According to the state Department of Labor and Industries, the day after Thanksgiving is the busiest day of the year for plumbers. It seems washing all that grease and food down the drain, plus extra house guests, puts a strain on the plumbing.

Before hiring a plumber, L&I recommends the following:

1. Ask the plumber for his or her state license that shows they are a certified residential or journeyman plumber.
2. Make sure the company the plumber works for is registered with the state as a general contractor or specialty plumbing contractor. You can use L&I’s contractor look up tool to find that information.
3. Make sure plumber trainees still learning the trade are supervised by a certified plumber while on the job. That is a requirement.

My advice: Don’t pour grease down the sink. My last plumbing bill was better associated with Halloween.

Mini tillers with Honda engines have been recalled by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission because of a fire hazard. They were sold under the Honda and Mantis nameplates.

The problem is a rubber grommet on the fuel tank can crack and leak fuel. No injuries have been reported due to the defect.

The recall affects about 6,150 units with Honda GX25 mini four-stroke engines. The Honda tiller model number is FG110 with serial numbers GCALT 1696948 to 1700567. The Mantis tillers are model numbers 7262 and 7270 with serial numbers GCART 1165215 to 1171495. Serial numbers can be found on the engine near the fuel cap.

The tillers were sold from March to September this year for about $400 at Honda Power Equipment dealers, The Home Depot, mail order and catalog houses, and other power equipment dealers.

The engines were made in Thailand and assembled in the U.S.

If you have one of these tillers, contact any Honda Power Equipment dealer or Honda engine dealer (Mantis only) to have the fuel tank replaced for free. Owners of either of the defective tillers can call (888) 888-3139 or visit www.hondapowerequipment.com; Mantis owners can also call (800) 366-6268 or visit www.mantis.com.

Did you know that nearly 900 workers are injured in falls from ladders in this state every year? That’s what Labor and Industries claims, and the agency adds that the fall risk goes up during the holidays when workers hang lights and decorations, then take them down in January.

Last year, L&I  inspectors cited several employees for ladder safety violations related to holiday decorating, including workers hanging decorations from elevated platforms without fall protection, workers standing on top of ladders and other cases of improper ladder use.

L&I offers these 10 tips for ladder safety when hanging decorations:

1. Carefully inspect the ladder for defects, checking for cracks, corrosion and that bolts and rivets are secure. Tag and remove unsafe ladders from service.

2. Make sure the ladder’s feet work properly and have slip-resistant pads.

3. Use a fiberglass ladder if there is any chance of contact with electricity.

4. When setting the ladder, look for a safe location with firm, level footing and rigid support for the top of the ladder. Be sure to set it at an angle per the manufacturer’s guidance.

5. When climbing off a ladder at an upper level, make sure the ladder extends three feet above the landing.

6. When climbing the ladder, use three points of contact – keep one hand and both feet or both hands and one foot in contact with the ladder at all times.

7. Never carry any load that could cause you to lose balance.

8. Never stand on top of a ladder.

9. Don’t pull, lean, stretch or make sudden moves on a ladder that could cause it to tip over. A scaffold or other safe working surface may be a better choice for your task.

10. Avoid setting the ladder near exit doors, near the path of pedestrian or vehicular traffic.

For more information on ladder safety, visit www.Lni.wa.gov/Safety and look under “L” for ladder.

A thief evidently cased out an Andersen Construction jobsite in Everett on Nov. 6 before coming back three days later to steal 16 or 17 spools of #10 stranded wire. According to a report from the Construction Industry Crime Prevention Program of the Pacific Northwest, 41,000 feet of wire was taken.

The perpetrator first visited the site on a Saturday dressed as a construction worker and claiming to be an employee of Otis Elevator. He talked to workers about where to place his trailer and the location of temporary power for his machine room. He showed some paperwork (which later turned out to be a door hardware packing slip from 2003) and left an Otis employee handbook on the site. As it turns out, Otis is not a subcontractor on the project.

The following Tuesday, two workers noticed a suspicious person removing materials from a staging area in the parking lot. By the time they reached the staging area, the suspect was in his car. The workers stopped the driver and questioned him. When they realized he was stealing wire, one worker walked to the back of the vehicle to get the license plate number and called 911, while the other reached inside the car to accept paperwork the suspect offered. The suspect then grabbed the worker’s arm and sped off, dragging him 100 feet.

The worker went to the hospital with minor injuries. The suspect got away, but Snohomish County deputies may have identified him through mug shots.

The Crime Prevention Program is asking recyclers to be on the lookout for the spools of blue Cerrowire. Call 911 if you see the materials.

Washington Women in Trades’ latest calendar — A Good Hand — is hot off the press. Like the past three calendars, the 2011 edition focuses on 12 Northwest women who worked as “Rosie the Riveter” during World War II. Now in their 80s and 90s, the women worked in airplane factories, shipyards and other industrial sites.

The calendar has biographical information on the women, as well as vintage black-and-white photos of each. Calendars are $20 each and can be purchased online at www.wawomenintrades.com/merchandise.html.

Want to know more about these women? You can meet them on Veterans Day between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. U.S. veterans and current military can get into the museum for free on that day.

Will 2011 be the year things turn around for the construction industry?  Economists are generally saying yes…but they tend to qualify their “yes” with phrases like “kinda sorta”, “relatively speaking”, and “if everything goes right”.  One thing that’s not going particularly well is the cost of doing business.  L&I just announced that workers’ comp premiums for construction will be going up 16 percent in 2011 (12 percent for business on average).  That increase will take effect on January 1; the ultimate rate might be tweaked after public hearings to be held in January.

Keep in mind that the workers’ comp premium increase is on top of the 40-plus percent increase in 2011 unemployment insurance rates announced a few months ago.  The Employment Security Department announced in July that the average employer’s unemployment insurance tax is projected to go from 2.39 percent this year to 3.36 percent in 2011. Combined with an increase in the taxable wage base, it means that employers will see around a 42 percent increase in unemployment insurance costs.

Legislative changes are needed to sidetrack these large increases (and future ones).  L&I said they held the increase to only 16 percent by cutting $200 million from its budget.  Administrative savings are a good thing.  But what’s needed even more are systemic changes like improvements to the workers’ comp system that allow employers, employees and L&I to use final settlement agreements to close claims; clarify the definition of occupational disease; expand managed care networks for injured workers; and simplify the process for calculating worker benefits by using a flat rate and four-quarter income averaging.  With regard to unemployment insurance, the Legislature should consider smoothing out the rate hike so it doesn’t occur all at one time.

No doubt the Legislature will be on the spot next year to balance the budget without raising taxes, as emphatically required by voters. A good way to do that is to facilitate economic growth and to not let dramatically increasing costs derail the fledgling recovery of the local construction market. 

There have been good ideas out there to not merely cut programs but to reform them in ways that promote the growth of businesses and the tax revenues they provide.  Hopefully the 2011 Legislature, with its dozens of new Legislators, will be willing to take a fresh look.

The city of Seattle wants builders to stick a sock in it. No, the city isn’t being mean, it just wants to protect the environment by reminding construction crews that they need to have storm drain inserts — or “socks” — installed at their jobsites.

The inserts catch sediment not captured upstream by other erosion control devices on the jobsite.

In addition to having the socks in place, contractors also have to:
•    Conduct regular inspections, especially after big storms. In general, the socks should be cleaned or replaced when one-third of their storage is filled with sediment.
•    Refrain from washing sediment into storm drains while cleaning the socks.
•    Remove the socks within 5 days after the site is finished and stabilized, or after best management practices are no longer needed, whichever is longer. If socks are removed during a flood, the contractor is responsible for re-installing them.

Rules for sock use can be found at www.seattle.gov/dpd/Publications/Forms/Building_Permit

Above:  Memorial for Officer Timothy Brenton unveiled in the Leschi neighborhood.  (Photo by Jon Reece, General Manager, Quiring Monuments, Inc.)

Here’s another example of the community spirit of the area’s construction industry.

A year ago Seattle Police Officer Timothy Brenton was gunned down as he sat in his patrol car in the Leschi neighborhood. On Sunday – the one-year anniversary of his death – the Leschi community, with an assist from Ferguson Construction, unveiled a memorial to the slain officer.

The memorial is built at the site of Brenton’s death, on the parking strip on 29th Avenue, north of its intersection with Yesler Way. It features a Norwegian blue-pearl granite stone shield with Brenton’s badge number (6699) that sits atop a strip of polished black granite. Radiating out from the badge are slats of flame-finished granite with words chosen by the Brenton family to describe him, like “brave” and “compassionate”. Seattle-based Quiring Monuments donated 1,200 pounds of granite and the labor to install the monument.

“I don’t have any personal connection to the neighborhood, but something about the project resonated with me,” said Gene Colin, Ferguson’s CEO. “And knowing the difficulties the community group was going to run into getting it built on time, I knew we could help them get through it.”

Gene heard about the project serendipitously – he was driving in his car listening to KIRO Radio’s “Ron and Don Show”, which was featuring the Leschi neighborhood group’s desire to build the memorial. Gene called into the show offering any help his company could provide. Gene later connected with Robert Cipollone, who helped lead the neighborhood committee that developed the memorial.

Although Gene offered to undertake the project entirely, the neighborhood group wanted the project to be a grassroots effort. Gene agreed to standby, with Ferguson willing to undertake whatever tasks were needed to get the memorial completed in a short time frame.

“Robert said the group was up against it and needed help with a key permit,” Gene said. Todd Vacura, Ferguson’s President and COO, helped them get it. “Todd got all the drawings from Jeff Flood of Miller Hull Architects, and went with the neighborhood group to walk through the process and got the permit in five hours.”

The crew then needed help demolishing the sidewalk and repouring it per city specs. “We helped with tools like jackhammers and a box for demo debris, and we pulled guys off of other projects and got it done,” Gene said. Ferguson then poured the concrete frame for the city-donated pavers. Democon and Hertz Rentals were among the firms assisting in the effort.

“Contractors should give back,” said Gene. “To employees first, the community second, and the industry third. That’s our culture here at Ferguson. And this project provided an opportunity for us to help. We were happy to do it.”