Florida Construction Law

T he construction industry has been allotted only one year to come into compliance with OSHA’s stricter silica standards After years of controversy, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), has finalized its stricter standards for silica use. The final rule, titled Occupational Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica, has the power to hinder the roofing industry with a flood of unattainable and uncompromising regulatory requirements. The rule took effect on June 23, 2016 and the construction industry has been allotted only one year to come into compliance, while most all other industries have been afforded two to five years to acclimate. The rule establishes an array of new requirements, but the one most impactful on the roofing industry concerns a stricter permissible exposure limit (PEL) for respirable crystalline silica (silica). With exposure now limited to an 8-hour time-weighted average of 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air, the new limitation is actua...

Dedicated workers hammering away in Traverse City, giving a family a much needed brand new roof to their home, all for free. Aspen Contracting has offices across the country, including one in Traverse City. Each year, they ask for the public’s help to find families in need of home improvements. Today, they got to work. “I’m so grateful for it. It’s a huge weight lifted,” says Sadeja Ryan, homeowner. Sadeja Ryan with a smile on her face today, watching as workers from Aspen Contracting, put a new roof on her house, all at no charge. “We want to try to give back to the communities, so we have people who are in need, who can’t afford a free roof or afford a roof, we have them or a family member, friend, relative, nominate them saying “hey this is why they should get roof,” and then we have the public nominate. Then we narrow it down to a smaller field and have the public vote on it with who they think should get the opportunity,” says Michael Gianola, Aspen Contracting. Aft...

IN THIS fast changing world dominated by technology it is nice that some things, at least, haven’t changed in centuries. Anybody driving on the N24 in the past month would have noticed scaffolding at Pa McGrath’s pub in Boher and a man on the roof weaving some magic. Tomás Collins is a master thatcher from Sixmilebridge but living in Meelick. The 64-year-old learned the skill as a boy. “I learned to thatch on the homeplace. My father told me ‘get up there and do it’.” Tomás as been working full-time at the trade for the last 33 years. “There's always loads of work on - it’s at the stage now where I have to turn down jobs,” said Tomás, who has become well acquainted with Boher as before he started on Pa McGrath’s he did the ridge on O’Neill’s bar. “There aren’t too many thatched pubs so they are lovely to see. The longevity depends on the quality of the reeds and the roof, the location and, obviously, the workmanship. “I strip it off as I go, a certain ...

The historic First Presbyterian Church at 2 North Court St. was completed in 1903, and its church office building, known as the Rufus Putnam House — just around the corner, at 9 North College St. — was completed at about the same time. But the church office porch, which was enclosed and had a metal roof, had deteriorated over the decades and suffered from leaks. The staircase was also breaking up a bit, said Keith Morrow, a member of the First Presbyterian Church property committee. “There was no heat or air conditioning, so the space wasn’t very usable,” Morrow said. “It was too hot in the summer and cold in the winter.” So about a month ago, the congregation leadership decided to take action. “We decided to put it (the porch) back to the way it was originally,” he said, adding that RVC Architects of Athens took on that task. The results are striking, and getting positive comments from passersby. A new, unenclosed wooden porch is being constructed, which as of Thu...

Of the three local sites on the Indiana Landmarks list of 10 Most Endangered buildings, the Rivoli Theatre at 3155 E. 10th St. is in the poorest condition by far. This is its second year on the list. The facility opened in 1927 as Universal Studios’ first Indiana theater, but the decades have stripped it of its former glamour. The building’s owner, the Rivoli Center for the Performing Arts, put a new roof over the auditorium portion of the building in May 2014. But later that year, the roof over the front part of the building collapsed, which in turn caused the second story to collapse. If you look through the upper windows from street level, you can see clear through to the sky. The front doors are covered with plywood and the rickety marquee sign looks ancient. If the roof isn’t replaced, exposure to the elements will eventually destabilize the walls and lead to even worse damage, said Mark Dollase, Indiana Landmarks’ vice president of preservation services. The Rivoli is within t...

After a couple years of studying business at HACC, Ryan Hoke quit in 2012 and started The Exterior Company Inc. This year, the West Hempfield Township roofing company landed on the Inc. 5000, a list of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the United States. “I was curious to see if we would make the list,” Hoke said. “I was actually pretty surprised when it came back I made the Inc. 500, ranked 168 out of 5,000.” It was also  the highest-ranking company from Lancaster County  and the fifth fastest-growing construction firm in the nation. The list is calculated by comparing revenue over a three-year span; his company clocked in with growth of more than 2,100 percent, hitting $8.3 million in revenue in 2015. The 29-year-old Hempfield High School graduate said there’s no exciting story behind that growth, just hard work and a great team. “I work with a lot of my friends, family members; my mom answers the phones,” he said. He grew up around...

No sooner had Dow Chemical Co. ended production of its Powerhouse solar roof shingles than Tesla Motors Inc. CEO Elon Musk announced he was getting into the market. Musk said “solar and batteries go together like peanut butter and jelly.” A $750 million factory is under construction in Buffalo, N.Y., where Musk’s pending acquisition, SolarCity Corp., will manufacture a product similar to the one Dow just dropped. The solar shingles are integrated into the roof — with no mounted, tilted panels — and serve as both the top of the building and a source of clean energy. The exit of one industrial titan and the apparent arrival of a billionaire entrepreneur shows the commercial effort to harvest the power of the sun is continuing on a “natural progression,” according to Integrated Solar Technology LLC CEO Oliver Koehler. Based in Port Chester, N.Y., and in the market for two years with solar shingles and tiles, Integrated Solar Technology does business as SunTegra. Koehler said the ...

Need a new roof? Why not one that can generate energy? Solar company SolarCity, which is in the process of being acquired by electric car maker Tesla, plans to show off a new product, a roof integrated with solar panels, at an event on October 28 in San Francisco. Tesla CEO and SolarCity chairman, Elon Musk, made the announcement on Twitter on Thursday morning, and said the combined company would unveil a solar roof with an integrated battery and a Tesla charger. While SolarCity    SCTY   3.07%    has offices in San Mateo, Calif., Tesla has its factory in Fremont, Calif., and a  new retail outlet in downtown San Francisco . The companies’ merger is expected to close in the coming months, but it could also be delayed by a series of shareholder lawsuits . Musk announced plans for SolarCity’s new roof product  in early August , on one of SolarCity’s earnings calls. It was the first call Musk had joined since he announced earlier  in the ...