The cost of commercial construction projects fluctuates considerably depending on numerous factors. Below is a chart with rough estimates of the cost of various commercial construction projects in the Midwest. It does not attempt to account for the many factors that can cause such fluctuation. It simply provides a basic guideline. For information about the factors that can influence the cost of a building, see our blog post on need-based factors that can influence cost or contact ustothoughtfully compile a plan for your facility that incorporates these and other factors and receive a preliminary estimate regarding the cost of your prospective building.

Whether youre looking at a retail, office, medical or another type of commercial or industrial building, our team is ready to help you estimate the cost and timing of your project. Just have an idea about what you want to build but no concrete plans? Thats ok too. We work with customers from dream, to concept, to planning, to buildall the way through. Just usethe form below to request a free consultation. And lets talk.

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Turf likes a well-aerated base that's slightly acidic (with a pH between 6 and 7.5) and nutrient-rich. And the only way to know what kind of soil you've got is to test it. For about $15, your local extension service will send a soil sample to a lab for analysis; results will come back within a week or two and indicate precisely what amendments you should add and in what quantity.

Then it's time to buy your sod. Depending on where you live, you can order it from a garden center or directly from a sod farm. It will generally be a mix of two or three turf grasses, chosen for optimal color, texture, and heartiness (be sure to tell your supplier if your yard's in partial or full shade). Ideally, sod should be delivered within 24 hours of being cut and be laid the same day. Measure your yard carefully so you can order the right amount, with some overage (about 5 percent) to account for cutting around curves.

Count on one weekend to prepare the soil and another to lay the turf. If your yard is covered with patchy grass, you'll need to remove it first. This is best done with a sod cutter (available from your local rental yard for about $70 per day), which slices it off below the roots. While you're at it, you'll want to rent a rototiller (about $55 per day). You'll also need a sod-cutting knife with a 2-inch blade, a spreader, an iron rake, compost, and other soil amendments, including fertilizer and lime, depending on what your soil analysis dictates. Two people should be able to cover 1,000 square feet in a day; get extra hands if you plan to lay more than that.

Read on for our step-by-step instructions for rolling out a lasting carpet of green.

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How to Sod a New Lawn | This Old House

The trouble with sleep Its hibernation time! I thought Id rip a page (literally, it starts on page 178!) right out of my own book, Make a Shift, Change Your Life to talk about sleeping tips since it seems to be a constant incoming questions these days. Hope it helps! Many of my clients []

Simply moving your SAME STUFF in your house EVEN JUST A LITTLE BIT can be all you need to do to freshen up and pull together a room especially if you notice that you or anyone else in the home is never compelled to use that particular room. Case in point: My client here []

I LOVE seeing the before and fired-up after shots of my Australian client that turned her one-car garage space into her kick-butt office. Does this womans office say IM QUALIFIED FOR THE JOB! or what? I also love hearing the improvements of the client in Canada that got her daughter a new bed []

DecoratingA lot of my friends are asking me how my new place is shaping up so I thought Id share a little video I did all by myself on how I go about creating a home that reflects exactly who I am NOW (e-heman important word for all of you who are hanging onto the []

Remodeling can be tough. Here are a few simple tips I like to recommend when building or remodeling a home. 1.Delineate spaces with flooring changes if the furniture has to float in a room. This is also effective if you have that front and back door alignment in your house to detract from []

My Facebook friend Misty O wrote me asking for my recommendations to increase fertility. I thought this was a great answer to share in a newsletter. Feel free to forward this to anyone you think might benefit from it. There are three things that I see rather consistently with regard to infertility in my line []

Someone asked me the other day if I thought I was running away from anything in California as I make my way to my new home in Florida. Hey theres no law that says I cant ever come back! But I am looking forward to a new adventure. I set up my life []

Invoking or Inviting that is the question! How is YOUR year looking? Are you invoking a meaningful one for yourself? In my book Make a Shift, Change Your Life, under the Serve Your Spirit section, I describe what I callThe Intending and Invoking Server. I wanted to clarify the difference between begging, pleading, and []

Clutter and Overwhelm Go Hand in Hand. If youve got clutter in your surroundings, youve got overwhelm somewhere in your life Ill bet money on it. You are a product of your environment. Thats just the way it is. Whats going on in your home and workplace is a direct correlation of whats []

Im not sure, maybe its because Ive been in the throes of a type of spiritual up-leveling, or perhaps because Im starting my next certification training, but the wordINSPIRED is in my world so much lately, I thought Id share a couple of things in hopes that the energy of inspiration spreads to you. []

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Feng Shui Blog with Karen Rauch Carter

From our basic lighting and electrical utility needs to the mega-watt commercial and industrial electrical wiring applications that keep businesses, hospitals, schools, and data centers humming, electricians are indispensable to life in the modern world. This is the underlying factor that explains why professionals in the electrical trade now earn salaries as high as $88,130, and why the trade is seeing job growth projections in the double-digits for the ten-year period leading up to 2025 (US Department of Labor, 2015).

The rules and regulations that govern electrician licensing are different in every state. Even within a state, individual counties and cities often have their own rules and licensing authorities.

As you work to complete your apprenticeship program, become licensed as a journeyman and eventually go on to become a master electrician and independent contractor, you will work closely with your local electrical trade regulatory agency.

Follow the steps in this guide and review therules specific to your state and local jurisdiction to learn how to become an electrician:

Your first order of business will be to make arrangements for gaining the real-world, on-the-job experience and classroom-based technical training required to become skilled in the trade and to meet the journeyman licensing requirements in your jurisdiction.

In most cases, licensing jurisdictions cover an entire state, but in many cases licensing takes place at the county or city level. All licensing jurisdictions are free to establish their own on-the-job training and classroom hour requirements that must be met before you can take the journeyman examination. In virtually all cases, this would mean spending between four and six years working as an apprentice or trainee for a licensed electrical contracting company or state utility in order to satisfy the standard requirements. In most cases, you would simply transition into full time employment at the journeyman level with that same employer once you have met the licensing requirements.

These types of arrangements are great for employers, employees and the industry. By taking on eager apprentices and trainees, in just a few years electrical contracting companies and state employers end up with loyal journeymen on their teams who are skilled in the specific type of wiring work the employer contracts out, whether residential, commercial or industrial.

In all jurisdictions, training and classroom hour requirements for journeyman licensure would fall within this range:

There are three primary ways to gain the required job experience and technical training required to earn a journeyman license:

Vocational-Technical School

Earning an electrician certificate or career diploma through a trade school or vocational-technical school (vo-tech), or even an associates degree in electrical technologythrough a community college or four-year school will provide you with the most thorough classroom and lab-based technical training available.

Most licensing jurisdictions allow you to substitute some portion of your formal education for the job experience hours required for journeyman licensing. Generally, one year of education would count for 1,000 hours of on-the-job experience. Substituting formal education for job experience requirements would typically be limited to two years of education for 2,000 hours of job experience.

This means you would still need to gain the remaining hours of experience on-the-job through a trainee field placement or apprenticeship before you would be eligible for your journeyman license. Many technical schools offer job placement assistance to help make this transition easier. Often, you would just stay on with the same employer.

Some vocational-technical schools even offer full journeyman programs specifically designed to align with state or jurisdiction licensing requirements. These programs typically last two years. During this time you would study in the classroom and be placed with a local electrical contractor to gain much of the job experience required to earn your journeyman license. In most cases, you would accumulate 4,000 hours of job experience during the program, about half of what is usually required for a journeyman license.

Usually, you would continue workingas an apprentice with the same employer, spend the next couple of years accumulating the remaining hours required for your journeyman license, then start the next phase of your career as a skilled journeyman with the same employer that provided your training.

Union Apprenticeship

Union apprenticeships are available in every state thanks to the combined effort of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA). These organizations worked together to establish the Electrical Training Alliance, a program that provides union apprenticeships that meet jurisdiction licensing requirements through Joint Apprenticeship & Training Committees (JATC) located in virtually every major metro area in the United States.

Your local JATC will place you with a union employer in your area where you will work as an apprentice until you satisfy the journeyman licensing requirements in your jurisdiction. In most cases, your classroom and lab-based technical training would take place at your local JATC office.

Participating in a union apprenticeship would require you to become a card-carrying member of the IBEW.

Non-Union Apprenticeship

Apprenticeship programs are also available through non-union employers, which sometimes refer to themselves as open shops or merit shops. The merit shop philosophy is that when employees do exceptional work, the business is successful and the employees enjoy the benefits that come along with that: raises, bonuses, benefits and overtime.

Choosing to go with a non-union apprenticeship through an open shop versus a union apprenticeship is a personal decision that all prospective apprentices need to make for themselves. This would involve weighing the benefits that come with collective bargaining as a union member versus the cost of union dues, as well as personal preference and philosophy about union versus non-union employment.

There are two main organizations that help offer apprenticeship and trainee placement with non-union electrical contractors: Independent Electrical Contractors (IEC) and Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc (ABC). Both these organizations have chapters located in major cities throughout the United States that work to connect aspiring apprentices with non-union contractors in their area.

As you near the end of your apprenticeship or on-the-job training program, you can start preparing for the journeyman electrician examination.

Once youve completed the classroom education and on-the-job training required of your apprenticeship program, you should be well-qualified to take your jurisdictions journeyman electrician examination.

Registering for this exam usually entails:

Each jurisdiction may each offer its own unique version of the journeyman examination. These exams are usually multiple-choice and take between 3-4 hours to complete. A passing score is often considered to be 70 percent, and some exams are open-book.

The subjects evaluated during the exam can include:

Passing the journeyman electrician exam is typically the last step required to qualify to become licensed or certified as a journeyman in your jurisdiction. In most states, this license allows you to work as an electrician on residential and commercial assignments without direct supervision, doing activities like wiring, installing, and repairing electrical equipment. You will still work as part of a team led by a master electrician, although direct oversight of each task isnt usually required.

Take care to renew your license as needed and keep up with any continuing education requirements.

Some states offer a variety of different journeymen licenses in specific areas like residential/commercial, specialty installations, or industrial electric instead of a general journeyman license.

Once you start work as a journeyman electrician you can begin to accumulate hours of experience. If you choose to move up the ladder to become a master electrician, you must accumulate a specific number of years of experience as detailed by the regulatory agency responsible for overseeing the licensing laws in your local jurisdiction.

While youre accumulating experience you may choose to take additional steps to qualify for a specialty license if it is available in your jurisdiction. If you are interested in any of the following, then check with the licensing authority in your jurisdiction to see if any of these specialty licenses would be available to you:

Qualifying for a specialty license usually involves gaining additional work experience and education, as well as passing another examination.

Many electricians are happy working their entire careers at the journeyman level. However if you want to take your career to the next level then you can consider becoming a master electrician.

Master electricians have more career options than journeymen. Depending on your jurisdictions regulations, as a master electrician you can do things that would include:

Qualifying to become a master electrician usually involves the following process:

The master electrician exam covers advanced methodologies and theory of the subjects that were originally covered in your journeyman examination. It is usually multiple-choice, three to five hours in length, and may be open-book. A passing score is typically considered to be 70 percent.

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may need to:

While you may have reached your professional goal by becoming a master electrician, you still have the option to become an independent contractor if you choose to take your career one step further.

At some point in your career as a master electrician, you may decide to take the next step and become an independent electrical contractor. This involves a high level of responsibility and can involve bidding your own multi-million dollar projects both government and private. Independent electrical contractors are master electricians (and can be large companies that employ at least one master electrician).

Whether as an individual contractor working smaller jobs with a team you put together yourself, or as the owner of a major electrical contracting company, holding a contractors license would allow you to:

Typically, jurisdictions offer a general contractor license that would allow you to perform electrician services as an independent contractor. Some jurisdictions require you to apply for a specific type of contractor license, such as:

Qualifying for an independent electrical contractor license often requires:

Some jurisdictions also require you to pass an independent electrical contractor exam. If this is necessary, you can expect the exam to be multiple-choice and take between 60 and 90 minutes to complete. The contents of this exam can include:

You can register for this exam with the contractors licensing authority in your local jurisdiction or with a third-party testing company.

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may need to renew your independent electrical contractor license periodically. This can entail continuing education and a minimum number of hours of work for each renewal period.

Once you have completed this step you are prepared to work as a highly experienced senior electrician at the top of your field.

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How to Become an Electrician | Schools, Training ...

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Careers at Transguard

At Transguard we are always looking for highly-motivated, hard-working people who are physically fit, well-presented and have good written and verbal English skills to join our operational teams.

The Application Process

We receive a lot of high quality applications and we want to pay the right level of attention to each of them. We expect to schedule interviews within 2-3 weeks of your application date, so when you hear from us, it will be to let you know that we would like to talk with you in more detail.

Due to the volume of applications we receive, if you have not heard from us within 2-3 weeks from the date of submission, then please consider your application as unsuccessful on this occasion. To find out about future opportunities at Transguard please continue to visit our website where we update our careers page regularly.

We wish you all the best in your application and thank you for considering a role at Transguard.

Best RegardsTransguard Recruitment Team

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Transguard Group - careers

Trinity Custom HousesCommitted to quality.Devoted to our customers.

Were truly honored that youre considering Trinity Custom Homes to provide you and your family with a place where youll share so many special moments. For more than 15 years, we have been providing smart buyers in five southeastern states with homes not houses.

We understand that a home is a grand stage where your life together will play out. It also represents a significant investment and a place where you want to feel safe, secure, and comfortable. So, kick off your shoes and sit back. We have so much we want to share with you!

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Standard? Not at Trinity Custom Homes. Step inside and see why the features that come included in our homes are exceptional in style, quality and value. The one thing that does come standard: a home that will make you say Wow!

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Our design team has created an incredible array of home concepts and floor plans. A Trinity Custom Home starts with a solid floor plan developed from years of experience and customer feedback. Your hardest decision: picking just one!

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Trinity Custom Homes | Home | Custom Home Builder GA

How much should you pay for a quality custom home built on your lot with 30 year roof, 50 year lap siding, limited lifetime windows, high efficiency furnace, attached garage and many more as STANDARD features? What would you save by hiring a builder with unsurpassed experience and knowledge in all building phases including site development and permitting? Contact us today and find out how affordable your dream home can be.What does affordable custom mean? It means that you can choose from over forty floor plans designed by premier Northwest architects AND make changes to the layout and finishes to fit your familys unique needs and budget. You can even bring in your own plan. Now you dont have to settle for a cookie cutter house in a planned community. Your new home will be truly yours with Fox Custom Homes.Established in 1999, Fox Custom Homes has earned a reputation as one of the most reliable and trusted custom home builders in the community. While the competitions seem to change hands in every few years, our original founders continue to oversee every aspect of the business, from quality control to warranty service. Make sure your investment is backed by a company with a proven record in sound business management.

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Fox Custom Homes | Affordable Custom Built Homes

Outdoor RetailMake your outdoor space feel like home.Under Construction. Call Holloway Company or visit our outdoor design showroom and retail center.

For over 22 years, Holloway Company has been providing residents of Dulles, Ashburn, Leesburg, and surrounding areas with high-quality outdoor living solutions. As a family owned and operated company, our number one priority is you, and we treat you as part of our family throughout the entire design process. From your first call to us to the finishing touches on your project, you can count on our friendly, professional services. Whether you are looking for a new outdoor retail, patio, deck, driveway, or a complete outdoor transformation, we have the highest quality products in the industry.

With all the competition out there for outdoor living solutions, we understand the need to stand out amongst the others. When you choose Holloway Company for your next project, you can rest assured you are receiving better than industry professional standard results. We are proud of our track record, including the following accomplishments:

We provide design/build and retail services for residents all throughout Ashburn, Leesburg, Great Falls and neighboring communities.

To provide superior products and service to our customers, we offer the largest design center and indoor showroom in Northern Virginia. From outdoor retail, decks, patios and porches, to outdoor kitchens, fireplaces, and pavilions, you can count on our team of professionals to create your vision for an outdoor retreat. Because each persons idea of an outdoor living space is different, we offer many choices to create the perfect outdoor oasis.

Visit us in Dulles, VA to see our high-quality products and design solutions, featuring an exterior design center with patios, decks, water features, seat walls, plants, and much more. We constantly change and update our design center to stay current with the latest technology and industry-proven solutions, so stop by often to see whats new. Contact us at 703-634-4426to learn more about the Holloway Company experience. You can also use our convenient online request form.

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Outdoor Furniture, Decks & Patios | Dulles VA | Holloway ...

Providing the best lawn care, mowing services and garden maintenance in Geelong, Bellarine Peninsula, Surf Coast and surrounding areasGeelong Lawn Care is committed to providing reliable, consistent and affordable lawn mowing and gardening services to Geelong and surrounding areas. Not only are we a professional lawn mower service, we're also gardeners, do landscape maintenance, hedge trimming, weeding and spraying and much more. Were not afraid to get down and dirty doing the backyard maintenance jobs youre too busy to do yourself. If you dont want the hassle of managing your unruly backyard, well make your neighbours green with envy by keeping it looking beautiful all year round.Dont have time to mow your lawn? Well do it for you! Not a fan of using hedge trimmers? Were masters at it! Hate weeding? Well we hate weeds, so let us attack your garden and pull weeds out with a vengeance! If you're not a fan of gardening, get a keen gardner in for an affordable backyard makeover.

Throw any lawn or gardening jobs at us and we wont beat around the bush. If youre over the puns already and just want a simple mow job, skip the rest of this website and call us straight away!

Why choose us? Were easy to get a lawn withSee what we did there...? Aside from our outrageous sense of humour *insert crickets chirping here*, our exceptional customer service, quality lawn-craft and affordable prices are just a few of the reasons you should partner with Geelong Lawn Care. Well look after all of your garden care needs. Not only do we bring our A-game, we also lug around our own lawn mower and any other gardening equipment thats needed for your job. Bonus, we can even take away the extra green waste too - just ask us about our competitive green waste removal prices. The only thing you need to do is call us and make an appointment today. If youre reading this on your mobile phone, simply click on the phone number below to call us. If youre on a computer, feel free to fill in our contact form above. Give us some details of the jobs you need doing, and well get back to you asap with an irresistible quote and available appointments.

We keep it simple. Like our slogan says, cutting grass not corners since ages ago.

Its a lawn way to the top and our competitors cant keep upAnyone can advertise their services online these days, which can make finding a reputable and dependable garden maintenance technician tougher than it should be. At Geelong Lawn Care, our craft is our passion, and our passion is our business. We truly believe we provide an awesome and unbeatable service, in both quality and price. Whether its regularly scheduled lawn maintenance or just a one-time lawn mow, we treat all of our clients professionally and respectfully. Call us today for a no obligation chat about your outdoor maintenance.

Areas ServicedWe proudly service Geelong, Bellarine Peninsula and Surfcoast regions. Whether youre in Torquay, Winchelsea, Ocean Grove, Drysdale, Barrabool, Corio, Lara or anywhere in between. No matter where you are, Geelong Lawn Care is the best lawn care and garden maintenance company near you, so give us a call today.

Having the best lawn in your neighbourhood isnt always easy in the age of global warming. In early 2016 Barwon Water announced that the water storages in Geelong had hit their lowest levels since the Millennium drought officially ended in 2012. Drought and water restrictions are an ever present reality in Australia, and without belittling the serious affects drought has on farmers and Australian agriculture, it also affects your lawn and garden care. With water restrictions constantly fluctuating in severity, the introduction of drought tolerant plants to backyard gardens has certainly increased in popularity in the last decade or so. At Geelong Lawn Care, we can assist in providing advice on maintaining a drought resistant garden and lawn.

Still reading? Weve clearly got your attention and were impressed youve read this far down. If you like what youve read and need some more info call us for a chat and to pick our brains. Well throw in some quick wit and humour at no extra charge!

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Cheap Lawn Mowing and Gardening Services in Geelong

Your heating and air conditioning systems are often some of the most crucial parts of your commercial property. That being said, theyre also often the most ignored. If comfort and cost savings are important to you, its a good idea to keep an eye on the status of your HVAC systems. With proper maintenance, they can last a long time and help keep your energy bill in check. However, there comes a time when its simply time to upgrade that unit to a new, more efficient one. So when exactly is that time?

Commercial HVAC system replacements are generally a final option, after all maintenance and improvements possible have been done. So the first step in knowing if its time for a replacement is simply to get on a professional opinion. Not sure where go go for that? Here. Take advantage of a straightforward, no-BS kind of opinion from our professional service techs.

To make it simple, if you notice the following symptoms in your commercial system, its likely time for some new HVAC equipment.

Sure, there are options that can be combined with replacement or used to preserve your current heating and air conditioning equipment. Proper maintenance is the first thing that will keep a system running. Things like filter replacement, condenser coil cleaning, parts inspection and replacement and properly set controls can make a big difference on the health of your equipment. In some cases where the equipment is in good condition, new automated controls can make all the difference in efficiency. Check with an expert to see what option is right for you.

When you start thinking about all the detail and expense of an HVAC system change-out, it can feel overwhelming. Thats where our team can help. We will sit down with you to discuss options for repair or replacement of your current equipment and controls. Well make sure we are all on the same page about your needs and your budget. Then you can take a look at our recommendations to ensure you do whats right for your situation. While youre at it, you can expect to see many options to cut your energy bills and make sure you see that return on investment as quickly as possible. Well guide you every step of the way to make sure your business and building keep running smoothly without taking too much of your precious time. After all, why should you have to take time away from what youre best at and make heating and air conditioning your priority?

When the decision is made to go ahead with a replacement, well make sure youre in the loop and know exactly what the steps are. Our HVAC install team will move as quickly as possible to cut back on downtime. Then after the installation is complete, you can expect our maintenance team to recommend a maintenance plan that will work for you. This is all part of keeping things running smoothly and making sure youre not alone if something goes wrong. Plus, if youre like us, you will probably want to protect that investment you just made. See more about maintenance and after-care here.

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HVAC System Replacements - syncquip.com