Mud season is coming - is your home's entryway ready? Entryway and mud room flooring options can mean all the difference between an easy cleanup after a rainy day and ruining your flooring. But what are the best possible options for your home's entryway that can look attractive, be durable and make for easy cleaning? Here are some great options to consider.

Solid Wood Flooring

Solid wood flooring is a timeless option to consider and it helps build your home's overall value. However, you'll want to stick with a dense hardwood, such as maple, oak or similar materials to ensure that it doesn't scratch or dent from the heavy traffic. It may require occasional refinishing or sealing, but is specifically designed for refinishing, unlike the other options we're mentioning below.

Laminate Flooring

Laminate flooring allows you to have the look of softer woods with superior durability. It also gives you the appearance of more expensive wood without the extra expense. It's easy to install and can be very durable, but if it begins to wear, it may need to be replaced if you choose a variety that has too thin of a veneer for the surface layer. It can also be louder than traditional hardwood flooring with a hollow feeling for floating floors.

Ceramic Tile

Ceramic tile has great versatility, durability and longevity with a lower overall price tag, allowing you to get a nice appearance that will last for a long time. It's also relatively easy to maintain and clean by simply sweeping or mopping. However, it can be slippery when it is wet, so it's important to look at the slip resistance rating to make sure it won't become a hazard when it's raining outside. It may be a poor choice if comfort is a factor.

Stone Flooring

Stone provides you with a high-quality flooring that is designed to stand the test of time. Available in a wide range of colors, it's very easy to clean and maintain, though you may have more issues with removing dirt from more textured areas. However, natural stone can be extremely expensive and it's not easy to install, making it a poor choice if you want to DIY your entryway flooring. It can also be cold and hard underfoot.

Vinyl Flooring

Vinyl flooring gives you a wide range of inexpensive flooring options, with appearances from the fanciful to traditional materials such as wood or stone. It has a low price, is simple to install and is easy to keep clean, even in rainy weather. However, it won't last as long, with wear expected to become visible within five years.

Linoleum

Linoleum is available in a wide range of colors and patterns, and is becoming popular again as an earth-friendly flooring. It's more durable than vinyl, very affordable and easy to clean by sweeping or mopping. However, it does require professional installation and will eventually begin to show wear, though it remains very comfortable underfoot.

By having the right flooring in your entryway or mud room, you can ensure that rainy season cleanup is easy while your home retains its beautiful appearance. If you need help finding the right material for your home's mud room or entryway, our experienced associates are always happy to help. Please feel free to contact us today with any questions, to place an order or to take advantage of our special order service.

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National Gypsum Board Company, one of the largest gypsum board producers in North America, launched DEXcell, a conglomerate of up-to-date and hard-wearing roof boards for commercial roofing systems.

The DEXcell Brand consists of three products:

• DEXcell Brand Glass Mat Roof Board
• DEXcell Brand FA Glass Mat Roof Board
• DEXcell Brand Cement Roof Board

DEXcell products hold various approvals and are in alignment with numerous industry standards making their roofing products resistant to mold, while also providing a fire blockade for commercial structures such as hotels, hospitals, and schools.

Roof Board Particulars

- DEXcell Glass Mat Roof Board and DEXcell FA Glass Mat Roof Board are manufactured to resist mold. They are designed for use as a cover-board or thermal obstruction in commercial roofing applications. These products score and incise smoothly and are especially finished on the front, rear, and sides for trouble-free handling.

- DEXcell Glass Mat Roof Board is perfectly suitable for mechanically attached roofing systems and has encrusted fiberglass facers with an ameliorated gypsum core.

- DEXcell FA Glass Mat Roof Board is created for fully supported roof systems, and produced with heavy-duty coated fiberglass facers with an improved gypsum core.

- DEXcell FA Glass Mat Roof Boards are perfectly designed for a broad range of roofing systems along with, but not restricted to, fully supported single ply membranes, mechanically affixed roof systems, adapted bitumen, developed roofing, fluid applied spray foam and metal. It is also used on the roof side of low or parapet walls.

- DEXcell BRAND Cement Roof Board is a gossamer type moisture and mold resilient cement board manufactured for use as a cover board or thermal obstruction in all commercial roofing applications. It administers a fire-wall and thermal barrier. Portland cement is used for manufacturing, glass mesh, and a lightweight mixture of substances that produce a remarkably solid, long-lasting surface.

National Gypsum integrated its lightweight cement board know-how to produce a multipurpose product for all commercial roofing applications. DEXcell Brand Cement Roof Board offers a superb defense against dampness if trapped beneath the roofing membrane for an extensive length of time. In addition, the cement roof board has outstanding freeze and thaw properties.

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The New England states are well known for their extreme winters, while climate change is leading to some record-breaking summers. How do you keep your crew working during these extremes? By pre-planning your work and using creative problem solving, you can get a lot done in even the most demanding of conditions. Here are some tips to keep in mind when planning a job in poor weather or environmental conditions.

Focus on developing safety measures that are specific to the project.

If you're in a rapidly-shifting environment, it may make sense to hold a daily safety meeting and hazard analysis before the day's work begins.

Minimize how much work is done on-site in poor conditions when possible.

If you know that you'll need a certain number of electrical conduit assemblies with 10/3 wire at a particular length, cut and put together with wire as much of the assembly as possible, leaving one end unadhered and able to be cut to a shorter length if necessary. This allows you to make last-minute adjustments while minimizing exposure time.

Include down time, waste material and additional set-up and tear-down time in your quote to ensure you've covered all your bases.

When the environment is tough to work in, you'll end up spending more time getting your crew moving and demobilized as well as having more job site waste.

How will you get there from here?

If there's difficult access to the work site, you'll need to account for that. Can your equipment and material fit on a boat if the site is on an island or inaccessible by land? Will you need to cross delicate environments that will require the use of construction mats for equipment or around the construction site? Be sure to include that in your job costing.

What health problems can you expect for your employees in that environment?

Cold, wet conditions lend themselves to hypothermia and frostbite. Enclosed areas will require proper ventilation to prevent suffocation. Hot weather requires a close watch for heat-related illness, sunburn and dehydration. Make sure your crew takes regular breaks when working in extreme environments.

Will housing on site make the project go more quickly?

If you need to spend a couple hours every day just getting to the site and the same amount leaving it, it may make sense to see about setting up a bunk room on site to stay in while the project is underway. Keep in mind that this will also require setting up sanitary services, food preparation areas as well as dining and down-time areas to unwind.

Take advantage of local talent.

If you're working on a resort or recreation area where the employees are familiar with the weather and road conditions and are already trained to deal with them, see if you can employ them to help with hauling in and out as well as monitoring upcoming weather conditions that could stall the project.

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Can ceiling tiles enhance the acoustical characteristics of a room? Most definitely. When shopping for a new ceiling tile, it?s best to evaluate the whole package.

Builders and interior designers who are searching for an affordable method to lower the height of a modern room as well as deaden ambient noise turn to acoustic ceiling tiles. Using this method, cooling as well as heating ducts can be hidden behind these ceilings, alone with unsightly wires used in overhead lighting and pipes for plumbing fixtures.

Consider this before purchasing:

The phrase ?acoustical ceiling tile? not only has as much to do with marketing as it does with making a difference in the sound environment within a given room. Originally, conventional drop ceiling tiles were used because they were easy to install and provided convenient access to the areas above the ceiling and were inexpensive. They were not the prettiest tiles and weren?t first purchased for their acoustics.

A conventional room has, at a minimum, six surfaces which include four walls, a floor and a ceiling. Sound moves equally in all directions. Sound also has the potential to be reflected, to pass through, or to be absorbed by all surfaces. Not all tiles are rated in all three categories. Please note that each persons results will be different, due to where you are using the tiles and how.

Noise Reduction Coefficient

Noise Reduction Coefficient (NRC) is a rating which informs how much sound surface will absorb. The higher the decimal or percent of rating, the more sound the tile will absorb.

Sound Transmission Class

Sound Transmission Class (STC) this type of rating is used to learn what the ability to block sound is. This is helpful, but does not tell you what will happen to sound once it is blocked, and it is usually used for walls.

Ceiling Attenuation Class

Ceiling Attenuation Class (CAC) is really a completely separate rating system. It does deal with sound absorption but it is a bit more specific. This rating is commonly misunderstood as a rating that describes how much sound reflects off the face of a tile.

When looking for a ceiling tile, consider the following: if a tile completely absorbs about 50% of the sound it contacts (NCR), the other 50% has got to go somewhere. If the tile has a good STC, most likely most of the remaining sound will bounce back into a room.

It is important to think about ratings when shopping for tiles. Hard surfaces tend to reflect sound, while softer surfaces absorb sound. There are many various companies which carry acoustic ceilings such as CertainTeed. CertainTeed ceilings carry a variety of styles for all your needs.

Why We Carry CertainTeed Products

In addtion, CertainTeed provides Health Product Declarations (HPDs) and continues its commitment to transparency with its Environmental Product Declaration (EPDs.) They offer 5 EPDs encompassing 23 different ceiling panels and 7 HPDs encompassing 30 ceiling panels. CertainTeed is also a member of the U.S. Green Building Council and they lead the way in the effort to provide solutions that promote sustainable design. CertainTeed incorporates sustainability in every step. From the products raw material content to how it?s handled through manufacturing and shipping as well as throughout life of the product.

If this has sparked an interest in CertainTeed's product lines, be sure to download our free CertainTeed Acoustical Ceilings Product Guide below. It's full of data for engineers and is a great resource for those looking at acoustical ceiling solutions.

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What is it about Boston that makes it such a construction-friendly town? Well, in the first place, the construction market in Boston has developed a new norm. This new normal is especially important when measuring the city's growth and opportunity. Some of the brighter spots for construction, with some of the biggest growth opportunities exist in downtown Boston and Cambridge. However, the further you get from downtown Boston, the less new construction exists.

Private Sectors Pushing Construction

Construction growth opportunities basically stem from projects in the private sectors of Boston. Some of these private sector jobs in construction include healthcare sector, industries in life science, private user developers and residential and school projects that are high density. Comparative to what was seen with the construction boom in the pre-recession days, there has still been steady growth from 2009-2011, with investments continuing in both the education and healthcare sectors.

General Contractors Also Coming Back

Construction and general contract work have made comebacks. That is because many have made it through the hard economic times and are in better shape than they have ever been before. The contractors that fell by the wayside before have essentially helped create a healthy market for those construction survivors.

Yes, it's true. After that hard year of 2008 and the financial struggles of many general contractors. Many Bostonians are surprised at the roaring comeback for residential construction. Boston is incredibly hot for construction, with a rebound that has can best be called a mixed bag.

Not Such A Surprise for Some

For Boston, what it really depends on is the type of construction that is going on. Even though there seems to be an increased payroll for construction workers as well as sales, some have deemed the construction rebound as modest at best. For example, the apartment sector has been doing very well for the last couple of years and continues to operate strong.

Another hot area for construction in Boston is colleges and universities. Expecting to see growth in such areas as biotech, hospitals or pharmaceuticals, the construction business is consistently strengthening. The construction insurance market continues to remain stable.

For Boston's property side, there could be a lot of potential but it also depends on the risk. It boils down to those construction companies that have stayed well managed and good safety policies and loss history still have the range of options when it comes to the insurance. Those general contractors that did survive the recession are much wiser today than they were five years ago.

In Closing

So if you are a contractor in the Boston area you should have already seen an increase in business, if you plan on moving your business or looking for business in the Boston area, check it out, you might like what you see.

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