Affordable Housing: A Resource Guide to Alternative and Factory-Built Homes, New Technologies, and the Owner Builder Option

Computerizing the estimating process can help remodelers double their estimating productivity while increasing accuracy. The right software package can also make it easier to revise cost estimates and keep track of running costs. Modeled after the CAD Reference Guide For Residential Construction, this book is written to help you choose the right computer estimating software package for your company. It guides you through the steps of selecting and implementing an estimating system, introduces you to takeoff and analytical tools available from most programs and gives you practical tips that will help you increase productivity. Includes profiles of estimating software packages, a glossary of terms and an estimating software buyer's checklist. From Home Builder Press, 1998, 98 pp.

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Housing construction process flow manual: a manual to help small-volume home builders plan, schedule, and monitor construction

Marty Ferman has developed a wing design method for use by Aerospace students in their senior design classes, and for the Home Builders of aircraft. The method allows for rapid determination of strength, weight, flutter, divergence, buckling, deflection, and twist. The method allows for preliminary design phase for a basic sizing, and then the interim and final phases follow to fill out the structure to a fabrication level. The flutter and divergence aspects are rarely covered in most design books, so there can be enhanced safety. The method presents a unique representation for the preliminary design phase where the wing skin thickness is a key factor readily found and used for the stiffness and weight calculations. Here the user can see what is needed. The method uses many closed-form expressions for the straight, unswept cantilevered wing of constant spanwise properties, with suggested forms for the non-uniform wing. This method was evolved by Ferman during his fifty-six years in Aerospace Industry and Academia.

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Disaster Hits Home: New Policy for Urban Housing Recovery

Whenever a major earthquake strikes or a hurricane unleashes its fury, the devastating results fill our television screens and newspapers. Mary C. Comerio is interested in what happens in the weeks and months after such disasters, particularly in the recovery of damaged housing.
Through case studies of six recent urban disasters--Hurricane Hugo in South Carolina, Hurricane Andrew in Florida, the Loma Prieta and Northridge earthquakes in California, as well as earthquakes in Mexico City and Kobe, Japan--Comerio demonstrates that several fundamental factors have changed in contemporary urban disasters. The foremost change is in scale, and as more Americans move to the two coasts, future losses will continue to be formidable because of increased development in these high-hazard areas. Moreover, the visibility of disasters in the news media will assure that response efforts remain highly politicized. And finally, the federal government is now expected to be on the scene with personnel, programs, and financial assistance even as private insurance companies are withdrawing disaster coverage from homeowners in earthquake- and hurricane-prone regions.
Demonstrating ways that existing recovery systems are inadequate, Comerio proposes a rethinking of what recovery means, a comprehensive revision of the government's role, and more equitable programs for construction financing. She offers new criteria for a housing recovery policy as well as real financial incentives for preparedness, for limiting damage before disasters occur, and for providing a climate where private insurance can work. Her careful analysis makes this book important reading for policymakers, property owners, and anyone involved in disaster mitigation.

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