Hurricane Season - 5 Steps to being prepared

Today is the start of Hurricane Season that has been predicted to be busier than usual. Based on the ocean temperatures and the changing weather conditions, they might just be right this year. With that in mind, below is our 5 steps to being prepared. If you happen to own pets, we added an additional bonus step just for them. While this list is geared for those faced with hurricane evacuations, this is a good list for anyone that may be in areas that maybe affected by ea

September and Early Fall Maintenance Checklist

Summer is slowly winding down; the dog days of August are quickly going to fade into a distant memory as the leaves start changing. The kids are back in school, which gives you some time to make sure that your home is ready for the winter. Why worry about it, fall doesn't officially start until the 22nd right? Well starting next month, you are probably going to end up wanting to use your heater for the first time this season when the Average Minimum Temperature at night

There’s no such thing as a free lunch – Roofing

Knock, knock – Hello? Hi, I’m Mike & we were just looking at your neighbors’ roof and thought we spotted some damage to yours, would you mind if we performed a free roof inspection? It will only take a few minutes, you see we do lots of insurance repair jobs and most of the time we can get you a completely new roof and it won’t even cost you a cent. Really, why that sounds great. (Man, this must be my lucky day)… What’s even better is we have contrac

Renovations & Insurance - What is covered & what isn't

The idea that an article like this was needed was made abundantly clear to me on a recent project I completed. This project required us to completely remove and reframe an existing roof, while leaving the existing walls & floors untouched. During the consultation phase of this project, we covered all the normal items like material choices, options, budget, contractors insurance, the necessity of them reviewing their insurance policy, etc... They were quite shocked on

25 Conservation Tips & Tricks

In our last article, “Energy Efficiency vs. Conservation – what is the real issue?” we covered plenty of the issues that involve your actual house while it is being worked on. While we have also had several articles on making your house more energy efficient, money saving tips & tricks, air sealing, green cleaning, and many others, we have not had an article on just conservation. In order to rectify that, and seeing everyone likes top ten articles, etc... we wo

Energy Efficiency vs. Conservation – what is the real issue?

I have to admit, I was originally confused by some of the attitudes or opinions given about those in the Energy Efficiency fields. I grant you that there are quite a few individuals in the green community that are five cans shy of a six pack, but the following quotes come from some of the “respected” experts. One of my favorite quotes is, “What an awesome presentation! I called Energy Efficiency fanatics "the Sith Lords of Green building"!” Another one is, “T

Designing your Dream Kitchen – One common mistake you can easily avoid

Wow, what in the world is that? Well, before we get to that, I would like to first thank Bill Conley from Northwest Kitchen & Bath in Tacoma Washington for allowing us to repost these pictures. These are pictures he took at a homeowner’s house that wanted a new kitchen. She had apparently spent a lot of time reading articles on kitchen design and she followed one of the best pieces of advice we can give anyone – create a mock up. I have to admit, I am impressed b

Tag Archives: BPI

Training Revisted – The battle to be the best

By Sean | Published: August 8, 2010

Wow what a long journey this has been, getting all the requisite classes in, the certifications, all the while still taking care of our primary remodeling business. While I have blogged extensively about this process and most of the classes – what would happen if I were to compare them side by side? What happens if we put them all in a ring; who would come out on top? Well let’s find out, and in the immortal words of Michael Buffer – “Are you ready to RUMBLE?”

Posted in General Articles | Also tagged Education, RESNET | 4 Comments

Days 2 & 3 – BPI Building Envelope Training

By Sean | Published: July 30, 2010

Well, I guess I will keep the tradition alive by combining the last two days of class together. I am seriously considering breaking one of my own rules and disclosing at least one or two of the questions. However, before we get to that, let’s correct the issue with the instructors name & take a look first at Day 2 of Building Envelope training.

Posted in Infrared & Energy Auditing | Also tagged Education | 4 Comments

Day 1: BPI Building Envelope Training

By Sean | Published: July 28, 2010

Woo hoo – I am taking my last BPI class that this time is being taught by EverBlue. I must admit, after my problems with Clean Edison, and then a few snafus with EverBlue’s computer system, I was wondering if I was ever going to get my BPI Building Envelope certification. As you can obviously
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Posted in General Articles | Also tagged Education | 3 Comments

Energy Auditing Services Update – BPI Certification

By Sean | Published: July 5, 2010

As we mentioned back in our Updates & Happenings at SLS Construction, we were pursuing Certification from both BPI & RESNET for Energy Auditing & Consulting Services that we are adding. Well, on Saturday the 2nd we finally received one of the two certifications from BPI that we are currently pursuing. For a recap of the BPI Building
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Posted in Infrared & Energy Auditing | Also tagged Education | 2 Comments

Day’s 3 & 4: BPI Building Analyst Training

By Sean | Published: May 22, 2010

Well just like the RESNET class I wrote about last week, I decided to combine the last two days of my BPI Building Analyst training from Clean Edison together. I am also happily writing this article from the comfort of my house this time, instead of the hotel room. With that being said, sorry folks, I will not be divulging any of the test questions.

Posted in Infrared & Energy Auditing | Also tagged Education | 4 Comments

Day 2: BPI Building Analyst Training

By Sean | Published: May 18, 2010

Oops, did we forget some equipment? Today was supposed to be split ½ in the classroom & ½ doing the field training, but without a manometer, there goes any chance of doing any field training. Overall, that was probably a fortunate thing, seeing it was raining all day here in Jersey. Needless to say, the
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Posted in Infrared & Energy Auditing | Also tagged Education | 2 Comments

Day 1: BPI Building Analyst Training

By Sean | Published: May 17, 2010

Another week, another class… this time I am in a BPI Building Analyst class being taught by Thabani Banda of Clean Edison. As we mentioned in the RESNET Series, we are going to look into what, if any differences there are between the RESNET & BPI Certifications. We are also going to compare the differences in the training between one of Atlanta’s premium “green” providers and trainers and one of BPI’s top trainers.

Posted in Infrared & Energy Auditing | Also tagged Education | 3 Comments