Growing salad greens and herbs in a greenhouse is a great way to ensure a year-round supply of both, but you want to keep pieces of the greenhouse itself out of customers’ food. BrightFarms grows spinach, salad greens, and kale in a greenhouse in Virginia that’s sold in five states and Washington, DC, and is recalling greens that might have pieces of metal from the greenhouse in them. [More]
construction
Contractors Charged With Using Money From Hurricane Sandy Victims To Shop And Gamble
By 10.12.16 — Updated: 10.13.16
Here’s a nightmare scenario: your house is severely damaged in a rare storm, and you hire a legitimate-seeming contractor to repair it or to raise your house on stilts to prevent flooding the next time a storm comes. Instead, the contractor either never began the work or wandered off partway through, leaving you without the money or a livable house. That’s what the state of New Jersey has accused a duo of contractors who are also a couple of doing. [More]
4 Tips From Contractors To Keep Your Home Remodel From Spiraling Out Of Control
By 5.2.16
When preparing to give your home a little facelift — inside, outside, or otherwise — most of us will probably seek out the assistance of a professional. But finding someone to complete your renovation on time, on budget, and to your liking can be more difficult than it seems, especially when you consider that the construction industry is currently dealing with a labor shortage. [More]
Contractor Accepts $7,500 In Payments, Disappears
By 10.13.15
When you hire a contractor and they do a competent job, you should be able to just hire that contractor again without checking their background and starting the process over. Right? Not so fast, as one person who aspired to have new doors installed in his home learned the hard way. He hired back a contractor he had used in the past without checking any licenses, and paid about $7,500 for his mistake. [More]
Home-Builders Glad People Have Jobs Again, Can’t Find Enough Workers To Build Houses
By 9.17.15
For most of the last decade, people haven’t been all that interested in building new houses: they were worried about their jobs, didn’t have jobs, or were underwater on the mortgage on their current home. While the economy has improved enough that people feel confident building houses, it’s also improved enough that it’s hard to find construction workers. [More]
The Boutique Hotel You Stayed At Was Probably Owned By A Mega-Hotel Chain
By 4.13.15
At one time, booking a hotel room for the night meant picking between one of about two dozen or so brands: Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, Best Western, Comfort Inn, just to name a few. Today, consumers have more than 113 brands owned by the 10 largest hotel chains in the U.S. to choose from, and the long list of options doesn’t appear to be shrinking anytime soon. [More]
Couple Is Surprisingly Unhappy That Chipotle Is Moving In Next Door
By 10.9.13
For many people, having a Chipotle restaurant move in next door would mean infinite joy and probably infinite weight gain. One couple in Hershey, Pennsylvania is very unhappy that the fast-casual eatery has a restaurant under construction next door to their home. [More]
Learn To Lay Brick Like The Smartest Little Pig
By 11.10.11
If your lackluster backyard inspires visions of what could be, it’s likely that the projects dancing in your head will involve bricklaying. Fire pits, raised-bed gardens, retaining walls and pet pens all require brick walls, and services from contractors don’t come cheap. Teaching yourself some basic masonry can save you bricks of money. [More]
Pay $400 To Play With Bulldozers In Las Vegas
By 6.20.11
If you’re looking for something different to do on vacation this summer, how about playing in a giant sandbox driving bulldozers and earth movers? That’s the idea behind “Dig This,” a “construction theme park” opening in Las Vegas this summer. [More]
You Have Nine Years To Build A House In Tampa
By 7.29.10
Want to build the home of your dreams and can’t find enough land for it? Try moving to Tampa. The area has 27,923 building lots, enough to keep homebuilders busy for nine years. That’s assuming anyone actually wants to build something, of course. [More]
Half-A-Dozen Companies Knew About Tainted Drywall, But Stayed Mum And Kept Selling It
By 6.23.10
Newly released court documents indicate that over a half-dozen companies knew about the rotten egg smells exuding from Chinese drywall since 2006, but they stayed quiet and kept selling the junk. [More]
I Like Smelling Farts, Chinese Drywall Distributor Tells Court
By 6.1.10
Do you like farts? Documents and depositions unearthed by ProPublica and the Sarasota Harold-Tribune show exchanges between homebuilder WCI Communities and drywall distributor Banner that reveal the sulfur-emitting drywall problem was known as far back as 2006, and yet customers and authorities were not notified. In one deposition, a Banner executive refuses to admit that sulfur-stinking drywall might bother others, seeing as he himself, on certain occasions, enjoys the sweet aroma of another man’s butt gas: [More]
This Is Where Stinky Drywall Comes From
By 5.28.10
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has released the names of the top manufacturers of stinky, dangerous drywall, which emits high levels of hydrogen sulfide (the source of its stinkiness). According to the agency, drywall from the manufacturers, all based in China, emitted hydrogen sulfide at levels up to 100x greater than samples from non-Chinese manufacturers. [More]
By 9.10.09
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Great news, homeowners! Drywall manufactured in China from waste byproducts may have a horrible stench and corrode everything in your house, but the Consumer Product Safety Commission has concluded that at least it’s not radioactive. [Consumer Reports Safety]
Avoid Being Scammed By Shady Contractors
By 8.10.09
Never, never open your door to a contractor who randomly appears offering to fix some unseen problem. You would think it’s common sense, but a California senior ended up paying a shady contractor $20,000 to perform $300 worth of work, and it took a sting operation to stop a Long Island contractor who was going door-to-door offering to plug nonexistent carbon monoxide leaks. So how can you protect yourself? Here are a few warning signs to beware….
Did Poisonous Chinese Drywall Cause Florida House Fires?
By 7.10.09
As if it weren’t bad enough that poisonous Chinese drywall is blame for health problems, corroded electrical work, and general stench. Now the drywall may be to blame for two house fires in Florida. Who knew that Chinese industrial waste is a problematic ingredient for building materials?
Radioactive Chinese Drywall Is Stinking Up U.S. Homes
By 7.4.09
The government thinks radioactive industrial waste from China is responsible for a recent sulfur stench that has plagued hundreds of Florida homes. Demand for Chinese drywall spiked during the housing boom, but federal regulators believe the drywall contained phosphogypsum, a banned waste byproduct that features prominently in Chinese construction. When used in drywall, the probable carcinogen can corrode “air conditioners, mirrors, electrical outlets and even jewelry.”
"We Build In Middle Class Neighborhoods Because You Can't Afford To Fight Us"
By 4.29.09
Meet Michelle. We met Michelle at Arbitration Fairness Day and she told us about being forced into arbitration when she tried to get her poorly constructed home repaired. Now she’d like to share her story with you.
