The Tim Faller Show

Today’s guest believes that training tradespeople is an overlooked part of solving the labor crisis the remodeling and construction industries continue to face.  Ian Schwandt says that lead carpenters are in the best position to have a positive effect on the development of young tradespeople. As a lead carpenter, he practices what he preaches.  In today’s episode, Ian talks to Tim and St...

One thing Tim hears frequently in his travels and consulting with remodelers is the desire for fewer layers of management, replaced by more leadership.  One of the best places to learn and develop leadership skills is the U.S. Armed Forces. Cody Ross served in the U.S. Marine Corps. from April 2005 – December 2014 as a combat engineer, doing everything from infantry to building bridges,...

We talk a great deal about ways to beat the labor shortage, including the importance of training and education in keeping good employees. We’ve also discussed how to promote the trades as an attractive career choice.  There’s a third component — finding the right people. And that may mean changing your thinking about what, or who, you’re looking for. Dejah Léger came into remodeling with no experi...

We’ve discussed adapting commercial construction systems and applications for use in the residential world. Implementing them is often met with resistance — but there are definitely processes that work well and add value. Requests for Information are standard in the commercial construction world, but aren’t widely used in residential remodeling. In this episode, Jason Brookshire talks to Tim...

Just because you’ve never been visited or cited by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration doesn’t mean you’re following safe business practices. Even if you or no one on your crew has been injured, it doesn’t necessarily mean your job sites are safe — you might just be lucky. Most OSHA standards apply to the residential building and remodeling industries, and require employers t...

Between 1950 and 2010, the use of the term “company culture” has doubled — Tim looked it up.  But for a lot of people, it’s still a bit of a mystery. You hear about having a good culture, but it can be hard to quantify. Often, remodeling companies can have a great culture in the office, but it doesn’t always make it out to the field staff on the job site. Sometimes the office and the job site...

Money isn’t the only way to motivate your team, but profit sharing can boost morale, productivity, and help attract and keep good production employees. Profit sharing can be engineered into the budget so there will be funds to distribute. As long as you hit the gross-profit margin, you can set up profit sharing, says Shawn McCadden. But you have to be careful and systematic in creating the system....

The remodeling and construction industries are dominated by men. Even such necessary things as safety equipment are a bad fit for the few women who are working on the production side in residential remodeling or construction. But things are slowly changing. More women are showing up on job sites, and working in production and operations management. In this episode, Heather Tankersley talks about h...

We all occasionally think about the worst that could happen, like a disaster befalling your business or family. The kinds of thoughts that creep into your brain in the wee hours of the morning, that prompt you to think about how you might handle it. Luckily, for most of us, those imagined catastrophes never materialize. For John Murphy, though, that nightmarish scenario came true when a building f...

If you’ve ever wondered what you’d do differently when starting your remodeling business if you only knew then what you know now, you’re not alone.  Tim and Steve do, too.  In this episode, the guys talk about what they’ve learned in their time at Remodelers Advantage and from their podcast guests that they wish they knew when they were running their own businesses. They each identified...

We’re looking back at some of our most powerful episodes as we end the year. This episode takes a positive and proactive look at solving the skills gap in the remodeling industry.  Richard Laughlin is taking a grass-roots approach in his small Texas town, with a trade-school program that’s beginning to spread across the state.  In this episode, Richard talks about re-starting that local...

There can be a bit of a disconnect between folks working in residential and those in commercial construction, and a way of thinking that they’re just completely different. But there are ideas and methods of production that can be used successfully in both. Steve Tankersley is a third-generation builder whose earliest memories are of being on a jobsite with his father. He earned a bachelor&#8...

If you’re getting to your final walk-through and finding work that’s not done, or not done right, your schedule gets fouled up and your budget is busted. To tie up all the loose ends before they can cost you more time and money, you’ve got to be a step or two ahead of the problems. A final completion list can help. Ed Hoksbergen uses a 100-point system to ensure a project is complete and up to his...

Many problems plaguing production departments end up costing time and money. While it’s clear that there are issues, many remodeling companies can’t pinpoint the causes.  One way to find out what’s really going on is to establish Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs. KPIs allow you to measure how well your production process works. But what should you measure, and how can you do it? In this ep...

Today we’re tackling what can be a simple topic, but some remodeling companies are still struggling with daily job logs. Technology has made this task so much easier to accomplish and to store. In this episode, Jason Stearns talks with Tim and Steve about what to capture in a daily log, how to get your project managers to do it effectively, and why it’s a legal necessity.  Jason has bee...

We talk about working with trade partners and subcontractors a lot around here. It can be a complicated and challenging relationship — too often it’s like you can’t live with them, and you can’t live without them. Part of any relationship is change, and adjusting to those changes to keep it fresh and healthy. To keep track of those fluctuations, you need to evaluate how you’re working together. In...

It’s a common challenge Tim finds in his consulting work with remodelers — how difficult it is to accurately estimate your remodeling company’s own work, to bring jobs in on time and budget. The difference can cause friction between estimators and those in the field, and cost you money.  In this episode, Ryan Beaber talks to Tim and Steve about his experience as an estimator, and...

To make the remodeling business work, there are a few musts — you have to be efficient, you have to have a competitive edge, and a good work-life balance. Tim Welsh’s company does it in four days a week — at least in the field. In this episode, Tim discusses the four-day work week with Tim and Steve, including how he came to it, what benefits there are, and how you can do it too. Tim is the presid...

The skills gap is real, but when we all talk about it, it often takes a negative turn. It seems like it’s always a complaint, with nobody taking any real action to solve it. Richard Laughlin is the exception, and is taking a grass-roots approach in his small town in Texas that’s already growing in other parts of the state. In this episode, Richard talks about re-starting a local trades program wit...

Restoring a home after a catastrophe like a fire or flood is fairly specialized, not something most remodeling companies do. There are different challenges, like dealing with insurance companies and payouts, so these companies have different perspectives on production. Mike Carey has worked in insurance restoration for 25 years, as well as doing residential remodeling and commercial contracting, g...

Finding good employees and managers can be difficult — there just aren’t that many qualified workers out there. Hiring somebody young without much training is an investment, but it can pay off in the long run. If you find the right person. Ryan Murphy is one of those people. He didn’t know anything about construction until he started working in the field when he was 19. Six years later, he’s a pro...

Any remodeling involving a historic building is complicated. You never know exactly what you’ll find hidden and what will have to be replaced. Period details have to be replicated, material that would be tossed out in a standard remodel must be saved, and old-world techniques like window glazing must be done. If the local historical commission gets involved, it can add another level of difficulty....

We’re big advocates of getting young people into the building trades. Getting kids and their parents to understand that working in remodeling and construction can provide a great career is the first step.  Stuart Feldt has an internship program for high school students at his company, giving them hands-on experience during their summer vacations. In this episode, Stuart discusses the program...

While driving through Maine earlier this year, Tim started wondering how a client of his there deals with the labor shortage in his small town. So he called and asked, and found out that while there are different challenges, what he does to attract and retain his people can be done in any size labor market. In this episode, Wally J. Staples talks to Tim and Steve about how his company combats the...

When remodeling companies start up, typically the owner is working in the field, making sales, estimating, and doing almost everything else to run the business. There comes a tipping point as the company grows, and one person can’t do it all. That’s where the lead carpenter system comes in. Transitioning to that system has its challenges. Steve Nash has used the lead carpenter system for 25 years,...