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Green building. Green buildings have been around for, you know, the last ten years. But, it’s like as we keep moving forward into that initiative, I think that it’s going to take roots and kind of keep growing. Welcome to the Builder Hacks podcast, your go to destination for cutting edge strategies, time tested systems, and invaluable insights to revolutionize your construction business and elevate your life.

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Join your host, Nate Viper, and keep meals seasoned contractors who are not just in the trenches but are also pioneering the future of the industry through Concord University. In each episode, we dive deep into the minds of the industry’s most accomplished building professionals, uncovering their secrets to success, and sharing actionable tips to help you thrive. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or just starting out, our goal is to empower you to build a brighter future for yourself and for America.

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Tune in. Level up and let’s build a better tomorrow together. This is the Builder Hacks podcast. Build your future. Building America.

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And this week we’ve got something that we get asked about all the time. So what’s coming in the industry? And that’s one of those things that in so many different areas, especially when it comes to building, there’s so much going on right now. And that’s what I wanted. Let’s let’s dive in a little deeper and find out, you know, what are the things that are coming, what might excite it, whether you’re in the industry now and this is like really cool, and it’s going to be some things to do, or whether it’s the piece that it’s like, hey, I don’t know whether building is the thing for me, but when, hey, that future trend sounds

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like it could be really cool and I want to be a part of that. So what do you see coming in, let’s say like in the next ten years in the building industry? So what do you feel is coming down the road, Nate? Well, I think robotics is probably going to be the number one biggest thing over the next ten years.

00:01:54:21 – 00:02:20:02
That’s going to come in. It hasn’t really hit yet. It’s starting to be on the outside fringe. Right. But it’s moving closer and closer. And there’s a couple things with robotics. I don’t know if you seen some of these videos that they’ve been trying to leak out a little bit. one of them being like the guy that that has the concrete, you know, 3D printing kind of component where he puts in there and he’s got a robotic arm and he just runs back and forth.

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That was pretty right. And then I saw a video, about six months ago where the guy that was loading and unloading drywall and installing drywall as a robotic person, and I was like, well, that’s pretty interesting, except. Right, what happens when you don’t have a straight wall? But, you know, I mean, they still have, you know, they still have a ways to go, but just the fact that they’re creating these things, it’s pretty awesome.

00:02:43:14 – 00:03:10:08
It’s I mean, I love that idea and it is it’s I look at those same things that you look at, and I can see some things that could work out really well, really fast. And then there’s some things that I think are going to take a little bit longer before they ever get to that point. And, you know, and it’s one of the pieces because that one, one of our previous episodes we talked about in, you know, for construction, one of the big things is like robotics isn’t going to be able to replace the average person who’s working here because of the fact that there’s so many different variables as far as just even job

00:03:10:08 – 00:03:32:08
site conditions. And that’s part of what it comes down to. well, there’s always been an operator. They’ll never be able just to go without one. It’s kind of like, you know, it’s one of those things. Flying drones. Drones are great, but you still have to have someone controlling the the the. Right. Yes. So what it really comes down to is robotics are going to be a new trade.

00:03:32:10 – 00:03:55:10
It’s a new tool that it’s going to have to have new skills. Right. And that’s especially for learning. Right. Yeah. And that’s definitely it for those controllers and things. And there is as far as the industry goes for those that are concerned about that, you know, when it comes to doing something like if you’re doing a renovation and you’re having to re plumb something so that at least the way it is right now and that robotics are going to change, obviously, and evolve and things like that.

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But right now, the only way to go ahead and do something like that is to be the person to map it out, to be able to cut open the drywall, to figure out, alright, well, this is the way I can go through here to get there with the least amount of damage, to get to where we need to get to type of thing.

00:04:07:21 – 00:04:29:02
So some of those pieces are definitely further down the road for the robotics. so for anyone who’s concerned about that. But I mean, like I’ve seen one of the ones I’ve seen is where they literally, bring out the pavers for a job site and they dump them into a machine. They’ll lay patterns, though, laying herringbone patterns to the lay diagonals, a straight lay, I mean, they can do whatever you set it for so they can lay whatever the width of the machine is.

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Of course. So. And I don’t know what that was on what we’re what I was looking at because I didn’t that wasn’t in the video, but like that was one of the corners. I’m like, well, that I could see actually happening relatively fast. No. And I mean, heck, you know how fast the pay for guys like pavers. So this machine is faster than air.

00:04:44:00 – 00:05:08:27
Well, you know, it. It’s kind of one of those things. It’s like all the robotic pieces are going to be for new construction, not for existing construction. And and that’s because they need a blank canvas to start off with. Right. And you know, as we kind of talk about these future trends like some of this is going to be, you know, I was watching, cartoons with my, with my kids the other day and, a commercial for the Jets.

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Make you watch cartoons in your free time. No. It’s okay, I, I still I still eat cereal out of a cup. but, you know, there’s this thing for the Jetsons, and I haven’t seen the Jetsons in, you know, forever. Forever. And it kind of made me think it was like, were they were they planning for this, 40 years ago or what?

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You know? I don’t even know they were on 40 years ago. But, I mean, it’s just kind of how funny how much automation stuff that they were doing back in those, those cartoons. And now it’s starting to come to reality. Right. Like making of the food and, you know, sliding down the pole to your car and like, you know, does all these cool little things, right?

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It’s like, oh, okay. We were we were future pacing. no. But I always joke about like, if you watch The Simpsons, there’s so many things in The Simpsons that’s come true. Yeah, that type of thing. Yeah. I was wondering if it’s like, if your mind is is putting it out there and enough consciousness comes together or if it doesn’t just re manifest, just happen because that’s what everyone figures is going to happen to that.

00:06:09:28 – 00:06:29:04
Yeah. The universe bends that are funny. But but there’s a lot of future future, excitement I have for the industry especially, you know, in some of these categories. I mean, I, I mean, I come on quite a bit and, and that kind of helps you with all of your back end data that is going to be important in the future.

00:06:29:07 – 00:06:49:19
You know, and I think being able to you know, analyze the data and have somebody, you know, like AI or, you know, computer software that can analyze data that you get put it in mathematical calculations for all these things. I think that’s another, another big piece. I, I agree, the whole AI piece with what it’s going to be able to do.

00:06:49:19 – 00:07:08:11
I mean, it’s one of those things that the industry is starting to call like twinning is what it’s called. So you end up going ahead and designing something, and part of it goes to the field, and part of it stays in with the engineers and things like that, where they can go ahead and run tests on things, you know, and especially when it comes down to you, find a challenge because we know every building goes together the way the architect and engineers do it up.

00:07:08:14 – 00:07:26:20
And. Never. Not once. Yeah, exactly. Not once. Does that have that now. So whenever it comes back though, they’ve already got that that model built in the system and they can plug it in and then they can go ahead and do all any calculations that needs to be done. What needs to change now, how these things need to happen.

00:07:26:23 – 00:07:42:29
And they can figure out better ways to go and do it, which that to me is really cool and should on the engineering side of things, really help speed things up and make sure that the buildings themselves are stronger and more effective. Well, that means it’s going to eliminate the 6 or 7 guys standing on a construction site circle with their hard hats.

00:07:43:01 – 00:08:01:10
All right. How are we going to build this thing, guys? That’s right. We have other things they can do on a construction site. They’ve got lots of things like that. Yeah, yeah. Those Hour-long meetings were really fun. Yeah, yeah. The thing that we always look forward to. Yeah. That’s a that tip for you. If you’re in the building industry, find yourselves an engineer.

00:08:01:12 – 00:08:15:26
So where you can send him pictures, diagrams so and tell him what you want to have done and they’ll either go ahead and tell you yes or no. So or if they’re there, you know, they’ll give you what the actual solution is going to be so much easier than having that forever meeting on the job site. Yeah, well, the luck.

00:08:15:29 – 00:08:52:17
All right. So what else are you seeing as, as a trend coming in the future? You know, one of the things that is kind of interesting for me, especially in the remodeling space, is, virtual design. virtual design is actually a very interesting kind of concept. And they, I know a company here in Dallas where they’ve got, a studio and the studio, you plug in what, your layout, your specs are, and it shoots it down onto a floor where you can actually walk through and visualize where all the, all the walls and, and all the features are going to be.

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And you can actually see like, oh, this is great, I’ve got X amount of space for this. The refrigerator is not too close. I mean, I think that’s pretty cool. You know, a lot of people are going with the virtual eye pools on their faces and, and kind of looking into some of that. I think that’s I think that’s like what that that showroom has there in Dallas.

00:09:10:28 – 00:09:25:25
I think that’s a cool thing because I mean, as you get into this industry, you’ll find out homeowners, most of them are very visual as opposed to being able to conceptualize what’s going on. Whereas a lot of times with us in the industry, we can look at the blueprint going on any more space there without having to actually put measurement to it or see it built.

00:09:25:28 – 00:09:39:26
Yeah, type of thing. But yeah, most homeowners, they want to they need they need to see it, feel it, walk through it. So see how it interacts with them. And having tools like that can save so much time. Because if you can go ahead and drop that ahead of time, they can little they walk through the house, see how it feels.

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Do we need to move a wall here? Do we need to add something there? So whatever the case might be. And that can definitely shorten the building cycle. And for the homeowner the cost cycle knows what it’ll be because we don’t have to do the we’re off to go ahead and build it. And then they want to change.

00:09:51:24 – 00:10:08:13
And then they got to pay for a change order to go ahead and change. Yeah, because it is it’s a cool aspect from from the standpoint of they actually get to experience what it’s going to be literally. Right. And I and I think there’s more companies going to come on. And that’s going to become a, a normal fad.

00:10:08:16 – 00:10:35:06
because everyone I’ve, I’ve known that’s gone through that process has absolutely loved it. And right. And so then it made the purchase even better. And not to give away the secrets, but I know the builders that were kind of like pushing that their profits went up by like 12%. Right. Just by adding that one feature in. And so, they were able to see it, visualize it, expand it.

00:10:35:08 – 00:10:51:21
And that raised their build cost. So I think that’s going to be a future place too. Yeah. As I look forward to seeing and the one thing I’d love to see for that, I mean, like if you’re doing a lot of literally high end houses, I definitely see those homeowners wanting to be able to experience that, and that’s an easy piece for them to add on.

00:10:51:23 – 00:11:08:05
So I want to see where it gets to that point. Like if they’ve got that, that showroom or that warehouse that that they’ve got there in Dallas, I look to see what like those price points come into, to be able to go ahead and do that, to make it cost effective for some of the smaller builders across the industry to be able to their homeowners to be able to do that same thing.

00:11:08:07 – 00:11:24:15
And if you’re going ahead and redesigning some rooms in the house, so can you get it to a version that is cost effective that you know, hey, if you’re if you’re spending $60,000 on a renovation instead of $600,000 on a new construction build, so can you get this that I can feel it when I walk through with the renovation.

00:11:24:17 – 00:11:42:04
Yeah. Right. Now that, you know, it’s like all things technologies, you know, so new and so fresh that it’s expensive for them to kind of get in there and have an hour to go through that process. Right. But I think as it kind of gets a little bit further down, and more experience is used on it becomes more of a availability in the market.

00:11:42:11 – 00:12:01:12
I think, anybody I really think it’s going to help the remodelers more that’s going to help the new construction guys, because the new construction, that’s where it’s at right now. It’s a new construction. most of them are in the, you know, million dollar home and up kind of category, and they’re custom built and and so on.

00:12:01:14 – 00:12:27:10
But, as this thing kind of progresses, I really think the remodeling guys are going to have the most success out of this technology. Agree. Well, because they can put and make the changes easier, faster. It’s a smaller project so. Well because, you know, and and most remodel job they’re the customer. The hardest part is that like convincing them or or sharing their vision with them and having them have faith that you’re going to deliver on their vision, right.

00:12:27:10 – 00:12:51:18
And we’re moving walls sometimes, or low barrier and sometimes or not. Sometimes we’re just opening things, but to give them like, hey, here’s how your house is currently laid out and here’s where things could shift and move to. Right? We could move waterlines we could move, you know, your electrical outlets, we could move these things to put them in the places that make the house more efficient and functional for you.

00:12:51:21 – 00:13:08:20
That’s going to be. Oh, it’s going to be night and day. The sales team will love that sales team, I love that. And then the design team themselves will love that too. Yeah, they get to work on it. And the engineer loves it too, because he gets to see it in a virtual setting and and it all works.

00:13:08:25 – 00:13:21:07
So I’m really excited. But once they start doing that and using things like the vibe boards and stuff like that to make changes while you’re standing there and actually see that chain show up so that you can see, all right, I wanted to move this wall an extra foot to give myself a little more space in the kitchen.

00:13:21:09 – 00:13:34:22
What does that actually mean? And then it’s done and boom. And it transposes down and you’re actually able to see it right now to know I did make the right decision. That does work for me. That’s where we want to go with this, so that the design team is able to make that change on the back end. I want to get me one.

00:13:34:22 – 00:13:58:08
It’s cool. I bought it. so what else are you seeing? I know, like green building is one of the big topics that comes up. So what are you seeing happen in there? Yeah. You know, green building, green buildings. Been around for, you know, the last ten years. But, it’s like, as we keep moving forward into that initiative, I think that it’s going to take roots and kind of keep growing.

00:13:58:10 – 00:14:21:04
You know, growing green building is all about, you know, making sure that that the environment and the home is kind of going together. And, you know, there’s a lot of years there, but we just kind of built whatever we wanted to, and we didn’t worry about what the environment was and what materials we were using and how what, what impact it was having on on the, you know, your local environment.

00:14:21:06 – 00:14:42:05
and so, you know, I think it’s going to keep going forward. and I think that, I think it’s a good thing, I’m not a full blown tree hugger, but I do like trees, but, I like them. As long as they’re dimensional. Lumber.

00:14:42:07 – 00:15:05:07
I like the, you know, ease of in and enjoy them and and sell and, but I think, I think how we build is going to be just as important as what we build with, because another part of the future that we haven’t really talked about is material shortages and how these things come together. And and being conscious on what is out there and what what are we using?

00:15:05:07 – 00:15:30:28
I mean, we’ve kind of gotten away from solid building materials. We moved a lot into plastics. I don’t know how long plastics are going to last, but I know that they’re not going to last forever. And so now we’re starting to look at different technology to try to figure out, like, okay, how do we make bio domes and bio concrete where it’s hard and it’s, you know, just as strong as the concrete that we have today, but at a fraction of the price.

00:15:30:28 – 00:15:54:12
And it’s absorbing moisture, and it only breaks down after, you know, 100 years or 150 years instead of it lasts for, you know, thousands of years. Because what we’re doing is we’re taking our, our resources and we’re grinding them down and we’re spread them out. At some point we’re going to run out. And plastics, that’s been the replacement for copper and and some of our other precious metals.

00:15:54:12 – 00:16:12:29
And now at some point, we’re going to run to the end of the lifecycle of, of plastics. So yeah. And that’s that then I agree, I mean, there’s certain things we use them a lot down here for, like, I even recommend them a lot for replacing doors and windows and things like that, just because of the fact that they tend to wear better.

00:16:13:01 – 00:16:29:03
So it lasts longer. And obviously we don’t have the right challenge than the gym of getting, you know, if homeowners won’t take care of it. So those kinds of things are key when you think about it. But it is, you know, how long does this last, you know, because like and I think of like PVC with plumbing. So so PVC over years gets brittle.

00:16:29:08 – 00:16:53:14
So what ends up happening. And then that’s what causes leaks and all the rest of it. Yeah. You know it’s a balance right. We’re we’re talking about how do we balance out what we’ve had, what we have now and where we’re going in the future because, you know, people aren’t going to just give up their homes. And we’re not going to go back to like, being a Pueblo Indian and carving out, you know, holes in the sides of rocks and living in there.

00:16:53:14 – 00:17:33:21
Right? Yeah. so these things have to work and they have to come together. We just have to figure out, like, what is the next age. And I think there’s a lot of people, a lot of smart people. Oh, way smarter than me. They’re working on these things that are, are, you know, bio developed, right. Or like we’re living building materials and, and some of that, it’s got some cool understanding of like, okay, can I make something and have it be equally as efficient and as strong and as useful, and grow it and, you know, bamboo is one of those things that’s like bamboo is like it will grow and it’s hard and it’s

00:17:33:23 – 00:17:54:13
strong and it’s like, okay, do we start shifting over into building more like bamboo structures and use that instead of two by four pine? Right, right. We we’re we’re playing with these things. And so I think we’re going to continue that path, especially over the next 10 to 15 years. Yeah. No question about it. I think it’s going to be huge for the for the industry.

00:17:54:13 – 00:18:07:19
It’s going to create a whole bunch of other industries that are coming in. So that’s one of those things where, you know, hey, if you come in and you don’t necessarily want to be in a building industry, you may be in a building product development side of things. Yeah. Or you go ahead and create something along those lines and it’s good to have.

00:18:07:25 – 00:18:25:03
I will say this for all of this is one of the things we always talk about. We would love for the engineers and architects to come out and spend a month in the field building what they design. So if you decided to get out of the building, the building products route, spend some time in the field first because you’ll gain perspective and it really makes a huge difference.

00:18:25:03 – 00:18:48:10
So as opposed to just a computer, I always I always laugh, joke with like, you know. I always laugh and I joke whenever I get an engineer drawing or I get an architectural drawing and it’s all 90 degree angles that it has to go to the front. And I’m like, have you ever built this thing? Or like, have you ever been out the field like, right, but this is going to line up, you know?

00:18:48:13 – 00:19:03:29
Right. Yeah. Especially when you’re doing renovate. Yeah. The renovations and things like that. Yeah. This stuff’s not going to work out exactly like you think it’s going to. Oh I love I love the what are the parapet walls on top of you know vertical structures outside of. It’s a perfect, perfect radius. But they want me to make out the block.

00:19:04:04 – 00:19:32:22
Okay. Yeah, yeah. 12, 12 pitches. Right. Here. This is work. Yeah. But whatever, I digress, but, you know, I think I think our future is, is, is very bright and I think there’s a long, a long path ahead. I think that’s going to be changing and evolving as it needs to. The construction industry is kind of one of those slow growing, always there.

00:19:32:22 – 00:19:56:00
It’s like one of the very first industries ever put on this planet. Right? We all need housing and we need structures to live it. And and it’s always been, you know, we call them dinosaur businesses, right? And they they’re always been around and we’re just we we we’ve gone through the elevate, the, not elevation. It’s the we’ve gone through the evolution.

00:19:56:00 – 00:20:18:26
Thank you. Thank you very much. Go through the evolution of building materials and building sciences. So much of the last 50 years, like the technology has come so strong. Last 50 years, we had, you know, 200 years before, 100 years before that, and stone castles and hard structures, and we use what was in the nature around us to build these thing.

00:20:18:29 – 00:20:40:01
Right. And now we’ve introduced all this technology, and it’s kind of like, you know, being a, a Gen Xer, we went through, you know, records to, you know, eight tracks, the cassette tapes, the CDs, the burning and now streaming. It’s like we’ve gone through all this technology, right? And it’s the same thing with the construction industry, and we’re just getting better and faster.

00:20:40:03 – 00:21:03:06
And it’s and it is that like using that analogy and it just used I mean, it’s one of those things where the building industry is really started to pick up speed with the technology, and they’re probably one of the slowest ones to actually bring it in. and that’s one of the one of the pieces that you get is you get the people that are doing this for years and it’s like, hey, the way I’ve done it for the last, you know, four decades has worked well, why am I going to go ahead and change it now?

00:21:03:08 – 00:21:18:29
That was what it comes down to. The more open you are to the things that are coming, the better results that you’re getting, the better product you’re able to deliver to your homeowners. So or to your, you know, your building owners, depending on what you’re doing, whether it’s commercial, residential. And that’s part of the key is being flexible.

00:21:19:01 – 00:21:34:18
You know, and they talking about, you know, the baby boomers, the Gen Xers having to be flexible with so many things that have come through. That’s one of the things that you see with the new generations coming in, is that they’re more flexible with that faster change, because that’s their life, that’s the way it’s been. and that’s good.

00:21:34:18 – 00:22:06:00
And that means it’s going to work to your advantage whenever you come into this, because you’ll be able to adapt quickly and be able to come up with those ideas and iterate fast. So and that’s the thing that’s going to be huge and bring value and bring value to these companies. I mean, right, if you get somebody today who walked in and they got a job with a construction guy and the guy was still using carbon paper to do all his receipts, and you introduced, hey, there’s this thing called the computer, and on the computer, it’s got this thing called Google Drive.

00:22:06:02 – 00:22:30:28
Right? And he’s like, man, my mind is blown. I’m using carbon paper. Well, that’s what it’s like, right? That’s what that’s what you guys are having to do is you got some old dinosaurs that are using things, and you might not even know what carbon paper is. So let me explain. That robot carbon paper was this like piece of carbon underneath the top layer that that transferred down, as you wrote from one piece of paper to another piece of paper.

00:22:30:28 – 00:23:08:16
So you had you made copies back in the day of your invoice? Yeah. that’s the fun part, right. And that was the technology. So you didn’t have to write it twice, right? Exactly. Yeah. We’ve come so far that, you know, but it’s so but that is I think that’s the great opportunity that’s out there. So for the, for the next generations that are coming in, so is because that you’re used to that and being able to bring that and being able to integrate that and being able to show others because there are the the biggest reason that I see that, that the people that have been in the industry for the longest time,

00:23:08:16 – 00:23:21:29
don’t go ahead and do something new is because they they just don’t understand it or know it. So and if they don’t know it, they’re not going to do it because they know the other thing and they’ve done the other thing. So they’ll just continue doing it. You’ll find, though, that you do have some of the people in the industry like people like Nate and I.

00:23:22:06 – 00:23:47:24

So in the generation that we were born in, so we’re a lot more open because we’ve been a lot through a lot of those pieces. And by being open like that, that means you’re now going to have people to work with who are listening to those new ways to do it, because we’ve been listening to new ways to do things all of our lives to it’s just we’re able to do it so much faster now with things like the AI and robotics and, you know, all the different computer pieces that we’re able to put together with apps and everything like that, that it just happens very, very fast.

00:23:47:24 – 00:24:14:00
And that’s what I love that. So I wasn’t able to solve challenges really quick, you know, and here’s the here’s the crazy part right. The carbon copy paper was still around a decade ago. Oh yeah. Right. Like we’re talking ten years ago. We’re talking about 2014. That was still 85% of the people out there. Yeah, the construction industry, we’re still using carbon paper.

00:24:14:02 – 00:24:41:11
It hasn’t been until like the last five years that they’ve upgraded to iPads. Right. And now they’re just going through and going through their software programs. I mean, we’ve come a long way, right? But this next generation is going to have the most impact, because now you’re going to be able to utilize all the technology pieces that you guys know and be, and come and marry it with the guys that don’t know how to do that side of it, but know how to do everything else.

00:24:41:11 – 00:25:10:23
And that’s where you guys come in and bring value. And so and it’s and actually it’s the value. Then they’re able to bring you the value to teach you the construction side. You’re able to teach them the technology, the connectivity side of things, which is one of the areas where I see a lot of that coming in with all the new apps, all the new softwares and things and all the all the tools essentially, that you’re able to go ahead and use in the field to make it easier, whether that’s capturing information to relay to your internal team, whether that’s doing things like taking pictures being uploaded, it, being able to upload them to either

00:25:10:23 – 00:25:40:01
a website or an app that you’ve got that your homeowners are able to see progress of jobs going on if they’re not local, to be able to see it. There’s so many different things. And like you were talking about before, the AI brings all of those different pieces coming together with that connectivity makes it so much more effective for a company and the companies that grab on to that are the companies who are going to position themselves in their areas, as the experts, as the leaders, and to be able to go ahead and create even more because that’s the the homeowners, the customers are going to be working with are going to be used

00:25:40:01 – 00:25:58:23
to dealing with those types of things, whether it’s in their regular, you know, personal life or whether it’s in their work life. And the more you have have adapted to those ways of communicating information, the better off you’re going to be. So as a tradesperson or as an owner of a company. Yeah, I really see it, as a partnership.

00:25:58:26 – 00:26:23:05
Right. You have you have the old the old guys or the or the experienced guys. Right. And you’ve got the, the younger, inexperienced guys in the industry, but they have this other skill set that is not possessed by the older experienced guy. And it takes both of them coming together to be able to create this thing called speed.

00:26:23:07 – 00:26:39:04
Right? And without the speed, you’re not making enough money and neither one of you. So either one of you guys can be moving at your own little pace and kind of like herding the wheel, but you’re not turning it fast enough to make butter, right? And that’s what you need to be able to cook steaks. And you already cooked steaks.

00:26:39:04 – 00:26:59:01
The we have cash, right. So you gotta work together to be able to eat. and that is one of and that’s what it really comes down to. And that’s, that’s where the value comes, is whenever you have the people with the construction experience and the knowledge from the industry coming together with the new people, coming in with new technologies and new ways of doing things, there’s no right and there’s no wrong to what’s being done.

00:26:59:06 – 00:27:13:02
There’s just what’s most effective is what I always look at in my company. And that’s what we preach. So as you know, I ask, even if I have a really good idea of what we should be doing in this instance, I ask whatever team is there, if it’s something on framing, I ask the framers. I’ll ask the engineers.

00:27:13:02 – 00:27:30:13
I always ask for their opinion because they may have seen something or done something already. That is so much better than the ideas that I’ve had from my knowledge base. So, and that’s the same if you’re coming in new and you’re used to using technology and things like that, the guys that have been here and doing this sometimes, like we already talked about with the engineers, architects, they dry it up.

00:27:30:13 – 00:27:49:23
It doesn’t work that way when it actually hits the field. So there’s that piece of marrying those two sides together to truly get the result. That works well for everybody, you know? So whichever, wherever you’re at generation wise, realize the value that the other one brings. So and look for ways to work together to move your businesses and your companies forward, your industry.

00:27:49:23 – 00:28:09:24
So to that next level. And that’s one of the pieces that I always look at on the bigger side is how can this affect the industry more effectively to go ahead and create it, grow it well and move it forward. Anything else that you see is coming. So I know automated homes are one of those big things that I’ve seen on that, especially on the higher end homes, for sure.

00:28:09:24 – 00:28:37:27
And it’s trickling down into that. The average homes now too, with certain pieces. Yeah, I love automated homes. I, I think it’s part of that, that whole Jetson they talk about earlier. Right. Like but you know, they have so much cool technology today for your automation of your homes. Like I got a, I know a guy that he’s got a software system where he’s got it set up and it it’s connected to his phone and and it picks him up.

00:28:37:27 – 00:29:02:22
His phone has GPS on it, and it picks him up when he is about a mile away from the house. And it starts kicking on his air conditioning unit. It starts, you know, open it up and turn it on the lights, and I lock and doors. And as he gets to his driveway, his garage door automatically opens and, you know, and he he walks in and it downloads all the data from his phone and puts it up on a spreadsheet on a computer.

00:29:02:22 – 00:29:19:16
I mean, on the refrigerator. I mean, it’s pretty cool technology and way. How does all this work? How does it, you know, and it all comes back to being able to, like, build it into the house. And it’s a special computer that goes in there. And, and that’s kind of like on the far, far end of, of the high end homes.

00:29:19:16 – 00:29:39:06
What you describe, that’s definitely a high end automation system. Yeah. It runs about $80,000 to set up that system, you know. But that’s the set it up. That’s not the maintain it. Yeah. That’s just to set it up. That’s just to you know get it there, get it installed. And but you know, there’s a lot of these things that are coming out like Philips has got these light bulbs that play music.

00:29:39:06 – 00:29:57:10
Right. And you can go through and you can have the LED lights and you can have the dimmer switches, and, and you can put all these things on your phone and have different devices and, and I think as we kind of keep going down this path and more and more of it is, accessible than more homes are going to have it.

00:29:57:10 – 00:30:17:03
And there’s just cool little added bonuses. Right? It’s like getting an update on your on your iPhone and you’re like, oh, I got this thing to do with the camera now. It’s like, I think it’s just going to be part of it. And I and I love it. I love being able to add the technology in, and partly because, I’m a little lazy and I don’t like, walk it to the, to the wall to turn on the.

00:30:17:05 – 00:30:38:00
That’s why I had kids so I can just send them over it, but they talk back. So that’s that’s the whole gen next part, because we were the remote control for the TV whenever we were younger, there was no such thing. Go change the station. Okay, so it for athletes to adjust that, adjust the rabbit ears on the on the top of all that, all that aluminum foil just in the right spot.

00:30:38:00 – 00:30:55:01
Just a little bit more. Oh my. Like, but with that automation it is there’s some in there and it has come down in certain areas where it’s come down to almost standard, like I think of things like thermostats for, for the velocity and everything like that. So most of them now are wi-fi-enabled. You get the app on your phone that you can go ahead and control.

00:30:55:01 – 00:31:10:10
So they’re all programable and have been for, you know, a decade and a half now as far as that part goes. So those types of automations where, you know, the whole same piece where, like Nate said, that gentleman gets close to his house, everything starts happening at the house. You can even set them, you know, with the Programable thermostat.

00:31:10:10 – 00:31:22:13
So you can just go ahead and program it for what temperature you want, what times of the day you want that temperature, right? So if you’re gone and don’t have pets and you’re not worried about the temperature going up a little bit, it goes up a little bit, not well, I obviously say it goes up a little bit because I live in Florida.

00:31:22:16 – 00:31:37:11
they may go down a little bit if you live somewhere where it’s colder that either way it does that and it’s based on what your typical schedule is. So it’s what it is. And then if it is, yeah. If you’re coming home early from work one day, you’ve got the ability with your phone. As long as it’s tapped into your Wi-Fi to go in and adjust that before you get home.

00:31:37:11 – 00:32:00:21
Still, that way it ends up going ahead and getting you where you want it. But it’s the simple little things like that. I mean, most people now, I’ve seen, you know, so many people with the ring cameras, well, that those automatically come to an app on your phone. So I mean, I know I’m the whatever page, my project manager is on site, all I hear is bing bing because hers has motion and she has her motion set way too sensitive as far as I’m concerned, because it’s catching people out by the road driving by.

00:32:00:23 – 00:32:18:22
Yeah, she doesn’t have that many people at her house, so, but it’s but those are the types of things. Those are the simple ones that have already made their way in as an everyday item. Well, I think, you know, I like the, the refrigerator that keeps a list of everything that’s inside the refrigerator so you can update it.

00:32:18:22 – 00:32:35:14
Right. And I and I like having the light bulbs that can have motion sensors and can tell when you’re in the house, when you’re not at the house. And I and I like I like the doorbell cameras and all that stuff, but I think all those pieces are just adding to the quality of your home. And I think it’s going to continue to go.

00:32:35:14 – 00:32:55:19
I don’t know where it’s going to go next. I don’t know if it’s going to have, you know, know the temperature of your shower and get it set up and you walk it in and it turns on. But I’m sure it will, you know, I know that that got actually, you know what? I’ve already put some of those in what temperature settings like that, where you can, based on the owner of that, like whether it’s the husband or the wife getting in there.

00:32:55:21 – 00:33:20:10
So they go ahead and hit their setting and that’s what it comes on it automatically. Then. So so it’s already there. I didn’t even know it. You know, I think whenever it got I think a lot of those are just going to be, you know, I don’t know what the future is going to have. But if, if you got an idea or if anybody out there has an idea of like what can make the home just a little bit more comfortable, there’s always going to be a market for it.

00:33:20:12 – 00:33:35:09
And, so I would say one of the things I would say too, is if you’re in this industry and, and especially if you’re getting into the low volt side of it, which a lot of this stuff is very heavily dependent on the level to, even if you’re not planning on putting these things in right now when you’re talking about homeowners.

00:33:35:09 – 00:33:56:16
So I’ll add the wiring for in now. And it’s always one of those things where I mean, so much, so many things are going wireless and there’s less of a need for wiring, but I still go ahead and put that in anyways because there’s going to be certain things for speed and connectivity purposes, you know, and if you’ve got some of the big houses that we go ahead and build, but you the Wi-Fi doesn’t work from one side to the other side off of one router.

00:33:56:16 – 00:34:11:27
You’re putting in multiple routers or repeaters to go ahead and boost signals and things like that to go ahead and lift it up, you know, and you want to be able to go ahead and still operate your house no matter what. So having that extra wiring in the wall because you don’t know what the future’s going to bring is easier to have it there and not need it than, you know, vice versa.

00:34:11:27 – 00:34:29:24
And you’ve got to rip up your house to get in those pieces, because that’ll prevent people from taking advantage of some of the pieces that they would love to have in house, but just stay away from the the phone lines. Oh yeah. Oh, they will fall in line in forever. Yeah. Well, I can’t even remember. That’s usually the first thing when we’re doing renovations to get rid of that.

00:34:29:28 – 00:34:51:17
Yeah, the intercom system and the intercom systems. Yeah. I love that you just took one out of the townhome we’re remodeling. Yeah. You know, well, that’s the other part. They they got rid of the intercom system and I got, one of those little Google hubs or Alexa hubs or whatever, you know, like, well, those things are going to be important pieces.

00:34:51:20 – 00:35:07:06
Yeah. So but it’s, it’s that flexibility and it’s, it’s the fun part of the industry is what it comes down to. There’s lots of growth. And I think there’s going to be like you were talking about before, there’s any more of it happening even faster. Yeah. Because of the people that you go ahead and get involved with the younger generation coming in and and being inventive.

00:35:07:06 – 00:35:24:25
So and figuring out new and better ways to go ahead and do things and that that’s that’s the exciting part. So I love construction. Nobody’s ever the same. Oh, and in these pieces that we’re talking about what the trend is, one of the reasons why it’s always changing. It’s always adapting. It’s always becoming better. And that’s what makes it a good time.

00:35:24:27 – 00:36:10:10
Well anything else or dig. Those are some of the that’s the biggest ones I think for me yeah I got I’ve got one last move. Okay. Yeah. smart cities. Okay. So Smart Cities has been a concept for quite a while, but, I think it’s going to really evolve in the next ten years. And I think as we’re growing and we’re building and we’re moving right now, it’s kind of like I would relate it back to when electricity first came on and we started seeing all of these power lines come up across the road, like most of our listeners aren’t going to be doing long, you know, road trips all over, all over

00:36:10:10 – 00:36:39:22
America. But I did that as a kid, and we had nothing to look at but the telephone poles with wires on them for for miles and miles and miles. Right. And. Well, what are our cities are at today is that they’re in the they’re in the conversion, the telephone pole wire now being put underground and, and and that’s where most of the stuff is going because the technology is going to get to the point where they realize this is a safe way of being able to do it.

00:36:39:24 – 00:37:05:29
But we have 5G networks that are on towers right now and they’re spread out. And so eventually they’re either going to have to move underground, or they’re going to have to have a different capability of how they’re generating this 5G network, because some people will think that it’s harmful to people, that some people think that it’s not. Some people have these different components about wire lines and visions.

00:37:06:02 – 00:37:30:11
Regardless, they’re going to do something about it, right? But we also have to start thinking about, okay, what about our water treatment plants? And what about, you know, our commuting and our driving and our transportation stuff? Right. Trains are going to be, I think, a bigger deal in the future. I think I think America’s behind on that. I think Europe has got it down really well.

00:37:30:14 – 00:37:59:19
Right. Been able to send out a lot of trains. I think we should probably look at underground trains as well as, trains above ground. but I think smart cities and municipalities that are, that are adopting these concepts of smart cities and how to make things more efficient and, easier access to all of the the key components of life grocery stores and restaurants and right, these different pieces.

00:37:59:19 – 00:38:19:07
I think those are going to be the future of the next 5 to 20 years. And I think cities are starting to look at like, okay, if we revitalize our city, how are we going to make it, more efficient in the future? And I know, you know, Dallas is one of those old cities that is really struggling with how to do this.

00:38:19:10 – 00:38:40:29
But for this actually kind of adapting it. And, they’re trying to move forward into this new smart city kind of component. And I think in Texas, which is about 30 minutes north of both Dallas and Fort Worth, they’re starting to, you know, exploded popular population, and they’re starting to move into that kind of component. So I really think smart cities are going to be on the front end.

00:38:41:01 – 00:38:57:24
Now man I like that I love those ideas. And it’s definitely I know China’s actually done some that are a lot a lot different level because they’ve literally built cities from the ground up where there’s nothing there and they build a brand new city. And they’ve done a lot of these pieces already. to go ahead and start integrating that to make it easier overall.

00:38:57:26 – 00:39:11:06
and I think it’s gonna be exciting. I love the fact of, you know, how do you go ahead and bring those into older cities, you know, a city like in a developed city like Dallas? But how do you go ahead and start bringing all these pieces in there to make it effective for everyone? and I it’s going to be fun.

00:39:11:06 – 00:39:25:24
And again, it’s, it’s just the ability to be able to do something that hasn’t been done yet, you know, is one of those things that I love and something that’ll make a difference for everybody. part of the reason why I love construction, I mean something, it’ll be there for years after you’re done with it. And it impacts so many different people.

00:39:25:27 – 00:39:48:16
So across the board, whether it’s a residential house or something commercial. So our industrial, all those pieces all come together to create the society. We live in. So what we get to experience every day, you mean I don’t get to live in the in the virtual world anymore? Well, you can as long as you live in all taking care of all the other parts that I could.

00:39:48:19 – 00:40:03:22
well, perfect. So I think this wraps up what we’ve got. This is just some of the things, if you’ve got anything else that you that anybody thinks of or they want our opinion on or to discuss, pop it in the comments. So we’re happy to go ahead and have a discussion about that, whether it’s back and forth there or depending on what it is.

00:40:03:22 – 00:40:17:21
Maybe we do a follow up piece to this. So, well, some of the things that the listeners have gone ahead so and said, hey, what about this? What about this? So we do a follow up podcast on, hey, these are some of the other ideas that people have brought up that they think that they’re excited about. We want to go ahead and discuss that too.

00:40:17:23 – 00:40:35:05
So that’d be a great thing to go ahead and have there. So if you’ve got something else, put it in the comments. So we’d love to see what else you’re thinking, what else you’re seeing in the industries. Well, and what else you might like to see as far as that goes, you could be the next great inventor, but as the next thing that really makes life that much easier for everybody.

00:40:35:07 – 00:40:52:10
All right, well, that’ll wrap up this episode then. So, Builder Hacks podcast. So make sure to tune in next week. We will have the next episode. you’re going to love it. the next one I think we’ve got is, what you need to have to be in the building trades industry. So you’re going to want to see that.

00:40:52:10 – 00:41:07:25
So the skills you have, the skills you’re going to learn. So what’s going to go ahead and make you valuable there. So you know I think it’ll be eye opener for a lot of people. So make sure you go ahead and tune in next week on the Builder Hacks podcast. If you got value from this, share these hacks to other builders or future builders.

00:41:07:29 – 00:41:27:19
Make sure to like this episode and take 10s to give her a viewer rating. With more reviews and higher ratings, we can help out more current and future builders of America, and we want to know what other topics you might want to hear more about, or construction professionals we should invite on as guests. You can let us know these in the comments here.

00:41:27:25 – 00:41:45:26
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