The one cry we hear from building owners is, “There are never enough shutoff valves where you need them.”

The U.S. is seeing about 10,000 baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) retire per day. That means every day we lose knowledge from our industry due to retirements. The fact that so much of the construction industry is experience- or knowledge-based work makes this fact especially sobering, but the challenges don’t end there.

Recently, I had the opportunity to go on a fishing trip. It was a “deep-sea” excursion from the northern tip of Plum Island in New England. The recommended method of trickery was to put some pieces of squid on a hook, weight the line with a 16-ounce hunk of lead and let it sink to the bottom of the ocean.

Unintended consequences, that close cousin of mislaid plans, can claim some responsibility for a current conundrum: low-flow fixtures paired with existing oversized piping helped create the growing crisis of legionella bacteria.

Thermal storage is an integral part of most hydronic systems that have renewable energy heat sources. Systems with solar thermal collectors or biomass boilers are prime examples.

Businesses that last share common traits. For example, they have written ownership agreements with key terms; they are structured to prevent conflicts and disputes between co-owners; and they have planned for timely succession to manage next-generation expectations and prevent frustration.

As recently as four years ago, the specification rate for automatic sensor faucets in commercial applications was close to 28%.

There are four remaining state-written plumbing codes used in the United States. You could say that the remaining four states are just stubborn. Maybe they think they do it better than the model plumbing codes, but they don’t.

With winter in full swing, do you find yourself dreaming of a warm summer day on a pier with a drink in your hand?

Ten years ago, I wrote a column that I entitled “No lead is good lead.” The column raised a number of eyebrows and is still quoted today. Actually, that column was written well after my first involvement with lead. I first got involved with lead in drinking water concerns in the early 1980s. I was interviewed for the Chicago local news in 1986 regarding lead in the Chicago drinking water.