1) Availability

We often settle for what’s available, and what’s available isn’t always great. “Because it was there,” is an okay reason to climb a mountain, but not a very good reason to take a job or a free sample at the supermarket.

 2) Ignorance

If we don’t know how to make something great, we simply won’t. If we don’t know that greatness is possible, we won’t bother attempting it. All too often, we literally do not know any better than good enough.

 3) Committees

Nothing destroys a good idea faster than a mandatory consensus. The lowest common denominator is never a high standard.

 4) Comfort

Why pursue greatness when you’ve already got 324 channels and a recliner? Pass the dip and forget about your grand designs.

5) Momentum

If you’ve been doing what you’re doing for years and it’s not-so-great, you are in a rut. Many people refer to these ruts as careers.

6) Passivity

There’s a difference between being agreeable and agreeing to everything. Trust the little internal voice that tells you, “this is a bad idea.”

Richard M. Neuman Electrical

Just when I mastered CFLs and accepted the phaseout of T12 fluorescents, 100W and 75W bulbs, enter the LED bulb. Anyone who has tried to shop for these bulbs is probably as frustrated as I am when trying to find a 100W “equivalent” bulb. These bulbs don’t yet exist on store shelves and the word “equivalent” is a useless gauge to determine similar light outputs of incandescent, CFL and LED.  I have yet to find any equivalent equivalents.  Yes, you read that correctly.

Simply trying to find a suitable 100W ”equivalent” LED table lamp replacement has become an infuriating chore. Most stores don’t yet carry a wide variety of options to suit what I believe to be standard lighting for everyday use.  It’s a hodge podge of shapes, styles, output, color temperature and energy used that I’m sure will change as the technology matures and more options are brought to market.

First some terminology:

A Watt is the amount of power consumed by a bulb per hour

• Lumens are a raw measure of light output
• Kelvin is color temperature – 2,700K (indoor soft white) to 5,600K is bright white like a fluorescent.

To replace the 100W table lamp bulb with an LED equivalent, I settled for a funky Philips 17-Watt (75W equivalent) LED Soft White (pictured above).  It does produce a nice light, albeit less Lumens than I desired.For my kitchen, I searched for an 85W equivalent LED recessed downlight, but the stores don’t yet carry it either. I settled for lower output 65W LED “equivalent” lights (Ecosmart 10.5W / 2,700K / 575 Lumens LED).  The packaging claims it replaces 65W bulbs so I thought the room would be dimmer, but my room is actually brighter than the 85W CFL bulbs they replaced! Arghh! The product is a pretty neat one-piece replacement can with integrated trim that’s easy to install.

Watts used to give us a good idea of how much light a light bulb would produce. But as bulbs now produce more light (or lumens), Watts have stopped being a useful guide to brightness.  As LED bulbs continue to improve in efficiency, you can find two 65W equivalents that can give quite different levels of light output, perhaps as much as a third more or less. It’s not to exaggerate power (consumption), but older and less efficient LEDs could use older and less efficient electronic driver circuits. Big box stores have a chart that does a fairly good job of explaining the differences between Lumens, Kelvin across incandescent, CFL and LED. If only the product were consistent with the claims.

Be careful to check color temperature as that varies from bulb to bulb too.  The four 65W equivalent Ecosmart downlights (575 Lumens) I replaced were listed as soft white (2,700K). Three of the lights were soft white while the fourth was noticeably whiter at about 3,000K.

So how easy is it to replace a 85W flood?  Bring Tylenol or Acetaminophen equivalent.

Summary
- Watts are no longer useful as an indication of the brightness.
- Lumens have taken over to measure the brightness of a light.
- Color temperature (Kelvin) describes incremental color, from Soft White to Bright White.
- LED’s are more energy efficient than CFLs. A 19W CFL (75W) could be similar to a 10.5W LED or half the energy used.

by John Garrett



Still a relatively new technology, mobile facilities management has numerous benefits that could enhance the way your company does business. Replacing your paper based processes with digital solutions can drastically improve your company’s resources, customer service and overall efficiency.

1) Boost your staff’s productivity onsite.

The dynamic nature of digital technology allows your employees to avoid repetitive form filling. Rather than having to make duplicates for your customers or inter-department within your own company, you can simply copy and paste with a couple of clicks. This saves time for you and your team to get on with more pressing work either to further the business or for important clients.

2) A sustainable business is just that.

Sustainability is a buzz word that gets thrown around all too often but making your company more eco-friendly isn’t just good for the environment it can also save your business time and money. Doing away with the majority of your paper based systems can streamline the processes so you run more effectively. Your office won’t be crowded with print-outs and stacks of paper. Your filing cabinets will be replaced with databases, which if correctly kept can make finding that all important information ten times faster. So not only will you be able to call your company ‘green’ and mean it, but your business will genuinely be more sustainable, you’ll be employing practices that work in the long term and you won’t need to update the way you conduct your business until the next digital revolution.

3) Improved communication makes for both happier staff and clients.

From scheduling jobs to managing assets and sharing reports in the field, mobile facilities management technology improves your communication capabilities. Managers can get hold of onsite engineers to relay instructions or check their input remotely and in real time. Onsite engineers can share collected data between themselves on relevant jobs and multiple members can collaborate on documents dynamically. A job well done makes your clients happy and any good business looking to expand requires healthy customer retention.

4) Keep compliant to compete.

At present there are stringent regulations in many trade industries to ensure fair practice and customer care. Companies must be compliant to compete, mobile facilities solutions can assist your employees when they’re in the field even if they don’t have mobile signal. The mobile app immediately records all information directly to the handset and saved data will then be instantly uploaded as soon as signal returns.

5) Ability to adapt is integral in a changing environment

The world around is constantly evolving, as a result so is the corporate world and the way we do business. The necessity to respond to a swiftly shifting environment and be able to service a diverse infrastructure has encouraged both flexibility and diversity in companies. Mobile facilities management allows you to stay abreast of your ever-evolving industry with technology and applications that are quickly and easily updated.

Mobile facilities management is all about improving your company’s efficiency across the whole spectrum of business operations from bettering your management reporting and resource planning to enhancing your interaction with customers.

“Hot Weather Patching” defines hot weather to include any combination of the following conditions:

• High Ambient Temperature
• High Concrete Temperature
• Low Relative Humidity
• Wind Speed
• Solar Radiation

In addition, the following tips could be used to help in hot weather:

• Chilled water can be used in the product mix.
• If liquid polymer is provided by the manufacturer, it should be placed in an ice chest to cool it down before mixing.
• Wet burlap can be used on the patches to reduce the rate of setting.

Used either in a combination or separately, these methods could be the difference between a patch being temporary or permanent.  All of this depends on selecting the right contractor for the job. For solutions to your concrete repair and restoration challenges…you do not have to wait for cooler weather…Lesco Restorations, Inc. is just a phone call away.

Ken Johnson

Kjohnson@lesco.net

Cell  704-299-3192

A team was assembled that included movers, electricians, and tile cleaners. The cabinets were completely removed in 3 hours and the job was finished the same day. The managers in the store were very happy that we worked so quickly in clearing the area and minimizing interruption. One of the managers at the Belk’s store told us that when they had hired a contractor in the past, they had to constantly “supervise” the work. He said it was great having a vendor-partner that knew what they were doing and just went about the task of getting the work done. Once again, it proves how LESCO’s solution driven culture constantly wins over new customers.

Most companies do not think of a disaster plan until after it strikes and then it is too late.

While no company can make plans to cover all disasters, LESCO has worked with many Fortune 500 companies to develop a plan catered to their individual needs.

• Supplementing your existing staff in times of tragedy
• Developing a maintenance plan to cover costs between disasters
• Outfit your buildings in preparation (i.e. generator switches, outside lock boxes, storm shutters)

When tragedy strikes, you need help immediately, not within days but hours. We stand ready to respond anywhere in the southeastern United States. LESCO has strategically placed recovery warehouses stocked and ready to use in our recovery effort. Crews are placed on alert and can respond in a moment’s notice.

No one can predict when disaster will strike; but careful preparation and planning can be in place. At the end of the day do you have a company that you can rely on, with a proven track record for over 35 years, to respond in case of a disaster?

LESCO is ready to cater a program for you.

Jeff Miro

(864)266-6131                        Jmiro@lesco.net

Read More:  AGC’s First Woman President Faces Up to Tough Economy | ENR: Engineering News Record | McGraw-Hill Construction.

A roof is the same way. Everyday exposure to sun, rain, air conditioning repair people, and other wear and tear slowly ages the roof membrane until the service life ends. Every extra year one can eke out of the roof is that much more money that can be saved for other purposes.

A roof doesn’t need good food or proper exercise. But a roof does need regular check-ups in the form of regular inspections and prompt repairs.

What benefit is there in spending money every year to maintain the roof? Studies have shown that a roof that is not regularly maintained will only last about half of its expected service life.

But, you say, “That’s why I have a warranty.” Don’t assume that a warranty will help. Almost all manufacturers of roofing materials state specifically in their warranty that the warranty is void if the roof is not maintained. If you can’t show that the roof has been maintained, you will not have a case when you try to make a claim on a supposed warranty issue.

Experienced facility managers know that a roof should be inspected at least twice a year to keep the roof alive as long as possible and to maintain the warranty. But many don’t know what to look for, so they either hire someone else to do it or it just doesn’t get done. Depending on the depth and complexity of the inspection, the inspector can be the building staff, an architect or engineer who specializes in roof consulting, or a competent roofing contractor. The inspection can entail anything from looking at the roof while walking to repair an A/C unit all the way to a formal inspection with a moisture survey.

When to Inspect the Roof?

You want to have the inspections done once before the season with the most severe weather and once after. In the northern climes, the severe weather is winter where the cold, storms and precipitation contributes more to the demise of the roof. However, where hot weather rules, summer is the severe season. The solar UV radiation is higher, and the roof is subjected to high heat and to thermal shock due to sudden cooling during summer rains. So you want to check the roof before the severe season to prepare the roof for its ordeal to come and once after it has weathered the season to repair any problems that happened during.

To keep your roof in top shape, call us today to have your roof setup on an evaluation schedule.

Roofing Maintenance. From the August 2010 issue of Building Operating Management magazine. The facililities management resource.

via Regular Roofing Maintenance: When to Inspect the Roof.

The General Services Administration (GSA) offers products, services, and facilities that the Federal agencies require. Businesses registered with the GSA have the opportunity to sell billions of dollars worth of products and services to the Federal Government, because they are the centralized component for the Federal Government’s procurement. LESCO Restorations is currently in the process of registering for GSA’s “Facilities Maintenance and Management” schedule. $66 billion of procurement is managed by GSA annually. Where there is an opportunity, LESCO will not stop from any obstacles to pursue that opportunity. Working with GSA to gain long-term contracts will be an essential part of our Government Services Division.

http://www.bnet.com/blog/government/slowing-down-government-contracting/2300?tag=mantle_skin;content