The Construction Life

We have Julia Rose AKA The Brick Chick on the show, 26 years young, 3 years in the business, a young and skilled mason leading the way for men and women in the industry. Julia at a young age had a lot of mental health, drug addictions issues, it was a hard time for her. She was considering post education and unlike her friends looking at universities and a mountain of student loan debt, she chose...

Training for a triathlon Julie was biking and was hit by a car and paralysed from the breastbone down. Thrown 30 feet, split her head, broke teeth, broke her nose, broke ribs, broke her spine in two places, T4 and L1. 5 people every day sustain a spinal cord injury in Ontario. Fast forward 6 years and Julie is now an Accessibility Strategist. How do we begin having conversations with accessible cl...

25-year-old Peter, working at this trade for 8 years now is going to talk about Styrofoam plaster mouldings, coffered ceilings, waffle ceilings, diamond patterns, accent walls and so much more. The reason Peter started his business and has always built to a certain standard, he was disgusted with where the construction industry was going. Peter gets very passionate about million-dollar custom home...

23-year-old tradesperson with a lot of passion and heart for the industry and he loves Frank Sinatra, hold on, this is going to be one great show. His Dad taught him only one way to be a tradesperson, the right way, he taught him how to build better, and be better. Losing his Dad at a young age was very hard for the family, really sorry for your loss Shane. Shane has a solid base for his business...

Open the show with a great Irish work song and we get chatting about Ireland, the beautiful country and people, the great food and work ethic. What a pleasure to have Kevin on the show and everyone knows Manny will always have a special place for the masonry trades. On with the show. Arriving in Canada in January, five years ago got into autoparts first, and after a number of odd jobs including th...

We are @speducci recording the show on the patio, Rosie and company are always amazing for letting the show record there, it’s quickly becoming the Speducci Studios for the TCL Podcast, thanks guys. Open the show with a few shout outs. Tim from BC @poundforpoundframers Tim from Akron Ohio sent me an email. @southcoaststudio rocking some great Schluter projects. Rob from @galaxyplumbinginc had a pi...

Larry and Brian are back on the show and Jim is joining us to talk loads and load calculations, hold on to your tool belts, the math is going to be massive on this episode of The Construction life. The last time the Waddell guys were on the show was May of 2021 with a two-part show, #77 and #78 and now they are back to educate us a lot more on the wonderful world of engineering. We begin discussin...

Matt opens the show with Darius Rucker “Wagon Wheel”, great way to open the show. Operating this business for 13 years, coming from a family of tradespeople with his Dad being an old school carpenter, Matt always had a hunger for construction but he never wanted to be that “guy” that just gave in and gave up and stopped caring. Matt works with realtors to secure lots, he brings in other builders,...

We open the show by letting our listeners know Mr. Jim Caruk is back on the show and it’s great to have him back on the mic sharing so much valuable information about The Construction Life, thanks Jim. On with the show, this show is all about the team, working together for the greater good of the building industry. Glen has a lot to say about the building code and how things have changed over the...

We love having guests return to the most listened to construction podcast and we love continuing the great conversations that move this amazing industry forward. Adnan was on the show way back in March of 2020, episode #56, please check out that show. On today’s show we further discuss C Cans, building with Shipping Containers, Modular Building and more, I even come up with an interesting idea for...

Something a little different but not, today’s show is extremely relevant to the construction life, so many tradespeople ride motorcycles. Bikes are a huge part of our downtime, keeping us sane, inspiring us and our renovations, dealing with clients and more. Carmine has been my service tech for a while now and has taken care of my 1999 Ducati Monster Dark 750 which has evolved into a different kin...

Stephen currently is a project manager with Black and MacDonald but got his start in sheet metal fabrication, he has his Red Seal and is also working on achieving 3 more Red Seals, Plumbing, HVAC and Electrical. He’s not trying to be greedy; he wants to educate others and build this amazing industry even further. For the past 8 years he has been teaching sheet metal at a high school in Toronto in...

We have one hell of a show today, our 2nd longest show to date and for very good reason, Taha, Sal and Z from Crew Men Group are here and ready to share so many construction lives experiences. Prepare to be inspired, the gentlemen from Crew Men Group will get you to remember why you got into construction. From the hood to demo to building, these guys will never hold back how passionate they are. I...

What a great show we have today, talking about carbon fiber reinforced polymer and the countless residential and commercial applications in construction. Discussing basement cracking, bowing, leaks, settling and more and how this product can repair these and many other issues. We get right into the science behind the carbon and epoxy, the engineering, installing and training. The process begins wi...

Brock opens the show with a great rendition of a track from Tennessee Ernie Ford and covered by Johnny Cash. What a great opener, thanks Brock. Brock is young and ambitious, 25 years old and left a well-paying 6-figure field service tech position with Tormont Cat to start a career in construction, just jumped right in and loving it, that was 5 months ago. What a great story to share, don’t want to...

Started in the cladding business when he was 17, he’s now 37 and has learned a lot and of course has come across all the tradespeople that are negative when it comes to wanting to build better. Joe has always been about learning about new products, new techniques, push the industry forward and offer client’s better products and service. This will surprise our listeners, Joe found new employees thr...

Jason of The Keystone Contractor is on the show finally, been chatting on IG for years and it’s a great pleasure to have him on the show. Huge shout out to his lovely wife, Laura for baking these amazing goodies for me, OMG, so good, thank you so much. From high school to the military to anything and everything during his 20’s. A self-taught tradesperson where he will try to educate himself as bes...

We open the show with a massive Beastie Boys track, thanks Bram. Bram got started in construction because he owned a frat house and his friend/partner was moving out and Bram was getting married and they needed to fix the place and sell in. Picked up a hammer and that was about 15/16 years ago. Before construction and before tending bar Bram was a licensed auto mechanic. Then life kick in hard for...

We open the show with a few shout outs to @marescarpentry @galeforcemasonry @oliverlumber Ian reached out, needed to have a couple of custom planter boxes made out of Ipe, I reached out to Gary Mares, picked up the lumber from Oliver Lumber and things are being built, the power and positivity of Social Media. Thanks guys and looking forward to seeing them. A fan mail and question, Darrel Kwan from...

What an amazing show we have today, Gabe is an Architect Technologist and Engineer and Building Consultant all rolled into one person. It all began with his Father who a Building Consultant from Italy but never certified as an Architect. Find Gabe at GPF Design Services Inc. gpfdesign@hotmail.com 416 656-0134 This show is all about the structural planning and design of most residential structures,...

Jim and Manny and no guests and no wine as we sneak this show in before the long weekend, Canadian Victoria Day and the US Memorial Weekend. Shout outs!!! Zoe reached out to us, her boyfriend/tradesman Jeremy is a huge fan and loves listening to the show, find him @jeremydoiron Jamal, AKA to his friends as J loves the show and wanted to say hello, find him @agdrywallandtaping Taylor, another fan a...

The show opens with a little tease about a BBQ and “non alcoholic” beverages on the table at the make shift concrete studio in the DGR shop and what is and was the concrete industry all about, Jorge has some great insight into this question and how it all connects to track building and sub division work and scope. With a crew of 15 from as young as 22 and as old as 63 and everyone has something to...

We open the show with no song, we have David Cairns the VP of Business Development at Ridley Windows and Doors and he was caught off guard…wink wink Jim. Then we really open the show with some terribly sad insider info about the lumber industry and what’s really going on, Jim and Manny have to share this with the listeners and the industry. You must listen to what we discovered and prepare your bu...

Let’s begin. Jason from @property max development_corp discusses the pandemic and how there isn’t more support from so called “influencers” on social media. Jarrett from @pacificwildgeneralcontracting from Winnipeg brings up a new bullshit bylaw the city will be presenting to go after homeowners who didn’t get a permit. Andrew Maida from Georgian Renovations loves the show, would love to find the...

We open the show with a Portuguese classic Fabio belts out, thank you sir for such an amazing opening number. We are at the Mare’s Carpentry and Construction Inc. Workshop and Jim and Manny are very impressed. Gary is back on the show, @marescarpentry the one and only email him at marescarpentry@gmail.com and this time Gary has brought Fabio Andrerde from FNA Custom Woodworking @fabio.andrede51 an...