One of the most important aspects of any construction company is jobsite safety. This is very important for the protection of company employees and protection of company clients. There are many issues on a construction site that need to be addressed at all times. These include things such as electrical power cords, electrical tools, ladders, scaffolds and planks, floor and roof openings, etc.

Northfield Construction Company has a Safety Officer....Phil Olson.

(Click on Phil's photo for a quarter page version.) Phil is a member of the Minnesota Safety Council and participates on safety programs on a regular basis. Phil also has access to the safety materials and programs from the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC)

and the Association of Builders and Contractors (ABC).

Both of these professional trade organizations prepare great videos, brochures, and booklets.

Northfield Construction Company conducts safety meetings with all employees twice a month. One of the meetings is conducted at the company shop and often utilizes a video or presentation. The other monthly meeting is conducted on a work site, using actual site conditions. This focus on job site safety allows Northfield Construction Company to maintain an excellent Workers Compensation insurance experience modification and in turn offer competitive hourly rates to our customers. All Northfield Construction Company employees appreicate this focus on safety and the goal of operating all jobs in as safe a manner as possible.

Posted by Ray Cox at 5:33 AM | Link

 
If you have been reading the papers lately, you have probably noticed several articles regarding private inspections of building projects. Most notably, a City of St. Paul lawsuit against Representative Phil Krinkie was dismissed from court, and Krinkie and St. Paul reached a mutual agreement about the issues. Here's a link to a Jan. 11 Strib article: St. Paul, Krinkie settle legal dispute over inspectors. The whole problem started when Representaive Krinkie proposed legislation allowing individuals to hire private building inspectors for projects....instead of relying on the various City, County or Township inspectors to do the job. This legislation will most likely surface again this session. Unfortunately, the important issue behind this legislation is not necessarily who performs the inspections, but rather that the inspections are done.

An important part of any building project is the inspection process. This starts the day a building permit is issued and goes on until the end of the project. On most projects, there will be anywhere from 7 to 15 separate inspections required. The typical inspections will be for footings, foundation, framing, insulation, drywall, plumbing, heating, fireplace(s), electrical, etc. Most contractors realize the importance of inspections and arrange the inspections on their own. Generally the inspections are tracked on the building permit card that is maintained on the site. If you have a question about an inspection it is easy to verify if one was completed for a particular phase of a project by examining the permit card. The most important inspection for all projects is the final inspection. Following a satisfactory final inspection, a Certificate of Occupany is issued. This gives the homeowner or business owner proof that the project was constructed to the specific listed requirements, and that it passed inspection. A Certificate of Occupancy is often one of the required documents necessary to close on a new mortgage.

Getting back to the dispute about private or public inspections, I don't feel it really matters who performs the inspections as long as they are qualified and licensed by the appropriate body. I've met some wonderful private inspectors that are very knowledgeable and I've met some public inspectors that shouldn't be on a site....and vice versa. As long as an inspector shows up when scheduled and understands building codes, most contractors will be happy with them.

Posted by Ray Cox at 3:14 PM | Link

 
The Photo Gallery from the NCC Staff Holiday Party is now up.

Posted by Griff Wigley at 5:34 PM | Link

 
This has been a great construction winter so far! As you can see if you look at the Perry house photographs, we were able to get the two stucco base coats applied this fall before cold weather.

That is not always the case with fall construction. Stucco, like many other exterior finish materials, is sensitive to cold weather or freezing. Not having to enclose a building to peform these operations saves a significant amount of time and energy, as well as cost related to heating the enclosures.

We are slowly getting settled in the new NCC office space.

(You can view a slightly larger quarter page shot or if you've got good bandwidth, try this huge, 550K photo).
Chris Smisek is operating out of one of the two newly created offices. Chris had been using a small "general" desk area. He is glad to have a dedicated office, complete with phones, computer, etc.

Speaking of computers, NCC will be doing a network server upgrade soon. Like so many small business, as we have grown we have not always been able to grow our technical support areas in the proper fashion. We need to centralize some functions and make it easier to access data for all of us. I do not expect clients to notice any changes or have any significant down time on our computer system as we implement this new system.

Posted by Ray Cox at 4:20 AM | Link