Just Released...

If you follow this blog, "Raising the Roof..." became "UnHINGED - A Homebuilder's Secrets for Saving Time and Money." (What in sam hill is he talking about?) The book! Amazon just released that labor of love so often mentioned and described on this blog. After months of writing, editing, re-editing, re-writing, editing some more, formatting (whatever that is), and working on a cover, UnHINGED is finally off my desk.

So who are we trying to hit? National Association of Homebuilders says that every year in America 305,000 new custom homes (not tract) are built. AND... $191billion is spent on remodeling. Ahhhhhhh...that's quite a market. So here we go, beating the drum.

35 years of building homes and working with clients have taught me a thing or two about the building process. Literally hundreds of friends and family have called through the years asking about various aspects of the construction industry. As we have become fond of saying, "you should know what I know..." and now, with UnHINGED you will! The pages are filled with all kinds of time and money saving tips. Would you believe it if I told you that we serve those tips and ideas up with a little bit of humor too?

Is this some sort of swan song or something? Shoot NO! Hoebeke Builders, Inc. is just gettin' goin good! 

Practice Makes Perfect

It was totally predictable. Just like the waves that crash on the beach of the Monterrey Peninsula, the lure of big profits, and fast easy cash flow has once again washed in a whole new crop of builders! Because Texas has steadfastly refused to implement contractor licensing, anyone can hang out their shingle and start building homes. All it takes is a cell phone and a truck... And everybody in Texas has a cellphone and a truck, right?

With every downturn in the economy we see overextended "homebuilders" finding themselves short on cash, crashing on the rocks, and washing out to sea. All too often the naive homeowner is left holding the bag. But with every wave that washes out, another economic wave swells, and a whole new crop of builders washes into town. Fortunately this happens less in other areas of the country where wannabe contractors have to apprentice two years under an established builder before they can even sit for a highly rigorous licensing test. But not in Texas!


We endorse the idea of injecting new, energetic builder blood into the marketplace. But the lack of regulation governing their training puts the unsuspecting homeowner at risk.

Years ago crops of new builders at least tried to make an effort to learn something about the homebuilding business by taggin' along with the subcontractors and watching, or sometimes even working, with those that have practiced a craft for years. Now we have "cellphone" builders that know nothing of the minutia of building homes -they drive around in their truck all day barking orders at the subs by phone. Sadly it's left up to the subs to try and figure out how to get the houses built. The grand loser? Why the homeowner of course!

What most other states have figured out is that there are thousands of little bitty nuiances to the homebuilding business that need to be learned to protect the homeowner. Ahhhhh...that's called "experience!" Thousands of little 'tricks of the trade' need to be learned before a high quality product can be produced. For example did you know that:

• The maximum clear span of a 2 x 12 without significant deflection is 18'?
• Or, that ions of dissimilar metals (two or more) used together most often results in one of the metals eating the other metal? This can happen in just a year or two - not good for water intrusion!
• Or, that paint and stain rags left in a heap will ignite due to "spontaneous combustion," and fire travels at a rate of 17 feet/second?
• Or, that compressive strength of a concrete pier depends not only on the strength of the bearing rock, but also on the "skin friction" of the pier walls?
• Or, that brick is an inhibitor of rain and snow moisture but the porosity of the brick and mortar requires that metal flashings extend all the way through the brick and up the exterior wall?
• Or, that the standard backset (distance between the edge of the door and the center of the knob) of door hardware is 2 3/8" - not suitable when the doors have 3 1/2" stiles (vertical members) and you are trying to get the knob in the middle of the door.
• Or, that lacquer and lacquer products are highly flameable and cannot be used around any live electrical source that isn't fully contained? (Read: blow your house up!)

And on...and on...and on... The point is practice makes perfect! Is there really any substitute for experience? How can a guy just starting out in the homebuilding business, that doesn't have the benefit of either an apprenticeship, or rigorous testing, and hasn't done his time in the trenches of experience, qualify to undertake the construction of probably the single largest purchase a family will ever make? Maybe the better question is "would you really want to live in a house built by a guy just cutting his teeth?"

A Platform to Argue

An armored truck took out the rear quarter panel of my truck a few months back. No one was hurt and the armored truck company quickly referred me to their insurance company to get the damage repaired. "Let the games begin!" After a few months of chasing my tail trying to get the truck fixed, I went back the other day to the armored truck company (couldn't get any satisfaction with the insurance company) and reminded them that this was their problem, not mine, and they needed to send someone over with a rent car to pick up my truck and take it in to have it repaired. No matter that I was stopped at a red light when I got hit, both the armored truck company, and the insurance company made getting it fixed my problem. Today, they brought me my rent car!

This most recent foray into the wonderful world of insurance comes on the heels of no less than three really good insurance fights last year! WHY WON'T THESE PEOPLE DO WHAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO DO, AND HONOR THEIR CONTRACT/POLICY?? Simple: Shareholders.

More and more there is talk in this country of a revolution. I'm convinced the revolution most probably will start over insurance and insurance companies. Rampant deception caused by excessively conservative policy interpretation has been inflamed by shareholder greed as they demand greater return on their investments. Who gets squeezed? You and I do! The more policies that are sold, and the more money insurance companies can take in translates to higher profit margins if  the company can weasel you out of benefits. 

Everyone knows that you have to have insurance. But when you buy protection, what do you really have? A platform to argue with the company that sold you the policy. Most likely they won't honor the face value language written in the policy. Congratulations, you've just invested your hard earned money to buy a place at the negotiation table. "Well the policy really doesn't say that, we interpret that phrase to mean this instead!" And on it goes.... If you don't like it, your Big Protective Brother's attitude is 'go ahead and sue me - we've got more money than you do, and we'll bleed you to death.'

Maybe it makes sense to hire an insurance attorney to read every policy before purchase so that all of the loopholes can be exposed. Do you suppose Big Protection will negotiate out the inconsistencies that are discovered? Good luck with that fight!

Cleanin' Out, Straightening Up....

At the end of a long, and very productive year it's time to clean the office out and straighten it up for the new year. One of the projects sitting on my desk for months has been a stack of CD's just beggin' me to open them up and glean the low hanging fruit of ideas, largely ignored, from projects long ago. Just like at the end of a wonderful fireworks show when the pyrotechnic experts send up whatever is remaining in the box, in no particular order, here are some of the pictures captured from those old CD's... Fasten your seatbelt, here we go! 

                                             Thhaa...That's all Folks! See you next year.

Diggin' in the Dirt...

(Editors Note: The following is the last in a series of excerpts from my new book Raising the Roof! A Homebuilder's Secrets to Saving Time and Money. So often homeowners take a "Ready, Fire, Aim" approach to the building process. Raising the Roof! attempts to re-orient the process so most of the planning occurs upfront, before leaving the architect's office. This piece is a snippet from the section dealing with the necessary "fourth leg" of the Project Team stool, the landscape architect. 

A courtyard at night shows off a landscape architect’s talent.

EVERY BLOOMIN’ THING! THE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS

Our business may have been the only operation in North America which actually started and owned a landscape company and never knew the difference between a bush and a tree! Private Gardens was born in early 2000, staffed with a talented landscape architect, and organized with the thought of offering all of our homebuilding clients “curb to curb” design and construction services. It worked – but then again it didn’t! Our clientele didn’t want all of the in-house attention afforded them with complete construction and landscape services. They wanted the little yellow truck in front of their house known locally as Lambert’s Landscaping. After three years of beating our heads against the flowerbeds, we closed the business.

Those three years were very educational. Every business is unique. We are unique in being able to coordinate and assemble large pieces of a complex puzzle which people eventually live in. Lambert’s, on the other hand, is gifted at coordinating “flora” and some “fauna,” making each property beautiful. Dallas is blessed with a healthy number of fine landscape architects who work magic in the yard.

In terms of a four-legged stool supporting the design and construction of a home, the landscape architect represents the fourth and final leg of the stool (along with the architect, contractor, and interior designer). The landscape architect’s discipline is equally as important to the process as any other.

In a perfect world, a landscape architect would join the design team at the same time as the three other legs of the stool. Early in the design process, the Project Team needs enough “hardscape” input (walks, stone walls and columns, pools, etc.) from the landscape architect, so that preliminary on-site work can be done at the same time as the home building.   If it’s known ahead of time where stone walls, columns, pools, and other hardscape features will be located, it is most cost effective to drill, form, and pour those footings while the house foundation is being constructed. Common sense says if the concrete trucks and pump jacks have to come back a second time, it ain’t going to be cheap. Real savings can be realized if all of the disciplines are properly coordinated.

“Softscape,” or planting materials (trees, grass, and the like), can always be defined later in the building process if the planting beds are master planned into the overall site design. Think of it in terms of trim and paint: It’s always easy to worry about the decorative stuff and colors later, if provisions have been made for those items in the master planning of the house. 

(Editors Note: The following is an excerpt from my new book Raising the Roof! A Homebuilder's Secrets to Saving Time and Money. So often homeowners take a "Ready, Fire, Aim" approach to the building process. Raising the Roof! attempts to re-orient the process so most of the planning occurs upfront, before leaving the architect's office. This piece is a snippet from the section dealing with the third of the team members, the interior designer. 

Sizzle – The Interior Designers

Some interior designers absolutely drip with style and vision for what is truly beautiful, but can’t quite offer the kind of information the contractor needs to actually get the vision built. There’s an enormous difference between seeing and understanding beauty, and knowing how to deliver it to the client.

It should be as simple as following the American Society of Interior Designers or ASID professional designation. Anyone with an ASID behind their name should really know their stuff, right? Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Just like the AIA (American Institute of Architect) designation behind an architect’s name, all the designation really means is they have advanced schooling in their craft and have interned with another designer before being allowed ot sit for ASID testing.

But ASID doesn’t always buy “taste” or “vision.” In fact, some of the best interior designers aren’t ASID. In the construction industry, when it comes to interior designers it’s apparent that “you either got it, or you don’t.”

All the fancy showrooms down in the Design District of Dallas have a wonderful little sign on their door that says, “To The Trade Only.” The vendors started putting the sign on the front of their shops to try and wave off everyone who thought they knew something about design and wanted wholesale pricing. Years ago the interior design business was “the wild west” before the Design District’s rules concerning showroom accessibility were instituted.

Talent + Information = Success

What a contractor needs most from the design process is talent and information. Interior designers must be able to communicate with the contractor (in plain and simple terms), so surprises are minimized. 

A truly effective interior designer starts his/her work immediately after joining the Project Team. Shortly after the conceptual drawings are released to the owner and the team, an interior designer should start by roughly positioning the client’s furnishings on the plans. Normally, conceptual plans are drawn at 1/8” =  1’ 0”, so it’s hard to properly scale furnishings on plans that size. The inventory of furnishings should come shortly after the interior designer is hired. Surveying what furnishings will and will not be used in the new home or re-model will provide an inventory necessary throughout the job. Without the initial furniture layout on the conceptual plans, it’s conceivable that rooms will be designed that either don’t accommodate furnishings comfortably or at all.

 

Puzzle Masters - The Builders

(Editors Note: The following is an excerpt from my new book Raising the Roof! A Homebuilder's Secrets to Saving Time and Money. So often homeowners take a "Ready, Fire, Aim" approach to the building process. Raising the Roof! attempts to re-orient the process so most of the planning occurs upfront, before leaving the architect's office. This piece is a snippet from the section dealing with the second of the Team Members, the builder. Many additional "tricks and tips" can be gleaned from the balance of the text, but you'll just have to wait for the book to be published before you can see the rest of what we're up to!) 

Puzzle Masters – The Builders

On one hand you have architects that specialize in design but don’t know cost. The other hand consists of the contractor/builder who doesn’t know design but lives in the world of cost everyday. Sounds like a marriage made in heaven doesn’t it? Wrong. Seemingly architects always want to be on the budget and production committees, and builders want to sneak over to the design committee. The problem? Each is convinced they know more about the other’s discipline. The truth? Architects need only to design – and stay away from cost issues; builders need to specialize in the cost and technique of putting puzzle pieces together, and stay out of the design.

Let’s sort this out. But before we do, let’s clean up the difference between a “builder,” and a “contractor.”  Though the terms seem interchangeable, and will be used interchangeably in this book, a “builder” is someone who builds things and accepts all the normal risks inherent of the building business and also accepts the economic risks of being able to sell, or not sell their product in the marketplace. A “contractor” builds things for clients, still shouldering the normal risks of the building business, but works on a “for hire” basis, thus eliminating  most economic risk. Whew…is all of that clear as mud? If we go way back to the beginning of this book, the builder is the “businessman,” and the contractor is the “artist.”

By the very definition of their job description a builder/contractor has to be in cost and budget everyday. (Note: the title “Contractor” is derived from the word “contract” which everyone knows means lawyers and money must be involved). Whether building for a specific client or the open market, it’s impossible to build something without incurring cost. So, with pricing fresh in their mind, the Contractor is much more likely to know the cost of a pier and beam foundation then the pencil pushing architect.

But ignorance doesn’t stop the architect from guessing. Almost every day in Dallas, Texas you have an architect guessing how much it’s going to cost to build the magnificent structure he/she has just designed. They’re clueless! (Qualifier: unless the firm is “design/build” where architecture and construction both come out of the same office – see the section on Architects). Some of the hardest deals ever done are projects where the client has hired the architect independent of the contractor, designed a magnificent home with the architect, and been told it can be built for say $175 per square foot (exclusive of land). Just imagine the surprise of the client, and the embarrassment to the architect when the project prices out at $300 per square foot. ARCHITECTS DON’T KNOW COST – they think they do, but don’t let ‘em fool ya.

Earlier, in defining the difference between builders and contractors, the rather unusual and precarious risks faced by builders everyday were noted.  Any occupation where people are putting large objects together; standing on walk boards two stories in the air; installing roofing on slopes too steep to possibly walk; and playing with methane gas, to name just a few potential dangers, has inordinate amounts of risk. Assembling the large pieces necessary to build a home requires hanging in mid-air on scaffolding (usually walk boards to the framers), and nailing shingles on a steeply pitched roof while plumbers connect methane gas lines throughout the structure. The chemicals used in painting have yet to even be considered.

A natural argument says builders must be nuts to want to build houses. Some   are – “nuts” about the people, “nuts” about the process, and “nuts” about the finished product. Building gets in the blood and just won’t go away. Sure, risks can be managed through incorporating a business and buying all kinds of insurance but my Father-in-law said it best “…if you’re going to build big houses, you’re going to have big problems.” Truer words have never been spoken.

Builders wish the risks and liabilities were limited to only jobsite related functions. No way - those risks are too manageable. Add economic risks, downturns in the economy, international trade regulation risks, raw product price spikes (copper and gypsum are two prime examples), shortages, client management and relations risks, even the threat of litigation, and it makes one wonder why anybody would sign up for being a builder. (I once had a client that was soooo mad they said their attorney was ‘going to sue me until I bled to death!’)

What’s the incentive in begging for this kind of potential punishment? Where else can a person literally conceive an idea one day, start building on it the next, and end up with something becoming a legacy when long gone? Fourteen months in the oil and gas business years ago filing files taught me about missing the spontaneity of the homebuilding business….. (probably didn’t make near the money, but I’ve had a much better time).