0:00

This is the second studio hosted by the

0:02

architecture and design office fame. My name is

0:04

David Lee and with me is Marina Borg

0:06

de Rone. The two of us are partners

0:08

at the office, host of the show, and

0:10

today our guest is Matt Risinger. Matt is

0:12

the founder of Rising You Built

0:14

in Austin and the founder of

0:17

the Build Show. Yes, and look,

0:19

anyone who's a contractor or architect,

0:21

you probably already know of Matt

0:23

and the Build Show. Highly successful.

0:26

A bunch of links will be

0:28

in the episode notes. With Matt,

0:30

we talk about how, I don't

0:32

know, we actually went out of

0:34

order this time. We talked about

0:37

the LA fires and Fire Resiliency.

0:39

client, the building better, building better,

0:41

kind of all over the map.

0:43

This was the challenge we knew

0:46

was going to happen. We knew that

0:48

we had probably eight hours worth of questions

0:50

and then 90 minutes, but I think we

0:52

covered a lot of good stuff and I

0:54

know you guys are going to enjoy it.

0:56

And then regarding the LA Fires, Matt did

0:59

a great episode or video about the LA

1:01

Fires, which will put the link in our

1:03

episode notes, and if you have any questions

1:05

about that, we're building, feel free to reach

1:07

out to us on our hotline separately. sponsors.

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our shownotes to learn more. This is

2:56

the second studio with myself, Marina and

2:58

our guest, Matt. Here we go. Usually

3:00

listeners know that we start by asking

3:03

our guests where they're from and whatnot,

3:05

but we just had a short conversation

3:07

about the recent LA fires, and so

3:09

let's just continue that. And you were

3:12

saying that where you are in Texas,

3:14

I think you're in Austin, but in

3:16

Texas there's a lot of fires as

3:19

well, which maybe people wouldn't imagine as

3:21

being much as in California. Yeah, you

3:23

know, David, we work. In Austin in

3:26

particular in Texas in general we're actually

3:28

a pretty high wildfire risk as well

3:30

and in fact I just saw a

3:33

PBS story about this yesterday talking this

3:35

is from the Texas A&M Forest Service.

3:37

There's 94,673 homes with an elevated wildfire

3:40

damage risk just in Austin, Texas. And

3:42

I don't think people think of Texas

3:44

as wildfires but here's a couple stats

3:46

for you from that same. video I

3:49

was watching. In 2017 in the state

3:51

of Texas we had 744,000 acres burned.

3:53

In 2011 we at 3.9 million acres

3:56

burned from wildfires. And it kind of

3:58

goes on and on the list. And

4:00

2009 was 750.08 was 1.6.06 was 1.9.

4:03

So it's not on the news like

4:05

it is in Colorado or California. And.

4:07

I think there's probably been less homes

4:10

built in some of those forest areas

4:12

that have burned, but we're actually a

4:14

pretty big forest producer. In fact, East

4:17

Texas is known as the Piney Woods

4:19

of Texas, and a lot of the

4:21

wood I use at my house is

4:23

grown in East Texas, and it's shipped

4:26

all over Texas for construction. And of

4:28

course, you know, we have a huge

4:30

market. We're one of the biggest states

4:33

in the nation right now for permits,

4:35

if not the biggest. So it's a

4:37

big deal for us too and what

4:40

happened in LA. My Texas Builder friends

4:42

were absolutely paying attention to and our,

4:44

you know, our hearts go out to

4:47

you guys. I mean, it's been just

4:49

gut-wrenching to see what's happening there. And

4:51

as a side note, I'm a YouTube

4:54

nerd, right? I watch YouTube. I'm in

4:56

my 50s. This is my old school

4:58

method for entertainment. And I was watching

5:00

this guy Van Nicet, you know, Casey

5:03

Nicet, that's brother, the YouTubeer, Van Nicet,

5:05

do you watch him? Yeah, yeah, yeah,

5:07

I know of him. He's my age,

5:10

so he's particularly interesting as a YouTubeer,

5:12

but he lives in the Palisades area.

5:14

And he published a video the day

5:17

that was his story of like, his

5:19

house almost got burned, it didn't. And

5:21

he had a very personal kind of

5:24

vlog style, you know, getting my family

5:26

out, getting my valuables out. Oh my

5:28

gosh, I forgot my passport having to

5:31

go back into his house that was

5:33

in a danger zone. All these streets

5:35

are blocked off. He used his electric

5:37

motorcycle to go on like some back

5:40

roads and was able to get past

5:42

the cops. He showed this footage of

5:44

him like at his house that he's

5:47

thinking might be his last time visiting.

5:49

You know, his kids are born there.

5:51

It was so... emotional to see and

5:54

it's something the news doesn't capture like

5:56

it's it's obviously emotional to see that

5:58

the terrible after effects and people that

6:01

are at their house and crying and

6:03

you feel that but there's something about

6:05

this that really resonated me like oh

6:08

my gosh what would I do? If

6:10

I'm thinking this this could be the

6:12

last time I'm ever in this house

6:14

like I can only carry what's in

6:17

my backpack because he's in a motorcycle

6:19

what do I take? scratched in his

6:21

satio tile floor, his kid's birthday in

6:24

his name, because his kid was born

6:26

in the house. Oh gosh. And it

6:28

was one of those, and he's like,

6:31

well this will survive the fire, like

6:33

I'll be able to dig this out

6:35

and get to this tile again. Everything

6:38

else is probably going to be gone,

6:40

and in the end, his house didn't

6:42

burn down, it got within a, you

6:45

know, like a couple hundred yards. But

6:47

there was something about that story that,

6:49

you know, this guy, my age, my

6:52

age, my life situation, my life situation,

6:54

my life situation. a dad, a YouTubeer,

6:56

right? There's something about it that just

6:58

really made it much more personable to

7:01

me. And I think that's probably what

7:03

it is about these LA fires that

7:05

have caught the nation's attention so much.

7:08

You know, there's horrors going around the

7:10

war around the world with war in

7:12

Ukraine and the war in the Middle

7:15

East, but there's something about that that

7:17

feels so remote. And yet these LA

7:19

fires is like... you know everybody knows

7:22

someone there and of course a bunch

7:24

of celebrities too right yeah so I

7:26

don't know if you know but I

7:29

published a video about it while the

7:31

fires were still happening and there was

7:33

two houses that survived one that was

7:35

an architect design house that kind of

7:38

uses that used some passive house principles

7:40

and had some really smart architecture. I'm

7:42

blanking on the architect's name. I apologize.

7:45

I should know it. We can go

7:47

put the video link in the next

7:49

show and whatnot. Link it up. And

7:52

then Tom Hanks's house survived too. Right?

7:54

And so I made a video that's

7:56

basically like why do these two houses

7:59

survive? And I think Tom Hanks's house

8:01

was a little bit more probably, and

8:03

I don't know the architect or I

8:06

don't know Tom Hanks either, it was

8:08

a little bit more of like some

8:10

lucky situations, meaning like no venting in

8:12

his roof, rather new construction. He had

8:15

part metal roof, part flat roof with

8:17

no venting. He had mostly a stucco

8:19

exterior. He had this huge retaining wall

8:22

in the back that acted as a

8:24

bit of a firebreak. So he had

8:26

kind of all these good elements going.

8:29

Plus, of course, anybody's house has survived.

8:31

You're like, well, I don't know why

8:33

God blew the winds differently for that

8:36

house, but he did, right? And then

8:38

for the house that survived, there was

8:40

a bunch of other things too that

8:43

weren't house related. It was like they

8:45

put a concrete four or five foot

8:47

wall around the house as a cool

8:49

modern wall, which they... probably assumed would

8:52

help in the fire. They did know

8:54

that there was going to be a

8:56

burned out car, you know, four feet

8:59

from the wall that was like, because

9:01

of the burned aluminum and like the

9:03

streaking aluminum on the on the driveway,

9:06

I read in a red form, someone's

9:08

like, well, aluminum doesn't melt until I

9:10

forget what it was, 1400 degrees. So

9:13

on the other side of that concrete

9:15

wall, there was a fire that was

9:17

1400, right? So that concrete wall absolutely

9:20

saved. that side of the house from

9:22

taking the brunt of a blowtorch, you

9:24

know, style fire. Geez. But long short,

9:26

I mean, it's back to my point,

9:29

which is, you know, Texans aren't thought

9:31

of as being at risk, but a

9:33

lot of people are and not enough

9:36

of Texas knows it. And so I

9:38

was really glad to see this PBS

9:40

story. And I think that My Builder

9:43

community here in Texas is absolutely talking

9:45

around our whole office. We've been like,

9:47

hey, whether we're in a wildfire zone

9:50

or not, we really need to think

9:52

about doing this, this, and this in

9:54

our house is really encouraging people to

9:57

do these. best practices. Yeah absolutely and

9:59

you know unfortunately a lot of times

10:01

it takes a massive event and one

10:03

that oftentimes is not a positive one

10:06

to have change take place because as

10:08

you know as professionals as architects and

10:10

contractors we can propose certain things to

10:13

our clients and say you know for

10:15

fire resiliency or you know water trying

10:17

to keep out water or for energy

10:20

efficiency like all these things we can

10:22

do that but everyone has a budget

10:24

and a lot of times not always

10:27

a lot of times when they see

10:29

the numbers are like yeah what I

10:31

think I don't exactly. If it's not

10:34

mandatory, like people would keep it. I'd

10:36

rather pocket the tens of thousands or

10:38

hundreds or whatever it might be. Or

10:40

they think more short term, which is

10:43

why I only plan on keeping this

10:45

house for expert of time, then I'm

10:47

probably going to sell and move. So

10:50

I don't really care about that long

10:52

term, which is. the which is for

10:54

any I think serious architect and builder

10:57

like we think the opposite of them

10:59

thinking and we think long term yeah

11:01

exactly well we have to think long

11:04

term because we're on the hook long

11:06

after you sell the house mr. I

11:08

mean I don't necessarily tell all my

11:11

clients that but that's absolutely in my

11:13

forefront I mean yeah if you sell

11:15

your house after two years I'm still

11:17

on the hook for at least another

11:20

10 years legally for your house so

11:22

I could be three owners deep on

11:24

a house that's 10 years old and

11:27

if there's a problem they have zero

11:29

relationship with me they don't have a

11:31

good feeling about oh those guys took

11:34

care of me during construction on this

11:36

minor problem if they want to go

11:38

straight to oh this builder is a

11:41

absolute horrible I'm gonna sue him you

11:43

know I have I'm hosed I'm in

11:45

trouble right yeah so we need to

11:48

make sure that clients are doing the

11:50

best thing for the house which is

11:52

the right thing for them which is

11:54

also Consequently, the right thing for you

11:57

as the architect and the builder, right?

11:59

Because we need to make sure that

12:01

we're building houses that have built in

12:04

resilience. that have built in, built in

12:06

suspenders when it comes to health and

12:08

durability, longevity, durability, resilience, those things need

12:11

to be kind of baked into the

12:13

process no matter what we build. Yeah,

12:15

I like that. The baked in, it's

12:18

part of it. It's not an accessory,

12:20

you know, it needs to be a

12:22

standard. Yeah, yeah. And that's certainly what

12:25

you guys are preaching and doing and

12:27

that's why, you know, part of how

12:29

we're talking to you today. You know

12:31

regarding Los Angeles. Oh and also we

12:34

were just talking about before we hit

12:36

record the about you know fire Resilency

12:38

techniques and strategies Obviously concrete you mentioned,

12:41

but then you you also said that

12:43

you came across a product recently that

12:45

Yeah, there's a really There's a brand

12:48

new product to the marketplace that's actually

12:50

going to take a huge splash at

12:52

the International Builders Show here in about

12:55

a month as we're recording this. I

12:57

don't know when you publish this. But

12:59

one of the hard parts for a

13:02

builder, frankly, is to get to a

13:04

one hour rated assembly, five eights travel

13:06

on the inside, type X, no big

13:08

deal, we do that all day every

13:11

day. Five eights on the outside, if

13:13

it's gypsum board, is a huge pain.

13:15

It is not fun. It's hard to

13:18

put it in assembly. It's this bolt-on

13:20

item that's hard to deal with from

13:22

an architect's perspective, from a builder's perspective.

13:25

Well, there's a brand new product that's

13:27

basically nominal half-inch plywood that has an

13:29

intumescent... Intumescent coating on it, not a

13:32

film, or not a film, not a

13:34

paint, but a factory applied coating, kind

13:36

of similar to like, if you guys

13:39

know, Zip System Sheathing, that's got a

13:41

pre-applied WRB, this is a pre-applied Intumescent

13:43

coating that's basically like a film that's

13:46

applied at the factory over a really

13:48

high grade plywood, that when you use

13:50

it in assembly, get you a one

13:52

hour rated firewall rated firewall by just

13:55

having this plywood on the outside. regular

13:57

installation or of course you can use

13:59

a rock wool mineral wool, you know,

14:02

higher fire resistant bat and five-eits on

14:04

the inside and now I've got a

14:06

one-hour rated wall. That is a really

14:09

big deal and the cool part about

14:11

it is this product's actually I saw

14:13

the testing on it it's actually in

14:16

the is it AST I'm testing or

14:18

is it NFP? a testing, I can't

14:20

remember, I'm sorry, but it actually went

14:23

90 minutes on the test when it

14:25

only had to go an hour. Wow.

14:27

And what happens is you're feeling with

14:29

the term intumessence paint spread, they use

14:32

it a lot in construction, a lot

14:34

of times it's used over spray phone

14:36

to present, to help spray phone not

14:39

have flame spread or smoke spread. It's

14:41

a paint that kind of blows up

14:43

and they figured out how to do

14:46

it into a film on top of

14:48

the plywood and it like... as the

14:50

flames and as the the heat gets

14:53

to it it just it continues to

14:55

expand and chokes out the oxygen to

14:57

the to the fire and protects that

15:00

plywood from igniting and again it went

15:02

like 90 minutes on the test so

15:04

your one-hour rated assembly actually has some

15:06

forgiveness too and so you could actually

15:09

and this part I need to do

15:11

some more research on but you could

15:13

use this plywood and not even necessarily

15:16

have to have a classative rated siding

15:18

on the outside. to get a one

15:20

hour rated assembly. So in other words,

15:23

you wouldn't necessarily have to use fiber

15:25

cement, let's say, fiber cement on the

15:27

outside, five eight gypsum on the outside,

15:30

you know, mineral wool, then five eights,

15:32

which is what we've had to do

15:34

for a long time to get to

15:37

that one hour assembly. Now you could

15:39

use this plywood. It's called FirePoint is

15:41

the brand name, and it's from this

15:43

company called Arklin, ARCL, They're apparently a

15:46

very old company that's been around forever.

15:48

They're like, they're the company that makes

15:50

the glue that goes in every piece

15:53

of, always be your plywood in the

15:55

nation. And they make, they make the

15:57

secret sauce that makes drywall homogenous. So

16:00

they're like, they're like Intel inside, you

16:02

know, they've been doing computers for 30

16:04

years, but no one thinks of buying,

16:07

oh, I'm going to go buy an

16:09

Intel computer, I'm buying an Apple, but

16:11

it has Intel inside. So this company,

16:14

Arklin, for whatever reason, last year, was

16:16

like, you know, we're actually going to

16:18

make this ourselves and introducing this in

16:20

the marketplace under our brand. So no

16:23

one knows them, and they got a

16:25

huge booth at IBS. We did a

16:27

soft launch at, I don't know, World

16:30

of Concord or something and I hadn't

16:32

heard about it. So, I was very,

16:34

very impressed. It's a cool product. And

16:37

I suspect it'll be stocked all over

16:39

California before a long. I think so.

16:41

I mean, you know, we were saying

16:44

also earlier that there's a. big group

16:46

of architects and other professionals in Los

16:48

Angeles, including us who have kind of

16:51

come together to try and figure out

16:53

how we can be support and resourceful

16:55

and you know to each other because

16:57

some of us have lost houses and

17:00

then also to the larger community. And

17:02

it's just a lot of us being

17:04

from here are already familiar with like

17:07

the basic, you know, building strategies of

17:09

being fire resilient, but pooling our ideas

17:11

and our knowledge together. And that's something

17:14

that is a great product. It's interesting

17:16

how many new products there are that

17:18

come out constantly. And so one of

17:21

the questions I had for you is,

17:23

well, hey, how do you keep up

17:25

to date with all this stuff? And

17:28

then B. I've always wondered sort of

17:30

as an architect and not as a

17:32

builder, you know, how many of these

17:34

new, and I follow a bunch of

17:37

Instagram channels that are featuring new construction

17:39

products that I geek out on, even

17:41

though I don't use them, I've always

17:44

wondered how many of these products are

17:46

actually useful for contractors and how many

17:48

of them are cool, but not really,

17:51

yeah, kind of just gimmicky. Yeah, that's

17:53

a hard one. I mean, honestly. That's

17:55

something that fascinates me too. I've always

17:58

been a tech guy. And when I

18:00

have these companies that I see at

18:02

a show. I'm always a little, I

18:05

have the skeptical eye, right? You know,

18:07

I've been through enough lawsuits over the

18:09

years. I was around for the IFAS

18:11

failures in the early 2000s. I remember

18:14

the 90s LP siding lawsuits. I saw

18:16

mushrooms growing out of siding in the

18:18

Pacific Northwest. I enjoyed the pain of

18:21

dealing with the homeowners of the other

18:23

kids were going to die from mold

18:25

on lawsuits that I was getting as

18:28

a young builder in the 2002s. So

18:30

I have a very skeptical eye. And

18:32

I think that's honestly what drove me

18:35

to start learning and digging into building

18:37

science as a category. Like, you know,

18:39

if I'm going to not get sued,

18:42

I need to build a house that

18:44

is not going to have problems. And

18:46

so whatever you want, homeowner or architect,

18:48

I need to make sure that I'm

18:51

not putting us in a position that

18:53

has less forgiveness, that's more prone to

18:55

problems. that's going to be an issue,

18:58

right? And so the best way to

19:00

do that is to put on the

19:02

lens of building science whenever you look

19:05

at a new product. Like, let's think

19:07

about this. How is this going to

19:09

fare over the next 30 years in

19:12

this building I'm putting it in? You

19:14

know, will this contribute to a drier,

19:16

more airtight, more vapor open, you know,

19:19

whatever assembly? And then also for me

19:21

I've had to really think about too

19:23

what about my climate because I build

19:25

an Austin Texas which is hot humid

19:28

and frankly compared to LA we're a

19:30

pretty rough place to be because we're

19:32

so we have such high humidity yeah

19:35

compared to y'all so we get we

19:37

get the same annual rainfall as Seattle

19:39

we get around 35 to 40 inches

19:42

annually of rain really which Seattle is

19:44

38 yeah so you know I'm gonna

19:46

climate that no one thinks of as

19:49

being a rainy climate, but yet it's

19:51

extremely rainy. Now we get it in

19:53

one and two inch buckets at a

19:56

time, compared to Seattle, that gets an

19:58

eighth or a quarter inch every day

20:00

all winter. But we also have this

20:02

extreme humidity in the spring and the

20:05

fall that we have to deal with.

20:07

So we've got a weird climate. LA

20:09

is a slightly more forgiving climate because

20:12

you guys get about 20 inches of

20:14

annual rainfall, right? You're a little bit

20:16

more desert. Yeah. Which is partly why

20:19

these fires are such a problem is

20:21

because it's generally a pretty dry climate.

20:23

Yeah. You don't get 40 inches of

20:26

rain that makes Seattle so green and

20:28

beautiful in the summer, you know, you

20:30

get 20, which is half that amount

20:33

of rain. Yeah. But one of the

20:35

beauties of LA is that it's also

20:37

pretty mild in terms of temperature. You

20:39

know, it doesn't get much colder than

20:42

50, and it doesn't get much harder

20:44

than 90. Oh, if it hits 66

20:46

here, it's considered a cold day. For

20:49

sure. So that house that survived that

20:51

was using passive house principles on the

20:53

forums that I was reading on read

20:56

it and on the Instagram posts and

20:58

the Twitter feed, everyone's like, oh, is

21:00

it a passive house? And the architect

21:03

was like, it doesn't need to be

21:05

it. I don't need exterior insulation, right?

21:07

I mean, we're... Yeah. I use air

21:10

conditioning very infrequently and I use heating

21:12

very infrequently. What I need is a

21:14

house that has some resiliency against fire

21:17

on the outside, baked in. You know,

21:19

I need to think about class A

21:21

exteriors, you know, using cementition products, you

21:23

know, thinking about what's my roof membrane.

21:26

And the big one is we've got

21:28

to stop ventilating addicts in your climate

21:30

when there's fire risks. And if we

21:33

are going to ventilate, we've... got to

21:35

make sure that we've got an ember

21:37

resistant vent going on. And that's more,

21:40

it's much easier to do today than

21:42

it was even 10 years ago. There's

21:44

some products out there. But all those

21:47

houses in the palisades area were built

21:49

in the. They didn't have that unless

21:51

they retrofit it. And a lot of

21:54

them had combustible exteriors and they weren't

21:56

using fire. You know, they had wood

21:58

fences up against the house. So as

22:00

soon as the fence catches on fire,

22:03

houses catching on fire. They had wood

22:05

decks out the back door. You know,

22:07

all these things, wood roofs, right? Wood

22:10

shingle roofs. Yeah. And leaves piled up

22:12

in the valleys of those roofs. So

22:14

I mean, it was a tinder box.

22:17

And then you combine that with 100

22:19

mile an 100 mile an hour winds

22:21

hour winds. and those houses had no

22:24

chance. But then on the other hand,

22:26

you saw a really well-designed, relatively new

22:28

house. That house is only like six

22:31

or eight months old when that fire

22:33

happened, the one that survived that was

22:35

the architect's project. And he was really

22:37

smart about his design. And that house

22:40

wasn't a crazy Tom Hanks budget 40

22:42

million dollar house. Now it wasn't cheap,

22:44

I don't suspect. It looked like it

22:47

was a two million dollar house, let's

22:49

say. But it was really smartly done

22:51

and really really a very wise architect

22:54

who said, you know, let's put a

22:56

metal roof on this. Let's not do

22:58

overhangs. Let's do an unventilated roof. Let's

23:01

do a combination of stucco and I

23:03

want to say there was a wood

23:05

looking fiber cement front on the house

23:08

that I actually thought was wood when

23:10

I made the video, but it was

23:12

actually turns out it was a it

23:14

was a fiber cement that had been

23:17

kind of, I better term faux painted

23:19

to look like wood. Right. And then

23:21

that concrete wall was a huge deal.

23:24

I mean, the perimeter fencing that stops

23:26

embers is a really, really big deal

23:28

for people that have a fire next

23:31

door or the wind is blow and

23:33

it blows right through that fence. If

23:35

you can stop those embers from coming

23:38

through your fence, whether it's by putting

23:40

a metal fence that has a fireproof

23:42

or I should say an emberproof screening

23:45

on a metal fence or going to

23:47

the expense of a concrete fence. That's

23:49

really going to be a big deal

23:51

for you from not igniting your property

23:54

than that. house also had pretty close

23:56

to a zero escape you know there

23:58

was yeah they had the five-foot defensible

24:01

zone all around the house and then

24:03

beyond that they did have some shrubs

24:05

but they they mulched it with with

24:08

gravel basically and I also noticed there

24:10

was one article from a L.A. reporter

24:12

that I saw on YouTube that specifically

24:15

mentioned that they had pulled their trash

24:17

cans away from the house. and they

24:19

had like some deck chairs out front

24:22

that they had pulled away from the

24:24

house as well. And it looked to

24:26

me like the trash cans hadn't ignited,

24:28

but you know, you get a plastic

24:31

trash can to burn right up against

24:33

the house and I guarantee that's gonna

24:35

light up your wood siding. So the

24:38

homeowner was smart enough to pull that

24:40

stuff all back from the house. So

24:42

there, you know, there was both a

24:45

great architect, great architecture, but also an

24:47

educated homeowner and client that was smart

24:49

enough to do some maintenance. and some

24:52

wise things when the fire started. So

24:54

that there was some amount of readiness

24:56

happening there. Yeah, and you listed I

24:59

think probably half a dozen or so

25:01

different strategies that are employed and that's

25:03

a I think a larger good point

25:05

that when it comes to the broader

25:08

subject of how do you have a

25:10

house that's fire resistant or resilient, it

25:12

is a combination of all these things

25:15

and the vented versus unvented roof is

25:17

an interesting one in general because I

25:19

feel like the, in terms of building

25:22

science, it makes more sense to have

25:24

just in general, a non-vented, a non-vented

25:26

roof for fire reasons, but also just

25:29

in general. And I think that used

25:31

to be, they used to be waited,

25:33

you always had an adequate event, but

25:36

then obviously embers just get sucked right

25:38

up through, you know, the inside of

25:40

the house. So, talking about your story,

25:42

though, Did you know that you could

25:45

become a builder from a young age

25:47

or was that? Like how did that

25:49

happen? Yeah, it's a good question. So

25:52

growing up I had a relatively handy

25:54

dad, but my dad was never, my

25:56

dad was a, it's good enough guy,

25:59

he was not a craftsman, let's put

26:01

it that way. He worked in the

26:03

steel industry. I grew up in Pittsburgh,

26:06

Pennsylvania. But I was always doing projects

26:08

and I kind of fell upon construction

26:10

by my church that I was going

26:13

to as a young junior high student.

26:15

in Pittsburgh had this really cool ministry

26:17

that they sent our middle schoolers, our

26:19

middle school zone high schoolers, to this

26:22

place that was in inner city Pittsburgh.

26:24

And if you know the story of

26:26

Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh had a lot of money

26:29

in the 1800s from the steel industry.

26:31

We have some beautiful brownstones in downtown

26:33

Pittsburgh that look like your Chicago or

26:36

New York brownstones. But those all got

26:38

abandoned with this kind of 1920s and

26:40

30s flight to the suburbs. And so

26:43

those homes have gone into disrepair. They're

26:45

generally owned by people that are of

26:47

a lower economic status. They don't have

26:50

the money to fix up their beautiful

26:52

old houses. So we as suburban kids

26:54

were going into the inner city with

26:56

this ministry. which was fantastic for me.

26:59

I'll be honest, I grew up in

27:01

a pretty upper middle class white suburb.

27:03

I didn't know a lot of people

27:06

in the 80s that weren't white. I

27:08

had a few black friends, I had

27:10

a lot of Jewish friends, but... I

27:13

certainly didn't know poor people or homeless

27:15

people growing up in the 80s. So

27:17

they sent us into these neighborhoods and

27:20

it was so good for me to

27:22

interact with people from a different economic

27:24

status that looked different from me that,

27:27

you know, I met people that didn't

27:29

know how to read for the first

27:31

time in my life. It was phenomenal

27:33

for me as a young kid and

27:36

we were doing really basic work like,

27:38

hey, let's fix the, what we would

27:40

call a deck, which they would call

27:43

a front porch or a stoop. on

27:45

this brownstone that's crumbled that's 150 years

27:47

old. And now this 80 year old,

27:50

you know, black woman in inner city

27:52

Pittsburgh who can't even read has these

27:54

white kids from the suburbs working at

27:57

her house doing something that's really beneficial

27:59

for her. And then it was so

28:01

good for me, I absolutely loved it.

28:04

And I saw how my hard work

28:06

and sweat at the end of the

28:08

day produced something that was really beneficial

28:11

to these homeowners, to these residents. It

28:13

was such a game changer for me

28:15

in life like, wow, I can work

28:17

hard and at the end of the

28:20

day feel like, wow, I really accomplished

28:22

something beneficial to this person that changed

28:24

their future of their life. Now they

28:27

can get in their house without. nearly

28:29

breaking their hip, right? And so I

28:31

did that for about, I don't know,

28:34

six, seven, eight years through junior high,

28:36

then high school, then I worked there

28:38

a little bit in college, and I

28:41

had this really, this feeling about construction

28:43

that was so good, but I was

28:45

never a great carpenter or craftsman. I

28:48

never was like, oh, I should become

28:50

a plumber or I should go into

28:52

the trades. You know, at that time,

28:54

it was like, if you don't go

28:57

to college, you're an, you're an But

28:59

I had all this construction background and

29:01

I basically got a manufacturing type degree.

29:04

I went as an engineer and couldn't

29:06

hack the math so I failed out

29:08

of differential equations and that stopped my

29:11

mechanical engineering degree. And so I went

29:13

and do industrial management and fell in

29:15

love with the Toyota production system and

29:18

you know Toyota was the king of

29:20

the 80s. They're like killing Chevrolet at

29:22

the time. Like their cars were so

29:25

much better. and Honda and all these

29:27

Japanese companies so I'm studying how they

29:29

build better cars and I graduate and

29:31

this is this is going to sound

29:34

like really old man speak but I'd

29:36

never send an email when I was

29:38

in college until my last week of

29:41

college this is 1995 I sent an

29:43

email on a server with like a

29:45

you know the prompt and I never

29:48

got a reply on it so here

29:50

I graduated college with never receiving an

29:52

email and I'm sending my paper resume

29:55

out to Toyota who's starting a new

29:57

plant and I forget where they were

29:59

somewhere in the south and Nissan had

30:02

a new plan in Tennessee and I'm

30:04

getting a response. I went to a

30:06

small school outside of Pittsburgh that no

30:08

one ever heard of. And so this

30:11

construction company comes to recruit out of

30:13

my college and they're talking about this

30:15

assistant superintendent job that they're hiring for

30:18

and I was like, oh, you know,

30:20

I don't want to be a builder.

30:22

I don't know any builders. My dad

30:25

was in steel and I thought it

30:27

was going to go into manufacturing. So

30:29

I go to their, my buddy convinces

30:32

me to go to their night before

30:34

the interview information session and I hear

30:36

these, they brought one or two students

30:39

back that had joined, you know, a

30:41

year or two prior and they're talking

30:43

about their job and how they're outside

30:45

and how they're building houses and they've

30:48

got 15 houses under construction at once.

30:50

This is a national production builder. And

30:52

I was like, this sounds incredible. I

30:55

had no idea there was a job

30:57

as a, like a builder, right? I

30:59

just thought that there was jobs as

31:02

carpenters or plumbers or whatever. So I

31:04

go up to the company and it

31:06

was like, this, you got to interview

31:09

me tomorrow. I don't have a spot,

31:11

but please. This is, I would be

31:13

perfect for this job. And I ended

31:16

up working for that company for seven

31:18

years after school. and did a bunch

31:20

of different jobs and absolutely loved it.

31:22

And here I didn't realize at the

31:25

time I was building really not very

31:27

good houses, like houses today that I

31:29

make fun of and make videos on.

31:32

But then I mentioned at the top

31:34

of the hour that the national mold

31:36

crisis is what really drove me to

31:39

realize, oh, like we need to pay

31:41

attention to how we build houses because

31:43

if we just build them without thinking

31:46

and we have leaks into a modern...

31:48

codes, you know, those leaks turn into

31:50

mold and rot and problems. And, you

31:53

know, people that spent $250,000 for their

31:55

dream home all of a sudden are

31:57

living in a nightmare. And, you know,

31:59

they're looking at me as the builder,

32:02

like, you crushed my dreams, like, you're

32:04

the worst person ever. And we're going

32:06

to sue the pants off of you.

32:09

And so... You know here I am

32:11

this like 30 year old builder like

32:13

oh my gosh I can't believe you

32:16

know I loved my job six months

32:18

ago and now all these people hate

32:20

me and think I'm the worst person

32:23

in the world because their kids are

32:25

going to die of mold poisoning and

32:27

so it just made me go all

32:30

right I just can't build the way

32:32

we've always built I need to figure

32:34

out what it is that makes a

32:36

well-built house a healthy house that's not

32:39

going to have mold. And, you know,

32:41

the first thing I did is you

32:43

guys, I'm sure know, the first priority

32:46

is water, right? Like, how do we

32:48

make sure the house doesn't leak? Water,

32:50

you know, a roof? Yeah, I mean,

32:53

a roof leak, you're going to get

32:55

a call at midnight from your client.

32:57

But an insidious window leak that they

33:00

don't see for six months, you don't

33:02

get a call until it's a call

33:04

from a lawyer saying, you know, hey,

33:07

this house has problems, and we're going

33:09

to sue you. So that was my

33:11

first priority was going, all right, how

33:13

do we make sure that these houses

33:16

don't leak? And at the time I

33:18

was building in Portland, Oregon, which is,

33:20

you know, 40 inches of annual rain.

33:23

We were building houses very fast. We

33:25

were building them without a lot of

33:27

thoughts, you know, just throwing them together.

33:30

And that's a bigger reason why we

33:32

had a lot of problems. And then

33:34

once you start down that rabbit hole,

33:37

you're like, okay, well, once I conquer

33:39

water. What else do I need to

33:41

conquer? Want me to really think about

33:44

air now because one, especially in a

33:46

hot human climate when air leaks in,

33:48

it brings with it humidity which can

33:50

have condensation issues on the air conditioning

33:53

in my Texas house. I would say

33:55

Texas houses have probably more mold than

33:57

any other climate because of the air

34:00

conditioning and compensation issues. And we put

34:02

our ducks up in attics that are

34:04

hot and humid and then they leak

34:07

air and we put our air handler

34:09

up there which gets cold and I

34:11

could take you in any ventilated Texas

34:14

attic today within 10 miles of my

34:16

office and show you pretty decent mold

34:18

colonies growing because people have just been

34:21

doing dumb things here for. for decades.

34:23

That brings up, yeah, that reminds me

34:25

of a couple questions I'd written down.

34:27

Actually, the first was, or a topic,

34:30

the first is that, you know, from

34:32

a client's perspective, when you're trying to

34:34

find and hire a contractor, and you,

34:37

you know, you have three that you're

34:39

considering, if you don't know anything about

34:41

constructing homes, which most clients don't, it's

34:44

really hard to know. Good from bad

34:46

because all you see as a client

34:48

is so pretty pictures or a house

34:51

tour that for house that looks nice

34:53

on the outside But and then the

34:55

price right the price at the bottom

34:58

line at the very end of the

35:00

page and But to your point there's

35:02

so much that there's so much more

35:05

to it that goes inside of the

35:07

walls that as an owner you might

35:09

never see because you might not be

35:11

even if you go inside during that

35:14

phase you don't know what you're looking

35:16

at that is really really critical for

35:18

the long-term and also the short term

35:21

and that's that's I think an aspect

35:23

of building that I would advise clients

35:25

to like keep in mind you know

35:28

if someone's numbers are extremely low it's

35:30

for a reason and if their projects

35:32

on the outside look good still then

35:35

you got to wonder what's going on

35:37

the inside the inside the inside the

35:39

inside Yeah, I

35:42

mean that's that's an industry-wide problem is

35:44

that you know everybody's website has gorgeous

35:46

pictures But what does it look like

35:48

behind those pretty pictures? And honestly in

35:51

LA you guys have a pretty forgiven

35:53

climate I've been I've been to LA

35:55

several times one of my one of

35:58

my bill sponsors. Just to back up,

36:00

I assume you guys know, I started

36:02

a YouTube channel and then I started

36:05

the buildshow.com and all our content's free,

36:07

but we have sponsors that sponsor our

36:09

content. And one of our bigger sponsors

36:12

is this company called Builders First Source,

36:14

which has LA. They have like 10

36:16

yards in LA. So I've been to

36:19

LA at their yards for events before.

36:21

And I had to do a bunch

36:23

of research before I did presentations at

36:26

their yard because I was like, well,

36:28

what are we dealing with in this

36:30

LA climate? And I got a bunch

36:33

of photos from job sites and was

36:35

like, wow, they're opening, they're replacing windows

36:37

on 20, 30-year-old houses, builders around your

36:39

area. And they're pulling the windows out.

36:42

And even though the windows leaked, there's

36:44

no problems inside the wall cabbie because

36:46

it's such a dry climate. Yeah. Right.

36:49

And so that's actually a big, that

36:51

can be a benefit. You know, that's,

36:53

I'm not saying we need to purposely

36:56

build crappy houses, but I am saying

36:58

that it's, you're in a more forgiving

37:00

climate than Austin, let's say. Oh yeah,

37:03

in Seattle or Portland. I was going

37:05

to say, you just did that one

37:07

time. I remember living in Central California

37:10

during my years in college and I

37:12

was renting this really cheap, you know,

37:14

crappy house and one morning I wake

37:17

up, put my foot on the carpet

37:19

and the carpet was soaked wet. And

37:21

why? It's because there's no gutters on

37:23

the roof because it's not mandatory, you

37:26

know, it only rains like once in

37:28

the blue moon, right? But that one

37:30

night it rained a lot and the

37:33

whole bedroom floor was soaked wet and

37:35

it was, it smelled like, you know,

37:37

the old glue from the 50s, it

37:40

was just like disgusting. That's a tear

37:42

down. Yeah, that's right. Back to your

37:44

point though, how do you find a

37:47

good builder? I really think that homeowners

37:49

and architects and other people that are

37:51

looking for good builders, they really need

37:54

to visit job sites under construction. Because

37:56

it's really hard to... to evaluate based

37:58

on pretty pictures, whether this builder is

38:01

any good or not. But visiting under

38:03

construction, that's where you can really see

38:05

it. And as a side note, I

38:08

have a podcast too. I made a

38:10

whole episode on how to find a

38:12

good builder. And if you just type

38:14

in on Google, how to find a

38:17

builder and my name, Reisinger, that podcast

38:19

is like in your top search results.

38:21

And I spent 30 minutes talking with.

38:24

One of my guys on how to

38:26

how to find a good how do

38:28

I find a good builder is the

38:31

title of it's episode three It's actually

38:33

my third podcast ever Did that no

38:35

really? Yeah, yeah, that was that was

38:38

three or four years ago at this

38:40

point But it's a it's a popular

38:42

topic and it's a good topic and

38:45

We could go on and on on

38:47

that but Yeah, my general point is

38:49

you can hot any builder can have

38:52

pretty pictures you really need to get

38:54

to know them And the other thing

38:56

too is we need to be better

38:58

at interviewing and digging in to doing

39:01

our own research. And I fall on

39:03

this too, right? I mean, I think

39:05

it's interesting how over the years, people

39:08

have stopped calling reference checks, people have

39:10

stopped asking for references, you know, people

39:12

are like, oh, the Google reviews were

39:15

good. You're like, well, Google or anybody

39:17

can. Google Review, that's garbage, right? You

39:19

know, you go to Amazon, you're like,

39:22

oh, what's the highest rated, whatever product.

39:24

We trust those reviews as if they're

39:26

gospel perfect, and they're not, right? We

39:29

really need to have a phone call

39:31

and talk to somebody. So I would,

39:33

anybody that's thinking about builders, you want

39:36

to get a reference from three people

39:38

within the last one to two years

39:40

that built a house with you, and

39:42

let me call them. Give me their

39:45

number. excellent experiences, then okay, we've got

39:47

we've got we've got somebody that really

39:49

can satisfy their clients and has done

39:52

a good job and usually we want

39:54

relatively current references. You know, you don't

39:56

want somebody that you build a house

39:59

for 10 years ago. There is some

40:01

benefit to like, well, did you have

40:03

any problems at year five and what

40:06

do they do? Or, you know, tell

40:08

me about a, we also need to

40:10

ask better questions like, tell me about

40:13

a problem and how did the, how

40:15

did the builder resolve it? You know,

40:17

tell me about an issue with a

40:20

sub or with a quality problem. Well,

40:22

you know, how did they solve it?

40:24

Oh, we never had any problems. Really?

40:27

You never had any problems at all

40:29

building a house? Well, what did you

40:31

just buy it? Buy it like a

40:33

car, we just showed up, like, I'll

40:36

take this one. Yeah, yeah. That's not

40:38

how we build houses, right? That's not

40:40

how it works. Of course you had

40:43

a problem. They're definitely problems. Ask better

40:45

questions. Yeah, yeah, I think also, you

40:47

know, that points to just the sheer

40:50

complexity of building custom houses that people

40:52

maybe don't fully understand. And I don't

40:54

expect them to because it's not their

40:57

profession, but you know, I can understand

40:59

from the outside, it's like, well, houses

41:01

get built all the time. What makes

41:04

it so difficult? Why does it take

41:06

a year and a half to build

41:08

a house or two years or three

41:11

or whatever it is? that make it

41:13

complex and could go wrong. Yeah, it's

41:15

not for the faint of heart, David.

41:17

It's, no, I was just echoing what

41:20

you said. It's not for the faint

41:22

of heart. Like you have to have

41:24

some fortitude. Like you can't be just

41:27

the average Joe Schmo and build a

41:29

custom home from an architect designing it

41:31

to a custom build building. Like you

41:34

have to be a certain personality and

41:36

have some fortitude. If you don't have

41:38

that, just go buy a resale house,

41:41

right? Yeah. Yeah, no, I agree with

41:43

that and that's certainly for that applies

41:45

to those practicing in the clients too.

41:48

It's a long process. Well, the things

41:50

we're always telling people at the outset.

41:52

especially if they've never done it before,

41:55

is one thing to keep in mind

41:57

is this whole thing we're gonna do.

41:59

It's a marathon, it is not a

42:02

sprint. So there's gonna be bumps and

42:04

bruises and there's gonna be problems, but

42:06

think about the long term of just

42:08

the process, you know, let alone the

42:11

house itself. And then that usually helps

42:13

too, because it is challenging. But one

42:15

of the things too with the contractor

42:18

or building industry and professionals that I

42:20

find interesting and. and maybe a challenge

42:22

for the profession, I don't know, is

42:25

that you can have a, it was

42:27

very easy for builders to repeat the

42:29

same thing they've been doing. throughout their

42:32

entire career. So I can find a

42:34

builder who has built hundreds of houses

42:36

and other types of projects, you know,

42:39

they do, had a lot of repeat

42:41

clients, had a lot of projects done,

42:43

and they've been practicing for 40 or

42:46

50 years. I've been practicing for 40

42:48

years as always thing we hear. But

42:50

the question for me is, well, but

42:52

have you been doing the same thing

42:55

as what you did 40 years ago?

42:57

Because I know, even as an architect,

42:59

Building construction standards and the way we

43:02

do things has evolved tremendously over the

43:04

last 15 years Let alone 40 years

43:06

So I don't your problem if you

43:09

have a 40 years of experience doing

43:11

the wrong thing. That's exactly it That's

43:13

so I don't know if I have

43:16

a question with that but But I

43:18

mean, and then it's interesting because you're

43:20

like the opposite. You're at the forefront

43:23

of trying to always improve. Is that,

43:25

I mean, do you perceive that as

43:27

being one of the bigger challenges with

43:30

the, you know, the profession? For sure,

43:32

that's definitely a challenge. And across the

43:34

nation, we have various levels of licensure

43:37

or in my case, no licenses needed

43:39

in Texas. Do you guys read, do

43:41

you, by chance reads Seth Godin's blog

43:43

by chance. You know, Seth Godin is

43:46

the famous author. I know who he

43:48

is, but I don't read his blog.

43:50

He's got a great. blog that he

43:53

emails you every day. And I don't

43:55

read it every day, but his blog

43:57

yesterday was really powerful to me. It

44:00

was titled Honesty About Better. And I'll

44:02

just read you two sentences. It says,

44:04

I don't want to learn to be

44:07

better is something that we rarely admit.

44:09

And then it goes on to say,

44:11

I don't want to learn methods for

44:14

creativity or marketing, even though they'll help

44:16

me get unstuck. I don't want to

44:18

learn how to use AI. to transfer

44:21

my work even though it'll make me

44:23

more productive. I don't want to learn

44:25

basic selling skills even though it'll make

44:27

a difference in my business and it's

44:30

funny I think over the years I've

44:32

ebbed and flowed on my desire to

44:34

learn more and fun enough yesterday when

44:37

I read that blog I had two

44:39

months worth of trade magazines on my

44:41

desk and I'm an old man I

44:44

still read magazines but And I thought,

44:46

oh my gosh, I haven't even finished,

44:48

I haven't even touched last month and

44:51

the new issues are already come. Like,

44:53

what does this say about me? Have

44:55

I lost my passion for learning and

44:58

my drive that all of a sudden

45:00

my trade magazines are like, like normally

45:02

over the years when I get those,

45:05

I read them that night and like

45:07

consume them because I want to learn,

45:09

I want to get better. And so

45:12

that blog post from Seth really made

45:14

me think. Gosh, am I taking the

45:16

time to sharpen the saw and get

45:18

better every day? Like that's something that

45:21

I don't want to lose. I think

45:23

that's a skill that needs to be

45:25

developed. And we need to realize, hey,

45:28

I haven't been to the gym for

45:30

a week. That's why I'm tired today.

45:32

That's why I want to sleep in.

45:35

That's why whatever. And just like if

45:37

you don't train your muscles and your

45:39

heart rate. You might have a heart

45:42

attack someday if we don't train our

45:44

minds and get better at our jobs

45:46

We're gonna do the same thing over

45:49

and over especially if it's the wrong

45:51

thing But we have to really be

45:53

thoughtful about that it takes effort It

45:56

takes thought It takes planning. I went

45:58

to the gym at 645 today and

46:00

I had to talk to my wife

46:02

the night before. Hey, can you take

46:05

care of the kids in the morning?

46:07

I'm going to go to the gym

46:09

at 645. I had to set my

46:12

alarm. I had to think about my

46:14

clothes the night before. It's effort to

46:16

get a workout in and it's just

46:19

as much effort to learn at our

46:21

jobs and do better. We can just

46:23

show up and throw up or throw

46:26

up. purposefully learn a new skill and

46:28

get better at our current skills. And

46:30

frankly, the LA wildfires could be that

46:33

catalyst for a lot of architects and

46:35

builders around the nation to go, you

46:37

know, my job as an architect or

46:40

builder is a really big deal. If

46:42

I don't do my job to the

46:44

best of my abilities, lives could be

46:47

in the balance. And for me too,

46:49

I always go back to, you know,

46:51

there's lawsuits from those people that either,

46:53

that I put efas on their house,

46:56

that was a terrible leaky facade that

46:58

was fake stucco, or all those leaks

47:00

we had that caused mold lawsuits in

47:03

2002. I mean, those people thought that

47:05

I was the worst person in the

47:07

world as their builder. So what do

47:10

I need to do to make sure

47:12

that I'm not going to get myself

47:14

and my company in trouble? And not

47:17

just a one-year warranty warranty, but like...

47:19

for a dozen years on what it

47:21

comes to. Yeah. Texas law for me

47:24

is 10 years plus there's a two-year,

47:26

you know, discovery period. So basically any

47:28

house I built from the time I

47:31

got a CEO up to 12 years

47:33

later I could be sued for that

47:35

house for all kinds of stuff. Beyond

47:37

12 years I have some more ability

47:40

to shed that lawsuit, but not up

47:42

to 12. Right, I think it's the

47:44

same thing in California if I'm not

47:47

mistaken, but I could be a little

47:49

bit off on that. And now, a

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you ever worked without it. opposite side

48:54

of it or the positive side of

48:56

it, you know, your story about the

48:59

blogger or the vlogger, I guess, who

49:01

talked about losing his, or potential losing

49:03

his house and then the names that

49:06

were engraved in a tile or whatever

49:08

it was. It also, in the last

49:10

few weeks, has reminded me, or week

49:12

or however long spent, reminded me that

49:15

what we do also as architects and

49:17

builders has such a close emotional connection

49:19

to people. And I think it's very

49:22

easy for homeowners and even us as

49:24

professionals to forget how meaningful these places

49:26

are. to all of us have some

49:29

kind of home a place that we

49:31

call home and then when you realize

49:33

that it could be gone in a

49:36

matter of hours right like what does

49:38

that mean for somebody and then you

49:40

know the weight and the value and

49:43

the importance of having a place to

49:45

call home is easy to forget when

49:47

you're in the day-to-day during the work

49:50

trying to meet deadlines and whatever it's

49:52

easy to forget that very strong emotional

49:54

side of it I think it's the

49:57

meaning but it's also like how important

49:59

and stable that home is to their

50:01

day-to-day life, right? Like if they don't

50:03

have that and they have a family

50:06

and a job, how does life continue

50:08

if the home is gone, right? How

50:10

do you bounce back? How do you

50:13

even restart or keep functioning where, you

50:15

know, kind of like your anchor point

50:17

in your day-to-day life is not there

50:20

anymore? Oh man, that's a whole other

50:22

segment, what do you get into? What

50:24

is it, like 12,000 homes that burn

50:26

in the LA fires? You've got 12,000

50:29

families displaced that need a place to

50:31

stay for a year or two or

50:33

five till their houses are rebuilt? I

50:36

mean, that's just such a stress on

50:38

the system. And then, how do you

50:40

rebuild 12,000 homes? I mean, that's just

50:42

so, I mean, that's such a years

50:45

long task. It's so, so many houses.

50:47

It really is and you know

50:49

we'll see how everything unfolds but

50:51

you know I mean you know

50:53

this when it comes to remodeling

50:55

or building a new house. in

50:58

normal conditions, you know, where you

51:00

already have the infrastructure and your

51:02

neighborhood exists. That already is a

51:04

long process and it's much longer

51:06

and much more costly, more expensive

51:08

than most people think. And so

51:10

you layer on top of the

51:12

fact now the entire neighborhood is

51:14

gone. For a lot of people,

51:17

for those, actually the few who will

51:19

be able to afford to rebuild, you know,

51:21

it's going to be a bit of a

51:23

shock I think when they realize that this

51:25

is not a quick. you know, thing. And

51:27

the danger also is that people will want

51:30

to move fast because they want to get

51:32

back home or into the new house. Fine.

51:34

But that's also where the tendency to go

51:36

cheap and fast comes in, right? And that's

51:38

one of the things we've been talking about

51:40

with our contractors and everyone else is how

51:42

do we make sure that we are educating

51:45

people? So even if they don't hire us,

51:47

they hire someone else fine, but just hire

51:49

someone who's good, because you don't want

51:51

to have, like you said, the mold problem

51:53

or whatever other problem we would have

51:55

in California, you know, a little bit later

51:57

on down the line, if this is your forever.

52:00

house. So a lot of things to

52:02

consider. The question I had, going back

52:04

to the topic of building technologies evolving,

52:06

is, you know, I'm always watching your

52:08

videos and I'm always saying that you're

52:11

talking about this cool product and this

52:13

way you're doing things that makes it

52:15

more efficient or produces a higher quality

52:17

house. And sometimes it seems, it seems

52:20

to be that this is a relatively

52:22

new product or way of doing things.

52:24

What's my question? The question is how

52:26

do you, so when it comes to

52:28

getting hired for a project, right, the

52:31

typical way of convincing a person that

52:33

you should be hired is that you

52:35

have a tried and true method of

52:37

doing it. I've done this for many

52:40

years. I know exactly how to do

52:42

it. And we're going to kind of

52:44

like repeat these tested processes on your

52:46

house. So do you have total security

52:48

and assurance? you know, but at the

52:51

same time as the as the as

52:53

builders and architects were always trying to

52:55

advance and do things better and therefore

52:57

when you try new things there is

53:00

inherently some level of risk, let's say.

53:02

And so the question I have, yeah,

53:04

so the question I have for you

53:06

as a contractor, this applies to architects

53:08

as well, is how do you have

53:11

a conversation with a homeowner and say,

53:13

We have this new thing I want

53:15

to try on your house. I of

53:17

course have done my research I think

53:20

it's going to work But I'm still

53:22

I'm going to try it and therefore

53:24

it might cost a little bit more

53:26

money because it's a new thing When

53:28

they could say don't do that Don't

53:31

do that. Just keep it what you've

53:33

been doing the last five years, and

53:35

that's good enough for me That's a

53:37

good question David. I mean, I think

53:40

what it boils down to is I'm

53:42

always looking to eliminate risk for me

53:44

and the homeowner and I'm always looking

53:46

to build each house a little bit

53:48

better. You know, back to my college

53:51

education on the Japanese manufacturing. They call

53:53

it Kaisen in Japan. It's that process.

53:55

of continuous improvement. Like every Japanese car

53:57

in the 80s was a little better

54:00

than last year's car. And I think

54:02

we, I think we, especially COVID, I

54:04

think kind of knocked us off that

54:06

in some respects. Like we're like, oh

54:09

my gosh, prices have gone up so

54:11

much, we can't make everyone a little

54:13

better because we gotta roll, we gotta

54:15

figure out how to make it cheaper

54:17

so the price is more affordable. I'm

54:20

with you on affordability of houses. I

54:22

don't want to be in this high

54:24

horse like, oh, everyone can afford a

54:26

$2 million house. But at the same

54:29

time, there needs to be a basic

54:31

level of like, we're not going to

54:33

build less than this. And code is

54:35

not it, right? You can build a

54:37

really, really poopy house and build it

54:40

to code. Like a house that like,

54:42

a little bit of wind in the

54:44

house is going to fall down. Code

54:46

is, code really just addresses life safety

54:49

health. burning down or burning down and

54:51

burning your neighbors house down, then they

54:53

do about your health in that house,

54:55

right? As a side note, I have

54:57

this super nerdy friend of mine, Kristof

55:00

Erwin, who has a podcast called The

55:02

Building Science Podcast, and I went to

55:04

lunch with him the other day. And

55:06

he's always been a big advocate of

55:09

better indoor air quality in houses and

55:11

how, you know, we don't utilize fresh

55:13

air systems very well in American homes.

55:15

We just rely on leakage for fresh

55:17

air. And he says, you know, Matt,

55:20

everyone's talking about the food you eat.

55:22

Oh, you need grass-fed beef and you

55:24

need this type of diet or that

55:26

type of diet. You only eat about

55:29

three pounds of food a day, but

55:31

guess how much oxygen and air you

55:33

breathe in your lungs all day long.

55:35

And so why don't we care more

55:37

about something that's a 10x factor in

55:40

our bodies? And we don't. We're like,

55:42

no, whatever, you know, if the, we

55:44

need to put a dust mask on,

55:46

sure. But that's about all we care

55:49

about. Unless you're cutting, you know, concrete,

55:51

you don't think about it. We need

55:53

to think. about the indoor or cold

55:55

of our homes because we're putting 30

55:57

pounds of this air in our longs

56:00

every day. And so there's an educational

56:02

component that goes in with us, like

56:04

we need our architects and our builders

56:06

to be continually learning about what's a

56:09

healthier way to build, what's a more

56:11

durable and resilient way to build. And

56:13

we need to stop people talking about

56:15

what's the price per square foot. You

56:18

know, we don't buy cars by the

56:20

pound. If we did, we'd all be

56:22

driving a pickup truck like mine. I

56:24

have a Chevy 2,500 that buy the

56:26

pound is probably the cheapest car on

56:29

the road because it weighs 7,500 pounds.

56:31

Right. You know, we evaluate cars on

56:33

the zero to 60 performance. And as

56:35

a side note, you know, Tesla, if

56:38

you noticed all their ads for the

56:40

first ever many years they were in

56:42

business, they never once. talked about how

56:44

eco-friendly they were or how much how

56:46

much fossil fuels you were saving they

56:49

talked about how cool the car was

56:51

how fast it was zero to 60

56:53

all the electronics how it integrated with

56:55

your this and that they they never

56:58

got into the whole we're saving the

57:00

world by driving a Tesla and as

57:02

a result they blew up the company

57:04

and they're you know probably the world's

57:06

biggest manufacturer of electric cars today And

57:09

I always thought that was so interesting

57:11

that they first built a car that

57:13

people wanted rather than a car that,

57:15

oh, was particularly eco-friendly or met this,

57:18

this, or this standard, right? We're not

57:20

going to sell passive house by telling

57:22

people that you're going to save the

57:24

whales. We're going to build passive houses

57:26

because people want a really comfortable, a

57:29

really resilient, a really durable, and a

57:31

really well-built house that has really healthy

57:33

air for their children. That's why they're

57:35

going to buy a passive house and

57:38

a really well-built house. So we need

57:40

to bring the rubber to the road

57:42

where it really matters and talk about

57:44

the things that matter for them. that

57:46

too is also figuring out what does

57:49

matter for them. And sometimes it may

57:51

not matter to them until you ask

57:53

them. Yeah. You know, until we get

57:55

into, hey, how healthy would you like

57:58

the air in your house? Would you

58:00

just like regular, you know, office air

58:02

like your crappy office? Oh, you know,

58:04

I never feel great in the office.

58:06

Like I had to move offices because

58:09

the air coming out of the vents

58:11

was not great. Well, would you like

58:13

that in your home? No, actually now

58:15

that you say that you say that

58:18

I actually would like to think about.

58:20

their quality in my house. You know,

58:22

if we get into those things, people

58:24

actually care about it. And I think

58:27

that's what's fun about making videos all

58:29

these years is I find people that

58:31

get to my videos because they wanted

58:33

to learn how to flush their tankless

58:35

water heater, but they become subscribers and

58:38

get into it because once they learn

58:40

about it, well they want to know

58:42

more. And we have this phrase now

58:44

that we say know better, build better.

58:47

Once you know better, you want to

58:49

build better. So we need to get

58:51

people to think about it, to talk

58:53

about it, to get into the details.

58:55

And once they do, oh, suddenly they

58:58

do care about it. They do want

59:00

to know. And for us to, when

59:02

it comes to rebuilding, we want to

59:04

say, okay, would you like to build

59:07

to these wildfire urban interface standards? Well,

59:09

yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

59:11

I would like to do that. Well,

59:13

here's 13 things that we need to

59:15

think about from this data sheet from

59:18

the Cal Fire website. Let's talk through

59:20

those. you know, what of these do

59:22

we want to do in your house

59:24

or how important is is this to

59:27

you? That's a that's such a really

59:29

really good point because You know like

59:31

you started off by using the Tesla

59:33

analogy, which is a great observation And

59:35

it's speaking to people in a way

59:38

that they understand first of all and

59:40

then getting and asking the right questions

59:42

like you said So that they so

59:44

now we have a conversation about the

59:47

things that we know are important But

59:49

maybe on the face of it they

59:51

wouldn't and I think that reminds me

59:53

that one of the challenges that the

59:55

architecture profession has and maybe it goes

59:58

for construction and builders as well is

1:00:00

the communication to non-architects. Because architects care

1:00:02

about a lot of different things about

1:00:04

regarding buildings, a lot of the construction

1:00:07

aspects we've talked about, but also design

1:00:09

and all these things. And for the

1:00:11

average person, who maybe also is interested

1:00:13

in architecture, they might not care about

1:00:15

all of these four different things as

1:00:18

much as we do. And it's a

1:00:20

mistake really as a profession or as

1:00:22

a small business owner to just preach

1:00:24

what you want to preach. without understanding

1:00:27

the perspective of the person you're speaking

1:00:29

with and talking about it in a

1:00:31

way, again, that they care about. And

1:00:33

even if that means that you are,

1:00:36

let's say, sort of packaging the content

1:00:38

in a specific manner, but still the

1:00:40

same content, like you were saying, passive

1:00:42

house. Well, the house itself is gonna

1:00:44

be passive in the end, yes, and

1:00:47

how all those principles, but the way

1:00:49

we talk about it can have. a

1:00:51

great impact as to whether or not

1:00:53

it even gets built that way. I

1:00:56

think it's a really really good point.

1:00:58

Yeah, and just to piggyback on that

1:01:00

too, David, I mean, builders and architects

1:01:02

both need to be better at sales.

1:01:04

And a big portion of being a

1:01:07

good salesperson is being a good listener

1:01:09

and really understanding what are people saying

1:01:11

and what motivates and what drives them.

1:01:13

And I think that in my industry,

1:01:16

in the building side, You know, we

1:01:18

get caught up in this, what's it

1:01:20

going to cost the build? And that's

1:01:22

the only thing we hear and we

1:01:24

start competing on price and it's a

1:01:27

race at the bottom. And so we

1:01:29

need to get rid of that race

1:01:31

at the bottom and go right to

1:01:33

you, you know, what's really important to

1:01:36

you as a homeowner and let's really

1:01:38

listen. And then frankly, let's utilize some

1:01:40

good sales sales sales. Like when I

1:01:42

was a young builder, the company of

1:01:44

the national builder that I worked for

1:01:47

moved me into sales for two years.

1:01:49

selling new homes out of a model

1:01:51

home and I went to a three

1:01:53

week class called professional selling skills that

1:01:56

was super valuable to me. And I

1:01:58

still use a lot of those skills

1:02:00

today. I think a lot of us

1:02:02

could benefit from a professional selling class

1:02:04

and really understanding where people are coming

1:02:07

from, what motivates them, what's important to

1:02:09

them, and what's get away from what's

1:02:11

a cost. And frankly, what do you

1:02:13

cost as an architect or what do

1:02:16

you cost as a builder? Because if

1:02:18

I'm 2% less than my competition, that

1:02:20

means nothing about my value to them

1:02:22

as a builder. or your value to

1:02:24

them as an architect, because your fees

1:02:27

are X dollars per hour less or

1:02:29

X whatever differently than the next person

1:02:31

that they're talking to. It's about what's

1:02:33

the value to you as the homeowner.

1:02:36

Yeah, I love that. I think it's

1:02:38

really interesting you had a three week

1:02:40

course in sales. I was just going

1:02:42

to ask you, you know, with the

1:02:45

build show and its success and you

1:02:47

seem to be from the outsiders as

1:02:49

a viewer, like just a natural at

1:02:51

all of this, right? I was also

1:02:53

just curious, like in your life there

1:02:56

was that three week sales class, but

1:02:58

so when you started the build show,

1:03:00

did you Did you know that you

1:03:02

had an innate ability or learned a

1:03:05

skill set and ability to speak so

1:03:07

clearly and convincingly and interestingly to people,

1:03:09

to fellow professionals and also to non-builders

1:03:11

like we're talking about? Because that's a

1:03:13

part, that's definitely part of the magic

1:03:16

of the bill, Joe, is that it's

1:03:18

enticing. Yeah, I appreciate that. No, I

1:03:20

think all those are learned skills and

1:03:22

frankly. just like your podcast and my

1:03:25

podcast, there's another, it takes enough inertia

1:03:27

to push it uphill long enough that

1:03:29

most people don't do it. Is it

1:03:31

really that hard for you and I

1:03:33

sit down and talk for 90 minutes?

1:03:36

No, but most people, they'll do it

1:03:38

once or twice and they lose interest

1:03:40

or realize, oh, you know, only 10

1:03:42

people listen to it or whatever, or

1:03:45

only 50 people watched it or 100

1:03:47

people watched it. And so... They don't

1:03:49

have the inertia to go back. You

1:03:51

know, it's like those January 14th New

1:03:53

Year's resolutions that go by the wayside

1:03:56

because they've been in the gym for

1:03:58

two weeks and they didn't lose 10

1:04:00

pounds like they wanted to. They only

1:04:02

lost one pound. You know, you have

1:04:05

to do this for a while. You

1:04:07

know, if you're going to run a

1:04:09

marathon, you don't train for two weeks

1:04:11

and then go run a marathon. You

1:04:13

have a multiple month training plan of

1:04:16

a lot of hard work to get

1:04:18

there. And for me, the bill show

1:04:20

just as a quick story, that's my

1:04:22

story that'll tell people. I started on

1:04:25

YouTube in 2008, and prior to that

1:04:27

I've been blogging for about a year.

1:04:29

And really, I only did YouTube to

1:04:31

have a video to put on my

1:04:33

blog. I didn't think YouTube was going

1:04:36

to do anything. I just did it

1:04:38

so I can embed this YouTube video

1:04:40

on my blog post. And I've been

1:04:42

blogging for six months and had done,

1:04:45

I don't know. Let's say two dozen

1:04:47

blog posts in six months. Wow. And

1:04:49

it felt like I was putting these

1:04:51

blog posts in the trash, like no

1:04:54

one's reading this. This is stupid. Why

1:04:56

am I doing this? Just because this

1:04:58

marketing guy told me I should do

1:05:00

it. So then I went to a

1:05:02

prospect meeting, like six months after doing

1:05:05

it. And they're like, oh Matt, hey,

1:05:07

it's so great to meet you. And

1:05:09

I was a young builder. I was

1:05:11

actually new to Austin at the time.

1:05:14

I didn't grow up here. This is

1:05:16

my wife's my wife's town. and I

1:05:18

was starting my new company and I

1:05:20

was like well how do you know

1:05:22

me like do you know my my

1:05:25

wife's family or like what's the gonna

1:05:27

why are you acting nice to me

1:05:29

basically and they're like oh you know

1:05:31

I read your blog post you know

1:05:34

I've googled your name and your blog

1:05:36

post came up and I read a

1:05:38

couple of them out you're actually you

1:05:40

seem like you kind of know what

1:05:42

you're talking about and I realized oh

1:05:45

by writing that blog It gave me

1:05:47

some credibility with these people that eliminated

1:05:49

at least 15 minutes of what kind

1:05:51

of shady builder are you? I bet

1:05:54

your podcast does that too. You know,

1:05:56

when people Google your names, your podcast

1:05:58

comes up, and whether they listen to

1:06:00

a whole episode or not doesn't matter,

1:06:02

they listen and go, oh, this David

1:06:05

and Marina, they're pretty smart. Like they're

1:06:07

interviewing smart people, they have a smart

1:06:09

podcast. It gives you a credibility versus

1:06:11

the other architect they're interviewing down the

1:06:14

street that. you know, doesn't do anything.

1:06:16

All they have is pretty pictures on

1:06:18

their Instagram, maybe that's pretty pictures on

1:06:20

their Facebook, but they're not putting themselves

1:06:22

out there, and they're also not putting

1:06:25

their personality out there. And that's the

1:06:27

thing about YouTube that really made me

1:06:29

realize, oh, I need to keep doing

1:06:31

this, because I did the same thing

1:06:34

for YouTube for a year or two

1:06:36

and never got more than... 50 or

1:06:38

100 views per video. You know, I

1:06:40

forgot 100 views, I'd tell my wife.

1:06:42

You won't believe it. That video I

1:06:45

posted last month, it hit 100 people,

1:06:47

watched it. It has 100 views. That's

1:06:49

crazy. But again, I would go to

1:06:51

interviews after being on YouTube for a

1:06:54

year, and I'd have, you know, 14

1:06:56

videos on YouTube, and people acted like

1:06:58

I was their long-lost cousin. Because they

1:07:00

knew me. They had some idea of

1:07:03

my personality before I came to the

1:07:05

interview. They knew that I seemed smart.

1:07:07

And so now instead of eliminating 10

1:07:09

or 15 minutes of what kind of

1:07:11

shady builder are you, I got rid

1:07:14

of 30 minutes of that. And not

1:07:16

only that, but I started competing against

1:07:18

people who had been in business 10

1:07:20

years longer than me who had no

1:07:23

presence online except for a pretty website.

1:07:25

Because they got to know me and

1:07:27

they realized, oh, this guy's a smart

1:07:29

builder, like he's talking about things. that

1:07:31

I never thought of like should I

1:07:34

use this insulation or that insulation or

1:07:36

what's the difference between double glaze and

1:07:38

triple glaze windows and what does what

1:07:40

does solar heat gain coefficient mean to

1:07:43

me and what should I look for

1:07:45

on that you value on the windows

1:07:47

it was nerdy stuff and I tend

1:07:49

to connect with the with the nerdy

1:07:51

person in the family you know if

1:07:54

the husband was an engineer I'd connect

1:07:56

with him or if the wife was

1:07:58

a a researcher she would she would

1:08:00

latch on to my videos or whatever.

1:08:03

I'm talking about clients here. And I

1:08:05

just kept at it because I thought

1:08:07

it was good for my business. I

1:08:09

didn't think that we were going to

1:08:11

have a whole other business or I

1:08:14

wasn't trying to build a million subscribers

1:08:16

on YouTube. I was simply just trying

1:08:18

to promote my business. And that was

1:08:20

a free way to do it for

1:08:23

me. It was posting these videos that

1:08:25

I'd done with my flip video camera,

1:08:27

which you can see. I was wondering

1:08:29

if those were good. I couldn't quite

1:08:31

tell. I thought those are video cameras.

1:08:34

That's my old flip video camera that

1:08:36

you guys probably are not old enough

1:08:38

to remember but that's before cell phones

1:08:40

took videos there was no smartphones back

1:08:43

then. I just had a flip phone

1:08:45

and then I or flip video camera

1:08:47

and then I upgraded to a a

1:08:49

Craigslist camcorder right there in the background.

1:08:51

It was $300 on Craigslist. I was

1:08:54

like, oh my gosh, can I afford

1:08:56

this? Can I do this? I think

1:08:58

I should. It'll take better videos. And

1:09:00

then I got a brand new $900

1:09:03

camcorder a year or two later. It

1:09:05

was like, whoa, I'm big time now.

1:09:07

I had a camcorder that's like a

1:09:09

new one. And then I bought a

1:09:12

wireless mic. So it's turned into a

1:09:14

whole different deal that I didn't expect,

1:09:16

but it's still awesome for my business.

1:09:18

I mean, most of our clients these

1:09:20

days come to us first and then

1:09:23

we take them to a local architect

1:09:25

that we think is a good fit

1:09:27

for their project. I still don't do

1:09:29

any architecture in-house. We do about seven

1:09:32

homes a year customs. We also do

1:09:34

some remodels. I really like still keeping

1:09:36

my hand in remodels that we've learned

1:09:38

a lot on remodel projects. And then

1:09:40

the build shows blown up. We have

1:09:43

a website now that has a website

1:09:45

now that has a website now that

1:09:47

has. 14 other contributors besides me. So

1:09:49

we publish about 16 videos a week

1:09:52

on the vulture.com. Yeah. It's a lot

1:09:54

of content. It's all incredible. And I

1:09:56

was actually very curious to know about

1:09:58

rising rebuild and how many projects you

1:10:00

do. So I'm glad you mentioned that.

1:10:03

Yeah. You know, you mentioned that you

1:10:05

don't do, excuse me, architecture in-house. And

1:10:07

one of the other questions I had

1:10:09

was, had you ever considered that. growing

1:10:12

over or not rolling over but transitioning

1:10:14

and becoming a design build company. Yeah

1:10:16

that's in the future plans we actually

1:10:18

have hired a registered architect a woman

1:10:20

named Chelsea is on my staff who's

1:10:23

our first true architect hire and she's

1:10:25

mainly doing pre-construction work with us and

1:10:27

filling in supplemental drawings for existing architectures

1:10:29

architects I should say but we are

1:10:32

hoping to actually have a client that

1:10:34

would be a design build client and

1:10:36

Chelsea would do the architecture and that's

1:10:38

something I'm debating kind of ramping up

1:10:40

a design build company. I really love

1:10:43

working for outside architects. We've had a

1:10:45

lot of success in that over the

1:10:47

years and it's allowed us to do

1:10:49

a real breadth of projects from crazy

1:10:52

ultra-modern projects with a bunch of semi-celebrity

1:10:54

architects you might recognize from from Austin

1:10:56

like the Michael shoes of the world

1:10:58

or alter studios or Some of those

1:11:01

big firms in Austin But it's really

1:11:03

enough we don't get a look at

1:11:05

some of the even bigger What I

1:11:07

would consider some of the bigger Austin

1:11:09

jobs because of our social media presence,

1:11:12

you know I'm pretty sure my buddy

1:11:14

is building Elon Musk's house in town

1:11:16

and I don't number one I wouldn't

1:11:18

want to do that, but number two

1:11:21

we don't get a look at those

1:11:23

projects in the Like five to ten

1:11:25

million in up range I think because

1:11:27

they don't they want to make sure

1:11:29

that their house wouldn't be featured on

1:11:32

a video or an Instagram post Yeah,

1:11:34

and frankly our contract says hey your

1:11:36

house is going to be featured in

1:11:38

a video in an Instagram post So

1:11:41

don't even think about a you know

1:11:43

in some type of you know your

1:11:45

name is not going to be featured

1:11:47

the addresses. We're never going to spotlight

1:11:49

you But I may show off your

1:11:52

kitchen or I may show off your

1:11:54

HVAC system or I may talk about

1:11:56

your insulation or your foundation or whatever.

1:11:58

And so there's a certain class. of

1:12:01

folks that are like, I would never

1:12:03

go with them, which is fine. And

1:12:05

that's increasing. I think, obviously, someone like

1:12:07

Elon Musk is that he's like, he's

1:12:09

a one of one, but a lot

1:12:12

of folks who have a lot of

1:12:14

money who are not, you know, a

1:12:16

celebrity person are increasingly feeling that way.

1:12:18

I don't, you know, I don't know

1:12:21

if it's a good thing or a

1:12:23

bad thing or what, but the concern

1:12:25

or fear of security being known, having,

1:12:27

you know, all this kind of stuff

1:12:29

is wrapped up part of conversation and

1:12:32

so yeah it's I mean we have

1:12:34

so many architects we know they they

1:12:36

have they're almost their entire recent portfolio

1:12:38

no one will ever see it is

1:12:41

just NDAs and no no photographs sometimes

1:12:43

too and it makes it difficult it

1:12:45

honestly it makes it difficult as an

1:12:47

architect to want to take on a

1:12:49

project where there's going to be zero

1:12:52

documentation of the fact that it was

1:12:54

ever done outside of us knowing it

1:12:56

and that's just a hard It's a

1:12:58

hard thing and you know difficult with

1:13:01

houses anyway. Yeah that's that's a difficult

1:13:03

ask and and I'm thankful that we've

1:13:05

had that in our contract for a

1:13:07

couple years now so we don't have

1:13:10

to get into that and if we

1:13:12

did we'd be like well look we're

1:13:14

gonna really be cautious about you and

1:13:16

your address and your person but I'm

1:13:18

heck yeah I'm gonna show off your

1:13:21

kitchen that I thought I'm really proud

1:13:23

of or for me your attic or

1:13:25

your mechanical room or your HVAC system

1:13:27

or your filtration or fresh air or

1:13:30

whatever and we tend to get clients

1:13:32

these days that are nerds and love

1:13:34

it and are actually a bunch of

1:13:36

my clients these days are disappointed I'm

1:13:38

not making more videos I had a

1:13:41

client last week telling me that at

1:13:43

a meeting like why haven't you made

1:13:45

a video my house a couple months

1:13:47

like I think our kitchen's phenomenal don't

1:13:50

you and I'm like well yeah but

1:13:52

like There's only so much I can

1:13:54

talk about in your kitchen. Like, I'm

1:13:56

sorry. I'm like, well, I promise I'll

1:13:58

put it in Instagram soon, right? I'm

1:14:01

busy. building your house okay? Yeah I'm

1:14:03

not actually I mean that's that's the

1:14:05

thing that we tried to tell clients

1:14:07

you know I only spend 10% of

1:14:10

my time in the in the building

1:14:12

company 90% of my time in the

1:14:14

video company. Oh okay. You know my

1:14:16

name is on the door but my

1:14:18

partner Tim is really the managing partner

1:14:21

of Reisinger Build. And I have a

1:14:23

fabulous team and, you know, I think

1:14:25

one of our secret sauces that we

1:14:27

use the same subs over and over

1:14:30

and over again. So almost every sub

1:14:32

in the field are subs that remember

1:14:34

me on the job site every day,

1:14:36

all day. And it's the same people.

1:14:38

And that's our secret sauce is the

1:14:41

same subs doing consistent work, different architects,

1:14:43

different projects, different whatever, but the same

1:14:45

workmen and women that have great work

1:14:47

ethic that have. consistent pricing that have

1:14:50

a great high level of integrity on

1:14:52

the job. We do cost plus jobs

1:14:54

too, right? So I make sure those

1:14:56

guys don't ever get hosed because they

1:14:58

underbid the project and screwed up. You

1:15:01

know, I'm always making sure that the

1:15:03

subs are paid, not overpaid, but paid.

1:15:05

You know, there's never this, oh, gotcha.

1:15:07

You know, he said it was 80,000

1:15:10

to frame this, you got a hold

1:15:12

of that. Yeah, we actually have a

1:15:14

cost plus framing contract. Interesting. Or my

1:15:16

framer renegotiates his pricing every year, but

1:15:19

I have a week rate and a

1:15:21

day rate from him for his crew.

1:15:23

And that's the reason why I've used

1:15:25

him for 12 years, because he's fair

1:15:27

with me and unfair with him. Yeah.

1:15:30

And he does a fabulous job. His

1:15:32

guys are never on Facebook when I

1:15:34

drive up to the job site on

1:15:36

their phones. They're working hard all day.

1:15:39

And as a result, if it takes

1:15:41

you 14 weeks, I'm going to pay

1:15:43

you 14 weeks. If it takes you

1:15:45

six weeks, I'm going to pay you

1:15:47

six weeks. And he's in demand. So

1:15:50

he's not milking jobs for me either.

1:15:52

But he knows, hey, if I continue

1:15:54

to do good work for this builder,

1:15:56

I'm going to continue to get good

1:15:59

work. that's the kind of subs we

1:16:01

use and as a result you know

1:16:03

we've continued to be busy. That's great.

1:16:05

I think that's that's super important for

1:16:07

everyone in the in our industries to

1:16:10

have that I guess you'd call it

1:16:12

a network that is trusted and you

1:16:14

know them well because there are there

1:16:16

are unfortunately so many trades people who

1:16:19

are not great at their jobs and

1:16:21

it's I find like for us it's

1:16:23

kind of a game of sometimes trial

1:16:25

and error if you're working with a

1:16:27

new person and you're just trying to

1:16:30

sift through all of the people to

1:16:32

find the good ones and once you

1:16:34

find a good one you hold on

1:16:36

to them and they hold on to

1:16:39

you because you both kind of recognize

1:16:41

like okay we have something good here

1:16:43

and it's not easy sometimes to find

1:16:45

that right pairing. That's right. I think

1:16:47

it's really interesting that the build show

1:16:50

has evolved to be so huge and

1:16:52

so much your time goes toward it.

1:16:54

How do you see the build show

1:16:56

evolving over the course of the next,

1:16:59

I don't know, actually five, ten year,

1:17:01

X amount of years? Yeah, yeah. Ten

1:17:03

years, I don't know. It's hard to

1:17:05

say what the ten year looks like,

1:17:07

but we've been, you know, I've been

1:17:10

out at this since 2008, so this

1:17:12

isn't a overnight success, right? We didn't

1:17:14

get to where we are by doing

1:17:16

this in two years. I mean, we're...

1:17:19

how many years in, 16, 17 years

1:17:21

in at this point. The next big

1:17:23

thing for us that I'm working on

1:17:25

behind the scenes is is a standard

1:17:28

for construction that I'm trying to unveil

1:17:30

this fall. We're going to call it

1:17:32

the build HD standard and it will

1:17:34

be here's how to build a house

1:17:36

the build show way and we'll have

1:17:39

some tears and I'm not trying to

1:17:41

compete with passive house. This isn't a

1:17:43

code book. This is I want a

1:17:45

really well built house. for my family

1:17:48

and I want a house that's going

1:17:50

to be resilient and durable that's going

1:17:52

to be built to withstand whatever is

1:17:54

going to be thrown at it in

1:17:56

the next hundred years in my area

1:17:59

and it's going to be smart but

1:18:01

it's not this isn't a standard for

1:18:03

for finishes this is a standard for

1:18:05

all the things you can't see after

1:18:08

the house is complete right and so

1:18:10

code doesn't really address that and honestly

1:18:12

I don't think passive house does either

1:18:14

so we're gonna we're gonna have our

1:18:16

own standard that we're currently actively on

1:18:19

development and that will be the build

1:18:21

HD standard how we're gonna go to

1:18:23

market with it, I don't know. I

1:18:25

mean, everything we've done to date is

1:18:28

all free, so this will be a

1:18:30

free standard and will be available for

1:18:32

everyone to use. And I don't think

1:18:34

I'm going to get into certifying, like

1:18:36

passive house as a whole certification. I

1:18:39

think this is going to be a,

1:18:41

hey, if you want to use this,

1:18:43

great, but here's how to build a

1:18:45

really well-built house. And if you're a

1:18:48

homeowner, here's the things I would recommend

1:18:50

you do. to make sure that if

1:18:52

you are building this standard that it's

1:18:54

built to that. You know at this

1:18:56

stage of construction you want to have

1:18:59

this done. You want this blower to

1:19:01

or square at the end from an

1:19:03

independent person. You want these types of

1:19:05

things. The hard part for me that

1:19:08

I'm still wrapping my brain around a

1:19:10

little bit is how do I make

1:19:12

one standard fit in all the different

1:19:14

climate zones? How much do we vary?

1:19:16

How much do we vary, right? Because

1:19:19

just like we talked about early LA

1:19:21

is a pretty mild climate. So if

1:19:23

you're building in California, it might be,

1:19:25

hey, well, it's, we need to really

1:19:28

make sure that we're making really good

1:19:30

strides on a house that's gonna withstand

1:19:32

an earthquake and maybe a fire. But

1:19:34

we don't need a house that has

1:19:37

the same insulation levels as a house

1:19:39

built in Minnesota. It's just not important.

1:19:41

Yeah. Yeah, that makes that's that's that's

1:19:43

really really interesting. The certification, I mean,

1:19:45

I could see where it would have

1:19:48

value, but I also feel like you

1:19:50

have built such a. reputation with the

1:19:52

companies that if it has your stamp

1:19:54

on it that is in itself probably

1:19:57

in a lot of people people's eyes

1:19:59

as good as that certification. I think

1:20:01

also it makes it more accessible to

1:20:03

people. You know sometimes certification just scares

1:20:05

people away because it you know it's

1:20:08

like oh it's it's too much paperwork

1:20:10

it's too much things that have to

1:20:12

report and get approved versus like let's

1:20:14

just get educated and do the things

1:20:17

right and that's right. That's right and

1:20:19

maybe the way to commercialize it which

1:20:21

is what we've always done is we

1:20:23

charge manufacturers. to let them pay and

1:20:25

then it's free for architects and builders.

1:20:28

We always want the education to be

1:20:30

free, but maybe there's some version of

1:20:32

this this product meets the build HD

1:20:34

standards and if you if you want

1:20:37

to get us to certify it we

1:20:39

will and then you can use our

1:20:41

logo for $10,000 a year, Mr. Manufacture

1:20:43

or whatever. I don't know, we got

1:20:45

to figure that part out. Yeah. But

1:20:48

the point is I feel like we've

1:20:50

got a lot of standards but not

1:20:52

all of them really give me what

1:20:54

I'm looking for. Which is that really

1:20:57

healthy, really resilient, really durable, really well-built,

1:20:59

solid house that's beyond code when it

1:21:01

comes to safety and health is different

1:21:03

than passive house. It's not just about

1:21:05

energy use. It's more than that. There's

1:21:08

a craftsmanship component too. There's a remodelability

1:21:10

component that I'm trying to figure out.

1:21:12

How would that work? Like I really

1:21:14

want my windows to be able to

1:21:17

be replaced without destroying the house. And

1:21:19

windows have a service life. You know,

1:21:21

maybe some windows have a 20 year

1:21:23

service life and others have a 50

1:21:25

or 75 or maybe even 100 year

1:21:28

service life. But if we want a

1:21:30

house to last for 300 years, we

1:21:32

got to replace the windows. So let's

1:21:34

figure out how to do that without

1:21:37

ripping the brick off. You know, let's

1:21:39

think about how replaceable these things are.

1:21:41

And even at some point, I really

1:21:43

want to get into being able, I

1:21:46

think that Europeans are better at this.

1:21:48

How do we service all our utilities

1:21:50

utilities utilities and replace them? you know

1:21:52

if you if you go into a

1:21:54

house built in Norway like I was

1:21:57

earlier this year you'll notice that all

1:21:59

of their plumbing comes pre-sleeved and all

1:22:01

their wiring comes pre-sleeved. And they do

1:22:03

that because if you wanna pull a

1:22:06

pexline out, all you gotta do is

1:22:08

go to the mechanical room and start

1:22:10

pulling and cut it off underneath the

1:22:12

kitchen sink and you could pull that

1:22:14

pexline out and refish a new pexline

1:22:17

through that sleeve. And it comes from

1:22:19

the manufacturer like that. So they're like,

1:22:21

oh, this house is gonna last long

1:22:23

enough to need to replace the plumbing.

1:22:26

How do we do that? Yeah. Yeah,

1:22:28

yeah, yeah, yeah. It's also fascinating that

1:22:30

the building standards across different places. You

1:22:32

go to other countries and they do

1:22:34

things sometimes that just objectively makes no

1:22:37

sense at all, but other times it

1:22:39

makes like complete sense and yet to

1:22:41

come back to the United States and

1:22:43

we don't do that because of, you

1:22:46

know, the cost or probably because the

1:22:48

way things have evolved. It's evolved a

1:22:50

certain way and we just, it's a

1:22:52

standard. We don't do that when we

1:22:54

should. It's short-term thing. We were at,

1:22:57

you know, the window manufacturer of Skyframe.

1:22:59

We were visiting. Yeah, well, anyway, they're

1:23:01

a Swiss company. They do, like, very

1:23:03

large panes of glass, you know, frameless

1:23:06

windows. That's their, their, their jam. But

1:23:08

we were out at their headquarters in

1:23:10

Switzerland this last summer. And they have

1:23:12

a certain detail at the sill for

1:23:14

getting water out and keeping. keeping water

1:23:17

out and a lot of water to

1:23:19

get out, that they employ everywhere in

1:23:21

the world except for the United States,

1:23:23

where they have a different detail for

1:23:26

the United States because we do it

1:23:28

a certain way and they were very

1:23:30

kind and gracious because all of us

1:23:32

were from the US that we're visiting.

1:23:34

Like we're not trying to say that

1:23:37

you're wrong, but why do you do

1:23:39

it this way? And then I just

1:23:41

really had an answer because we saw

1:23:43

the... European version, we're like, that actually

1:23:46

makes kind of more sense what you're

1:23:48

doing. I don't know why we do

1:23:50

it, you know, this way over here.

1:23:52

But anyway, the, I know we're actually

1:23:55

just past the hour, so one of

1:23:57

the last questions that I have, always

1:23:59

like to ask more for fun than

1:24:01

anything else, is what is your favorite

1:24:03

building? And it doesn't have to be

1:24:06

one that you've built, although it could

1:24:08

be, but just in general, what is

1:24:10

your favorite building? Oh man. It's the

1:24:12

hardest question. This is going to sound

1:24:15

really egotistical, but my personal house. So

1:24:17

I've been building as a professional builder

1:24:19

for 30, this is my 30th year

1:24:21

in construction. I started professionally in 95.

1:24:23

and I built a house for my

1:24:26

family and moved in three years ago

1:24:28

now. So I went 27 years of

1:24:30

thinking about it, you know, longing for

1:24:32

it is a bit of the American

1:24:35

dream to build your own house someday.

1:24:37

And I've remodeled a couple of my

1:24:39

own houses to small degrees, you know,

1:24:41

one house when I lived in Portland,

1:24:43

I replaced the kitchen out and did

1:24:46

a, did a, added a bath or

1:24:48

there wasn't one before as a... 30-year-old

1:24:50

newly married remodel. And then my other

1:24:52

house that I remodeled here in Texas,

1:24:55

I did a pretty extensive remodel, but

1:24:57

it really, for cost reasons, I didn't

1:24:59

do some things that I would have

1:25:01

liked to have done, especially when it

1:25:03

came to the health of the house,

1:25:06

and it turns out my daughter had

1:25:08

pretty good asthma. And so moving into

1:25:10

this new house. And also the position

1:25:12

that I was at in life where

1:25:15

I had more money in, I had

1:25:17

to build show, and I could also

1:25:19

go to manufacturers and say, hey, you

1:25:21

gave me a break on this material.

1:25:23

But I built just a fabulous house

1:25:26

for my family. It's not particularly large.

1:25:28

It's 2,700 square feet. There's six of

1:25:30

us that live there plus a dog.

1:25:32

But it's just so well thought out.

1:25:35

I used a local architect. This guy,

1:25:37

Kit Johnson. help me as well. And

1:25:39

there's just something about the house that,

1:25:41

you know, I thought about it for

1:25:43

so long, I built most of it

1:25:46

during COVID, so I was able to.

1:25:48

to be the site superintendent where I

1:25:50

office out of the front porch on

1:25:52

Zoom calls while work was going on

1:25:55

and then I can direct things and

1:25:57

talk about it. I made a bunch

1:25:59

of YouTube videos about it. There's just

1:26:01

something about that house that even if

1:26:04

I move someday, I kind of do

1:26:06

want to build another house now. But

1:26:08

even if I do move someday, that

1:26:10

will always be the first house I

1:26:12

ever built for myself and will always

1:26:15

hold a special place on my heart.

1:26:17

There's just something about it that. I

1:26:19

mean, I can see why people love

1:26:21

the American dream of designing and building

1:26:24

her own house. It's, it's, there's something

1:26:26

about it that's so magical and so

1:26:28

different to move into a brand new

1:26:30

house that had so much time and

1:26:32

effort and thought put into it. And

1:26:35

is it perfect? No, there's a bunch

1:26:37

of things I do differently, but still,

1:26:39

it's, it's so different than other houses

1:26:41

I've lived in in the past. I

1:26:44

absolutely love it. That's awesome. I love

1:26:46

that answer. That's great. That's the first

1:26:48

time someone's given us that answer, but

1:26:50

I love it. Oh, I'm surprised with

1:26:52

your audience. You have that a lot.

1:26:55

Now we get a lot of, you

1:26:57

know, famous buildings, some esoteric buildings, but

1:26:59

not a lot of their own houses,

1:27:01

but I like that. Yeah, yeah, that's

1:27:04

funny. Matt, we went through an hour

1:27:06

and a half like a breeze. So,

1:27:08

you know, I had a feeling that

1:27:10

that was going to be the case,

1:27:12

and I had a feeling that if

1:27:15

we all had infinite time at our

1:27:17

disposal, we could keep chatting for the

1:27:19

next, probably six, ten, twenty hours. But

1:27:21

we'll leave it here for now. So

1:27:24

fun. Thank you guys. Fun that I

1:27:26

didn't know you very well. Now I

1:27:28

feel like we're old friends. That's perfect.

1:27:30

Thanks so much for making the time

1:27:32

on a Friday, Friday morning. For sure,

1:27:35

guys. Wish you the best. Get out

1:27:37

there and build some great houses in

1:27:39

LA. And if we can figure out

1:27:41

a way to get the build show

1:27:44

out there and help with that, we

1:27:46

will. Thank you everybody for listening to

1:27:48

this week's episode. We appreciate your support

1:27:50

and listening. And if you want to

1:27:52

support us further, then you can leave

1:27:55

a review of the podcast and the

1:27:57

Apple Podcast app. You can find us

1:27:59

on Spotify. YouTube. The the

1:28:01

website is second studio pod. The

1:28:04

.com. fame You need

1:28:06

questions, guest suggestions, comments,

1:28:09

comments, that you need regarding rebuilding an

1:28:11

LA with LA with the Feel free

1:28:13

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1:28:15

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1:28:17

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1:28:19

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1:28:21

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1:28:23

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1:28:26

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1:28:28

really really, The handle is

1:28:30

second is Second Studio that's

1:28:32

it that's it, with the website, and and

1:28:34

that's all. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks

1:28:36

everyone for listening. Talk soon. Bye.

1:28:38

for Bye.