Basements

Two Minnesota construction firms specializing in concrete for residential interiors are winners in the Cemstone 2007 Decorative Concrete Awards.

The Grand Prize winner was Foley Construction of Le Sueur, Minnesota, for a project featuring kitchen countertops made with recycled crushed glass to create interesting color patterns. The judges said, “The hip and stylish countertops are well executed. Nice material re-use of the crushed glass to provide interesting color patterns.”

The First Prize winner was Allstate Decorative Concrete of Cokato, Minnesota, for a colored basement floor featuring a highly detailed coat of arms. The judges said, “This creative and whimsical use of colored concrete provides a rich, warm depth to the first floor basement.”

Cemstone, a supplier of ready-mixed, engineered and decorative concrete in the Upper Midwest, sponsors the award to recognize excellence in the design and use of decorative concrete in residential and commercial construction. The winners were selected from nearly 70 contractor entries that featured Cemstone-supplied colored, stamped and/or stained concrete.

Many homes in southern Ohio have flooded basements due to cracked concrete foundations caused by the intense summer drought and heavy fall rains, local media reports.

"The ground’s so dry everything has pulled away from the house," said one of the residents whose basement flooded last Tuesday. "There's no expansion in the foundations, nowhere for the concrete to stretch to and that's why you end up with the cracks, that's why the foundations have been cracking."

The falling rain has nowhere to go but through the cracks and into basements, leaving behind a messy and costly cleanup.

Construction of new homes fell in August to the slowest pace in 12 years as troubles in the housing industry continued to intensify.

The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that construction of new homes fell by 2.6 percent in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.331 million units. The housing industry is experiencing its steepest downturn in 16 years, with analysts forecasting weak prices and further declines in sales for months to come, given rising mortgage defaults, which are dumping even more homes on an already glutted market.

On Tuesday, the National Association of Home Builders reported that its index of builder confidence fell in September to 20, tying the lowest level on record.

Housing starts bumped up slightly in April while new building permits dropped to the slowest pace since June 1997, according to figures released by the Commerce Department. Housing starts increased 2.5 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.528 million units, following downward Commerce Department revisions for the two previous months. Starts were down 16.1 percent from a year earlier. Building permits, a more reliable indicator of housing construction activity, dropped 8.9 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.429 million units. Permits were down 28.1 percent from a year earlier. Starts of new single-family homes were up 1.6 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.225 million units. The pace was 18.9 percent below a year earlier. Multifamily housing construction increased 6.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 303,000 units for the month, a 2.6 percent decrease from April 2006.

Single-family permit issuance was down 6.0 percent to a pace of 1.063 million units for the month. This was 28.8 percent below a year earlier. The pace of multifamily permit issuance dropped 16.4 percent to 366,000 units for the month. This was 26.1 percent below the April 2006 pace.

Homeowners regard contractors and builders as their most trusted resource for information when remodeling, according to a recent national survey by national research firm Synovate. When gathering information about roofing materials, nearly 60 percent of homeowners look to roofing contractors first because of their knowledge, experience and expertise. For information related to decking materials, 21 percent look first to decking contractors or builders again because of their knowledge and experience with various products. Survey respondents also ranked retail stores and friends and family as important information sources. Personal internet research was next to contractor recommendations as well as looking to friends and family for word of mouth recommendations.