Quality-assurance initiative targets framers

At GELighting.com builders can design the right lighting scheme for every room

Faced with ongoing lawsuits from products they in most cases stopped making decades ago, the parent companies of some of the biggest suppliers of building materials are looking to Congress for measures to gain control of the situation.

A recent survey shows that timber frame builders are growing thanks to satisfied customers-not high-tech marketing.

For seven years builders and developers operating in a huge, five-county swath of Southern California have submitted to costly mitigation efforts to help save a federally listed bird species.

For many years the trend in home building has been toward the use of specialized trade subcontractors that are masters of specific parts of the building process -- from framers and landscapers to painters and drywallers.

After failing to stir up much enthusiasm for concrete as a more hurricane-resistant building material for housing, New Orleans-area concrete promoters are now racking up successes, and enlisting builders in their promotions.

This commercial builder used a metal shell to settle well into his own retirement home.

Florida builder contemplates another run for state office, says others in housing industry should do the same.