February 27, 2024 • 23 mins
Embark on a transformative journey through the highs and lows of homebuilding and remodeling with me, Chris Kirby. As we navigate the world of construction, we're not just laying foundations—we're building dreams, one beam at a time. Through the trials, triumphs, and drywall dust of the Kirby companies' past, I'll share the game-changing best practices that promise to redefine your next project. We talk financial foresight and operational excellence, showcasing our signature job site check sheet that keeps your endeavors ticking like a finely tuned engine. And for our subscribers, we've got detailed templates and resources to turn that efficiency up a notch—your blueprint to construction mastery awaits.
But there's more than just nuts and bolts in the world of home renovation. Prepare to pull back the curtains on the often-hidden mess that comes with transformation as we discuss the significance of dust-proofing and client preparation. The revelation phase post-demolition is where true resilience shines, unearthing the unexpected—water damage, structural surprises—and how to tackle them head-on. Then, we lay the groundwork for elegance with an in-depth look at self-leveling floors and framing finesse. To top off our toolbox of tips, an interior design maven joins us, dishing out the scoop on the latest design trends and cutting-edge products. Get ready to elevate your space with knowledge that's as solid as the homes we build.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Homebuilding and Remodeling Show.
Let's go.
Welcome everybody to theHomebuilding and Remodeling Show
.
My name is Chris Kirby and I'llbe your host.
(00:21):
I am the owner of threeconstruction companies on the
Alabama Gulf Coast.
The show is about residentialconstruction.
We're going to cover topics ofhomebuilding and remodeling.
Are you thinking of doing aremodel or building a home?
Are you a contractor looking toimprove your knowledge base or
grow your business?
Have you ever done a remodelproject or built a home?
(00:42):
There were so many things youwish you knew or that you could
have done differently during theprocess.
Then this show is for you.
We break down the process ofbuilding and remodeling and how
to have the best results duringyour project.
Whether you are DIY-er lookingfor tips, someone looking to
hire a contractor to do aproject, or a contractor looking
(01:04):
to expand your knowledge baseor your business, welcome aboard
.
Glad to have you.
Stay tuned.
We kick off the show with mythoughts on homebuilding and
remodeling.
I'll share best practices andtalk about some of our
experiences in business and outin the field.
These shared thoughts andlessons learned are meant to
help you on your very ownjourney.
(01:25):
Let's go.
Okay, I'm excited because wealways talk about how the
homebuilding and remodeling show.
We're on a mission to changethe narrative about construction
and construction workers,remodeling, homebuilding, our
industry, and we've been workingdiligently here at the Kirby
companies to make our companiesbetter, and we talk about having
(01:50):
a standard.
The standard is the minimum.
To be honest, we want to goabove and beyond for our clients
, for our employees, for anybodywho comes in contact with us
out in the community, and sothis week, what we've been
working on and I'll share all ofthis, especially with our
subscribers that are subscribedto us via Instagram, tiktok,
(02:12):
facebook, all of our socialmedia platforms Some of the very
specific things that are on thechecklist that we use in our
day-to-day operations, whetherit's homebuilding, remodeling,
what we do for our apprentices,things like that.
I'm gonna go over that stuff,but that's gonna be mainly for
(02:33):
our subscribers, because we puta lot of time, effort and energy
into creating these sheets tomake our companies better, and
so we want that's a value addfor our subscribers.
So I'm gonna talk about itgenerally here.
But the templates andeverything you can actually get
those or purchase those throughour website.
(02:53):
Just go on the homehomebuildingandremodelingshowcom
or the homebuildingshowcom andyou can purchase these, these
sheets, and I'll tell you, if Ihad a lot of this stuff when we
first started out, I would beway beyond where we are now.
I define success as what thepeople who are, who surround me,
(03:16):
what they are doing, and notnecessarily it's not necessarily
all about the money andentrepreneurship.
Of course money is the fuel,but the fuel to what?
And that's what you've got toask yourself.
So for us, we're contractors,but this applies to business in
general.
When you go out to start abusiness, you're on a mission to
(03:39):
make money to provide foryourself, provide for your
family.
And again, when you start togrow, that money just becomes
the fuel and you have to manageit right.
Just like you can't let yourcar get to E, you can't let your
money pot get to nothing, oryou won't be able to sustain,
survive.
So for us, money's just a fuel.
(04:01):
But people are our mission, andwhat I mean by that is we define
our success here at the Kirbycompanies as how our people are
living, the quality of life thatwe can provide for them.
And you know, from from themoment I was hired from the Navy
to coming into the civilianworld, I realized quickly that
(04:24):
it's a different mindset in theworkforce, and so in
construction, that the peoplewho are in construction, that
start out in construction, thatcome to us and look over jobs,
is very similar to what I saw inthe, in the Navy, in the
military, in that it's a verydiverse population.
When you're in the Navy, yousee people from all over the
(04:48):
world and they come together fora common purpose, a common
mission, and they make stuffhappen beyond what I've ever
imagined I've seen people do.
Coming from differentbackgrounds, different
ethnicities, differentsocioeconomic statuses, come
together for a common bond, andso in construction, it's the
(05:09):
same thing.
What we're trying to do isbalance how people look at
construction as their primaryjob, versus it's just something
that they want to do becausethey can't do anything else, or
they think they can't doanything else, and it's a low
barrier to entry.
What we're doing at the Kirbycompanies is we're trying to
(05:31):
demonstrate, show how you cantake a individual contracting
business and turn it into abigger, growing company that is
successful, and exactly how todo that.
We're still learning ourselves.
You know we've been blessed andnow we have over 30 people that
are part of the companies we'vebuilt.
(05:53):
However, it started with three,and it was hard with three,
it's hard with 30 and we'regoing to continue to grow, but
we have found some things thathave helped us sustain and grow
and we want to share that.
But over time, I mean, it'staken years of experience and
doing that and so that's whythese things that I show or talk
(06:14):
about aren't necessarily foreveryone.
It's something that adds valueto your business, so, anyway, so
what we've been working on hereat the Kirby companies is first
, we'll talk about the job sitecheck sheet.
There you go, and so this isinside of our binder here and
(06:35):
we're going to give you besttips and practices.
This is one of those that we'vekind of developed over time and
essentially what it is.
And you see the little, you seethe lanyard here, okay, and
this right here, the ring, Imean, and we're going to put a
lanyard on it and we're going toput this on every job site.
So, if you don't know, we dohome building and remodeling and
(06:59):
interior design and we wantthis to be visible to our crews.
We run, you know, crews out inthe field.
There's multiple crews thatwork directly for us and our
crew leaders are responsible forthis and what it is is a daily
checklist, beginning and end,but actually it's a grade sheet,
(07:20):
so we are going to hold themaccountable using this grade
sheet.
And now we move into shop talk.
It's the portion of the showwhere I bring in a co-host and
we cover trending topics in homebuilding and remodeling.
Hope you enjoy, let's go.
We were talking about you wouldwalk through the, through the
(07:42):
demo part and what I got hereactually just to kind of keep us
on target.
This is a burnout from aprogram we use.
It's called Buildbook and wejust kind of put it together,
but it's a bathroom remodeltemplate, and one of the things
that we're starting to do now iswe're phasing out all of our
projects.
Just like in home build, you'vegot a lot of phases a
(08:06):
pre-construction, the site workphase, foundation phase, framing
and stuff like that.
Now bathroom remodels kind ofwork the same way, and so we're
gonna pick up and talk aboutsame thing we left off at demo.
But yesterday, or what was it afew days ago, we were talking
about how you can mess stuff upduring demo.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Oh yeah, if you can destroy something.
Maybe take out some stuff thatyou really Actually open up way
more work than you were there todo, I know it could cost a lot
of money Right.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
You know what I mean.
If you take out somebody'svanity, they wanted to keep or
damage it Right.
So most of it look and that'sthe problem A lot of our guys
that go in there heavy, they'reready to.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
So when you're not changing out a vanity in a
bathroom that's getting gutted,you tend to bump it or scratch
it and stuff like that all thetime.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
How do you prevent that though?
Okay, so we've when you're in amess, no, before they gotta
start.
You gotta lay out exactly wherethey're supposed to be.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Okay, this place is being protected.
This is you know nowhere.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Cause you've been over.
Demo, right.
Okay, so you go in and you demo.
Let's talk about something else.
We've got on here SitePro andPreDemo.
We're in there and we'reputting protective coverings on
stuff right, we're laying out apath.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
But it was just when you know wherever the customer
wants to use access for us toget the stuff out to the dump
trailer.
We make a path with X-Board allthe way out.
We sell off all the rooms, thedoors to kind of try to keep the
dust from getting all overtheir house.
That's a huge one man.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I can't overemphasize the need to keep the dust down.
People, if there's anycomplaint that we get, it is
it's.
That's gonna be it.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
I mean, and you can't contain all of it, so dust is
gonna get in a home that's got aremodel going on, especially
through the eye camera andconcrete or anything like that.
There's only so much you can do, but you gotta be upfront with
them too, to let them know that,hey, we'll have some money and
then clean this.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
And as part of setting that expectation, when
you originally went out to dothe bid, you talked about
demolition and how it can getmessed.
You prepped them for.
Not only that, but are youtalking about where to park,
where the dump just gonna be ordump trailer, depending on the
size of word and then do ourguys go in.
(10:42):
And guys and girls let go inand lay out a path.
So if you're walking, trekkingthrough a master bedroom to get
to the master bathroom, shouldwe have a path?
Speaker 3 (10:52):
There's definitely a path and there's paper on that
path.
From anywhere our guys aregonna walk in that home, there's
paper.
Because you don't want to,you'll see it on the paper after
our job's been going on thefoot, all the dust and stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
And kind of that bathroom.
If there's one thing I couldsay, one huge tip I could give.
A lot of times our work speaksfor itself but it gets lost in
doing the cleanliness and sitesafety.
And so demo sets the tone forthe entire project, Right, how
(11:29):
much concern and care you showduring the demo process.
Not saying that you gotta takeit easy, that's not what I'm
trying to say at all but I meanit really does set the tone for
the homeowner because that'sprobably the messiest part,
right that.
And then when you go to do anydrywall or sanding or anything,
(11:50):
upfront demo's the messiest part.
They, our crews, go in, they doa site prep, they create the
walking paths, they're puttingpaper down and making sure that
they're not setting stuff in atub or something.
We had some issues with that.
They go in and they do theirdemo.
All right.
Now, usually, once the demo'sdone is that's where you can
(12:13):
really tell how the project'sgonna go correct.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
And why is that though?
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Usually because after the demo's done you really get
to see what you're working with.
Do I mean, let's say, we're ata home doing a bathroom because
they had a leaky shower?
Once you get demoed, youactually you know the stuff that
you couldn't really tell wasgonna be wrong.
It's you wanna see if and a lotof times it's like changing the
(12:40):
mostly a lot of it would bepulling out the insulation
behind the old shower where itstarted to do stuff like that,
and it's usually not as bad aswhat.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Or it blow, and then what about?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
how do you address right or what appears to be
mildew, mold, whatever right,usually if you can, a quarter of
it, quarter inch On a two byfour, something you can poke in.
It needs to be changed.
I Think it's like 15% of thiskind of sort of it all fit'll be
(13:15):
.
Yeah like remediation fortermites pretty much.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
You're gonna pull it out and replace it especially if
it's still wet.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
I've got good.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Take that if it's wet , that means that protective
barrier and sometimes, justdepending on how old it is, they
didn't do a really good jobback in the day of waterproofing
and understanding how toprotect what's behind the balls.
You're gonna go in, andespecially kitchen and bath,
right, you see it a lot whereWater access is, where your
plumbing is In the shower area,places like that, any place that
(13:50):
has plumbing right right that'swhere you're gonna see some
water damage, potentially in thefloor, where they have Subfloor
, maybe underneath and thingslike that.
You might see some rot, youmight see some soft spots.
You want to pull that stuff out.
They've done the demo.
They file, they found wetwood,rotten wood, whatever it is, and
(14:12):
they've Made you a list.
Right, or made us a list rightsaying, hey, we're gonna need an
extra two by fours and someextra materials.
That's all part of the the demophase and now we move to the
rough-end phase.
Once we get to the rough-endphase, that's where we're
identifying where we're gonnaframe up a knee wall, pony wall
(14:33):
it's got a lot of differentnames.
I'd like to hear what you guyscall that.
You know half wall, whatever itis.
You're framing back the showerright?
Sometimes we pretty muchEmptied out the entire space
because usually.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Well, most of the bathrooms we go in, we change in
the footprint of the bathroomanyways.
We're usually taking a littlestall shower out and eliminating
the closet, making a big shower.
Or we're taking out a gardentub, putting in a new shower
area and then using the oldshower area for a new linen
closet.
After demo we start prepping toput everything back together.
(15:11):
So if we took like tileflooring out, we're going ahead
and self leveling all the floors.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Talk about self leveling and exactly for
especially for a beginneraudience.
What is the requirement there?
Now we're going to move intothe portion of the show where we
talk interior design.
We're going to bring in aninterior designer and we're
going to talk trending designand products.
(15:36):
Hope you enjoy, let's go.
Tip number two would be alwayscheck on the product,
periodically.
Check on the product.
Don't check it once and thenassume, even two weeks from now
it'll be Exactly.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
And you can kind of have an idea of that, because
usually when I find it I'll havean inventory amount or
availability immediately givento me.
Then, for instance, I'm workingon one right now and the fans
were low inventory when I foundit Sure enough, they're out now,
that's actually what I wasdoing when you-.
And when I pulled you for this,I was adding their option too,
(16:17):
so that I'm prepared, when thattime comes, to order.
It say okay, well, this was notavailable, or y'all good with
this?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
And here's the other kicker to that is because you
have actually said hey, chris,can we order this today Cause
it's low stock or last one, andyou just gotta make it happen.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Or if it's a really good price.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
It's on sale, right, that happens so much in the
design world.
It's on sale this month only,or whatever.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
I now save later.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
And so those are conversations too, though where
it gets a little hairy with theclient, with budget and money
conversation.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
And I hesitate to.
I think that's hard for them atthe beginning of the process
because there is so much,they're just seeing the draws
going out right.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
And so they want everything to keep moving.
And why haven't we ordered thisand why don't we have this and
why won't?
But there's been instances, too, where it's a good thing we
haven't, because maybe theframing ended up being a little
smaller than planned, orsomething where like that tub
that we looked at didn't fit,and now we need to.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
So there is a timing.
There is a right time forthings I got you.
I can see that being a big dealon some of your larger
purchases as well when a tubthat cost a few grand, and
sometimes, when you buy thesethings, you own it once you
purchase.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
There are no returns, and so it does make it tough to
figure that out and we've hadclients do that too where they
see things and they just have tohave them and they'll go ahead
and get them and we're done withour new build and they're like
well, I wanna use this or I maynot use this.
So they have the room to storeit and keep it all.
They're responsible for ittakes the liability out and
we've talked about that before.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
As part of our pre-planned pre-construction, we
try to advise the client onstorage needs too, because they
may have a good deal and itcould save them.
And that's one of the thingsthat we have learned too, and
it's kind of what you'respeaking to is the timing of
everything where the client andstorage.
We've had a client go and buyjust almost everything upfront
(18:20):
and put it in storage themselvesbecause they didn't wanna wait
on the bank, they didn't wannado a draw or whatever it may be.
They wanted it.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
I will say with that, even though I'm not on the KCR
side of this or the Kirby Homes,but I would recommend this was
actually a little side tip whenyou buy your appliances so far
in advance, that warranty startsthen right as soon as you take
(18:48):
it away.
I didn't know that, and let'ssay for instance, they go to
Home Depot, they buy theirappliances as soon as they're
driving home with it.
That's their responsibility.
They registered that item da dada.
Well, say we're doing a newbill.
Say it's a massive new billthat takes six, eight months or
maybe even a year.
(19:09):
Yeah depending on permittinglane clearing all that.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Look at her.
She's so well-bursted in thisnow.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
I love it elevation certificate surveyors anyway.
So you have to Really you haveto consider you're losing that
warranty then yeah, that's howwe get it in there, you may be
out of warranty.
So if that item was damaged inthe install or if it sat on the
job site and Something happenedto it, you're out.
(19:37):
Yeah, and we had just a recentinstance when the dishwasher of
our client Actually just wentout of stock.
Well, the handle was nevershipped with the dishwasher.
Now they can't get a handlewith their dishwasher.
Yeah, what are?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
and there's nowhere to get.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
My tip for that was actually recommended that our
clients purchase theirappliances through us.
Yeah because we can go to alocal appliance store.
They'll actually hold them forus until they're our build is
ready for them.
Yeah it's when they're thatwarranty starts, when they're in
that home, absolutely not whenKirby purchased them or when the
(20:15):
client purchased them.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
So Makes perfect sense for today.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
That's a really good tip, yeah, fun fact, I love it.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Okay, that's a good hashtag.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
It's not Friday, but we'll get there rerun.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Yeah, we have fun around here.
So, and we've done the moodboard, we've done the concept,
we've talked about orderingthings and how the mood board
may shift or timeliness ofordering the actual project
right that they Approved on themood board.
You got to order it.
It's out of stock.
You say you always have to beable to pivot right.
(20:50):
Essentially, you have to have abackup and sometimes a backup to
the backup right so I thinkyou've talked about it before
where three choices is optimaland and maybe prioritize.
Well, this is my number one,but absolutely Okay and you know
it, because sometimes you'reone and two may go out of stock
or so I've only gotten to twohaven't had to go to three yet,
(21:13):
but it does happen, especiallyright now with the inventory
shortages or shipping delays.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
That's been a big problem too, just not being able
to get it in in time.
So then we've had to go toother products just to get it
quicker.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Yeah so not that it's not available.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
It's just the timeline of when our
construction fell, with yeahneeding it so, sticking to the
new construction and new buildsand you've done a lot with us on
that you were talking aboutlet's talk about.
So we talked about ordering thematerial comes in.
Okay, you've got this wellplanned, well thought out mood
board.
You've changed it.
You've got it locked in youactually yeah, you, you.
(21:52):
Then here we go, hold on, I gotit.
You lock it in.
The client approves the moodboard, you order it and it's in
stock.
It's on its way, it gets here.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
It sounds beautiful, but then it doesn't okay.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
I've seen this happen with some lights that y'all
have ordered.
The gold was not the same colorgold as Some of the other stuff
on the mood board.
It looked the colors, all wentwell, you got it in and it was a
little bit off, right, I don'tremember.
So what did we actually do?
(22:27):
Did we go back and get new?
Speaker 2 (22:28):
lighting, or what a couple of those.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
What happens though in my?
Speaker 2 (22:32):
particular case, it was a very easy return.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
I just ordered the other option, so Because there
are different now and and wasthat just the goal?
So when you're picking optionson hardware, I'll keep it a
hardware.
But you know there's likebrushed nickel and antique,
whatever nickel or whateverright.
Well, sometimes those don'tcome in, and they don't I mean,
(23:00):
they do come in but they don'tlook the exact.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Ordering online.
Reading the reviews is reallyimportant.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Thanks for joining us today.
As always, we are grateful forour listeners and your continued
support.
Please subscribe to our YouTubechannel.
Follow us on social media viaFacebook, instagram and TikTok.
Get more info at our website,wwwthethombuildingshowcom.
And, as always, remember who weare the home building and
(23:34):
remodeling show.
The Homebuilding and Remodeling Show.
Let's go.
Welcome everybody to theHomebuilding and Remodeling Show
.
My name is Chris Kirby and I'llbe your host.
(00:21):
I am the owner of threeconstruction companies on the
Alabama Gulf Coast.
The show is about residentialconstruction.
We're going to cover topics ofhomebuilding and remodeling.
Are you thinking of doing aremodel or building a home?
Are you a contractor looking toimprove your knowledge base or
grow your business?
Have you ever done a remodelproject or built a home?
(00:42):
There were so many things youwish you knew or that you could
have done differently during theprocess.
Then this show is for you.
We break down the process ofbuilding and remodeling and how
to have the best results duringyour project.
Whether you are DIY-er lookingfor tips, someone looking to
hire a contractor to do aproject, or a contractor looking
(01:04):
to expand your knowledge baseor your business, welcome aboard
.
Glad to have you.
Stay tuned.
We kick off the show with mythoughts on homebuilding and
remodeling.
I'll share best practices andtalk about some of our
experiences in business and outin the field.
These shared thoughts andlessons learned are meant to
help you on your very ownjourney.
(01:25):
Let's go.
Okay, I'm excited because wealways talk about how the
homebuilding and remodeling show.
We're on a mission to changethe narrative about construction
and construction workers,remodeling, homebuilding, our
industry, and we've been workingdiligently here at the Kirby
companies to make our companiesbetter, and we talk about having
(01:50):
a standard.
The standard is the minimum.
To be honest, we want to goabove and beyond for our clients
, for our employees, for anybodywho comes in contact with us
out in the community, and sothis week, what we've been
working on and I'll share all ofthis, especially with our
subscribers that are subscribedto us via Instagram, tiktok,
(02:12):
facebook, all of our socialmedia platforms Some of the very
specific things that are on thechecklist that we use in our
day-to-day operations, whetherit's homebuilding, remodeling,
what we do for our apprentices,things like that.
I'm gonna go over that stuff,but that's gonna be mainly for
(02:33):
our subscribers, because we puta lot of time, effort and energy
into creating these sheets tomake our companies better, and
so we want that's a value addfor our subscribers.
So I'm gonna talk about itgenerally here.
But the templates andeverything you can actually get
those or purchase those throughour website.
(02:53):
Just go on the homehomebuildingandremodelingshowcom
or the homebuildingshowcom andyou can purchase these, these
sheets, and I'll tell you, if Ihad a lot of this stuff when we
first started out, I would beway beyond where we are now.
I define success as what thepeople who are, who surround me,
(03:16):
what they are doing, and notnecessarily it's not necessarily
all about the money andentrepreneurship.
Of course money is the fuel,but the fuel to what?
And that's what you've got toask yourself.
So for us, we're contractors,but this applies to business in
general.
When you go out to start abusiness, you're on a mission to
(03:39):
make money to provide foryourself, provide for your
family.
And again, when you start togrow, that money just becomes
the fuel and you have to manageit right.
Just like you can't let yourcar get to E, you can't let your
money pot get to nothing, oryou won't be able to sustain,
survive.
So for us, money's just a fuel.
(04:01):
But people are our mission, andwhat I mean by that is we define
our success here at the Kirbycompanies as how our people are
living, the quality of life thatwe can provide for them.
And you know, from from themoment I was hired from the Navy
to coming into the civilianworld, I realized quickly that
(04:24):
it's a different mindset in theworkforce, and so in
construction, that the peoplewho are in construction, that
start out in construction, thatcome to us and look over jobs,
is very similar to what I saw inthe, in the Navy, in the
military, in that it's a verydiverse population.
When you're in the Navy, yousee people from all over the
(04:48):
world and they come together fora common purpose, a common
mission, and they make stuffhappen beyond what I've ever
imagined I've seen people do.
Coming from differentbackgrounds, different
ethnicities, differentsocioeconomic statuses, come
together for a common bond, andso in construction, it's the
(05:09):
same thing.
What we're trying to do isbalance how people look at
construction as their primaryjob, versus it's just something
that they want to do becausethey can't do anything else, or
they think they can't doanything else, and it's a low
barrier to entry.
What we're doing at the Kirbycompanies is we're trying to
(05:31):
demonstrate, show how you cantake a individual contracting
business and turn it into abigger, growing company that is
successful, and exactly how todo that.
We're still learning ourselves.
You know we've been blessed andnow we have over 30 people that
are part of the companies we'vebuilt.
(05:53):
However, it started with three,and it was hard with three,
it's hard with 30 and we'regoing to continue to grow, but
we have found some things thathave helped us sustain and grow
and we want to share that.
But over time, I mean, it'staken years of experience and
doing that and so that's whythese things that I show or talk
(06:14):
about aren't necessarily foreveryone.
It's something that adds valueto your business, so, anyway, so
what we've been working on hereat the Kirby companies is first
, we'll talk about the job sitecheck sheet.
There you go, and so this isinside of our binder here and
(06:35):
we're going to give you besttips and practices.
This is one of those that we'vekind of developed over time and
essentially what it is.
And you see the little, you seethe lanyard here, okay, and
this right here, the ring, Imean, and we're going to put a
lanyard on it and we're going toput this on every job site.
So, if you don't know, we dohome building and remodeling and
(06:59):
interior design and we wantthis to be visible to our crews.
We run, you know, crews out inthe field.
There's multiple crews thatwork directly for us and our
crew leaders are responsible forthis and what it is is a daily
checklist, beginning and end,but actually it's a grade sheet,
(07:20):
so we are going to hold themaccountable using this grade
sheet.
And now we move into shop talk.
It's the portion of the showwhere I bring in a co-host and
we cover trending topics in homebuilding and remodeling.
Hope you enjoy, let's go.
We were talking about you wouldwalk through the, through the
(07:42):
demo part and what I got hereactually just to kind of keep us
on target.
This is a burnout from aprogram we use.
It's called Buildbook and wejust kind of put it together,
but it's a bathroom remodeltemplate, and one of the things
that we're starting to do now iswe're phasing out all of our
projects.
Just like in home build, you'vegot a lot of phases a
(08:06):
pre-construction, the site workphase, foundation phase, framing
and stuff like that.
Now bathroom remodels kind ofwork the same way, and so we're
gonna pick up and talk aboutsame thing we left off at demo.
But yesterday, or what was it afew days ago, we were talking
about how you can mess stuff upduring demo.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Oh yeah, if you can destroy something.
Maybe take out some stuff thatyou really Actually open up way
more work than you were there todo, I know it could cost a lot
of money Right.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
You know what I mean.
If you take out somebody'svanity, they wanted to keep or
damage it Right.
So most of it look and that'sthe problem A lot of our guys
that go in there heavy, they'reready to.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
So when you're not changing out a vanity in a
bathroom that's getting gutted,you tend to bump it or scratch
it and stuff like that all thetime.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
How do you prevent that though?
Okay, so we've when you're in amess, no, before they gotta
start.
You gotta lay out exactly wherethey're supposed to be.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Okay, this place is being protected.
This is you know nowhere.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Cause you've been over.
Demo, right.
Okay, so you go in and you demo.
Let's talk about something else.
We've got on here SitePro andPreDemo.
We're in there and we'reputting protective coverings on
stuff right, we're laying out apath.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
But it was just when you know wherever the customer
wants to use access for us toget the stuff out to the dump
trailer.
We make a path with X-Board allthe way out.
We sell off all the rooms, thedoors to kind of try to keep the
dust from getting all overtheir house.
That's a huge one man.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I can't overemphasize the need to keep the dust down.
People, if there's anycomplaint that we get, it is
it's.
That's gonna be it.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
I mean, and you can't contain all of it, so dust is
gonna get in a home that's got aremodel going on, especially
through the eye camera andconcrete or anything like that.
There's only so much you can do, but you gotta be upfront with
them too, to let them know that,hey, we'll have some money and
then clean this.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
And as part of setting that expectation, when
you originally went out to dothe bid, you talked about
demolition and how it can getmessed.
You prepped them for.
Not only that, but are youtalking about where to park,
where the dump just gonna be ordump trailer, depending on the
size of word and then do ourguys go in.
(10:42):
And guys and girls let go inand lay out a path.
So if you're walking, trekkingthrough a master bedroom to get
to the master bathroom, shouldwe have a path?
Speaker 3 (10:52):
There's definitely a path and there's paper on that
path.
From anywhere our guys aregonna walk in that home, there's
paper.
Because you don't want to,you'll see it on the paper after
our job's been going on thefoot, all the dust and stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
And kind of that bathroom.
If there's one thing I couldsay, one huge tip I could give.
A lot of times our work speaksfor itself but it gets lost in
doing the cleanliness and sitesafety.
And so demo sets the tone forthe entire project, Right, how
(11:29):
much concern and care you showduring the demo process.
Not saying that you gotta takeit easy, that's not what I'm
trying to say at all but I meanit really does set the tone for
the homeowner because that'sprobably the messiest part,
right that.
And then when you go to do anydrywall or sanding or anything,
(11:50):
upfront demo's the messiest part.
They, our crews, go in, they doa site prep, they create the
walking paths, they're puttingpaper down and making sure that
they're not setting stuff in atub or something.
We had some issues with that.
They go in and they do theirdemo.
All right.
Now, usually, once the demo'sdone is that's where you can
(12:13):
really tell how the project'sgonna go correct.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
And why is that though?
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Usually because after the demo's done you really get
to see what you're working with.
Do I mean, let's say, we're ata home doing a bathroom because
they had a leaky shower?
Once you get demoed, youactually you know the stuff that
you couldn't really tell wasgonna be wrong.
It's you wanna see if and a lotof times it's like changing the
(12:40):
mostly a lot of it would bepulling out the insulation
behind the old shower where itstarted to do stuff like that,
and it's usually not as bad aswhat.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Or it blow, and then what about?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
how do you address right or what appears to be
mildew, mold, whatever right,usually if you can, a quarter of
it, quarter inch On a two byfour, something you can poke in.
It needs to be changed.
I Think it's like 15% of thiskind of sort of it all fit'll be
(13:15):
.
Yeah like remediation fortermites pretty much.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
You're gonna pull it out and replace it especially if
it's still wet.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
I've got good.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Take that if it's wet , that means that protective
barrier and sometimes, justdepending on how old it is, they
didn't do a really good jobback in the day of waterproofing
and understanding how toprotect what's behind the balls.
You're gonna go in, andespecially kitchen and bath,
right, you see it a lot whereWater access is, where your
plumbing is In the shower area,places like that, any place that
(13:50):
has plumbing right right that'swhere you're gonna see some
water damage, potentially in thefloor, where they have Subfloor
, maybe underneath and thingslike that.
You might see some rot, youmight see some soft spots.
You want to pull that stuff out.
They've done the demo.
They file, they found wetwood,rotten wood, whatever it is, and
(14:12):
they've Made you a list.
Right, or made us a list rightsaying, hey, we're gonna need an
extra two by fours and someextra materials.
That's all part of the the demophase and now we move to the
rough-end phase.
Once we get to the rough-endphase, that's where we're
identifying where we're gonnaframe up a knee wall, pony wall
(14:33):
it's got a lot of differentnames.
I'd like to hear what you guyscall that.
You know half wall, whatever itis.
You're framing back the showerright?
Sometimes we pretty muchEmptied out the entire space
because usually.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Well, most of the bathrooms we go in, we change in
the footprint of the bathroomanyways.
We're usually taking a littlestall shower out and eliminating
the closet, making a big shower.
Or we're taking out a gardentub, putting in a new shower
area and then using the oldshower area for a new linen
closet.
After demo we start prepping toput everything back together.
(15:11):
So if we took like tileflooring out, we're going ahead
and self leveling all the floors.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Talk about self leveling and exactly for
especially for a beginneraudience.
What is the requirement there?
Now we're going to move intothe portion of the show where we
talk interior design.
We're going to bring in aninterior designer and we're
going to talk trending designand products.
(15:36):
Hope you enjoy, let's go.
Tip number two would be alwayscheck on the product,
periodically.
Check on the product.
Don't check it once and thenassume, even two weeks from now
it'll be Exactly.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
And you can kind of have an idea of that, because
usually when I find it I'll havean inventory amount or
availability immediately givento me.
Then, for instance, I'm workingon one right now and the fans
were low inventory when I foundit Sure enough, they're out now,
that's actually what I wasdoing when you-.
And when I pulled you for this,I was adding their option too,
(16:17):
so that I'm prepared, when thattime comes, to order.
It say okay, well, this was notavailable, or y'all good with
this?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
And here's the other kicker to that is because you
have actually said hey, chris,can we order this today Cause
it's low stock or last one, andyou just gotta make it happen.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Or if it's a really good price.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
It's on sale, right, that happens so much in the
design world.
It's on sale this month only,or whatever.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
I now save later.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
And so those are conversations too, though where
it gets a little hairy with theclient, with budget and money
conversation.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
And I hesitate to.
I think that's hard for them atthe beginning of the process
because there is so much,they're just seeing the draws
going out right.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
And so they want everything to keep moving.
And why haven't we ordered thisand why don't we have this and
why won't?
But there's been instances, too, where it's a good thing we
haven't, because maybe theframing ended up being a little
smaller than planned, orsomething where like that tub
that we looked at didn't fit,and now we need to.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
So there is a timing.
There is a right time forthings I got you.
I can see that being a big dealon some of your larger
purchases as well when a tubthat cost a few grand, and
sometimes, when you buy thesethings, you own it once you
purchase.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
There are no returns, and so it does make it tough to
figure that out and we've hadclients do that too where they
see things and they just have tohave them and they'll go ahead
and get them and we're done withour new build and they're like
well, I wanna use this or I maynot use this.
So they have the room to storeit and keep it all.
They're responsible for ittakes the liability out and
we've talked about that before.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
As part of our pre-planned pre-construction, we
try to advise the client onstorage needs too, because they
may have a good deal and itcould save them.
And that's one of the thingsthat we have learned too, and
it's kind of what you'respeaking to is the timing of
everything where the client andstorage.
We've had a client go and buyjust almost everything upfront
(18:20):
and put it in storage themselvesbecause they didn't wanna wait
on the bank, they didn't wannado a draw or whatever it may be.
They wanted it.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
I will say with that, even though I'm not on the KCR
side of this or the Kirby Homes,but I would recommend this was
actually a little side tip whenyou buy your appliances so far
in advance, that warranty startsthen right as soon as you take
(18:48):
it away.
I didn't know that, and let'ssay for instance, they go to
Home Depot, they buy theirappliances as soon as they're
driving home with it.
That's their responsibility.
They registered that item da dada.
Well, say we're doing a newbill.
Say it's a massive new billthat takes six, eight months or
maybe even a year.
(19:09):
Yeah depending on permittinglane clearing all that.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Look at her.
She's so well-bursted in thisnow.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
I love it elevation certificate surveyors anyway.
So you have to Really you haveto consider you're losing that
warranty then yeah, that's howwe get it in there, you may be
out of warranty.
So if that item was damaged inthe install or if it sat on the
job site and Something happenedto it, you're out.
(19:37):
Yeah, and we had just a recentinstance when the dishwasher of
our client Actually just wentout of stock.
Well, the handle was nevershipped with the dishwasher.
Now they can't get a handlewith their dishwasher.
Yeah, what are?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
and there's nowhere to get.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
My tip for that was actually recommended that our
clients purchase theirappliances through us.
Yeah because we can go to alocal appliance store.
They'll actually hold them forus until they're our build is
ready for them.
Yeah it's when they're thatwarranty starts, when they're in
that home, absolutely not whenKirby purchased them or when the
(20:15):
client purchased them.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
So Makes perfect sense for today.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
That's a really good tip, yeah, fun fact, I love it.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Okay, that's a good hashtag.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
It's not Friday, but we'll get there rerun.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Yeah, we have fun around here.
So, and we've done the moodboard, we've done the concept,
we've talked about orderingthings and how the mood board
may shift or timeliness ofordering the actual project
right that they Approved on themood board.
You got to order it.
It's out of stock.
You say you always have to beable to pivot right.
(20:50):
Essentially, you have to have abackup and sometimes a backup to
the backup right so I thinkyou've talked about it before
where three choices is optimaland and maybe prioritize.
Well, this is my number one,but absolutely Okay and you know
it, because sometimes you'reone and two may go out of stock
or so I've only gotten to twohaven't had to go to three yet,
(21:13):
but it does happen, especiallyright now with the inventory
shortages or shipping delays.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
That's been a big problem too, just not being able
to get it in in time.
So then we've had to go toother products just to get it
quicker.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Yeah so not that it's not available.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
It's just the timeline of when our
construction fell, with yeahneeding it so, sticking to the
new construction and new buildsand you've done a lot with us on
that you were talking aboutlet's talk about.
So we talked about ordering thematerial comes in.
Okay, you've got this wellplanned, well thought out mood
board.
You've changed it.
You've got it locked in youactually yeah, you, you.
(21:52):
Then here we go, hold on, I gotit.
You lock it in.
The client approves the moodboard, you order it and it's in
stock.
It's on its way, it gets here.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
It sounds beautiful, but then it doesn't okay.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
I've seen this happen with some lights that y'all
have ordered.
The gold was not the same colorgold as Some of the other stuff
on the mood board.
It looked the colors, all wentwell, you got it in and it was a
little bit off, right, I don'tremember.
So what did we actually do?
(22:27):
Did we go back and get new?
Speaker 2 (22:28):
lighting, or what a couple of those.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
What happens though in my?
Speaker 2 (22:32):
particular case, it was a very easy return.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
I just ordered the other option, so Because there
are different now and and wasthat just the goal?
So when you're picking optionson hardware, I'll keep it a
hardware.
But you know there's likebrushed nickel and antique,
whatever nickel or whateverright.
Well, sometimes those don'tcome in, and they don't I mean,
(23:00):
they do come in but they don'tlook the exact.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Ordering online.
Reading the reviews is reallyimportant.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Thanks for joining us today.
As always, we are grateful forour listeners and your continued
support.
Please subscribe to our YouTubechannel.
Follow us on social media viaFacebook, instagram and TikTok.
Get more info at our website,wwwthethombuildingshowcom.
And, as always, remember who weare the home building and
(23:34):
remodeling show.
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