Art can make your new space feel like home. But interior design comes last, so renovation overruns can end wiping out budgets for art work.

If your budget is tight, consider archival prints from the world’s great museums instead of original art work. They are an affordable way to showcase great art that you love, liven up your space, and start conversations.  At 1000Museums.com you can browse exhibitions and collections at reknowned museums like the Guggenheim, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Louvre. You’ll also find first rate collections like PIcasso’s Black and White, the Royal Geographic Society and Dreamworks Animation SKG.

For not a lot of money, 1000Museums.com ships the museum quality, framed archival prints straight to your door.  The new BuildZoom headquarters will likely feature archival prints of our favorite Frank Lloyd Wright drawings.  Stay tuned for more on our big move!

The best way is simply to install the bu.mp app on your iPhone or Android phone.  It’s a free app, and it makes the process of moving photos from a phone to a computer incredibly easy.

It’s extremely important for contractors to take pictures of their projects both before and after they are finished.  Every project, not just the ones you are most proud of.

Before/after photos will give you a huge edge if a homeowner ever decides to wrongly take legal action against you.  More importantly, photographs of great work is the single best way to convert a potential customer into a paying one.

So start taking pictures, even if it’s just with your phone (with a digital camera would be even better).  And when you do, copy them to your computer and then upload them to BuildZoom.

They had received one estimate from a contractor, who had recommended that they fully replace their floors.  The homeowner was a little shocked by the price estimate – - after all, the damage was relatively minor.

The homeowner was in a predicament: they wanted to hire a contractor to fix the problem however they were not 100% what the right solution was.

We decided to share their predicament with the BuildZoom community and were blown away when we received over 300 answers from experts across the country.

The success of the experiment has compelled us to build a section of our site that is entirely devoted to answering home improvement questions.

The rules are pretty simple:

1. We’ll oversee the posting of questions to the forum. 
2. Only registered contractors on BuildZoom will be invited to answer questions, based on their trade and in some cases, their location.  To respect your time, we won’t e-mail you about questions more than once per month.
3. Contractors will be awarded a bonus to their BuildZoom score based on the quantity and quality of their answers.
4. The answers will also show up on their BuildZoom profile so people interested in hiring them will be able to get a better feel for their level of expertise.

Over half-a-million homeowners come to BuildZoom each month with a home improvement project.  Not all of them are ready to hire; some are looking to learn more about their challenge.  The answers forum is just one more way we are trying to create a connection between these prospects and high quality contractors.

To check out BuildZoom Answers, go here: http://www.buildzoom.com/answers

Do you have any advice?  Leave your comments in the form below:

FEMA’s Website offers a variety of recommendations for what homeowners should do during a hurricane:

• Secure your home, close storm shutters and secure outdoor objects or bring them indoors.
• Turn off utilities if instructed to do so. Otherwise, turn the refrigerator thermostat to its coldest setting and keep its doors closed.
• If you live in a high-rise building – hurricane winds are stronger at higher elevations.
• If you live in a mobile home or temporary structure – such shelter are particularly hazardous during hurricane no matter how well fastened to the ground.
• Close all interior doors – secure and brace external doors.
• Take refuge in a small interior room, closet or hallway on the lowest level.

Please share your advice in the comment form below – the more details you can provide, the better.  One of our senior editors will compile the best recommendations into a story we will be publishing later today.

The survey was designed to understand contractor’s perspectives on several major questions:

1. Which candidate would have a more positive influence on the economy?

Contractors were asked to select which candidate they trusted to handle several key areas of the economy: job creation, taxation, the budget deficit and general economic growth.  Contractors showed a consistent preference for Mitt Romney in all four areas:

2. Who would make a better president?

When asked who would make a better US president, nearly 3/4 of respondents indicated their support for Mitt Romney:

Respondents were asked to justify their response and closer content analysis of their responses revealed two major themes amongst Romney supporters.  First, contractors generally felt that Romney had more business experience, which would translate into better results for the US economy.  According to Steve Vander Vies, President of Vander Vies Construction, “Romney would be a better  president because of his business sense.  Obama has no business experience at all.  He has been on the taxpayers payroll his entire life and the thing he does best is spend (our) tax dollars.”

Second, contractors were driven by general dissatisfaction with Obama.  One respondent noted, “I am not saying (Romney) is the right one.  I am simply voting against Obama.”  The following word cloud was generated from the open-ended responses from Romney supporters and indicates a consistent focus on Obama’s weaknesses (as opposed to Romney’s strengths).

Pro-Obama contractors pointed to Obama’s character while also expressing their belief in Obama’s empathy for the middle class.  Several respondents also expressed concern with Romney’s “Wall Street” background: “Character, character, character. Who would trust a corporate raider with the presidency?”  The following word cloud represents open-ended responses from pro-Obama contractors:

3. How has the Recovery Act helped the construction industry? 

Contractors were also asked to evaluate how the Recovery Act has benefited the construction industry.  Nearly half (47%) reported that the Recovery Act hasn’t helped at all while 33% responded that it has helped “a little.”

A majority of contractors (77%) reported that they had not been provided with enough information on how to take advantage of Recovery Act opportunities.  The general sentiment seemed to be that the Recovery Act primarily helped larger businesses.  According to one respondent, “I need more information about how it can help a small construction business.  I know it has helped put laborers back to work for the big prime contractors and mid size contractors.”

Overall, remodeling and construction contractors are intently keeping an eye on the upcoming elections.  Although there are some indications the industry is improving, the close tie between the industry and the economy as a whole, has contractors paying close attention to the upcoming elections.  As Ryan Schreen, Owner of Landmark Cast Stone explains, ”Although each presidential election is important, the upcoming vote is particularly paramount in shaping the next 4 years as a small business owner.  The key platform issues like healthcare reform, tax rates, policies affecting access to capital and loans, and governmental regulation will have a direct impact on economic stimulation and the health of the entrepreneurial/small business sectors.  In order to survive, we need to make our voices heard in Washington and cast our votes with a lens on the aforementioned issues.”

About the survey 

The survey represents feedback from 237 licensed contractors, registered on BuildZoom.  Respondents were asked to indicate the size of their company (by number of employees) and party affiliation:

Update (10/4/2012) – We have been getting several questions about our selection methodology, particularly regarding the uneven distribution of respondents by political affiliation.  To clarify, the goal of the research project was to focus on political perspectives of contractors (not necessarily an even sampling of registered republican contractors and registered democrat contractors).  The research showed a skew in terms of party affiliation, which was part of what we were trying to assess.  According to the data, the industry itself skews republican/independent compared to the general population.

Additionally, contractors were asked to indicate the state they are registered to vote in.  The following keyword cloud helps explain the regional breakdown of survey respondents:

Coverage of this story: 

• Compact Equipment Online (10/4/2012) – The Construction Industry Favors Romney in the Upcoming Presidential Election
• Global Economic Intersection (10/4/2012) - Survey: Construction Contractors Favor Romney
• Home Channel News (10/3/2012) - Obama or Romney? Contractors express their views 

This week, we took a closer look at the Arizona remodeling industry, which has shown growth over the past two quarters since hitting a 10-year low in Q4 of 2011.  In fact, in Q2 of 2012, the total number of new licenses issued was only 8% below the 10-year average.

To gain a more contextual perspective on the remodeling industry in Arizona, we overlaid the Zillow Home Value Index (the median valuation for the homes in the state according to Zillow) for the state over the past 10 years.

Although remodeling license activity follows a similar trend over time, we can see that it has outperformed the trend in housing prices over the past 10 quarters or so.  It’s possible that some of the growth has resulted from a federal stimulus package that accounted for nearly $7.75 billion, spread throughout 6,791 awards.

Respondents showed a higher degree of frequency using “earned marketing” tactics like their own Website, Facebook and SEO; than “paid marketing” tactics like Yellow Pages or ServiceMagic.  E-mail and mobile marketing also exhibited low rates of adoption amongst respondents.

We then asked respondents to select the marketing services they planned to invest more time and resources into, in the upcoming year.  Generally, respondents expected their allocation of investment across various marketing channels to remain relatively consistent, there was a significant increase in the projected investment of time and resources into Google AdWords.

In this article, we will share our findings on how contractors view their own Websites’ as well as some demographic information on the survey respondents to help others better extrapolate from our findings.  First, the demographics:

Size (by number of employees)

Based on their average number-of-employees, the typical BuildZoom members can be most accurately characterized as a small or medium-sized business (SMB).  About 90% of our members represent businesses with 10 or fewer employees while 25% are “no-employee” businesses.

Trade Classification - The majority of respondents were either remodeling specialists (e.g. bathrooms, kitchens) or general contractors.  After those two trade classifications, there was a relatively stratified mix of more specialized trade classifications.

 Annual marketing expenditure – A typical BuildZoom member’s annual marketing expenditure ranges between 0 and $5,000 with 12.6% spending between $5,000 – %10,000 and 4.5% spending in excess of $20,000.

Website adoption – Over 75% of respondents had a personal Website, which might suggest that a typical BuildZoom user is more technologically sophisticated than a typical home improvement contractor given third-party findings.

 Satisfaction with current site – Respondents who reported having a Website were then asked to explain their level of satisfaction with their current Website.  Over 80% responded that they were either “satisfied” or “dissatisfied” with their current Website (which means about 40% of the overall population of respondents either were dissatisfied with their current site or did not have a site at all).

Benefits to having a Website – Finally, we asked respondents who had a Website about its main benefits.  The results suggested that BuildZoom members primarily viewed a Website as a tool for lead generation and cultivation: it’s main value was in finding new leads through SEO or in serving as a place to send prospective customers.

Consumer behavior is driven by both emotional and rational analysis.  Some consumers know exactly what they are looking for and simply want the data.  A separate segment of users are looking for a more emotional experience prior to beginning the consumer process and it is this segment that we are targeting with this release.

The new metro area home page provides users with a more visual experience that allows them to browse rated images from contractors in their area.  To-date, over 20,000 licensed contractors have contributed nearly 40,000 project photos and as our community continues to grow, we’ll continue to iterate the platform to ensure that their content is placed front-and-center.

Take a look and let us know what you think!