WE Energies in Milwaukee, Wis., gave a presentation entitled, "Electrically Conductive Concrete Using High Carbon Fly...

Concrete Spring House Still Standing

By Rebecca Wasieleski - Thursday October 20, 2011

While hiking around Wisconsin's Governor Dodge State Park a few weekends ago, I took in the fall color change and visited three spring houses, or "pioneer refrigerators," nestled in the woods throughout the park. The spring houses were all constructed with some form of concrete, stone and mortar by the homesteaders who farmed the land. Concrete's thermal mass properties made the spring houses functional, and concrete's resilience through time has allowed them to remain standing 100+ years. Each of these spring houses was built on top of a natural spring, which provided fresh water to the homesteaders who owned and farmed the surrounding land. The stone and concrete buildings stayed cool year round thanks to the cold spring water...

Readers Choose Their Favorite Pieces of Construction Equipment

- Monday October 3, 2011

Construction equipment helps contractors work smarter and faster. Contractors know the tools and products they use on the jobsite will help them make money and achieve a successful job. Recently, the winners of Concrete Contractor's 2011 Readers Choice Top Products Awards were announced. You can see the products readers chose as the most popular products in the concrete market in this online feature . The Contractors' Top 50 Product Awards, tabulated through interest generated by Equipment Today readers and ForConstructionPros.com visitors, can be found online at this link . What piece of construction equipment can't you live without?

Joking around about safety

By Rebecca Wasieleski - Monday February 7, 2011

Safety is no joke, but sometimes humor can be a great way to deliver a serious message. I recently ran across the Safety Stuffers campaign by Nehlsen Communications. Safety Stuffers is a series of informative safety messages presented through fictional movie posters, goofy quizzes, crime scene investigation spoofs and other less-than-serious formats. The campaign fliers are sized to fit into an envelope with a pay check stub. Standard designs are available, along with customizable campaigns.

Artful Concrete

By Rebecca Wasieleski - Tuesday December 28, 2010

I recently visited Grandview , a concrete folk art sculpture park in Hollandale, Wis. In the 1930s and 1940s, dairy farmer Nick Engelbert filled his yard with a variety of animals and mythical creatures he constructed with concrete. He even set aside a picnic area and parking lot for visitors curious to see his creations. Concrete may not immediately come to mind as an ideal material for artistic expression, but it would have been familiar and available to a farmer during Engelbert's time. It proves the drive to create art will not be smothered by a lack of oil paints, sculpting clay or formal training. As editor of Concrete Contractor magazine, I see many artful pieces created with concrete, including countertops, chairs and...

Wanted: Classic Shot Blasters

By Rebecca Wasieleski - Tuesday September 7, 2010

I am a fan of all the practicalities of today's car -- fuel efficiency, safety and relative quietness. But a classic muscle car makes me turn my head and give my Hyundai a little gas when I am cruising down the road. The classic design and roar of the engine is intoxicating even to fuel-conscious me -- and most of these cars are older than I am! I guess that is why I thought Blastrac's contest to find the oldest working 1-10D shot blaster sounded like some good ol' American fun. There have been a lot of advancements to shot blasters since that first Blastrac model appeared in 1985, but it is worth recognizing that original idea and paying homage to a bygone era. Or maybe not so bygone for the Blastrac customers who are still...

At a Store Near You

By Rebecca Wasieleski - Tuesday August 24, 2010

Handy store locators are available on many retail store sites across the Internet, allowing users to find the nearest Home Depot or Bass Pro Shop by simply entering a zip code. Contractors looking for tools and equipment now have a similar search function at their fingertips when they use Construction Distribution’s Distributor Locator. The Distributor Locator is a free, web-based service that allows contractors to search for contractor supply houses by zip code. The Distributor Locator retrieves the names of up to 10 contractor supply houses in the zip code area the contractor requested. Convenient for both the local contractor and a contractor on the road in an unfamiliar city, the Distributor Locator puts users in touch with the...