Sleek but strong handrail; backyard face-lift; easier winders
There are more than 100 million homes and approximately 20 billion square feet of clear-glass residential windows in the U.S. Most of those homes are more than 30 years old, and as a result, the market is growing for replacement windows with energy-efficient insulating glass.

Zia Eftekhar
As a structural engineer with the APA/Engineered Wood Association, I perform forensic assessments of single- family homes after hurricanes and tornados.
Recently my Chicago-based construction company renovated a second-floor apartment in a 19-story building to make it more user-friendly for disabled and elderly residents.
Q: Builders in cold climates often go beyond code-required attic insulation levels, especially when using a relatively inexpensive material like blown-in cellulose. Is the same approach helpful in cooling climates?
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Connecting Girders to Deck Ledgers In the article "Building Safer Decks" (6/11), Glenn Mathewson notes that the IRC's prescriptive bolting schedule is limited to uniformly distributed loads and that you may be able to use a tighter fastener schedule

Q&A with Allen Weidman, InfoComm International
Here's how important sustainbility if to InfoComm and the pro AV community: InfoComm recently hired a dedicated sustainability officer. Read about how he's approaching his job.
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Q: I am siding a building that was framed and roofed two years ago and is sheathed with 15?32-inch OSB. The building paper blew off one of the gable walls, and now the OSB has turned gray and some of the strands are lifting from the surface. Is the OSB st
Waterfront property never goes out of style, and everyone likes a spectacular building site perched on high ground.
Tapered edges help PointSix Flooring go down flat and stay flat even when exposed to severe job-site weather or flooding, says the maker.
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EnOcean Alliance Grows to 200 Member Companies
NanoSense is the 200th company to join the EnOcean Alliance, a group of global companies whose goal is to promote and establish innovative automation solutions for sustainable buildings. NanoSense develops products that regulate and optimize air quality for building interiors. To date Alliance...
TruWood Reversible Trim is a composite exterior-grade product manufactured from residual wood fibers using no urea-formaldehyde resins, the maker says.

Should Lighting Designers Be Licensed?
From the Archive presents articles from the past 25 years, with new commentary from members of the lighting community.
Outwater says its 100% Recycled Cornice and Crown Mouldings are made entirely from reclaimed polystyrene but match the quality of moldings made from virgin polymers.
Replacement shutters made simpler

Talk of the Town
Richard Tyler lost everything in Katrina, but rebuilt his life with the help of a "Porchdog."

Ainsworth Engineered pointSix Flooring
With tapered-edge technology, this flooring addresses subfloor edge swell.
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Border Lines
Light plays a critical role in meeting both the design and security requirements for U.S. land port of entry stations.
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