Shaping Spaces, Creating Memories Best Practices for Homebuilding and Trendsetting Design -Episode 49

Embark on a transformative journey through the highs and lows of homebuilding and remodeling with me, Chris Kirby. As we navigate the world of construction, we're not just laying foundations—we're building dreams, one beam at a time. Through the trials, triumphs, and drywall dust of the Kirby companies' past, I'll share the game-changing best practices that promise to redefine your next project. We talk financial foresight and operational excellence, showcasing our signature job site check sheet that keeps your endeavors ticking like a finely tuned engine. And for our subscribers, we've got detailed templates and resources to turn that efficiency up a notch—your blueprint to construction mastery awaits.

But there's more than just nuts and bolts in the world of home renovation. Prepare to pull back the curtains on the often-hidden mess that comes with transformation as we discuss the significance of dust-proofing and client preparation. The revelation phase post-demolition is where true resilience shines, unearthing the unexpected—water damage, structural surprises—and how to tackle them head-on. Then, we lay the groundwork for elegance with an in-depth look at self-leveling floors and framing finesse. To top off our toolbox of tips, an interior design maven joins us, dishing out the scoop on the latest design trends and cutting-edge products. Get ready to elevate your space with knowledge that's as solid as the homes we build.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The Homebuilding and Remodeling Show. Let's go. Welcome everybody to the Homebuilding and Remodeling Show. My name is Chris Kirby and I'll be your host. I am the owner of three construction companies on the Alabama Gulf Coast. The show is about residential construction. We're going to cover topics of homebuilding and remodeling. Are you thinking of doing a remodel or building a home? Are you a contractor looking to improve your knowledge base or grow your business? Have you ever done a remodel project or built a home? There were so many things you wish you knew or that you could have done differently during the process. Then this show is for you. We break down the process of building and remodeling and how to have the best results during your project. Whether you are DIY-er looking for tips, someone looking to hire a contractor to do a project, or a contractor looking to expand your knowledge base or your business, welcome aboard. Glad to have you. Stay tuned.

Speaker 1: 1:11

We kick off the show with my thoughts on homebuilding and remodeling. I'll share best practices and talk about some of our experiences in business and out in the field. These shared thoughts and lessons learned are meant to help you on your very own journey. Let's go. Okay, I'm excited because we always talk about how the homebuilding and remodeling show. We're on a mission to change the narrative about construction and construction workers, remodeling, homebuilding, our industry, and we've been working diligently here at the Kirby companies to make our companies better, and we talk about having a standard. The standard is the minimum. To be honest, we want to go above and beyond for our clients, for our employees, for anybody who comes in contact with us out in the community, and so this week, what we've been working on and I'll share all of this, especially with our subscribers that are subscribed to us via Instagram, tiktok, facebook, all of our social media platforms Some of the very specific things that are on the checklist that we use in our day-to-day operations, whether it's homebuilding, remodeling, what we do for our apprentices, things like that. I'm gonna go over that stuff, but that's gonna be mainly for our subscribers, because we put a lot of time, effort and energy into creating these sheets to make our companies better, and so we want that's a value add for our subscribers. So I'm gonna talk about it generally here. But the templates and everything you can actually get those or purchase those through our website. Just go on the home homebuildingandremodelingshowcom or the homebuildingshowcom and you can purchase these, these sheets, and I'll tell you, if I had a lot of this stuff when we first started out, I would be way beyond where we are now.

Speaker 1: 3:11

I define success as what the people who are, who surround me, what they are doing, and not necessarily it's not necessarily all about the money and entrepreneurship. Of course money is the fuel, but the fuel to what? And that's what you've got to ask yourself. So for us, we're contractors, but this applies to business in general. When you go out to start a business, you're on a mission to make money to provide for yourself, provide for your family. And again, when you start to grow, that money just becomes the fuel and you have to manage it right. Just like you can't let your car get to E, you can't let your money pot get to nothing, or you won't be able to sustain, survive. So for us, money's just a fuel.

Speaker 1: 4:01

But people are our mission, and what I mean by that is we define our success here at the Kirby companies as how our people are living, the quality of life that we can provide for them. And you know, from from the moment I was hired from the Navy to coming into the civilian world, I realized quickly that it's a different mindset in the workforce, and so in construction, that the people who are in construction, that start out in construction, that come to us and look over jobs, is very similar to what I saw in the, in the Navy, in the military, in that it's a very diverse population. When you're in the Navy, you see people from all over the world and they come together for a common purpose, a common mission, and they make stuff happen beyond what I've ever imagined I've seen people do. Coming from different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different socioeconomic statuses, come together for a common bond, and so in construction, it's the same thing. What we're trying to do is balance how people look at construction as their primary job, versus it's just something that they want to do because they can't do anything else, or they think they can't do anything else, and it's a low barrier to entry.

Speaker 1: 5:28

What we're doing at the Kirby companies is we're trying to demonstrate, show how you can take a individual contracting business and turn it into a bigger, growing company that is successful, and exactly how to do that. We're still learning ourselves. You know we've been blessed and now we have over 30 people that are part of the companies we've built. However, it started with three, and it was hard with three, it's hard with 30 and we're going to continue to grow, but we have found some things that have helped us sustain and grow and we want to share that. But over time, I mean, it's taken years of experience and doing that and so that's why these things that I show or talk about aren't necessarily for everyone. It's something that adds value to your business, so, anyway, so what we've been working on here at the Kirby companies is first, we'll talk about the job site check sheet.

Speaker 1: 6:28

There you go, and so this is inside of our binder here and we're going to give you best tips and practices. This is one of those that we've kind of developed over time and essentially what it is. And you see the little, you see the lanyard here, okay, and this right here, the ring, I mean, and we're going to put a lanyard on it and we're going to put this on every job site. So, if you don't know, we do home building and remodeling and interior design and we want this to be visible to our crews. We run, you know, crews out in the field. There's multiple crews that work directly for us and our crew leaders are responsible for this and what it is is a daily checklist, beginning and end, but actually it's a grade sheet, so we are going to hold them accountable using this grade sheet.

Speaker 1: 7:26

And now we move into shop talk. It's the portion of the show where I bring in a co-host and we cover trending topics in home building and remodeling. Hope you enjoy, let's go. We were talking about you would walk through the, through the demo part and what I got here actually just to kind of keep us on target. This is a burnout from a program we use. It's called Buildbook and we just kind of put it together, but it's a bathroom remodel template, and one of the things that we're starting to do now is we're phasing out all of our projects. Just like in home build, you've got a lot of phases a pre-construction, the site work phase, foundation phase, framing and stuff like that. Now bathroom remodels kind of work the same way, and so we're gonna pick up and talk about same thing we left off at demo. But yesterday, or what was it a few days ago, we were talking about how you can mess stuff up during demo.

Speaker 3: 8:26

Oh yeah, if you can destroy something. Maybe take out some stuff that you really Actually open up way more work than you were there to do, I know it could cost a lot of money Right.

Speaker 1: 8:38

You know what I mean. If you take out somebody's vanity, they wanted to keep or damage it Right. So most of it look and that's the problem A lot of our guys that go in there heavy, they're ready to.

Speaker 3: 8:50

So when you're not changing out a vanity in a bathroom that's getting gutted, you tend to bump it or scratch it and stuff like that all the time.

Speaker 1: 8:59

How do you prevent that though? Okay, so we've when you're in a mess, no, before they gotta start. You gotta lay out exactly where they're supposed to be.

Speaker 3: 9:07

Okay, this place is being protected. This is you know nowhere.

Speaker 1: 9:10

Cause you've been over. Demo, right. Okay, so you go in and you demo. Let's talk about something else. We've got on here SitePro and PreDemo. We're in there and we're putting protective coverings on stuff right, we're laying out a path.

Speaker 3: 9:28

But it was just when you know wherever the customer wants to use access for us to get the stuff out to the dump trailer. We make a path with X-Board all the way out. We sell off all the rooms, the doors to kind of try to keep the dust from getting all over their house. That's a huge one man.

Speaker 1: 9:48

I can't overemphasize the need to keep the dust down. People, if there's any complaint that we get, it is it's. That's gonna be it.

Speaker 3: 9:59

I mean, and you can't contain all of it, so dust is gonna get in a home that's got a remodel going on, especially through the eye camera and concrete or anything like that. There's only so much you can do, but you gotta be upfront with them too, to let them know that, hey, we'll have some money and then clean this.

Speaker 1: 10:19

And as part of setting that expectation, when you originally went out to do the bid, you talked about demolition and how it can get messed. You prepped them for. Not only that, but are you talking about where to park, where the dump just gonna be or dump trailer, depending on the size of word and then do our guys go in. And guys and girls let go in and lay out a path. So if you're walking, trekking through a master bedroom to get to the master bathroom, should we have a path?

Speaker 3: 10:52

There's definitely a path and there's paper on that path. From anywhere our guys are gonna walk in that home, there's paper. Because you don't want to, you'll see it on the paper after our job's been going on the foot, all the dust and stuff.

Speaker 1: 11:06

And kind of that bathroom. If there's one thing I could say, one huge tip I could give. A lot of times our work speaks for itself but it gets lost in doing the cleanliness and site safety. And so demo sets the tone for the entire project, Right, how much concern and care you show during the demo process. Not saying that you gotta take it easy, that's not what I'm trying to say at all but I mean it really does set the tone for the homeowner because that's probably the messiest part, right that. And then when you go to do any drywall or sanding or anything, upfront demo's the messiest part. They, our crews, go in, they do a site prep, they create the walking paths, they're putting paper down and making sure that they're not setting stuff in a tub or something. We had some issues with that. They go in and they do their demo. All right. Now, usually, once the demo's done is that's where you can really tell how the project's gonna go correct.

Speaker 3: 12:16

Yes.

Speaker 1: 12:17

And why is that though?

Speaker 3: 12:18

Usually because after the demo's done you really get to see what you're working with. Do I mean, let's say, we're at a home doing a bathroom because they had a leaky shower? Once you get demoed, you actually you know the stuff that you couldn't really tell was gonna be wrong. It's you wanna see if and a lot of times it's like changing the mostly a lot of it would be pulling out the insulation behind the old shower where it started to do stuff like that, and it's usually not as bad as what.

Speaker 1: 12:53

Or it blow, and then what about?

Speaker 3: 12:55

how do you address right or what appears to be mildew, mold, whatever right, usually if you can, a quarter of it, quarter inch On a two by four, something you can poke in. It needs to be changed. I Think it's like 15% of this kind of sort of it all fit'll be. Yeah like remediation for termites pretty much.

Speaker 1: 13:18

You're gonna pull it out and replace it especially if it's still wet.

Speaker 3: 13:22

I've got good.

Speaker 1: 13:24

Take that if it's wet, that means that protective barrier and sometimes, just depending on how old it is, they didn't do a really good job back in the day of waterproofing and understanding how to protect what's behind the balls. You're gonna go in, and especially kitchen and bath, right, you see it a lot where Water access is, where your plumbing is In the shower area, places like that, any place that has plumbing right right that's where you're gonna see some water damage, potentially in the floor, where they have Subfloor, maybe underneath and things like that.

Speaker 1: 14:01

You might see some rot, you might see some soft spots. You want to pull that stuff out. They've done the demo. They file, they found wetwood, rotten wood, whatever it is, and they've Made you a list.

Speaker 1: 14:15

Right, or made us a list right saying, hey, we're gonna need an extra two by fours and some extra materials. That's all part of the the demo phase and now we move to the rough-end phase. Once we get to the rough-end phase, that's where we're identifying where we're gonna frame up a knee wall, pony wall it's got a lot of different names. I'd like to hear what you guys call that. You know half wall, whatever it is. You're framing back the shower right? Sometimes we pretty much Emptied out the entire space because usually.

Speaker 3: 14:46

Well, most of the bathrooms we go in, we change in the footprint of the bathroom anyways. We're usually taking a little stall shower out and eliminating the closet, making a big shower. Or we're taking out a garden tub, putting in a new shower area and then using the old shower area for a new linen closet. After demo we start prepping to put everything back together. So if we took like tile flooring out, we're going ahead and self leveling all the floors.

Speaker 1: 15:15

Talk about self leveling and exactly for especially for a beginner audience. What is the requirement there? Now we're going to move into the portion of the show where we talk interior design. We're going to bring in an interior designer and we're going to talk trending design and products. Hope you enjoy, let's go. Tip number two would be always check on the product, periodically. Check on the product. Don't check it once and then assume, even two weeks from now it'll be Exactly.

Speaker 2: 15:53

And you can kind of have an idea of that, because usually when I find it I'll have an inventory amount or availability immediately given to me. Then, for instance, I'm working on one right now and the fans were low inventory when I found it Sure enough, they're out now, that's actually what I was doing when you-. And when I pulled you for this, I was adding their option too, so that I'm prepared, when that time comes, to order. It say okay, well, this was not available, or y'all good with this?

Speaker 1: 16:22

And here's the other kicker to that is because you have actually said hey, chris, can we order this today Cause it's low stock or last one, and you just gotta make it happen.

Speaker 2: 16:32

Or if it's a really good price.

Speaker 1: 16:34

It's on sale, right, that happens so much in the design world. It's on sale this month only, or whatever.

Speaker 2: 16:42

I now save later.

Speaker 1: 16:43

And so those are conversations too, though where it gets a little hairy with the client, with budget and money conversation.

Speaker 2: 16:50

And I hesitate to. I think that's hard for them at the beginning of the process because there is so much, they're just seeing the draws going out right.

Speaker 1: 16:58

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 16:59

And so they want everything to keep moving. And why haven't we ordered this and why don't we have this and why won't? But there's been instances, too, where it's a good thing we haven't, because maybe the framing ended up being a little smaller than planned, or something where like that tub that we looked at didn't fit, and now we need to.

Speaker 1: 17:20

So there is a timing. There is a right time for things I got you. I can see that being a big deal on some of your larger purchases as well when a tub that cost a few grand, and sometimes, when you buy these things, you own it once you purchase.

Speaker 2: 17:35

There are no returns, and so it does make it tough to figure that out and we've had clients do that too where they see things and they just have to have them and they'll go ahead and get them and we're done with our new build and they're like well, I wanna use this or I may not use this. So they have the room to store it and keep it all. They're responsible for it takes the liability out and we've talked about that before.

Speaker 1: 17:56

As part of our pre-planned pre-construction, we try to advise the client on storage needs too, because they may have a good deal and it could save them. And that's one of the things that we have learned too, and it's kind of what you're speaking to is the timing of everything where the client and storage. We've had a client go and buy just almost everything upfront and put it in storage themselves because they didn't wanna wait on the bank, they didn't wanna do a draw or whatever it may be. They wanted it.

Speaker 2: 18:27

I will say with that, even though I'm not on the KCR side of this or the Kirby Homes, but I would recommend this was actually a little side tip when you buy your appliances so far in advance, that warranty starts then right as soon as you take it away.

Speaker 2: 18:48

I didn't know that, and let's say for instance, they go to Home Depot, they buy their appliances as soon as they're driving home with it. That's their responsibility. They registered that item da da da. Well, say we're doing a new bill. Say it's a massive new bill that takes six, eight months or maybe even a year. Yeah depending on permitting lane clearing all that.

Speaker 1: 19:13

Look at her. She's so well-bursted in this now.

Speaker 2: 19:15

I love it elevation certificate surveyors anyway. So you have to Really you have to consider you're losing that warranty then yeah, that's how we get it in there, you may be out of warranty. So if that item was damaged in the install or if it sat on the job site and Something happened to it, you're out. Yeah, and we had just a recent instance when the dishwasher of our client Actually just went out of stock. Well, the handle was never shipped with the dishwasher. Now they can't get a handle with their dishwasher. Yeah, what are?

Speaker 1: 19:50

and there's nowhere to get.

Speaker 2: 19:54

My tip for that was actually recommended that our clients purchase their appliances through us. Yeah because we can go to a local appliance store. They'll actually hold them for us until they're our build is ready for them. Yeah it's when they're that warranty starts, when they're in that home, absolutely not when Kirby purchased them or when the client purchased them.

Speaker 1: 20:16

So Makes perfect sense for today.

Speaker 2: 20:19

That's a really good tip, yeah, fun fact, I love it.

Speaker 1: 20:25

Okay, that's a good hashtag.

Speaker 2: 20:27

It's not Friday, but we'll get there rerun.

Speaker 1: 20:30

Yeah, we have fun around here. So, and we've done the mood board, we've done the concept, we've talked about ordering things and how the mood board may shift or timeliness of ordering the actual project right that they Approved on the mood board. You got to order it. It's out of stock. You say you always have to be able to pivot right.

Speaker 1: 20:50

Essentially, you have to have a backup and sometimes a backup to the backup right so I think you've talked about it before where three choices is optimal and and maybe prioritize. Well, this is my number one, but absolutely Okay and you know it, because sometimes you're one and two may go out of stock or so I've only gotten to two haven't had to go to three yet, but it does happen, especially right now with the inventory shortages or shipping delays.

Speaker 2: 21:20

That's been a big problem too, just not being able to get it in in time. So then we've had to go to other products just to get it quicker.

Speaker 3: 21:26

Yeah so not that it's not available.

Speaker 1: 21:28

It's just the timeline of when our construction fell, with yeah needing it so, sticking to the new construction and new builds and you've done a lot with us on that you were talking about let's talk about. So we talked about ordering the material comes in. Okay, you've got this well planned, well thought out mood board. You've changed it. You've got it locked in you actually yeah, you, you.

Speaker 1: 21:52

Then here we go, hold on, I got it. You lock it in. The client approves the mood board, you order it and it's in stock. It's on its way, it gets here.

Speaker 2: 22:02

It sounds beautiful, but then it doesn't okay.

Speaker 1: 22:06

I've seen this happen with some lights that y'all have ordered. The gold was not the same color gold as Some of the other stuff on the mood board. It looked the colors, all went well, you got it in and it was a little bit off, right, I don't remember. So what did we actually do? Did we go back and get new?

Speaker 2: 22:28

lighting, or what a couple of those.

Speaker 1: 22:30

What happens though in my?

Speaker 2: 22:32

particular case, it was a very easy return.

Speaker 1: 22:36

I just ordered the other option, so Because there are different now and and was that just the goal? So when you're picking options on hardware, I'll keep it a hardware. But you know there's like brushed nickel and antique, whatever nickel or whatever right. Well, sometimes those don't come in, and they don't I mean, they do come in but they don't look the exact.

Speaker 2: 23:05

Ordering online. Reading the reviews is really important.

Speaker 1: 23:09

Thanks for joining us today. As always, we are grateful for our listeners and your continued support. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Follow us on social media via Facebook, instagram and TikTok. Get more info at our website, wwwthethombuildingshowcom. And, as always, remember who we are the home building and remodeling show.