Special Registration Discounts Offered Through September

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) officially opened online registration today for the 2019 NAHB International Builders’ Show® (IBS), the largest annual light construction trade show in the world.

Celebrating its 75th anniversary, the show will return to the Las Vegas Convention Center, Feb. 19-21, after a two-year stint in Orlando, Fla.

The 2019 IBS will again co-locate with the National Kitchen & Bath Association’s (NKBA) Kitchen & Bath Industry Show® (KBIS) for the 6th annual Design & Construction Week® (DCW). The two shows are expected to host more than 2,000 exhibiting brands spanning over a million net square feet of exhibit space, for the largest annual gathering of the residential design and construction industry.

“As we kick off our 75th anniversary of the International Builders’ Show, we are thrilled to bring even more exciting offerings to our attendees than ever before,” said NAHB Chairman Randy Noel, a custom home builder from LaPlace, La. “There is truly nowhere else that you can find such an array of innovative products, education sessions, special events and networking opportunities all in one place. This is the biggest show for the housing industry and is not one to be missed.”

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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Monday released a set of 53 frequently asked questions – and their answers – to provide guidance to employers and employees on its respirable crystalline silica standard for construction.

Through the Construction Industry Safety Coalition, NAHB was an important contributor to the formulation of this FAQ. The development stemmed from litigation filed against OSHA by numerous construction industry trade associations challenging the legality of the new silica rule.

NAHB will continue to look for ways to work with OSHA to improve the workability of this significant rule.

The FAQ is extensive and organized by topic. A short introductory paragraph is included for each group of questions; the answers appear in an expanded box when each question is clicked.

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The green building sector is getting ready for the Jan. 1, 2019 deadline for all HERS raters to use an amendment that puts smaller homes on a level playing field.

As was previously reported, RESNET’s index adjustment factor was developed because larger homes were found to have 20% better (lower) HERS scores for the same energy measure. As the floor area or number of home stories increased, the index went down because of a mathematical quirk in the way the formula was written.

“We found that if you keep the material properties the same — such as thermal efficiency, walls, ceilings and floors — and just increase the floor area of the home, larger homes did better on the HERS index,” said Philip Fairey, deputy director of the Florida Solar Energy Center. “This amendment evens out the difference between large and small homes constructed with the same building envelope. It makes the two homes behave more alike.”

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