The Construction Life

We are at the Skilled Trades College of Canada where Ralph started a hands on school for pre apprentice electricians, pre apprentice plumbers and he even started a introductory home reno course. With 65-70 student in each of the three school in the Toronto area, Ralph is adding to the industry. A little bit of background atmosphere as the classes are still going on when Jim and I arrive there to r...

A minor technical glitch at the start of the show, 2 mins and then we get back to normal. Must be Manny with way too much on his plate these days. We discuss the rising costs of material, from lumber to metals, to everything is seeing increases and we begin with the why. We begin the show with stats on how high lumber prices have gone from the 80’s to as recent as 2020 and how the USA is Canada’s...

We are back at the R Club recording another great podcast with my guest co-host John from Craft and Clerk and Stones Throw Construction, we open the show with a few shout outs and a special shout out to the wine that John brings, thank you Sir. Find Joe from Napa Valley Developments at www.napavalleycontracting.com and joe@napavalleycontracting.com and he is not on social media and Manny is very h...

Our first guests from outside of the Greater Toronto Area. We chat with two builders from Calgary, and we discuss how they build and what motivated them to begin Builders and Brews. Here is the contact info. Adrian: @uniqueprojectsyyc https://www.uniqueprojects.ca/ Byron; @brookwright_construction http://brookwright.ca/ Both involved in @buildersandbrews https://www.buildersandbrews.ca/ and @home_...

Another great Question & Answer show with Jim and Manny. A jam-packed show with another long list of questions, comments, inquiries and more all about The Construction Life. We open the show with Jim mentioning @renosforheroes and how the pandemic has made it tough to get donations to help our wounded soldiers. Jim and Manny as asking for tradespeople to go to the web site www.renosforheroes.org a...

Let’s get dirty, we are talking about those heavy big boy toys full of all kinds of dirt, and concrete materials, we are going to dive into this world and the world that Laurie has been a part of for 22 years, and Parkview has been in business since 1995 and she doesn’t take any crap from anyone. We open the show by talking about her Dad, the person who built the business because nobody was doing...

Joel, like Noel, is Laneway Custom Builds, a red seal framer from North Bay came to Toronto nearly a decade ago and jumped into urban construction. Joel has come across almost every type of “urban” scenario, neighbors, deliveries, inspections, tradespeople, working in very tight lots and spots, did we mention neighbors? Getting started with garage building, with his own being the first due to the...

We have a great show for our listeners, let’s talk about buying that second property for yourself or to rent out, a place to getaway, a place to experience, a place to fixer upper. Steve is an expert in purchasing these types of properties and he has a lot of great information to share. Find Steve @steve.haid on IG his website www.stevehaid.com his email stevenphaid@gmail.com and his phone number...

We open the show with a phone call to Adrian in Calgary Alberta chatting with him from @uniqueprojectsyyc giving our listeners a brief glimpse into what the great folks out west are doing with @buildersandbrews along with @brookwright_construction stay tuned for a whole show with them. There is a lot more to share on the great construction and contractors going on across Canada. After the call wit...

Mike opens up the show with a funny onsite story that involves this opening song, the avocado!!! We have Mike and Jessica from Belley Renovations, find them on IG @belleyrenovations and www.belleyrenovations.com Navigating the wonderful world of dream kitchen and bathrooms. There is a lot of thought put into the design and functionality of bathrooms and women dictate the start and finish line on t...

We have an amazing show today, we have a very special guest, Matthew Bradley from OYAP. Matt works for the TDSB for the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program Department. Before OYAP he was a carpentry teacher, before that he was carpenter, before that he was a cabinet maker, and from leaving high school Matt went to study philosophy in university and not really knowing why he did that. LOL. Matt be...

Very explicit conversations in this show and a few jabs at DeWalt and Milwaukee. Let’s open the show with some Shabba and some reggae from Carlos and this is how as all construction podcasts should open. LOVE IT!! We have a special Co Host to join Manny, John from Craft And Clerk proposed the idea of joining the show and here we are. Manny is interested in doing more Co-Hosting, so anyone interest...

The show opens with a mic check and a bottle of wine, Pinot Grigio this round. Back at the evening podcast recording session and Jim and Manny are answering a lot of listener questions. We have a great show for everyone, talking about all details of construction and Mr. Smith returns with more information from the wonderful world of the Ontario Building Code. Let’s open the show with a classic sce...

What a great show we have today, Edward talks to us about being taught all the wrong lessons and he will be the first to admit the stereotype behind Asians and construction, how it’s always fast and cheap is the best and only way to renovate. Edward talks about going to post school, leaving in his 2nd year, he didn’t think school was right for him, but he did end up finding a network of likeminded...

We turn the topics over to our listeners and they have sent in great questions for Jim and Manny to answer and they don’t hold back. From dealing with Building Inspectors to how to price low to high end jobs, to what can trade schools do better when educating for RED Seal, to losing out on the job, to shadowing other contractors, to how to set your pricing and is pricing a constant evolving thing,...

Something a little different on today’s show, Jim and Manny just rapid fire the topics and discuss a variety pack of construction hits and misses. We open the show with a little DATA on our followers and how much we have grown since launching the show back in 2019, over 150,000 total downloads with an average of 17,000 downloads per month, with May of 2020 being our biggest month ever, over 30,000...

We open the show with a few construction terms and the origins of these terms, from Journeyman, the imperial measurements to plumb. Let’s get talking about your next construction office space, the Oakville location has 18, 746 square feet with 63 private offices, 3 boardrooms, a café, a lounge, and a flexible workspace. There are currently 5 locations in the GTA, this Oakville location, 3 in Missi...

We open the how at a new venue, we are at VenturesX workspace in Oakville and next week’s show will be all about this space. Thanks Trevor and Joe for offering up the space to record the show. Mike, what a great guy, calls himself the “toolbelt contractor” he loves being on site and seeing what’s happening and doing what needs to be done. Mike is proud of what he does for a living, but even more s...

Jesse Barbosa is back on the show and finally gets to meet Jim, we get talking loads of Framing. Jesse a 25-year-old framer with a solid crew that has old school heart and love for the trades and the construction life. He’s a hard worker that truly cares about his trade and what happens before, during and after his work, regardless if he can only blame the foundation guys for any issues while ever...

WE ARE BACK!! It was a nice hiatus, well worth the 4 weeks off and enjoy some downtime to ourselves. We hit 121 podcasts at the end of 2020 and now we are focused on reaching 200 podcasts by the end of 2021. We welcome Marc from Craigmhor Construction back on the show to have a great conversation about stigmas in construction and we just let the conversation roll from there. We open the show on wh...

We get right into the wonderful world of architects and designers. Talking about the formal education, the on-site education, the real construction life. We even discuss the egos attached to being an architect, a designer and how to handle those egos. Then we jump into the formality of drawings, zoning, committee of adjustments, urban forestry, conservations and all of that fun stuff months, years...

We get right into the world of working for women clients, single professional women, married women and the stigma attached to having a female client. Why do contractors treat the ladies differently? Why can’t all tradespeople treat all clients the same way? Women are concerned that they need to know all of the construction terminology, not true, women and men, all clients need to know what they wa...

We open the show with a couple of bottles of wine, a few cheeses, salami and bread as any great construction podcast should start. We don’t sugarcoat it…Covid is killing small business or should we say selective lockdown is killing small business. The panel today gets right into the motives behind the Canadian government and how they are handling the pandemic, lockdowns, and small business owners...

Something a little different but very relevant to our construction life, on today’s show we get right into a lot of health and lifestyle, eating and living. You really need to listen to your body and what your body is telling you because it is telling you a lot and listen up. It really is about what goes into your body has an effect on you, physically and mentally and what needs to come out, what...

Back in the Caruk Hall Boardroom and we have a couple of special guests, Dan Hall from Caruk Hall, Jim’s younger partner in construction crime and Terry a recently retired plumbing expert on today’s show and we are going to talk about the three segments of business ownership and operation. Both Dan and Jim got started in their late teens and went the union route and they partnered up 5 years ago,...