Deciding to begin a home renovation can be an exciting new endeavor. But before you head to the home improvement store make sure that you have done your research concerning factors like contractors, materials, equipment and cost. Otherwise, you could be for a much longer and more expensive project than you anticipated.

There are several components that can determine the nature of your renovation project and it’s important to give serious attention to all of them. Before you embark on any adventure, make sure that you think about exactly what you want. This way, you can have more control and better decision making ability surrounding the choices, budgets and substitutions that will undoubtedly be made.

Unless you decide to the work yourself, you are going to have to hire a contractor. Selecting a contractor is going to be crucial part of your renovation project. Depending on the kind of home renovation you are doing, you should narrow your contractor search to those specializing in your unique project. For example, some contractors have more experience in restoring or renovating older homes while some have better experience in the general renovations. When you are trying to decide between contractors, be sure to perform background checks and look for reviews of that contractor’s previous work. If he or she is particularly reliable, they will even offer references of their previous employers for you to contact. Get contractors to compete for your contract so that you can get the best price for the best quality of work. Once you have decided on a contractor to work with be sure to look over the contract thoroughly. Have clarity regarding matters like permits and fees, products and materials to be used, the terms of payment and be sure to outline the consequences of default.

Materials along with labor will likely be the two factors that take up most of your renovation budget. You can expand your budget by purchasing more cost-effective materials but you also run the risk of having substandard building materials in your renovation. For some homes, this may not be a serious issue. For others, a lack of quality materials could lead to building problems which will cost more time and money. The suggestion is to go with lower-cost fixtures, small things like doorknobs, flooring, and accessories. Higher priced materials should be spent on more important aspects of renovation like plumbing, electricity, and foundational work.

When you select a contractor to work with be sure to ask them what kind of equipment they plan to use on your home renovation. Will they be using heavy utility vehicles like bulldozers and construction trucks to be moving supplies and debris? What about protecting you and your family while this renovation is taking place? If the contractor mentions that they are using cable and hose protectors from Brahman Systems than you can trust they know quality and they care about protection. Our cable and hose protectors are perfect for home renovations because they can withstand up to 125,000 pounds of pressure and are reinforced with steel. In addition, our cable and hose protectors cost less than other competitors.

Lastly, remember your budget. There are so many homeowners that put themselves into serious debt because they aren’t realistic about their spending options and because they try to build out of their means. While you may want your home to look the beautiful mansions in the magazines, remember that it might be difficult to enjoy your beautiful home if you are too busy working and worrying about how you are going to pay off the renovation bill. Spend within your means and renovate according to what is practical, not what’s popular.

Working in construction can be one of the most rewarding and one of the most dangerous job fields. When you are building a structure, you have a sense of pride knowing that without you and your team, what is now a beautiful building or home, would not be there. Unfortunately, on the way to becoming a beautiful structure, sometimes accidents happen and people are hurt. With the various amounts of industrial equipment, construction tools and other hazards, working in this rewarding field can be extremely dangerous if the proper measures and precautions are not taken from the beginning.

Construction equipment is designed to be as safe as possible but when injuries occur it is often because of equipment malfunction. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) the most common injury causing accidents on construction sites are falls from heights, trench collapse, the failure to use protective equipment, and electrical shock particularly the design and protection of wiring methods. The most likely equipment to cause injuries are things like scaffolds, ladders, and lack of electrical foresight. Whether it is because of a budget cut, safety oversight or just lack of planning, when you leave things like construction equipment to chance, employees and business suffer tremendously.

While you can reinforce an employee to make sure they don’t fall and regularly check your equipment to make sure it is functioning properly, what can be done about electrical safety on construction sites? OSHA recommends to “protect flexible cords and cables from damage” and that “sharp corners and projections should be avoided.” For many construction sites, something as small as a few misplaced wires hardly turns a head but there are various scenarios in which unprotected wiring can pose major risk to both equipment and employees.

Lots of construction sites employ the old “coverboard” idea when it comes to protecting their wiring. However, a piling of wood boards laid atop a pile of wires does not a safety measure make. While you may be wearing gloves and rubber soles to protect from electrocution, when you leave wiring unprotected, you risk damage to the wires, cable and hoses. While that may seem insignificant to some, these parts connect to larger equipment. When a piece is broken or damaged, the larger part cannot work to it’s maximum potential. So employees have to work harder and run the risk of electrical shock or bodily damage trying to fix a problem that can be easily solved with industrial building ramps from Brahman Systems.

When you use the steel-reinforced ramps made by Brahman Systems, you can be reassured that your wires, hoses and cables are protected from industrial vehicles and other hazards on the site. They are tested numerous times and can withstand 125,000 pounds of pressure, so don’t worry about your bulldozers and trucks, these ramps can handle it. No more throwing wires around and having hanging cables all over your site. Instead, you can have them all safely placed in one area and then work around them. What could be easier? Think about the amount of job site risk you are decreasing along with a safer, better work experience on your construction site with Brahman Systems protecting you.

City infrastructure is a very important part of civic government’s responsibilities. The maintenance of every city is different but none is more inconsistent than New Orleans. Because the city is built on water, the roadways and structure of the city change often. Streets are often littered with potholes and the lower points of the city flood often because the city is below sea level. This leads to cars needed suspension upgrades often and city-wide flooding every time there is a major thunderstorm.

But if New Orleans experiences these problems, than other cities likely do as well. Any city that experiences flooding, especially during the summer months, can understand the danger that comes with these kind of events. Homes have water damage, traffic becomes backed up and the city’s sewage and water system suffers from the overwhelming input.

When this occurs the city’s Sewage and Water Board has to go around to different parts of the city and fix the underbelly of the city’s infrastructure. This requires the use of large hoses to be scattered across city streets and residential neighborhoods in the hopes of fixing the situation. But if these hoses are crossing streets, they need to be protected by strong hose protectors like the ones made by Brahman Systems. They are reinforced with steel and can withstand over 125,000  pounds making them the ideal for construction, the film industry and civic maintenance. Hose protectors can allow for vehicles and the maintenance equipment to successfully move over the hoses without damage or entanglement. There is nothing worse than having to undo a tangle when dealing with a sewage system.

In addition to a city’s Sewage and Water Board, those involved in the maintenance of electrical and telephone wires may also need to use cable protectors in their daily work. When they are working on phone poles on electric boxes, having wires just lying about can be quite dangerous. They can fall and land in someone’s property, become tangled in a vehicle or just malfunction due to disorganization. By having cable covers on these wires, vehicles can easily avoid them or drive over them and workers can do their job knowing that their equipment isn’t in danger of becoming damaged.

Regardless of what part of civic maintenance you are involved in, having your equipment protected will allow you to do your job better and will protect your project as well. With hose and cable protectors, performing the crucial tasks around the city’s infrastructure will benefit citizens and help keep those that work in that field safe.

People tend to assume that the biggest part of a film are the actors and the directors. On the contrary, there are hundreds of people and tons of equipment that go into making your favorite blockbusters.

The most important person on a movie set is undoubtedly the equipment manager. He or she is the one responsible for getting all of the critical tools that producers and directors need while filming. Things like cameras, sound equipment, wiring, and electrical features are all a part of his job description. Now, that sounds like a lot to take care of, so it’s safe to assume that sometimes things fall through the cracks.

For many on film sets, the amount of electrical wires and filming cables can be daunting. It seems like they are everywhere, covering the ground, hanging from the ceiling, everywhere. Not only are these cables needed for powering the filming equipment, they are needed to provide electricity to trailers, food tents, hair and makeup studios and so many other necessary elements of the movie-making business. 

Keeping track of these millions of wires, cables and cords can be quite the task. Often, people just find a piece of plywood and throw it on top of the multitude of wires. This is a risky idea for many reasons. By placing a board on several wires in that manner, you are damaging the wires themselves. This causes the equipment or machinery to not work as effectively putting not only the production in a dangerous place but putting the technicians that operate that equipment could be in danger as well.

Furthermore, when vehicles like vans, trucks, trailer trucks and other industrial production automotives come onto the set, they roll and crush the cables and wires. Any film industry executive will tell you, filming equipment is not cheap, so when an integral part is damaged, it can mean that the entire piece of equipment is unsalvageable. Not to mention the inherent danger other film workers will be in when dealing with this kind of structure. If someone trips, falls or hurts themselves on a misplaced wire, the studio will be held liable. These kind of incidents put production dates in jeopardy, puts the movie’s release behind and cause a large amount of time and money to be spent correcting the problem.

If more filming companies used cable covers, this problem would not be as prevalent. When you use steel-reinforced cable protectors from Brahman Systems, you are guaranteed the safety of your cables, hoses and electrical wires. Brahman Systems is changing the standard in cable covers by making theirs capable of withstanding more than 125,000 pounds, making it the ideal for filming sites. 

Whether you’re filming indoors, outdoors, on location or in the studio, you have to think about even the smallest of details. When you’re not, these small details can become big problems. So do your production company, your film and yourself a favor and get the best cable protectors you can get from Brahman Systems.