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August 15, 2025 • 39 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Homer Modeling Show, brought to you by
Edge Construction Online. Edge Construction Company dot com. That's Edge
Construction Company dot com. Great website and resource. You heard
the big voice guy mentioned the website, he didn't mention
the links that are there Pinterest, Facebook and a really
cool one hows h ouzz. All that stuff accessible from
Edge Construction Company dot com are telep A numbers to
think about doing some remodeling. Six O eight six three

(00:22):
six three three four three that number six three six
edge and Enjoining us in studio this morning is the
owner of Edge Construction Mike two egg Mike. How you
doing this morning? Great Sean, it feels like a little
triple D dejav here. Oh, we've been having some technical stuff.
Real quick, we're going to talk this week about some
things to discuss with your contractor before the work starts,
which is probably a good time to be discussing things

(00:42):
with your contractor. But real quick, I know you get
a chance, uh most summers to get out west and
spend some time uh open roads on the motorcycle a
little bit. And I gotta ask, when you see some
of these really cool like campers RVs, do you ever
do you ever think, boy, you know what, wouldn't mind
kind of living that life for a little while.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
So I know you're you love this traveling thing on driving,
that's not I love I love driving, but usually in
a hot ride or a motorcycle. Yeah, not a camper,
but uh I go to Sturgis every year and ride
motorcycles with friends of mine and we get to see
some amazing I don't know what to call these things.

(01:25):
To call them a camper is just doesn't do them justice.
And and there's a wide range, right there's there's normal
people with normal stuff. And then this year we're parked
by some of the there were there were people that
were there that own Harley dealerships from Tennessee and they
were very interesting group. And U you know, apparently that
pays pretty well because they had some really cool stuff there.

(01:47):
And I got to see some of the inside the
camp and I will say, like some of the carpety
working in in these is very custom, very cool, and
I appreciated it.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
So yeah, I figured that something. And it's funny too
because there's some parallels. As you mentioned, you know, most
of the most of the stuff you're gonna see is
is kind of the normal stuff. It's it's very cool,
very nice. But then there's of course that other level.
And I know, when it comes to Homer modeling, most
of the stuff people are like, we want kind of
normal things. Ever so often you get somebody that wants
to do something really really out there.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
But yeah, I did see a I don't know what
vintage this was. It's probably a mid eighties city bus, okay.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
That.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Somebody or a group of friends had sort of converted
camper converted, and you know.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
It looked like it was a good shape on the outside,
and I got inside him like a boy.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
You know, it looked like they kind of took something
from the sixties and try to put it in there
and make it work with captain's chairs and maybe a
couple of bunks and things like that. And I've always thought,
you know, just in the back of my head'd be
fun to put something like that in our shop and
just have it be my hobby for a year to
kind of build some custom things. And I have looked
into it, by the way, and that is a whole

(02:57):
different world from the kind of construction we're in. I mean,
everything has is geared to being lightweight and low impact
and and uh, you know, it's not like you breezed
through there and put three corrnch wood flooring down and
and and heavy cabinets and uh, you know, everything is
just very geared towards that. But I still think it
be fun to custom make the inside of one of those.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
It it doesn't it looks like a like a it
looks so cool, and it does look like a really
cool adventure. And if there's anybody I I know that
could execute it would be you. And it does. It
does bring up an interesting and it kind of ties
in with what we're going to talk about this week
about things to discuss with your carpenter before work starts.
Carpenters have they should know like what their what their specialties,

(03:41):
what's their wheelhouse is obviously calling up Edge Construction to
remodel the inside of your RV. That's not that that's
not something you guys do. Now you've got a you
got a beautiful house on the isthmus, you want it
to function better. That's your will. Is asking that stuff
kind of up front of like what do you guys do?
What's kind of your your area of expertise? Pretty horn
question isn't it.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
It is?

Speaker 2 (04:01):
And I think especially when you're early in this business.
You know, if you're young at remodeling, or you have
a you have a small team, or you're the team,
you need to specialize because when times get a little
tougher in the world, like they did the last year
or two with interest rates, there's less work out there,
and you start seeing pickup trucks with everything. They have

(04:24):
a sign that says I can do a deck and
I can design and build a house. I'm like, well, okay,
I want to believe people. And I'm not saying they
haven't done some of that work, but I think you're
better off specializing. Now, we're an electrical contractor. Does that
mean I'm an electrician? No, it doesn't. It means that

(04:46):
we have had for many years a guy named Dale
that works for us. He's a master electrician and his
pedigree is is pretty unbelievable. He's worked on a lot
of extremely tough commercial stuff all the way down to
very simple stuff. He likes, he likes working for us.
I hope he stays with us forever and so like
that has allowed us to expand our our room there.

(05:07):
I always have said Uh, I don't have design shops. Okay,
Like a lot of times people expect me to go, hey,
where's all the ideas on design? Like well, you know,
we many years ago brought in Heather. Heather runs our
design side and our sales side, and uh uh I
trust her more than anything on the designs Like like

(05:27):
I always say, like, okay, the the great pictures online
because we we we've found Heather. You know, Heather has
taken us to another level on design and it really helps,
you know that. And and there's a whole compliment of
people that are that are in this group that make
this work. Some of these bigger jobs. Okay, we we added, uh,

(05:50):
framing new houses to our to our deal maybe seventy
years ago.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
We didn't really do that before that.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Once in a great while we would, but that meant
I was out there leading the crew of you know,
of people and so so I understand framing, but I
don't do that much anymore. We've we've found this guy
named rot Ron runs our people on that side, is
an extremely good framer. And when we have additions or
something where we lead and need a lot of horsepower,

(06:19):
Ron is like and his and his and his gang
are like, Oh great, we get to do something different.
You know, I'm thinking, oh, this is awesome. You know,
you get this enthusiastic group. So I think, as a homeowner,
if you're out shopping for who's who's going to do
this from now? Who's going to do all this work?
And who do I who do I talk to about
doing it? You need to spend a little bit of
time trying to figure out what who's good at what right.

(06:40):
So I I have a lot of remodeling friends in
this business around the country and locally, and almost all
of them are I always joke your guys in suits
that have to come people like us to do come
find people like us to me to do your work,
because we're the horsepower people. And that's largely where the

(07:02):
where construction has gone. Like new builders, they're not really builders.
They hire people like us to build their houses. And
so I don't have a problem with the system. It's
been great. It's allowed me to put a lot of
food on tables. But just because somebody says they can
do everything, and and you know, you know, when you're hungry,
you'll you'll you gotta do what you gotta do. I'm
not faulting them, But as a homeowner, I think your

(07:25):
your best result is probably with somebody that specializes or
you know it really does have this complement of skill sets.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
Does that bring in the importance of asking for examples? Like,
for example, if I'm doing a kitchen, you know, the
guy can with all those things on the side of
his van could tell me he's done. I, as a homeowner,
would maybe like to see some previous work and just
kind of gauge what that I mean? Is that is
that a fair question to be asking? It is?

Speaker 3 (07:50):
It is?

Speaker 2 (07:50):
You know, and people would ask me of those questions.
And and you know, before I branched off into remodeling,
I was a good carpenter and I had installed hundreds
of kitchens. But had I had I designed it, had
I had I come up with the ideas?

Speaker 3 (08:07):
Had I could I provide product?

Speaker 2 (08:09):
Did I have cabinets that that I liked, that I
had that I had access to? Not?

Speaker 3 (08:15):
Really?

Speaker 2 (08:16):
I put in what what somebody put in front of me.
So if a Biller Billers showed up with Biller grade stuff,
I can make that that material look great. Do we
put in that kind of stuff? Now, No, we don't
because Okay, now I've got to stand behind it. Now
I've got to Now I've got access to better things.
You know, We've talked a lot about our great Northern

(08:36):
Cabinets and and uh, you know, I joke about how
far they are up there and what what they do,
but there they have just been the greatest thing for me.
I love this company. They produce a great crap cabinet
at a at a great price point. I mean a
lot of people think, well, we've got to pay an
extra for for something like this that offers all these
custom options.

Speaker 3 (08:56):
Well not really.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
It was it was more about us having years enough
of experience to even get in with a company like that,
because you know, they're there. There's a lot of people
I would love to buy from this company, and they
have limited production and they want to protect their reputation too.
So yeah, there's there's a lot of moving parts to it.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
Is there is there something when you mentioned, you know,
some of the some of the products that you use
and some of the products that you won't use. Is
that part of that too? Is like I don't know
how even how you describe like what's your baseline? Almost
like what what is your standard? I don't know if
there's a good way to phrase it other than just
simply saying, hey, what do you work to would you
do something more budget friendly if it means you know,

(09:36):
kind of cunning? I mean, how I guess how would
I approach that conversation.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, we get talked into this and it's and it's
almost never a great result. A lot of times I'll
just uh, I'm going to pick on the vinyl plank flooring. So, okay,
we put in a fair amount of vinyl plank flooring.
Our our floor on the product that we're going to
put in has changed a lot in the last five years,
and it's because of problems, right, So I'm not trying

(10:01):
to say don't put in vinyl plank flooring. I'm saying,
know what you're putting in and find out where the
floor is. So when we get tucked into it, it's
usually because a homeowner did some in another area of
the house they want to kind of match up, and
it's like it's always the big box stuff. It's always
kind of on the lower end of quality, and it

(10:23):
just leads to a lot of heartache on our side
because okay, now we've got to stand behind this, and
I don't want to put in a product that's only
going to last. You know, I'm not saying it's only
gonna last five or ten years, but some of it.

Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
And Sour, one of our main suppliers, by the way,
dropped fifty percent of their product in the in vinyl
plank flooring lines because they were getting callbacks to every house. Well, okay,
we luckily weren't putting in any of those anyways, because
I already knew this storm was coming. We still sell

(10:55):
vinyl plank flooring, but a lot of experiences led us
to go and okay, 'rock what's to saying now? When
I was when I was the one man show and
I was just doing these jobs myself, you know a
lot of times I would just send homeowners off to
the flooring companies, say, okay, you pick out whatever, you
pick out, all all install it's going to be fine. Well, okay,
that's that's not a problem if you're small and doing

(11:17):
four jobs a year. If you're if you're bigger, your
reputation is really good. You want to maintain that. You're
you're doing fifty jobs a year, well that's a little different.
Your exposure is tougher. So I think like it's it's
all just about asking the right questions. Now, can you
find somebody small that doesn't have the team like that

(11:38):
we've got and a couple other people have got around town. Sure,
sure you can. But like you mentioned right off the bat,
you asked about specialization. If that person or small group
does does ropes, that's all they do. Chances are they're
educating themselves, they're they're going through training, they're looking at product,
they're staying in there in their lane. If you get

(11:58):
that that same company to do your bath, well now
you're you know, not saying it's that turn bad, but
you know, buy or beware, right, So so specialization gets
to be pretty important with that.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
As we talked this morning with Mike two Way, owner
of Edge Construction, the website edge Construction Company dot com.
That's all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com. Some
of it too, kind of and obviously not universal, but
you do kind of get what you pay for. I
feel like a lot of times, you know, you mentioned
some of those those flooring options. You go to a
big box store X y Z on any Saturday or Sunday,
there's going to be some special pricing on whatever for

(12:34):
these vinyl flooring. I feel like I've known folks over
the years that have and a lot of times are
doing it themselves, have installed that stuff themselves and really
regretted because it's basically, you just wasted your whole weekend
on something that's going to last maybe a year.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
And you know, well, I mean you know it is
I see the attraction. Okay, you go on the big
buck stores. Everything looks like it's two dollars a foot roughly,
and you're going, well, why should I why should I
pay this company seven or eight bucks a foot to
put in this product? Well, for all those reasons I mentioned, Okay, uh,
if we put it in, we don't want you to

(13:08):
hate it. I mean that's a job, even if it's
for year or ten years, you know, we don't want
it to fail. I mean that's a that's a the
think of the resources that went into mad making even
a crabby product, right, Yeah, it's got to be. Well,
it's an oil based product, the vial flooring. It's a
one oil based product. So we're pumping out, we're processing,
we're putting on trucks, we're shipping across oceans or whatever.

(13:31):
The process is just a lot of resources. Good going
to do that, and if it's just you know, I
don't want to waste those it just seems foolish. So
I would say, like greenest product is the one that
stays in the game the longest. Okay, we've we've talked
a lot about three quarter inch nail down floors from
you know, one hundred years ago. We're refinishing some of

(13:54):
these floors and they've still got one hundred plus years
of life left in them. It's the greenest product ever invented.
It probably doesn't feel like it's people because you're using resources,
but everything does, right.

Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, anything about Yes, that's gonna be around for another
hundred years. You're going, that's a pretty that's a pretty good,
pretty good not only good good environmentally, but good investment
as well.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
It is and there are areas where Okay, so we'll
take a lower level remodel, right, pretty not a great
place for a three quarter and snail down natural wood floor,
great place for vinyl plank flooring works. Well, I'll give
you another kind of want to call it a pro
tip or something. Even the floating vinyl plank floors. Now

(14:39):
we glue down. I think we're the only ones in town.
What we're looking for is sort of a more guaranteed result.

Speaker 3 (14:47):
Okay, Uh.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
The floating floors, we were getting complaints that they were noisy,
that they they expanded and contracted too much, and sometimes
would would the joints would come apart, you know. And
so this is just it's one more kind of insurance plan. Yes,
it's a little more expensive, but we're trying to get
you to be happy with that product and have it
last a lot longer so we don't waste those resources.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
Talking this morning with Mike two Eg, owner of Edge Construction,
talking this week about things to discuss with your contractor
before the work begins. We'll get into things like working hours,
where's everybody in a park, where's all this stuff gonna
go as it gets removed. We'll get the details from Mike.
We'll do that next. In the meantime, Ben bet to
the website Edgeconstruction Company dot Com. Head on over there
right now, check them out. That's Edgeconstruction Company dot Com.

(15:30):
Telephon number six O eight six three six three three
four three that number six three six edge. Of course,
Edge Construction brings you the Homer Modeling Show right here
at thirteen ten WIBI. This is the Homer Modeling Show
brought to you by Edge Construction Online. Edgeconstruction Company dot com.

(15:53):
All one word Edge Construction Company dot com. Great website
to learn more about Edge Construction. Also fantastic links, Facebook,
Pinterest and the coolest one in the world. How is
hou is easy?

Speaker 3 (16:02):
Again?

Speaker 1 (16:02):
That available to you at Edge Construction Company dot com.
Tel form number six O eight six three six three
three four three that number six three six Edge talking
about some of the things to discuss with your contractor
before the work begins. And of course I know one
of the big questions as far as it's like timeline
when can the work begin? But also there's another way
to look at that when can the work begin, which
is what kind of hours are things going to be?
You know, your house becomes a job site. And I've

(16:24):
learned this from you. Is you want to know one
is things? When are things going to be going on?
That's an important question in conversation, isn't.

Speaker 3 (16:30):
It It is?

Speaker 2 (16:31):
Because you know, we went through this, uh this work
from home deal and actually a lot of our government
workers are still at home and uh, I notice that
sometimes the work day starts a little slower, and that situation.
I don't know if you know anybody that that does
has happened this serious that it works. Okay, they might

(16:52):
have if they had to be at work by seven
thirty eight. Previously, they probably get up at six and
they're up and rolling and they don't rind so much.
You show up at seven or seven thirty to start
your job. But now you know, if you just got
to walk from the bedroom to the office, I don't know.
I'm joking a little bit, but it has made a difference.
And there are people that have some kind of summer hours,

(17:15):
like when the kids are home.

Speaker 3 (17:16):
Yeah, well, you know.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
You've worked. You got to get this work done. Something
with our people, like our internal people. Sometimes we can
hold them off till eight o'clock, it's not too big
a deal. Then we really got we get itchy.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
We need to get going right.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
Because partially because okay, these people need to get home
to their families too. So if they work till four
or five, and that's a pretty long day doing what
we do, you know, I want to get I want
to get them home to dinner.

Speaker 3 (17:41):
I mean, that's the way it works.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
So there are trades that we hire out, not very many,
but really it's just plumbers and heating, and with them,
I you know, we have great trades and I'm just
happy that they show up when we call them, and
so I try not to dictate too much. If they say,
you know their work they want to be going by seven, well, okay,

(18:03):
it's usually a day or two. Going to have to
suffer through it, going to have to make it work.
I ask homeowners to be understanding. Sometimes they are. Sometimes
you know, they're kind of not, but you know, we
are trying to get this work done. You know, you
want we got to do everything we can to clear
the path.

Speaker 3 (18:17):
For these people.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
I was gonna ask you too. You mentioned working with
some of the trades, working with plumbing and heating. Is
that a question too to ask? Is like, like, who
do you work with? Obviously, as much as you know,
you guys do a lot of stuff at edge construction,
there are certain specialties that you bring in others, and
I know there are you know, you don't mention the
on air, but when you talk off there, you are

(18:38):
very particular about who these people are that you bring along.
Is that for a homeowner a question they should be
asking as well if they're contractor.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
Yeah, I think that.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
I think it's fair how much of this work is
subcontracted out? Because okay, then you're you're more of a
pencil pusher than a uh well now it's not pencil
pushing anymore. It's a smartphone put Yeah, but then than
actually doing the work. And so how do you how
have you been with these people? What's your relationship with
to them? How do they affect the schedule or how

(19:10):
do you how do you get quality control?

Speaker 3 (19:12):
Are they is?

Speaker 2 (19:14):
Is there showing up on this job? Do they have
workman's copy being paid on them? That's a great question.
So like, yes, it's fair to ask who these people are.
Once in a while I'll mention, uh, one of those
trades to people and they're like, I had a bad
experience with them, Can we use somebody else? Well, we
do have secondary trades that handle kind of our overflow.

(19:35):
We've been with the same people for a long time,
but once in a while we can we can trade off.
But yeah, it is kind of funny, you know, I say, well, okay,
let's break what went wrong? Why you know, we want
to keep good contractors in business, Whether it's whether it's
people like us or or or our trades that we
bring in. And sometimes it's like, okay, we did, We're

(19:57):
the expectations realistic. We're coming in under a really stressful situation.
I'm thinking of, you know, maybe a failure of a
water valve in the house and now we've got water
sprain everywhere. This happened to a customer of ours, by
the way, We've worked a few times in their house.

(20:19):
It was not related to anything we did, by the way, Yeah,
it had nothing to do with us. It was in
an area that we hadn't touched, but they called us.

Speaker 3 (20:26):
What do we do?

Speaker 2 (20:26):
We get a trade over there, We get a plumber
over there, you know. But they they couldn't come fast enough.
They couldn't you know, the homers under a ton of stress.
But I think it's realistic to go, Okay, these are
people too, and they're they're trying to please you. Yeah,
maybe they didn't meet quite your expectations, but let's be fair.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
Yeah with that, And and I kind of joking, but
all seriousness when it comes to you know, those two
areas that you mentioned earlier about heating and plumbing, you
are again, people can talk to you about, but you
are very particular about who the people are. And of
course that was is that typical by the way, is like,
do do most contractors have like a preferred you know,

(21:06):
company that they'll work for when it comes to that
that other types of work that may be outside of
their their their wheelhouse, their specialty.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
They do you know, Uh, I think it's an advantage.
Like uh, I remember back to when I was young
at this and I was small. You know, the beggars
can't be choosers, right. We've heard this this saying, but
it's it's especially true. So you're you have to be
very accommodating to those to those trades because they have
a lot of options of how people work for and

(21:35):
if you want to be on their list, you're like,
you know, it's not like you can say I need
you hear the saft, right, and and we try not
to do that too. I'm not saying we're in the
bully pulpit now, but we're able to get a lot
of help from those trades when we have an issue
or I'm trying to think of something recently that they
helped us out with. I think it was just ah

(21:58):
a mistake. We had our cabinet had drawers and doors
on one or doraworers on one side, and it was
open on the other side for a vanity basement vanity,
and the plumber that was out just kind of misread
the plan and plumbed it on the other side. We
were able to get them back within an hour of

(22:19):
needing them desperately because we had template the next day
and for countertops, and so I probably couldn't have made
that work when I was when I was younger. At
those right and so right, we try to comboate them.
We still don't want them mad at us. We want
them to be happy and want to do our work,
and a lot of that homers play a lot of

(22:40):
a big role in that too.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
What about too is as we talk about some of
the you know, the questions to be asking, those conversations
you don't always think about. And I know we talked about,
you know, old floors being removed and other things trash
flow and trash management and dust management, which is which
is funny because I don't know if we've talked about
it on the show. I think one of the things
you've mentioned is people don't realize how much time is

(23:04):
spent just cleaning up and preparing these are these are
things too. You want to work with the homeowner and
the contractor. How does this stuff get handled, whether it's
dust management or or just general trash and removal of
that stuff.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
Yeah, and so this is this is I think fully
probably fifteen percent of our budget numbers are probably spend
on cleanup. And it's just we're just trying to be
and have some honesty here, right. Our people are supposed
to clean up during the day and at the end
of the day. Occasionally one of those trades comes in

(23:39):
and isn't quite as clean as our people and are
you know, home owners are a little spoiled maybe with
with our people and if they can't be there the
minute that other trade finishes to clean up.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
Sometimes we get a phone call and it's frustration.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
We live and I always call it internally, I call
it we live in Amazon world, right or Sean, we
you order something from Amazon?

Speaker 3 (24:00):
Where when do you want it later?

Speaker 1 (24:01):
Today?

Speaker 3 (24:03):
What happens if it shows out of the week.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
What happened? Something's wrong? I'm not happy?

Speaker 2 (24:09):
Right, Yeah, So it's I pick on us and uh
and our homewers sometimes and what My point is it's
a team effort. Okay, if if you know this job
is running well and one trade comes in and and
they're sometimes the trade making a mess isn't the one

(24:31):
that's going to clean it up, by the way, and
it's really helpful for homeowner to go shoot us an oue, Hey,
these guys got done. Do you know when one's going
to get cleaned up? Because we're just can't be everywhere
at once, right, and so gets an on our radar,
and it's very helpful. The the the when this works
best is when everybody's involved in it, right. And so

(24:53):
I'm not saying a lower expectations like we don't want
to we don't. I don't like when there's messes and houses.
I also don't like in a thirty yard dumpster in
front of somebody's garage for three months while this is
going on. I mean, I think it's kind of tacky.
So we tend to have a dumpster there during the
heavy duty part of the job, framing and demo, and
then once that's over, we pull the dumpster. It's usually

(25:16):
sometimes within a couple of days, and then we're we're
hauling cans back. So whenever somebody, somebody for our company
goes there, they're bringing empties and they're they're taking stuff back,
and so I think it's I hope it's nicer for homeowners.
They really you know, they have their yard back sooner.
But you know, like relying on everybody to use that

(25:36):
system is sometimes a little tough.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
So talking this morning with Mike two Egg, owner of
Edge Construction, you never think you'd be talking waste management,
but it is an important part of this whole conversation.
You never thought we'd be talking about it on a
remodeling show, but it is definitely an important thing to
be asking your contractor before that work starts, is how
is that stuff handled? Of course, been looking to do
some remodeling. Mike, the team at Edge Construction left talk
with you. I got to just pick a bone, give

(25:58):
a call six so eight six three six three three
four three that number six three six edge and the
website Edge Construction Company dot com. Of course, Edge Construction
brings you the Homer Modeling Show right here on thirteen ten.
Wu ib i, this is the Homer Modeling Show brought
you by Edge Construction online, Edge Construction Company dot Com
or tell number six So eight six three six three

(26:19):
three four three. That's six three six Edge. And I
say it's brought you by Edge Construction Company dot com.
It's brought you by Edge Construction of course the website
Edge Construction Company dot com. Either way you're going to
find Edge Construction online, Edge Construction Company dot com and
some great links there, uh, Facebook, Pinterest and of course
that very cool link to Howes as well. Talk this
week with Mike two wigg about some of those conversations

(26:40):
to have with your contractor before the work starts, and
we were talking about about trash and the dumpsterns kind
of things. There are some areas I think, you know
Ismis and I know you guys do a lot of
work down on the Isthmus and some of these these
great homes that folks are are really saying, I want
to I want to make sure that they're that they're
going to be preserved and look great and functioning great

(27:01):
for you to come where things like dumpsters are just
kind of out of the out of the question, aren't they.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
Oh Sometimes I mean it's uh, you know, parking down
there is is just an issue, no matter what, right,
And then you've got the what is it one morning
or after a week. Where you can't park on this
side of the street, you have to be you have
to park, can't have everything within four feet of the driveway.
Sometimes we get kind of called in for that. Thank

(27:28):
you very little, but sorry. Yeah, that that is uh
we you can tell you I have a little PTSD from
working out.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:36):
The reward is you get to improve these fantastic uh
historical houses. A lot of a lot of fun old
stuff down there. The challenges, yeah, if we're talking about trash,
the challenge down there is do we have room for dumpster?
Probably not a lot of those houses don't even have
a driveway that we can set something in temporarily. That
means we're trying to get a street permit. We just

(27:58):
finished a very big job down to on Madison on
one of the streets down there on the Isthmus and
escaping me this minute, but.

Speaker 3 (28:07):
A very nice job, great result.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
We applied for a street permit for like four months,
could not get the street permit for a dumpster. I
don't know what happened, maybe did it wrong or something,
but it was frustrating and so that met we're we're
pulling our trailer down there. We're trying to do everything
we can to take care of it. But yeah, that's
a challenge.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
Is that something that I talk with you you think
about in some of those you know, those challenging neighborhoods,
just because of logistics, something to talk with your contract about,
like what's kind of how do you envision this ultimately working?
What's almost saying like what's the plan here for not
the work inside, but handling things outside?

Speaker 2 (28:44):
Right, you know that those discussions have to take place,
and a lot of times we're saying hopefully you will
talk to your neighbors too, I mean, because just stainly
know what's going on and what you're doing, and you know,
I'm trying to cull that good relationship and we don't
want to we don't want to hurt that relationship in anyway.

(29:05):
If there is a driveway and maybe a little garage,
staging staging areas for materials, for trash, for for a
lot of things can happen there.

Speaker 3 (29:19):
That's it's very helpful.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
And so the challenge always is, Okay, if we're remodeling
you downstairs down there, that generally means you got to
get some things out of there. Well, we know where
they go, they go, they go out, maybe in another
room somewhere, But yeah, the staging is always a challenge.
All these things really need to be gone over. And
I think it's a great way to kind of gauge

(29:42):
the experience of your contractor too. You know, if they're
ready with and willing to talk about these these potential
issues that are going to happen on the job from
day one really, and they've got good ideas or good
plans or maybe that the two of you can work
through this together. I think you're probably talking to somebody

(30:03):
that's got good experience.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
Do we get folks wondering about how things are handled
as far as like recycling reclaiming those type of areas
as well? I know obviously it's something here in Dane County.
People often are as top of mind asking like, hey, cabinets,
for examples, may not fit the design, maybe outdated, but
there's still life in them. Is that something to be
talking with your contractor as well about how those type
of things are handled.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
They are, And so cabinets are a big one, because
you know, there's a lot of times I pick on
the eighties and nineties designs and architects and things, because
you know, everything's sort of looked the same, yeah, and
it's not by today's standard with all these options, it's
not very attractive. And so there's a lot of times
we're taking things out that have some life left in them.

Speaker 3 (30:46):
And so.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
Cabinets we have the option of the restore, right, that's
probably our main option. There are times when they say, hey,
we we can't use we've got too many, or we've
got too many of the same thing. It doesn't happen
very often, but it does happen occasionally. We had one
recently where we took cabinets out. I will just say

(31:12):
they weren't that attractive. We knew somebody that needed some cabinets.
Sometimes people will call us and say, hey, you know,
I know a family that doesn't doesn't have the wherewithal
to buy new cabinets, and if you have something come up,
and so sometimes we have those kind of in the
wings and if we can, if we can shift resources
to somebody like that, that we're certainly.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
Happy to do that.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
And to me, it's just so less wasteful, right, And
it's not just the okay, filling up the landfill. That's
one thing I mean, but wood deteriorates and turns into
soil at some point. It's not like not like the
plastic products, but just the thought of all the resources
that go into making those cabinets, and so if somebody
else can use them and get a deal with meaning free,

(31:57):
we do that. And I think that same job the
fridge went to somebody, the dishwashers getting reused, the microwave
I believe went to somebody. So you know, like I said,
we're very hard on doing that, and generally around Madison
is pretty important to people that things get used that
have some life left in.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
What about remounting them? And the home is like garage
laundrroom to get folks that are asking about that sometimes.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
Once in a while, once in a while, so uh yeah,
people will do some maybe uh workshop cabinets, sut of
old kitchen cabinets or or like you mentioned the garage.

Speaker 3 (32:32):
That might be a good spot for.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
M Doug this morning with Mike two Egg, owner of
Edge Construction website Edge Construction Company dot com. It's all
one word Edge Construction Company dot com. They're telling number
six so eight six three six three three four three
that number six three six Edge will continue our conversation
with Mike two Egg of Edge Construction. We will do
that next as the Homer Modeling Show continues right here
thirteen ten WUIB. This is the Homer Modeling Show brought

(32:58):
you by Edge Construction Online. Edgeconstruction Company dot com. That's
all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com delph number
six so eight six three six three three four three
that's six three six Edge. Talking this week with Mike
two egg about some of the questions and conversations to
be having with a contractor right from the get go,
things to kind of start off that relationship. We talk
a lot about you know, I get all geeked out

(33:19):
about technology, and I know one of the areas that
technology has really been a great benefit is for home security,
but also access and understanding like which doorway are the
contractors coming through, how are they going to get in?
When can they get in? And technology has played a role.
There's obviously some old fashion things as well, but that
is an important discussion to be having with your contractor,

(33:40):
isn't it It is?

Speaker 2 (33:41):
And the first kind of frontline thinking on access to
me is so so we want the most efficient way
to get materials into the construction area, and so and
the second thing would probably be I want to be
able to separate, if possible, the the living space from
the construction area. So we got a clearly marked path.

(34:04):
If you're bringing something to that house, you're gonna we're
gonna have floor protection down, We're gonna have we're gonna
have up the pathway laid out right, so if you
come in, you're gonna you're gonna know what to do.
We uh, email our suppliers, We call our suppliers, we
text our suppliers, we and any other trades that we
would use so that they know what to do. Now,
does it one hundred percent happen if only we lived

(34:27):
in that hundredercent world. But generally people are trying to
do it right. And so it's another spot where homeowners
can make us, make us and.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
Help us with our job. Uh.

Speaker 2 (34:37):
There's another part to this where I don't really want
people working on the job venturing into other areas of
the house because it's it's just kind of looks bad, right,
it's not what you want. I've I've had homeowners call
me and go, we didn't use you. I'm sorry, but
I hear you on the radio. We answer some questions

(34:59):
just and how how a contractor should be treating my house.
And I hear stories of Okay, we have a basement,
I just finish it happening here, and they'll find somebody
coming out of a bathroom upstairs, and I go, well, okay,
on our job, I'd say that should never happen. Like
we talk about it. We don't want that happening. We
don't want our people using your bathroom. I'd rather have

(35:20):
him drive to the gas station.

Speaker 3 (35:21):
We have.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
I always say, we have very gracious homeowners and they're
going a lot of times they're trying to talk you
into doing this. I'm like, please don't do it, because
you know, I'm just on the off chance here you
wipe your hands on a towel and you've got something
on them that sayes there. I don't know, anything could happen, right,
And so that access and security thing is big.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
We have.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
We have people, uh we usually do a lock box,
so it's a code, you punch it in, you can
get a key out, and you have access to the job.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
Sometimes we do.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
We have homeowners that will change their garage code to
a temporary code just during the project and then that's
the access to the house. Since you're a techie guy,
we can talk about the fancy doorhops. Do you have
one of these by the way, Oh yeah, oh yeah,
so you you can. You can probably give people temporary access, right.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
Yes, you can. You can create separate codes for them,
you can give them temporary access. You can just off things.
For example, if you've got kiddo's like I do that,
come home from school and get an alert when a
particular code to unlock the door is used. So yeah,
they're in. They're super convenience.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
So in theory, you're you're knowing what's happening, you know,
all the time. And by the way, I will say,
whenever we've worked for uh uh, the area police forces,
they generally all do stuff like that. So that might
be telling you something and that technology is not that intimidating, right,
it's not that hard to learn.

Speaker 3 (36:48):
It's it's or are you hesitating.

Speaker 1 (36:51):
No, no, not at all, No, it's it's it's it's
surprisingly simple, which which again is a it's a cool
it's a very very cool thing. Yet it's easy to
set up. You gotta app on your phone and then
it's easy to easy to use as well. Before we
wrap up this week. One thing though you had mentioned,
you know, you'll get calls of people that listen to
the program and say, hey, I had working with a
different contractor this type of thing went on. Is that normal?

(37:12):
Those kind of things. The other important thing speaking of
like that, contact and communication, knowing who if you hire it.
Let's say I hire Mike and Edge. Of course, that's
exactly why I would hire. When I do hire you guys,
having having a contact person or a point person specifically
on that job. Understanding who that is is something you
should ask as well, isn't it?

Speaker 3 (37:32):
It is?

Speaker 2 (37:32):
And this can lead to more frustration, I think than anything.
And it happens because from our side, okay, we have
we call the design portion of this basically right up
to contract, right and maybe up to the first day
is kind of the thing. So up till that point
you are talking to a designer, you've got them. I

(37:54):
don't say you're beck and call, but kind of. I mean,
they have other people that they have to deal with too,
so they're they're they're talking to you. Once construction starts,
we want to hand off to to somebody that's in
the field. It's hard because someone's get used to talking
to this person. If that person in the field doesn't
get back to them in a minute, what would you do, Sean?

(38:17):
And so the problem is if you've got a question
that's related to construction, that designer, first you got to
get hold of them, and now they're they're working on
a whole new set of designs right with somebody else
or multiples, and so they may not be able to
satisfy you right away. And if they if you do
get a hold of them, they've got to get a

(38:37):
hold of person in the field. It's this round robin
of information. So we really ask homeowners to go, Okay,
you're going to think this is not a big deal,
but it is. So establish that communication. We try to
take that person meet face to face, exchange numbers, even
though it's in the scope of work on the job

(38:59):
for everybody to know all that information is in there.
But still I think there's a there needs to be
a personal connection there because you're gonna have a lot
of questions for them, You're going to have a lot
of communication that needs to happen with them.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
As we talked this morning with Mike two Wig and
speaking of that great communication and great options to share information.
Really good website inbo to Edgeconstruction Company dot com. I
urge you to head on over there now. Check out
the recent projects all posted up on the website, and
then check out those links. How's Pinterest and Facebook? Especially
how some really cool work and great projects that they've
done at Edge Construction that available to you at Edgeconstruction

(39:33):
Company dot com. Great day to pick a phone, give
a call six eight six three six three three four
three that number six three six edge And of course
Edge Construction brings you the whole modeling show right here.
I'm thirteen ten wuib
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