How we pick stories
Hard Hat Report is a daily digest of construction news for contractors, subcontractors, tradespeople and people building their own homes. Our focus is the US market, and we also follow the biggest projects and failures around the world. The trade press writes for executives at large firms, and forums cover one jobsite at a time. We sit in between: the news that changes how you bid, build and run a crew, in a few minutes a day.
Where the news comes from
We read trade publications, releases from public agencies such as OSHA, the Department of Labor and the Justice Department, local newsrooms across the US and construction news from other countries. We also follow trade educators on YouTube and conversations among tradespeople. When several outlets cover the same story, we group them and link to all of them.
What we keep
A story makes the cut when it affects people who do the work: who won a job and what is out to bid, failures and citations you can learn from, prices and rules that change your margins, and methods worth trying. Personnel announcements, product ads and press releases dressed up as news stay out.
- Contracts. Who won what, for how much, and where the work is.
- Fails & scandals. Collapses, citations, lawsuits and fraud. What went wrong and why.
- Megaprojects. The biggest jobs in the US and around the world, from groundbreaking to topping out.
- Business. Prices, tariffs, payments, labor, law and the money side of contracting.
- Jobsite hacks. Methods, tools and hard-won lessons from people who do the work.
- Build lab. 3D printing, mass timber, robots, new materials and other experiments.
- Owner builds. Private builds and renovations: what they cost and what owners learned.
- Numbers. Spending, starts, prices and other figures that move the market.
How we write
Every story is written in our own words from the original reporting and links to its sources. We don’t republish articles or photos. Our editorial standards explain how we use AI, how we handle allegations and how to ask for a correction.
Languages
We publish in English and translate stories into Russian, Ukrainian, Portuguese, Spanish and French. Some stories appear in English first and are translated later.