1 comments about Workshop Machines (New Best of Fine Woodworking).

1. Have you bought a tool that you just had to have but were clueless about how to use it? I did that with a 14" Ridgid bandsaw when it was on sale ($95). I put it together, turned it on, scared the heck out of myself and got a book. This one. It really helped not only on how to use the saw but also maintenance, blade selection etc.
   I've got my eye on a Milwaukee Panel Saw... jpnunes.net

1 comments about Home Builder Contracts & Construction Management Forms, 2nd Ed..

1. This is a good book if you're looking for help with construction forms. It doesn't provide all the various forms you will need but its a good start. Most of the explanations are adequate but a few are lacking. I would recommend the book, but plan to get the remaining forms you need from other sources.

2 comments about Solar House: A Guide for the Solar Designer.

1. This is a complete guide to the solar house, with super-efficiency built in! It is a very well thought through design for a super efficient modern solar home. Has a comprehensive menu of things to deal with when designing/building a solar home, including "smart" house features like computerized controls. Very scientific, very informative with lots of examples, photos, charts and graphs.
   
   A must for solar home designers/builders or the interested.



2. If you're looking for the story of one house being built with solar and other "green" technologies, this is a pretty good one. Examples are sometimes the best way to learn. The dedication to scientific perfection in the design and construction of this single house (tile, windows, concrete, automation systems, etc) is what really excited me from chapter to chapter.
   
   However, the book gets a little off-track in several areas. In one section there is at-length discussion about growing vegetables in your solarium. It also veers off into hydrogen and hybrid gas/electric cars for a few pages, which is not really helpful since we've purchased a book entitled "Solar House".
   
   I'd also be inclined to think that a better-organized book with more examples, in more of a "how to" form, would be more useful for the average solar home designer.
   
   I could have used more pictures of the project, too. They never really give us a full 360 view of the house, which, if the book is going to be about one house and how it was built, seems pretty important.
   
   It's a cool book, but there are probably better options out there for those who are going to be getting their hands dirty in the near future.

No comments about Power Tool Safety and Operation :Woodworking, Metalworking, Metalsand Welding.

1 comments about Tips and Techniques for Builders (Fine Homebuilding).

1. "Tips & Techniques For Builders," is simply a reprinted version of articles that have been printed in the Fine Homebuilding magazine over a period of time. The advantage here, is they are all in this one book as one easy reference.
   Inside, you will find many carpentry and building tips that other craftsmen have devised to helpfully make your job a little easier. Just finding a couple of ideas from this book makes it well worth the low price.
   Taunton Press, and Fine Homebuilding, are excellent publishers that offer a wide variety of homebuilding, woodworking, and carpentry books and videos to choose from. It's my personal opinion that they are really onto something here with this book should they decide to continue updating and adding new tips as time goes along. However, I have not seen an updated version that dates beyond 1997.
   I look forward to buying and reading a newer copy if one is released.

1 comments about Project Management in Construction.

1. 1.I find it very important that Mr. Walker has emphasized the importance of teaching general management before entering into the realm of the complicated teaching of construction management. Constr. Mgt. is not an independent teaching, but a very special case of management. It has naturally to be based on the foundations of the GENERAL MANAGEMENT. Congratulations.. 2. He makes some original definitions of management. I highly appreciate his definitions like "Management is the dynamic input that makes the organization work.". However, I expected to find several chapters in this book, explaining the basic activities, general principles and the elements of management, EXACTLY what Henri Fayol has mentioned 100 years ago. 3. IEEE has updated Fayol's terminology at 1984, printed and distributed to its members, who lead the world's most important sector, electronics and computer industries, as a study of Prof. Irwin Gray from NewYork Inst. of Technology. This gives a very good idea about the freshness of Fayol's teachings. The, in construction mgt.mostly referred, famous Proj.Mgt. Institute is the worldwide known sub-org. of the IEEE, Inst. Of El.and Elktron. Eng.s in USa. 4. Every student of technical schools should be taugth management completely from Fayol's teachings,as they learn physics from Newton and Planck directly. I hope that the Author forgives the harsh expression of a veteran construction man: Anybody who teaches management should not attempt to find the definition of management from the "Shorter Oxford English Dictionary' 100 years later than Fayol's excellent definition; no need to explore America again. 5. I congragulate the Author for mentioning H.Mintzberg in his book.. His analogy of construction projects with Mintzberg's configurations Professional B-aucracy and Ad-hocracy, is to be blessed. This analogy gives a good idea about the complexity of the construction, but underestimates the complicated task of management of construction projecst. I kindly remind that there is not a real management in adhocracy, and is very little in the professional b-racy. Management of a construction site of average size can only be compared with the most complex configuration of H. M-berg: THE DIVISIONAL FORM, with its numerous crews, subcontractors of various contracrs, its logistics, accounting, perfformance evaluations, etc. 6. I expected the Author of this valuable book would teach organization to the technical u-grad students directly from the teachings of Mintzberd and save several chapters for his teachings.. 7. This book is one of the best of its category I have ever read, on construction mgt, keeping Dennis Lock's place at the top, I hope the Author finds my comments not more than a few constructive remarks, and may take them into consideration for the further editions. Dr. Kirhan Dadasbilge, MSc.CE

3 comments about A Home From the Woods: Adventures and methods restoring and building authentic log cabins.

1. It has been a long time since I've enjoyed a book so much as to pick it up and not be able to set it down until I had read it from cover to cover.The author and his family had so much determination in the success of there projects that most any other individual would have given up long ago. I too live in a log home hand built by our family but with mill purchased logs.
   But the inspiration I've recieved from this book has inspired my husband and I to attempt to build a log cabin of round logs up on the hill of our property unless we can find an authentic log cabin to relocate here. We plan to use many of the methods mentioned in the book .



2. Michael Antoniak and his family have done what many of us dream about: they left the big city and carved a wonderful life and a wonderful home for themselves in the country. Antoniak's entertaining and informative book explains how to build different types of log cabins without being a professional carpenter. Whether you're ready to build your own country retreat, or just want to dream about it, this is the book for you.



3. This is a fun book to read for the adventure of rustic log cabin building the hard way. Very enjoyable book. Gives good basic knowledge of building or rebuilding old cabins.
   If you are serious about building a modern day cabin with modern techniques and gaining technical knowledge, don't waste your time with this book.

No comments about 2007 Means Contractor's Pricing Guide: Repair & Remodeling (Means Residential Repair & Remodeling Costs).

4 comments about Everything You Need to Know About Building the Custom Home: How to Be Your Own General Contractor.

1. This book covers both house buying and working with contractors. Do not be put off by its title; I would recommend it even if you are buying a standard house or building an addition to your existing house.

   Although it seems to be very specific to building a new custom house, in fact it gives excellent advice on all phases of buying a house or lot (including evaluating it, bargaining, financing, etc.) as well as finding contractors, negotiating with them, etc. It assumes you are going to be your own general contractor, but even if you are not, its advice is pertinent and useful.

   Some of the discussions of contracts and payment schedules may seem a bit nit-picky, but you ought to read "The Home Remodeler's Combat Manual" to show why it can be necessary.

   I find it much better than Bob Vila's book on house buying, and also better than House Buying Step-by-Step (which was the best among the other books I found at the bookstore).

   It's unfortunate that its title makes its scope seem so narrow.

   (I wrote the above in 1995, and don't know if anything even better has come along since then.)




2. This book really went into detail on how to finance, how to choose a site, and a lot of other preparation processes for building a home. What it is severly lacking in is a detailed idea of how to schedule the home building process. It has a flow diagram, but does not have any detail behind each task. The most important piece of building a home in an established time is to know the order of when to schedule work; when to pick household items, colors, flooring, etc; when to install the septic system or run electricity; when to decide on the type of cabinets (stain or paint grade); etc. All of these items are critical to obtaining a quality home, at the lowest cost, in the quickest time possible. Many home builders are 1)delayed by the simple fact that they do not know about the steps until they are delaying the process and 2)surprised by the cost of the home because they established a price based on unknown selection criteria. Change orders mean increased cost and time to any project. I would like to find a book that really addresses these issues for a home builder.



3. This book should probably have been called "How to Prepare Yourself Legally and Financially to Build Your Own Home." The title it does have is not representative of the book's true focus, and I believe does a disservice to those who want a construction book *and* those who would benefit from the legal and financial information it so richly covers. One group is disappointed, while the other skips over it because they think it doesn't apply to their needs.

   To be blunt, the actual construction process is not very well covered. For instance, owner-builders probably do not know what types of materials are high quality vs. just high price tag vs. "standard" and possibly inadequate. That is a huge hole in the book -- materials overall are skimmed over. The one time they got specific, they almost sounded like a commercial for Andersen windows. I'm sure Andersen windows are just fine, but I seriously doubt that you simply "must" buy them to have resell value in your house.

   The other huge hole is how to manage the actual building phase -- what to expect, pitfalls and such. Yes, it has a chart, but it's hard to read (it's sideways!), there is no explanation if the numbers signify days or weeks, and in general it is not adequate. There was a very short chapter at the very end on common mistakes, but once again it seemed to skim over that information. Also, I realize that every house is built differently, but it would have been nice to have one example project used throughout the book so that the reader could see a cohesive picture of how that particular house was built. Nothing like a concrete example!

   In spite of its shortcomings and the rather dated ideas about what makes a home have resell value (this book was written in the early 90s, just as "starter castles" with cavernous ceilings and huge greatrooms were becoming popular), this book offers a ton of good -- and most importantly, timeless -- information.

   In a nutshell:

   If you need or want to know about the financial and legal process of building your own house, right down to the surveying, appraising and loans, including sample contracts and forms, then buy this book.

   If you are interested in a guide on how to actually *build* a quality, custom home that has updated materials lists, a detailed example schedule and realistic work/time/money expectations, worksheets and samples of change orders, contracts for craftsmen and other construction sundries, then do not buy this book.




4. Bought the book, but found a dream home before we had the chance to start building. I would recommend it highly if you are thinking about being your own contractor.

3 comments about Landscape Estimating Methods (Means Landscape Estimating).

1. It simply sucks. It does not help with estimating in a landscape company. Also it's too difficult to understand and too complex. All I wanted to know is how to estimate walkways patios, decks, tree removal, etc.... This book does not do it. [...]you will see how bad this book is..



2. I found this to be a good referace book for quick peaks at help in the bid and estimate of basic landscape construction projects.



3. Fortunately I checked this book out from the library so I didn't get stuck with it. I got it with the intention of using it to estimate residential landscape construction projects. However, it just wasn't straightforward or practical enough to be of use. Really theoretical but doesn't give necessary info to use it in my landscape design-build business.