Hurricane Sandy hit much of the Northeast U.S. Monday, damaging homes and buildings and affecting millions of people. As homeowners and building owners face the damages, NRCA wants to ensure they are making appropriate roofing decisions.

NRCA has sent press releases to newspapers in the affected areas urging homeowners and building owners to choose professional roofing contractors. In addition, NRCA offers detailed information in the Consumer section of its website that consumers can use for post-disaster recovery. We also have posted links to the documents on NRCA's Facebook and Twitter accounts. To read the press release and other documents, click here.

Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna will table a series of Parliamentary questions calling for an investigation into allegations contractors used blacklists on Olympic 2012 contracts.

Mr Umunna will ask the culture secretary to investigate whether contractors used public monies received under public contracts to pay to obtain information on construction workers from lists maintained by the Consulting Association.

The move comes after Ucatt general secretary Steve Murphy called for a public inquiry into the practice at a Scottish Affairs Select Committee hearing yesterday.

The method by which homes are being built today differ from years past. With designs moving away from the “McMansion” layouts that were popular years ago and toward more environmentally friendly, energy-efficient plans, homebuilders are preparing for the next generation of homebuilding.

In particular, prefab building and energy-efficient designs pair nicely. One example will be on display at this year’s Greenbuild Conference, which will take place in San Francisco November 14-16. The prototype for Paradigm, the new series of prefab homes built by Method Homes, www.methodhomes.net, Seattle, Wash., will be net zero for both energy and water.

Trading standards chiefs in Northamptonshire has issued a warning about cold callers following a string of complaints about doorstep salesmen offering to clear moss from their roof.

Northamptonshire County Council’s trading standards service said a number of worried consumers had contacted them after they were quoted a price to have moss removed before then finding the price had either increased or they were being pressured into having unnecessary work done.

A recent federal appellate court held that there may be situations in which a contractor’s intentionally low bid for a federal contract could give rise to liability under the False Claims Act (FCA).

At issue in Hooper v. Lockheed Martin Corp., 2012 WL 3124970 (9th Cir) was the bid of Lockheed in 1995 to provide software and hardware support for space launch operations.  The contract was a cost reimbursement plus award fee contract.  Thus, Lockheed would be reimbursed its costs and would be paid a fee depending on the quality of its performance.  In evaluating Lockheed’s proposal the Air Force analyzed Lockheed’s proposed costs.  It found that while Lockheed’s proposal presented some “risks” that may lead to “cost growth beyond the target costs” outlined in the proposal, Lockheed’s proposal presented the best overall value to the Air Force.

CONSTRUCTION apprentices are getting valuable hands-on experience thanks to a link up between a training company and city schools.

Apprentices studying with Plymouth's Construction Training South West have been working on real projects in the community.

The apprentices are awaiting placements with building firms and their trainers hit on the idea of helping out organisations that need work being done gratis.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, many government officials, building owners, and construction companies are considering what could have been done differently to improve security of citizens in the path of the storm. Technology certainly can provide the data and knowledge needed to ensure safety in cases of emergency.

As one example, FM (facilities management) software allows facilities professionals to develop evacuation plans and has specific capabilities for scenario planning when unexpected events—such as environmental disasters—occur.

McGraw-Hill Construction, a division of The McGraw-Hill Cos., New York, recently released its 2013 Dodge Construction Outlook, which predicts that construction starts in 2013 will rise 6 percent to $483.7 billion. This follows the 5 percent increase expected for 2012.

"As reported by McGraw-Hill Construction, new construction starts in 2010 edged up 2 percent, followed by another 1 percent gain in 2011, and 2012 is headed for a 5 percent increase to $458 billion," says Robert A. Murray, vice president of economic affairs for McGraw-Hill Construction. "This still leaves the volume of total construction starts 32 percent below the 2005 peak on a current dollar basis and down about 50 percent when viewed on a constant dollar basis. The modest gains experienced during the past two years have in effect produced an extended bottom for construction starts in which the process of recovery is being stretched out.

A postcard campaign in support of justice for thousands of workers illegally blacklisted by top construction firms was launched today.

The construction workers’ union UCATT is sending out 10,000 postcards urging members to send them to their local MPs to back a call for a public inquiry into the blacklisting scandal.

MPs are being urged to support a bid by Labour MP Steve Rotheram to get the issue aired in Parliament after the names of 3,000 workers were found in a raid by the information watchdog three years ago.

This autumn, the public is being offered an exclusive opportunity to have a look behind the scenes at some of Britain’s most exciting construction sites.

Ninety one  construction sites across England, Scotland and Wales will be opening their doors on the 9th and 10th of November for  guided tours as part of a pilot project – ‘Open Doors’  - from the construction industry.

Open Doors aims to present construction in an engaging and interesting way and showcase the dynamic, exciting career opportunities that it offers. The project will also demonstrate the importance of construction to both the national and regional economies.