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The National Retrofit Workforce Guidelines: Round 2 (Section 4 aka Ventilation)

Welcome to the largest topical section of the National Retrofit Workforce Guidelines (oops it is the second – sorry), weighing in at 74 pages (by contrast the entire Mechanical Codes that apply to this, HVAC, etc… found in the IRC comes in at 38 pages). In case you don’t know why we are doing this […]

The National Retrofit Workforce Guidelines: Round 2 (Section 1- 3)

Per an email received from Steve Baden of RESNET & I posted on the Best Practices (Residential) group on Home Energy Pro’s… The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) developed a draft Workforce Guidelines for Home Energy Upgrades with the goal to foster the growth of a high-quality home energy efficiency industry and a skilled and […]

Safety Sunday: The Right Steps for Ladder Safety

For this week’s Safety Sunday Article, I am turning the reigns over to Paul Hamtil of Hamtil Construction located in St. Louis. Hamtil Construction is also a family owned business that believes “Building a Tradition of Quality“and it shows (Portfolio). Now if your asking why is he discussing ladders, I encourage you to read on… […]

SkillsUSA 2011 – Recap & Day 4

While driving in, I really couldn’t believe that this was it. Throughout the day & drive home it was hard not to think about just how life altering this program is not only for many of the competitors I spoke with, but for many of the volunteers & even just visitors. This is a video […]

Safety Sunday: SkillsUSA & Safety

Your mission should you choose to accept it is to allow 5400+ students access to power tools, (that many can’t use per OSHA or State laws till they turn 18) hand tools, and to compete in timed events without having any injuries…. Welcome to the SkillsUSA National Championships for High School & Post-Secondary students. Fortunately, […]

SkillsUSA 2011 – Day 3

Today is the final day of the competition for all the competitors in all the competitions and the biggest day of hands-on competition around (i.e. if you can only make one day – this is it). In the case of the Team Works competitors, they have until 5 PM to regroup and get everything completed […]

SkillsUSA 2011 – Day 2

Today is the day where the rubber meets the road, not only for all the teams, but the logistics (State Farm), judges (NARI),  volunteers (Stanley), and for those on the Technical Committee that have spent the last 10 months working towards this day. A special shout out also has to be given to all the […]

SkillsUSA 2011 – Day 1

This year I am quite honored to be attending the SKILLS USA National Championships as not only a VIP guest (mrW tradesmen), but as one of the NARI judges for the “Team Works” event. For many (including me originally) one of the first questions asked is – what in the world is SKILLS USA? The […]

Safety Sunday: Fire Extinguisher Primer

Ahhh, the bright red fire extinguisher, you can hardly go throughout a day without hardly seeing one; but how much do you know about them, how will you REACT, and why does everyone want you to PASS the extinguisher (don’t they realize you got it)? The 5 Classes & Rating of Extinguishers: There are 5 […]