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As advances in technology and the Internet have allowed websites to utilize a bevy of creative enhancements, website design developed into an art and a science. Advanced HTML and sophisticated software has thankfully rendered ugly frames a thing of the past, and layout possibilities are endless. However, there are still many elements to avoid that can cause visitors to wince, become frustrated, and ultimately leave your site in favor of another. As a website designer or someone seeking website design services, you may favor certain components. However, you must also realize that every website is different, and what may benefit one site may be detrimental to another. Below you’ll find a listing of five elements that should be used only if absolutely befitting of a website, or not at all. Text: Avoid using extra large or extra small text, and creative fonts that are hard to read. A website might have a great layout and creative graphics, but unnecessarily extra-large text can render that fancy layout displeasing. Worse still, it appears amateurish, unprofessional, and is the online equivalent of shouting. No one wants to be shouted at. Likewise, text that is too small will turn visitors away. Sometimes an amateur web designer might purposely lower the font size in order to fit more text within a certain area on a web page. A better option would be to have a copywriter examine the text to see if there is anything that could be deleted. Visitors who are confronted by a mass of tiny text will likely click away before reading a single word. Browsers today easily enable users to adjust the size of text as they see fit, so there really is no excuse for a website not to have text at a legible, reasonable size. There is also no excuse for text blocks written in an artistic, creative font, unless perhaps it is a website showcasing fonts. Creative fonts are best left for headlines or captions consisting of only a few words. They are meant to make a bold or stylized impression. If used throughout an entire sentence, or worse yet, several paragraphs, readers will become frustrated and give up. Pop-ups: Annoying and intrusive, they instantly create a negative impression. These days, there are several kinds of pop-ups webmasters and web designers may utilize, but most people agree: they are all annoying. The last thing a visitor to your website wants to see while viewing your content is a pop-up that suddenly obscures a portion of your page. Most browsers are now equipped with pop-up blockers, but they don’t block everything, and even when they do, it’s also annoying to receive a message that a pop-up has been blocked. Users prefer to have no interaction with pop-ups whatsoever, and a good website would be smart to avoid using them. Clutter: Information is great. Too much information is not. Visitors click on your site looking for information. They want to find that information quickly. If faced with a page showing dozens of links, multi-tiered drop-down menus, excessive paragraphs of text, pictures placed haphazardly, and virtually no discernable structure, they will leave. There is no need to compile as much information as possible onto a single web page. It’s understandable that a business might want to let visitors know about all aspects of a business, but certainly there is a better way to present it. Your home page should contain pertinent information about the company, the links leading to the expansions on what your company offers, sells, or promotes, and any additional links to other areas of the site, such as your company’s philosophy or contact information. Additionally, text should be laid out in a neat manner. One long block of text is frustrating to read. Separate paragraphs, and use bold captions to summarize content. Flash effects and animations: Flash is great, except when it delays access to information. Many templates are Flash based, and the allure of such creative bells and whistles may be hard to resist. Ultimately though, such effects can begin to wear thin on a visitors patience. Customers don’t care if a link vibrates, shakes, glows, rattles or dings when they hover the cursor over it or click on it. They just want to click-through to the next page. Additionally, unless your entire site is meant to be excessively creative, avoid using flash animations that last longer than a second or two, or need a few seconds to load before running. Delaying a visitor access to the information they seek will frustrate them. And don’t forget, many Internet users are still on dial-up, and flash animations will seriously hamper the performance of your website on computers with a slower internet connection. Large graphics: If you must use them, make sure they are optimized for the Web. Large images are fine if your website is showcasing art or photography; visitors expect it then. But otherwise, large graphics or images can look sloppy and worse yet, slow down a web page’s loading time if not optimized for the Web. Again, someone on dial-up is not going to wait 30 seconds for an image to load. The website design professionals at Active Web Group know how to design a creative, engaging website that functions efficiently and delivers a rewarding user experience. Active Web Group is Long Island’s leading full-service online marketing agency. Please view our web design portfolio, and be sure to follow AWG on Twitter for online marketing tips, news, and information.

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National Green Building Standard (ICC 700-2008)

Solar Power in Building Design

Contractors Guide to Green Building Construction

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Electrical Safety Tips for Holiday Lighting

• Be sure all holiday lights have the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) label, which means they meet UL safety standards. Be sure to buy the right set, either for indoor use, outdoor use, or both.
• New, light-emitting diodes (LED) holiday lights use much less energy than traditional lights. Consequently, they do not become hot enough to burn fingers or catch trees on fire.
• Before installation, check for frayed wires, damaged sockets, or cracked insulation. If you find any defects, replace the entire light set.
• To minimize fire and shock danger, make sure there is a bulb in each socket. If a bulb is burned out, leave it in until you unplug the light set and replace the bulb.
• All outdoor cords, plugs and sockets must be weatherproof. Also, make sure there is a ground fault circuit interrupter on each circuit.
• Remember that hot bulbs can ignite dry tree branches. To avoid damage and injury, keep trees well watered and keep extension cords and light strings away from the water.
• Keep a working fire extinguisher handy.
• Be sure your home’s smoke detectors have new batteries and that they are working properly.
• Don’t overload your electric circuits or extension cords with too many light strings. Don’t connect more than three light strings. The cords could overheat and start a fire.
• Never leave lighted candles unattended. Responsible adults should monitor them at all times. Do not light candles on Christmas trees. Properly installed electric lights are much safer.
• Always unplug holiday lights before going to bed or leaving the house.

Some Holiday Lights Are Energy Hogs

If you’re a fan of those old-fashioned, two-inch (C-7) bulbs for decorating, keep in mind that they each use about five watts of electricity. According to the U.S Department of Energy, lighting six, 100-light strands of these large bulbs around the clock for 30 days costs more than $18, based on an average of eight cents per kilowatt hour.

A more energy-conscious choice would be the miniature white or colored lights. Miniatures use only about half a watt each.

Even less costly and more efficient are LED holiday lights, which use .04 watt per bulb. Over a 30-day period, lighting 500 LED bulbs would cost about 19 cents. Operate lights for no more than six hours a day to keep energy use under control. Timers make this simple. If you are building a new house, ask your builder or electrician to install holiday electric outlets which turn on and off with one easy switch.

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This “non-installation” time is spread evenly over the course of the typical project. A few minutes here, a few minutes there, day-by-day, spread over the entire crew. More than half of this “non-installation” time is spent on plans, layout and material logistics.

• What if you could shift those activities to the front of the project, the “Pre-Planning” stage?
• Could those activities be done more efficiently as a dedicated task rather than in the field a few minutes before going to work?
• How much money could you save in efficiency if more of the work was pre-planned? Could you get your crew to work a few minutes earlier?
• Could you minimize trips from the work areas to the job office / gang box if things were better planned?

How much would the bottom-line on your projects change if you could improve labor productivity by 5%?

Construction and Problems

Constructing a project is challenging; it is very messy. There will always be problems. Problems are a fact and they need to be factored into your plans. Problems are often amplified on construction projects because of the separation of the design functions from the construction functions.

Architects, engineers and design consultants are often forced into “low-bid” contracts and the pressure to constantly deliver lower prices means cutting out on coordination between engineering disciplines, eliminating detail drawings, cutting down on elevations, minimizing plan-checking and peer reviews, etc.

All of this cost-cutting on the design side means that fewer and fewer conflicts are caught at the design stage and left for the contractors to figure out.

How you overcome problems will determine the success of your project.

The Cost of Problems

Problems are not usually recognized until you are right in the middle of them – at this point the problem will cost about 30% to fix – so if you are in the middle of a $1,000 piece of work and discover a problem it will cost about $1,300 before you are done.

In the worst case, when problems are discovered after the work is complete it will cost up to 80% to fix.

Our focus needs to be on spending whatever resources are necessary to identify and solve problems BEFORE we are in the middle of construction.

A 5,000 Man Hour Project

Pre-planning is just what it sounds like – it is about taking the time that is normally spent on planning throughout the project and shifting it to the beginning of the project.

When you look at what happens during the day for one person it just looks like a few minutes and it seems impossible to save any real time. Let’s look at a 5,000-hour project and how the time is spent in the field.

Over a 1 year, 5,000-man-hour project, there are 6-7 hours per day spent on non-installation activities; a total of 1,800 man-hours. We can plan our attack by focusing on four key areas:

1. Plans & layout – 11%, 550 hours
2. Material Logistics – 6%, 300 hours
3. Mobilization, cleanup and site movement – 13%, 650 hours
4. Breaks and other non-productive time – 6%, 300 hours

Planning & Layout – Where Can You Be Most Efficient?

There is no question that planning and layout has to be done. The question is when and where can it be done most efficiently?

• Pre-planning is about moving as many of the field layout, coordination and planning issues to the front of the project as possible.
• Pre-planning is about taking the activity out of the field and into a controlled environment that is specifically designed for efficient planning.
• Pre-planning is about taking advantage of tools that allow more accurate layout and communication of ideas.
• Pre-planning is about finding and resolving problems before you start working to minimize disruptions to progress and re-work.
• Pre-planning is about locating value-engineering and pre-fabrication opportunities well before construction starts.

There is no hard and fast rule about what pre-planning looks like. The process will look slightly different for each company and project type. The goal is to build a culture into the company where people seek out opportunities to shift work from the project to a more controlled environment. It is about shifting the thought process from being reactive to proactive.

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December 29, 1970 – President Richard M. Nixon signed the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.

May 29, 1971 – First standards adopted to provide baseline for safety and health protection in American workplaces.

January 17, 1972 – OSHA Training Institute established to instruct OSHA inspectors and the public.

November-December, 1972 – First states approved (South Carolina, Montana, Oregon) to run their own OSHA programs.

May 20, 1975 – Free consultation program created – more than 500,000 businesses participated in past 30 years.

June 23, 1978 – Cotton dust standard promulgated to protect 600,000 workers from byssinosis; cases of “brown lung” have declined to 0.1 cases per 10,000 workers.

January 20, 1978 – Supreme Court decision setting staffing benchmarks for state plans to be “at least as effective” as federal OSHA.

April 12, 1978 – New Directions Grants program (now known as the Susan Harwood Training Grants program) to foster development of occupational safety and health training and education for employers and workers. (More than 1.3 million trained since 1978.)

November 14, 1978 – Lead standard published to reduce permissible exposures by three-quarters to protect 835,000 workers from damage to nervous, urinary and reproductive systems. (Construction standard adopted in 1995.)

February 26, 1980 – Supreme Court decision on Whirlpool affirming workers’ rights to engage in safety and health-related activities.

May 23, 1980 – Medical and exposure records standard finalized to permit worker and OSHA access to employer-maintained medical and toxic exposure records.

July 2, 1980 – Supreme Court decision vacates OSHA’s benzene standard, establishing the principle that OSHA standards must address and reduce “significant risks” to workers.

September 12, 1980 – Fire protection standard updated and rules established for fire brigades responsible for putting out nearly 95 percent of worksite fires.

January 16, 1981 – Electrical standards updated to simplify compliance and adopt a performance approach.

July 2, 1982 – Voluntary Protection Programs created to recognize worksites with outstanding safety and health programs (more than 1,400 sites currently participating).

November 25, 1983 – Hazard communication standard promulgated to provide information and training and labeling of toxic materials for manufacturing employers and employees (Other industries added August 24, 1987).

November-December, 1984 – First “final approvals” granted to state plans (Virgin Islands, Hawaii and Alaska) giving them authority to operate with minimal oversight from OSHA.

April 1, 1986 – First instance-by-instance penalties proposed against Union Carbide’s plant in Institute, West Virginia, for egregious violations involving respiratory protection and injury and illness recordkeeping.

December 31, 1987 – Grain handling facilities standard adopted to protect 155,000 workers at nearly 24,000 grain elevators from the risk of fire and explosion from highly combustible grain dust.

January 26, 1989 – “Safety and Health Program Management Guidelines,” voluntary guidelines for effective safety and health programs based on VPP experience, published.

March 6, 1989 – Hazardous waste operations and emergency response standard promulgated to protect 1.75 million public and private sector workers exposed to toxic wastes from spills or at hazardous waste sites.

September 1, 1989 – Lockout/tagout of hazardous energy sources standard issued to protect 39 million workers from unexpected energization or start up of machines or equipment and prevent 120 deaths and 50,000 injuries each year.

December 6, 1991 – Occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens standard published to prevent more than 9,000 infections and 200 deaths per year, protecting 5.6 million workers against AIDS, hepatitis B and other diseases.

October 1, 1992 – Education Centers created to make OSHA training courses more widely available to employers, workers and the public. Twenty centers train more than 300,000 students each year – over 370,000 students were trained in FY 2005 alone.

February 24, 1992 – Process safety management of highly hazardous chemicals standard adopted to reduce fire and explosion risks for 3 million workers at 25,000 workplaces, preventing more than 250 deaths and more than 1,500 injuries each year.

January 14, 1993 – Permit-required confined spaces standard promulgated to prevent more than 50 deaths and more than 5,000 serious injuries annually for 1.6 million workers who enter confined spaces at 240,000 workplaces each year.

February 1, 1993 – Maine 200 program created to promote development of safety and health programs at companies with high numbers of injuries and illnesses.

June 27, 1994 – First expert advisor software – GoCad – issued to assist employers in complying with OSHA’s cadmium standard.

August 9, 1994 – Fall protection in construction standard revised to save 79 lives and prevent 56,400 injuries each year.

August 10, 1994 – Asbestos standard updated to cut permissible exposures in half for nearly 4 million workers, preventing 42 cancer deaths annually.

September 4, 1995 – Formal launch of OSHA’s expanded webpage to provide OSHA standards and compliance assistance via the Internet.

June 6, 1996 – Phone-fax complaint handling policy adopted to speed resolution of complaints of unsafe or unhealthful working conditions.

August 30, 1996 – Scaffold standard published to protect 2.3 million construction workers and prevent 50 deaths and 4,500 injuries annually.

November 9, 1998 – OSHA Strategic Partnership Program launched to improve workplace safety and health through national and local cooperative, voluntary agreements.

April 19, 1999 – Site-Specific Targeting Program established to focus OSHA resources where most needed – on individual worksites with the highest injury and illness rates.

November 14, 2000 – Ergonomics program standard promulgated to prevent 460,000 musculoskeletal disorders among more than 102 million workers at 6.1 million general industry worksites.

January 10, 2001 – Jersey public employee plan receives final approval.

January 17, 2001 – Steel erection standard, developed in concert with industry and union groups, preventing 30 fatalities and 1,142 injuries annually and saving employers nearly $40 million a year, issued. It’s the first OSHA safety standard to be developed under the negotiated rulemaking process.

January 18, 2001 – Recordkeeping rule revised to improve the system that employers use to track and record workplace injuries and illnesses.

January 18, 2001 – As mandated by the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act, OSHA revised its bloodborne pathogens standard to clarify the need for employers to select safer needle devices.

March 7-8, 2001 – Under the auspices of the Congressional Review Act the Senate votes 56-44 to repeal ergonomics rule. The House follows suit the next day and votes 223-206 to repeal the rule. It is the first time that Congress exercises its authority under the Act to repeal a federal standard.

March 20, 2001 – President signs S.J. Resolution 6, repealing the ergonomics rule.

April 27, 2001 – Occupational Safety and Health Administration celebrates its 30th anniversary; over the past three decades job-related fatalities are cut in half, injuries and illnesses declined by 40 percent.

September 11, 2001 – OSHA responds to terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon outside Washington, DC. More than 1,000 OSHA employees from New York and around the country volunteer to help protect workers involved in the cleanup and recovery efforts at both sites.

March 1, 2002 – Agency launches bi-weekly electronic newsletter QuickTakes.

April 4, 2002 – Secretary Chao unveils a comprehensive plan designed to reduce ergonomic injuries through a combination of industry-specific guidelines, strong enforcement, outreach and assistance, and further research.

May 30, 2002 – The recovery phase and cleanup at the World Trade Center disaster site comes to an end. For more than eight months, three million work hours were logged on a worksite like no other, yet only 35 workers missed workdays due to injury and no more lives were lost to work.

March 11, 2003 – OSHA announces an enhanced enforcement policy to focus on those employers who have received “high gravity” citations.

March 13, 2003 – Ergonomics Guidelines issued for the Nursing Home Industry.

July 1, 2003 – Final rule establishes criteria for recording work-related hearing loss.

October 24, 2003 – OSHA welcomes 1000th site to achieve “Star” status in Voluntary Protection Program (VPP).

February 4, 2004 – OSHA unveils its National Emergency Management Plan, a new directive that clarifies the agency’s policies during responses to national emergencies.

May 28, 2004 – Ergonomics Guidelines published for Retail Grocery Stores.

August 24, 2004 – Final rule establishes procedures for handling whistleblower complaints under the Corporate and Criminal Fraud Accountability Act of 2002, also known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

September 2, 2004 – Ergonomic guidelines announced for the poultry processing industry.

November 24, 2004 – Federal agencies required to adopt private sector worker safety and health recordkeeping and reporting requirements.

May 12, 2005 – Oregon becomes the 17th state to receive final approval to operate its own job safety and health program.

August 31, 2005 – OSHA responds to Hurricane Katrina and offers the full resources of the agency to help protect the safety and health of workers responding to the disaster along the Gulf Coast.

September 22, 2005 – OSHA reaches settlement agreement with BP Products North America Inc. The company pays more than $21 million in fines following a fatal explosion at its Texas City, TX, plant. It is the largest penalty ever issued by OSHA.

February 27, 2006 – OSHA publishes final rule on hexavalent chromium, lowering the permissible exposure limit (PEL) from 52 to 5 micrograms per cubic centimeters based on an 8-hour workday.

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Why isn’t the rock sticking on the wall?

There are several things that could be causing this. First, it’s possible that the rocks are dirty. If that is the case, be sure to wash them well. Or perhaps the rocks are too wet, in which case you must wait until they are dry to resume working with them. If the mortar is too wet or too dry, use more water or more sand and cement to adjust your mix. Or you may have to add more cement or bonding agent if there is not enough in the mix already. Finally, it is possible that the stones are of poor quality, and are too shaley.

Why isn’t the mortar sticking to the masonry wall?

Did you use bonding agent to coat the wall? If not do so, or if you haven’t roughed the surface up, that might also be the problem. If you are working on a dirty or greasy wall, clean it and coat it with bonding agent. It is possible that the mortar is too wet or too dry, in which case you should add more water or more sand and cement to adjust your mix. Add more cement in the mortar if you think there might not be enough already, and if the wall is too wet, take a break from it until it is dry.

Why doesn’t the mortar stick to a wood wall?

If the mortar will not stick to a wood wall, it is possible that it is the mortar is too wet or too dry and you may need to use more water or more sand and cement to adjust your mix. Another common cause of this is if there is not enough cement in the mortar; add more cement. And finally, did you remember to put on metal lath?

How do I deal with mortar joints?

Mortar joints make all the difference between professional and unprofessional looking stonework. The most important thing is to keep your work neat and clean. It is easy to clean the mortar off the stone while the mortar is still weak. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to get mortar off after it has set up.

How do I repair a loose stone?

If the mortar is still solid in the hole, remove the stone and clean it well. Put a good adhesive on the back of the stone as well as in the hole it came out of and re set the stone. You may have to brace it until the adhesive sets.

What should I do if the mortar is crumbling or broken up?

Remove any loose stone and mortar, clean the stone well, re-mortar it into place and redo your mortar joints. Use bonding agent in your mortar.

Why is rock falling off the wall after the job is finished?

The cause could be that stones were disturbed before they had set up. Or perhaps stones were not tapped into the mortar to create suction. Still another reason would be if not enough mortar was put behind the rocks or it was poor mortar. Did you use a bonding agent? In not, that is why the rocks are falling off. It is imperative that you use quality, clean rocks, otherwise, rocks might fall off. It is possible that the building settled and cracked the stonework, or that the footings were not adequate or that they settled too much (or perhaps a frost heave caused it). Still other reasons would be if the metal lath was not secured well enough, or if the mortar froze.

Why is the mortar starting to crumble and fall out?

There could be several reasons for this, many of which we’ve already discussed. You may not have used enough cement in your mortar. If you used bad cement, or if there was dirt in your sand, or you used poor sand this could also happen. The sand must be sharp and clean. If your sand contained salt it would also cause the mortar to crumble and fall out as well. It is possible that the moisture was sucked out of your mortar too fast and it dried too quickly and did not have a chance to cure properly. Bonding agent helps to prevent this.

Did you use mortar that should have been thrown out? Do not add water to drying out mortar unless you really know what you are doing. Once the chemical reaction has taken place, the mortar could be destroyed. Another reason is that your mortar may have frozen.

Construction Book Express has many guides to working with cement and stone. Check out our huge selection of masonry and concrete products for further tips and instruction.

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In early America, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson encouraged the development of building regulations to provide for minimum standards that would ensure health and safety. Today, most of the United Sates is covered by a network of modern building regulations ranging in coverage from fire and structural safety to health, security, and conservation energy.

Public safety is not the only byproduct afforded by modern codes. Architects, engineers, contractors, and others in the building community can take advantage of the latest technological advances accommodated by these codes with viable savings to the consumer.

For codes to be effective, an understanding and cooperative relationship must exist between building officials and the groups they serve – homeowners, developers, urban planners and designers, and others in the construction industry. Codes must therefore be responsive to the government’s need to protect the public. They must provide due process for all affected and keep pace with rapidly changing technology. These communities can work together to develop and maintain codes.

During the early 1900’s, model building codes were authorized by the code enforcement officials of various communities with key assistance from all segments of the building industry. Now, model codes are the central regulatory basis for the administration programs in cities, counties, and states throughout the United States. They simply represent a collective undertaking, which shares the cost of code development and maintenance while ensuring uniformity of regulations so that the advantages of technology can be optimized.

Building safety code enforcement has historically been accomplished by defraying the costs of administration through a system of fees relating to a specific project – a system that is self-supporting. These fees are generally less than one percent of the overall cost of the building project. Public protection is thus obtain in a cost-effective manner with the entire process, from plan review to field inspection, carried out in a professional manner. The system is so well developed that the true complexity of the process is obscure to many.

Who needs Building Codes?

We all do – whether in our homes, offices, schools, stores, factories, or places of entertainment. We rely on the safety of structures that surround us in our everyday living. The public need for protection from disaster due to fire, structural collapse, and general deterioration underscores the need for modern codes and their administration.

How reliable are they?

Most aspects of building construction – electrical wiring, heating, sanitary facilities – represent a potential hazard to building occupants and users. Building codes provide safeguards. Although no code can eliminate all risks, reducing risks to an acceptable level helps.

What is a Building Code?

Practically, it is the government’s official statement on building safety. Technically, it is a compendium of minimum safety standards arranged in a systematic manner (codified) for easy reference. It embraces all aspects of building construction – fire, structural, plumbing, electrical, and mechanical.

What if I want to do a building project myself?

Building departments have pamphlets and brochures explaining, in detail, how to obtain permits and design and construct a safe building. Inquire within your local community.

Why should minimum safety codes apply to my own house?

For several reasons:

• Your personal safety, and that of your family, and the guests invited into your home.
• To ensure the economic well-being of the community by reducing potential spread of fire and disease.
• For the conservation of energy.
• To protect future home purchasers who deserve reasonable assurance that the home they buy will be safe.

Local building departments provide a wide range of services beyond the usual plan review and building inspection process. These range from the administration of planning or zoning laws to housing maintenance inspection, nuisance abatement, and a number of other related or ancillary duties. Visit your local building department and get acquainted with the people who make it work.

Visit www.ConstructionBook.com for a full line of building codes that can help you ensure that all of your projects meet public standards for quality, safety, and energy efficiency.

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