Flooring industry retailers suffered the effects of the economic recession that hit in 2008 as consumers limited their spending, housing starts fell to their lowest level since 1959, more carpet business went to big-box outlets, and Internet vendors became the fastest growing sales sector.

The effects of the recession still linger in the Central Valley, especially within the building industry. The fallout from the crash of the housing market is still very much evident for local general contracting firms.

Remodelers can now see how their businesses stack up against their competition with a new publication from the National Association of Home Builders, the 2012 edition of the Remodelers’ Cost of Doing Business Study.

Few sectors of the area’s economy have dramatized the area’s painfully slow overall economic recovery from the Great Recession like commercial construction.

Commercial real estate vacancies may not be the sexiest economic indicator, but it is an important barometer of whether businesses are starting up, expanding or contracting.

Most successful entrepreneurs develop innovative concepts by thinking outside the box, but for Scott Monday, thinking inside the box – the kitchenBOX – has produced a winning formula.

STOCKTON – Crews are scheduled to close El Dorado Street between French Camp Road and McKinley Avenue each day for the next week.

Construction spending was up in October, driven largely by residential building, the Department of Commerce said today.

New high-speed measurement technology known as 3-D laser scanning or Light Detection and Ranging, or LiDAR, enables an accurate 3-D “picture” to be created in seconds with up to 2mm (one-sixteenth inch) accuracy. This powerful tool, about the size of a professional video camera, quickly measures everything within its sight at a range of up to 1,000 feet.

STOCKTON – Improvements on Pacific Avenue from Harding Way to the Calaveras River begin Monday.