The roof is arguably one of the most important components of a home. A badly installed roof or poor material selection can cause a literal trickle-down effect on everything below it. Roofs are important! Are you considering a job that is requesting slate roofing as your next project? Looking to suggest slate to future clients? Here are the pros and cons of this classic roof material.

There are a lot of tool and fastener options out there, at every price range. So what makes us different? At FASCO America®, we never sacrifice quality. It’s a defining characteristic of our brand. It drives everything we do. Here are 3 ways we provide better quality than our competitors.

Winter can be punishing to people that spend the rest of their year building outside. Those few months can make you feel restless… trapped. But just because you’re indoors doesn’t mean that you can’t do what you love. Put those idle hands to work on one of these excellent indoor home improvement projects.

Every time you walk down the hall, you’ll hear it. On the worst days, when you’re really in tune to it, you’ll stand right on top of it bouncing up and down wondering just what to do.  At night, when the house is asleep, you find ways to walk around it. But every day, you hear the tell-tale squeak of your subfloor; reminding you that there is a problem and you need to fix it. But how?

FASCO America^®, the North American distributor of BECK Fastener Group^®products, is proud to announce its new partnership with MEZGER Heftsysteme GmbH , a Signode^® Industrial Group subsidiary. FASCO America^® will now be the master distributor of the extensive MEZGER line of modular stapling heads for machine mounting, automated fastening systems for industrial applications, as well as their hand held stapling tools for carton closing in the United States and Mexico.

Where to start, where to start?  So many business books, lecture series, and online seminars exist offering secrets and takeaways to surviving in competitive markets.  This could easily turn into a bullet list of suggestions, but we would rather offer a secret that your competitors may not even know about just yet!

As a distributor of construction tools, fasteners and parts, we have great respect for well-done construction. We believe every job you take on should be completed with skill, care and attention to detail. A well executed job should last. But just because it’s built to last, doesn’t mean it needs to be built slowly. Here are some top reasons why we love pneumatic tools, combination fasteners and the speed they provide.

The Steel Framing Alliance indicates that more than 40 percent of commercial structures are now built with metal studs and nearly 500,000 homes have been built with steel framing over the past decade.  Times have certainly changed as steel studs have gained popularity. Even though they are more costly than the traditional wood stud, they offer superior quality and strength to the structure once installed. 

The topic of construction fasteners isn’t always fascinating. They are simply tiny pieces of metal we use to join two pieces of material together.  If it’s a quality fastener and installed properly, you never have a second thought about that one piece of metal. But, if it’s poorly made or poorly installed, that little piece can give you big problems. Here are the characteristics of a good fastener.

A good fastener needs to be usable in multiple applications and environments. A few examples include decking (both composite and traditional wood), fencing, crating, subflooring, framework and hobby building. Some jobs are better suited to a nail, some to a screw. A combination fastener can give you the best qualities of both traditional options.

Finish options

Once you find a fastener that fits your project, you need to select from multiple finishes that vary in both cost and style. Exposed fastener work may require stainless steel. If you don’t have the budget for it, another option is the SCRAIL® which can be electro-galvanized or FasCoat® plated.

If you are working with a homeowner that is considering a slate roof then you know the financial commitment involved. There’s no getting around the fact that slate roofs are more expensive than most traditional roofing options. But don’t let them quickly disregard slate on cost alone.