To learn more about NIBS and its recent initiatives (that if adopted by industry stakeholders could be game changers), we spoke with Roark Redwood, NIBS’ Senior Vice President of Technical and Government Solutions, and Johnny Fortune, Executive Director, U.S. National BIM Program.

Fortune, who has been in his current position for a year, brings to it a wealth of experience. He worked in the industry for 20 years, where he saw that alarming levels of inefficiency were rife. Now, he couples that observation with a passionate belief in the potential of the building information modeling (BIM) program that NIBS supports to positively improve the industry’s efficiency levels.

“The problem that exists in the construction industry is that it lags behind almost every other industry in terms of productivity,” Fortune says. “The industry surrounding the built environment has been very slow to adopt technology that could make it more productive. I had focused on productivity issues for many years within the construction firms for which I worked, trying to make them more efficient. When I learned of NIBS and the work being done by this organization in information management and the development of standards of data sharing, I saw it as an opportunity to impact inefficiencies and productivity on a national scale,” he says.

“After 10 years of volunteering with NIBS and doing some contract work around re-writing the building information modeling manual for the Department of Veterans Affairs, I knew this was where I wanted to invest my time and energy,” he continues. “Rather than just working for one company, I wanted to help the entire industry by providing it with the data sharing capability so desperately needed.”

The first version of the National BIM Standard – United States, a document produced by the BIM Program, was introduced in 2007 to “provide consensus-based standards through referencing existing standards, documenting information exchanges, and delivering best practices for the entire built environment.”

With BIM standards freely available to all stakeholders, Fortune, along with the committee members who worked on updating them, believes that “detailed models can deliver accurate products that can be used during commissioning and operation to ensure functionality throughout the life-cycle of facilities while delivering high-performance, carbon-neutral, and net zero energy buildings.”

Since 2007, the standards have been revised and updated three times, with input from numerous stakeholders who volunteer on a steering committee and on working groups. Now Version 4 is set to be softly launched at the NIBS Building Innovation Conference, September 5-7 in Washington. This annual event draws stakeholders from across the country who have an impact on the built environment and are seeking solutions for inherent industry problems. Following the formal release, the standards will be freely available to all interested parties.

Fortune noted some significant changes for Version 4, which include “cleaning up the language to clarify the standards” and introducing new features which will impact the standards’ overall usefulness and increase acceptance among stakeholders.

One such feature is an entirely new section on project owner requirements, which will enable owners to be more precise in what they require for their projects and help them define their BIM requirements. They can then clearly specify what they want to see, what the outcomes will be, and communicate them to their project stakeholders: the architects, engineers, designers, and contractors.

What this means in practical terms, Fortune says, “is that since the owners are the ones funding the project, they can put the requirements for data standards into their plan, and then the rest of the stakeholders are subject to compliance and need to follow suit.”

The standards are related to all the issues surrounding the construction industry—safety, workforce, environment. He shared an example of how the standards could assist with reducing carbon emissions by approaching the topic through the type of building materials and furniture that will be used in the building.

“Where the program could assist with decarbonization is by defining new standards related to the rating of materials in terms of their embodied carbon, and putting it in a database that could report a cumulative rating for all of the materials and objects in a building,” Fortune explains.

The standards are also of critical importance in that they can capture the data at different stages of a project or a building’s life cycle and ensure that data can be passed from one stakeholder to another.

There is a plethora of technology, tools, and applications available on the market to help individual stakeholders complete their job. But all too often the information is locked up in a software application and doesn’t get transferred to the next stakeholder when the project is handed over, resulting in inefficiency as the same information will have to be modeled repeatedly, with the owner having the greatest information deficit.

“This doesn’t mean that everyone has to purchase the same software applications,” Fortune said, “but all stakeholders have to be able to get the original data without having to input the same information over and over again, and this is why we are promoting open data standards.”

The previous three versions of the National BIM Standard – United States had a life cycle of three to five years, but Version 4 has adopted an agile, modular approach. This will enable updating of modules within the standard independently, thereby eliminating long revision cycles and allowing for more frequent updates and the ability to add new modules.

Mitigation and building resilience initiatives
NIBS’ Redwood is responsible for the overall performance of the Technical and Government Solutions department by ensuring innovative execution and delivery of services, completing programs, and expanding new business development opportunities. This includes BIM.

Redwood is an architect with 23 years of experience, delivering federal, cultural, leisure and entertainment, higher education, mixed-use, aviation, industrial, commercial, and residential projects. He is an experienced leader of diverse teams of professionals for a variety of clients and project types, complexities, budgets, and delivery methods.

In addition to BIM, there are several mitigation and resilience projects underway through NIBS’ Technical and Government Solutions department.

These include TurboGrants, which is the brainchild of the NIBS Vice President of Engineering, Jiqiu Yuan. TurboGrants is directed toward mitigation and resilience so that non-profit organizations looking to secure or help their communities recover from natural disasters will be able to find resources provided by FEMA, understand the eligibility requirements, and apply.

“This is about being proactive and ensuring accessibility,” Redwood said of TurboGrants. “The notion among Americans is that recovery funds are a given, but the journey to tap into them is not. That’s where TurboGrants steps in.”

Other projects include the development of a mitigation investment roadmap with Fannie Mae. The goal of the Resilience Incentivization Roadmap 2.0 is to identify ways to work with lenders to explore financial products that support resilient buildings, help developers properly evaluate risk and recognize values of resilient buildings and lower the upfront cost, and collaborate with insurers to promote insurance programs that reward safer structures.

Taking the pulse of the built environment workforce
With regard to workforce, NIBS collects valuable information on where things stand.

NIBS released the 2023 Built Environment Workforce Survey in June. The report was completed in partnership with Avenue M Group and dozens of participating organizations, including The American Association of Blacks in Energy; The American Institute of Architects; American Institute of Steel Construction; American Society of Civil Engineers; American Society of Landscape Architects; ASHRAE; Association of Equipment Management Professionals; ASTM International; BOMA International; Building Talent Foundation; Construction Management Association of America; Construction Specifications Institute; Design-Build Institute of America; Green Building Initiative, Inc.; International Code Council; International Institute of Building Enclosure Consultants; Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance; National Apartment Association; The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals; National Building Museum; New Buildings Institute; Northwest Energy Efficiency Council; Phius (Passive House Institute US); Ready Mixed Concrete Research & Education Foundation; Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors; and the U.S. Green Building Council.

The report takes a comprehensive look at diversity, equity, and inclusion. More than seven in 10 respondents included race (75 percent), ethnicity (74 percent), gender (73 percent), and age (71 percent) in their definition of diversity within the context of the built environment.

Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of respondents said it’s important to increase diversity of the built environment. And overall, younger respondents—aged 39 or younger (68 percent) and aged 40 to 49 (66 percent)—as well as women (79 percent) were more likely to indicate the importance with regard to increasing diversity.

Other report highlights include:
• More than two-thirds (68 percent) of respondents were men and about three in 10 (31 percent) were women.
• More than four in five (82 percent) identified as White and/or a person of European descent. 7 percent of respondents identified as Hispanic and/or Latina/Latino/Latinx; 4 percent identified as Black, African American, and/or a person of African descent; 4 percent identified as East Asian; and 3 percent identified as Native American, Alaska Native, First Nations, Métis, and/or Inuit.
• Around two-thirds (67 percent) of women indicated they have experienced discrimination or prejudice in the built environment based on gender.

“While it’s striking that over two-thirds of our respondents were men, the underrepresentation of diverse ethnicities and the significant 67 percent of women who’ve experienced gender-based discrimination in the built environment underscores an urgent need to address these disparities and promote inclusivity,” Redwood says.

Decarbonizing the building sector
This year, NIBS began the Existing Buildings webinar series, opening it up July 12 with a discussion on green retrofits. Building owners are actively using green building retrofits as the key to attracting more tenants; attaining competitive positioning in the marketplace; supporting easier and more cost-effective operations and maintenance; reducing energy bills and consumption; and achieving carbon benchmarking.

The series continues October 24 with Retrofitting for Resilience.

While on the subject of existing structures, NIBS’ Consultative Council this year explored the topic of building sector decarbonization, examining key concepts, challenges, and considerations that can help inform decisions about if, where, and how to pursue decarbonization goals, and providing recommendations to policymakers and industry stakeholders on priority actions and next steps.

The building sector is a significant contributor to carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These GHG emissions contribute to the widespread and worsening impacts of human-induced climate change and can adversely affect local environments and populations by compromising indoor air quality and exacerbating outdoor air pollution.

Mitigating these effects by decarbonizing the building sector will take an economy-wide effort, but the need to achieve near- and long-term emissions reductions is critically important.

“NIBS, as a creation of Congress, was meant to lead in building science and technology innovations,” Redwood says. “To our fellow citizens and our partners, we assure you, we’ll rise to this occasion.”

The post Putting Construction on a Firmer Foundation<p class="company">National Institute of Building Sciences</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Following U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’ announcement in March 2022 in which she announced the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to improving public transportation throughout the United States, we explored the advent of Hyperloops and Earth-friendlier mass transit. This month, we explore how and whether American and Canadian public transportation is indeed transforming and what is influencing the changes. We also see how the implementation of Hyperloop technology is faring and whether it was worth the initial hype.

Based on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and funded by American Rescue Plan investments, the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal, it stated, was to reduce toxic emissions in a bid to counter climate change. But there was also a social aspect to the mission, with better national health levels, job creation, and improved remuneration all cited as motivation for the public transit makeover.

As statistics indicated that public transit was responsible for just under one-third of all fossil fuels emissions in America, it certainly made sense. With the rise of electric vehicles, the time had come to start cleaning up the sector. The administration’s first stop was to take care of disadvantaged children in under-served communities who have, historically, been exposed to toxic emissions on a much larger scale than children from wealthier areas.

Funding was generous, with over $5 billion in aid arriving via the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law toward the Low- and No-Emission Transit Vehicle Program. The Department of Transportation also chipped in with more than $1 billion for this year plus over $2 billion to the American Rescue Plan, which serves around 20 states’ transportation departments.

More than $370 million was earmarked for the Bus and Bus Facilities program. Modesto City Schools in California was one of the first to place an order with electric bus fabricator Blue Bird Corporation (BLBD) of Macon, Georgia, for thirty vehicles to replace half of its original fleet.

In Canada, governments went public in May of this year with historic news of rolling out the largest electric bus plan on the continent. The plan promises to introduce approximately 1200 electric buses, benefiting around ten public transportation organizations and allowing them to transform their fossil-fueled fleets into clean, modern transportation.

In the United States, schools are electrifying their fleets at an impressive rate. Florida’s Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) for one did not wait for the grass to grow following the White House announcements. Thanks to the support of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Electric School Bus Project, BLBD reported delivering its biggest single delivery of buses yet to BCPS in April of this year.

Looking at the BCPS’ collection of over 500 Blue Bird buses, which make up just under half of its fleet, the future of public transportation in Florida is changing faster than, perhaps, expected. BLBD is rightly proud to have delivered more than 20,000 buses running on electricity, propane, and similar. Large enough to transport more than 70 children for over 100 miles per charge, these beautiful yellow school buses are becoming a familiar part of the local landscape.

Staying with electric buses, we also look at Proterra, California’s star electric transit vehicle fabricator. Known for quality electric buses, the company reports impressive recent sales. Since January, it has sold 10 fully electric buses to Sonoma County, 75 Proterra ZX5 emission-free buses to Miami-Dade County, and more to several other areas. Its next largest order has come from the South Carolina Department of Education, which has put in a request for 160 Thomas Built electric school buses to be distributed throughout the state in the coming months.

Airplanes are also slowly becoming battery-powered and Arlington-based Eviation Aircraft is growing. Its famous nine-seater plane, Eviation Alice, is unique in its class and covers about 500 miles on a single charge. While this may be a small start, it appears to be the beginning of the future for commercial electric flying.

In June of this year, the company reported from the Paris air show that Aerolease, a sustainable aviation leader in Miami, Florida, has ordered around 50 of its electric aircraft, bringing its total orders to the region of $4 billion USD.

In addition, United Airlines has planned its first public flights from O’Hare International Airport to Vertiport Chicago in an Archer Midnight air taxi in partnership with Archer Aviation for 2025. As United Airlines’ electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, this five-person, six-battery-pack plane also holds baggage and travels well over 100 miles per hour, sometimes beating congested traffic times by up to 50 minutes.

One of the biggest perks is the cost of travel, as developers describe the price of hopping on one of these instead of sitting in traffic. The speedy aircraft could be joined by the 19-seater electric ES-19 aircraft developed by Heart Aerospace, another United Airlines partner, as soon as 2026.

Many counties are working hard to bring battery-powered electric trains to their communities. Stadler, a well-known Swiss train fabricator, has already signed a deal with California’s San Bernardino County Transportation Authority (SBCTA) for a Flirt H2 train. Entirely hydrogen-powered by Ballard Power Systems’ next-generation engineering, the train is set to start running next year.

And that’s not the only exciting news from Stadler. This year, Utah State University (USU) and its ASPIRE Engineering Research Center will become part of Stadler’s development of the battery-powered “Flirt Akku” model. The project is initially set to transform rail travel along the Wasatch Front, an urban zone that’s home to Provo, Ogden, Salt Lake City, Bountiful, and other cities, and will carry its power packs on its roof. The train is fashioned on an earlier, hybrid model, the 110 Flirt Akku, which has been running in Germany since 2018.

This brings us to Hyperloops. Short of coming to a screeching halt, it appears that most developers are in for tough times with these future-positive projects. While a version of Elon Musk’s Boring Tunnel is functional and cuts down travel time between venues at the Las Vegas Convention Center, passengers ride in Musk’s Teslas rather than the pressure-resistant pods that were originally planned.

Despite setbacks, The Boring Company, Musk’s flagship Hyperloop development firm, states on its website that Clark County, Nevada will become home to several similar new stations and miles of tunnels. However, the numbers mentioned on the company’s website and in the Clark County tweet it refers to do not necessarily correspond. Time will tell.

As some Hyperloop firms seem to struggle with funding, a few such tunnels are also reported to have closed, including Musk’s Hawthorne, Canada tunnel and Hyperloop TT’s tunnel not far from Toulouse in France. While some earlier proponents are now back-pedalling on their former faith in Hyperloops, others remain hopeful.

What experts agree on, however, is that, while maybe a tad on the glacial side in its developmental pace, the technology is desperately needed if the planet is to consolidate its efforts towards more guilt-free, Earth-friendly travel. As one critic of the current Las Vegas tunnel points out, adding cars to tunnels that could accommodate trains is not a sustainable solution for the future of cities. Once you’re through the tunnel and back in the congestion of ground-level traffic, where do you park?

As American and European Hyperloop developers navigate rough economic times, a Dutch developer, generously funded by the European Commission’s EIC Accelerator Program, is making more waves.

Backed by well over 10 million euros last year, Hardt Hyperloop is getting ahead in establishing the European Hyperloop Center tubes by 2030. The company is further supported by POSCO International, a Korean Investment firm that signed a letter of intent at the end of last year.

Until these long-awaited, high-pressure pod trains become a reality, however, traditional public transit infrastructure must be kept in shape, which is proving to be a challenge in many places, despite the high hopes of last year. While New York City was recently assigned $1 billion USD to level up its transit system, in Minnesota, St. Paul and Minneapolis public transportation systems currently rely on a new sales tax that aims to generate over $400 million USD per annum.

As some states have had to fight to have their frustrations over public spending heard, civil protest proves essential in protecting public transportation budgets from potentially being raided to solve local governments’ spending dilemmas.

One recent event took place in June in Chicago and San Francisco, where locals staged mock funerals for model trains and buses to voice their disapproval of the status quo. Their approach worked, and instead of kissing goodbye to $2 billion USD from the public transportation budget—threatening the closure of around 20 bus routes—over $1 billion USD in annual support was pledged toward the public transportation system through the state legislature. At the time of writing, the motion was not yet confirmed, however.

In Canada, statistics are showing a drop in public transportation use since the days of COVID. In January of this year, over four million fewer trips were made on urban transportation, amounting to an almost 30 percent drop compared to January 2019, before COVID got going. The good news is that these numbers are growing.

The light at the end of the tunnel, currently, resides in legislation that makes it worthwhile for municipalities to assign resources to accommodating electric vehicles and the infrastructure to keep them running. Under legislation like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S. government can provide for over 30,000 infrastructure construction projects, including restoration work.

While every state or province has its own challenges to bear, big tech, corporations, and civilians alike are proving invaluable in coming up with solutions to the evolution and maintenance of public transportation. And, despite budgets being tight post-COVID, there remain innovators hurtling toward humanity’s environmentally friendly transportation goals. It might just take a little longer than first imagined.

The post Tunnel Vision<p class="company">Public Transportation in Times of Change</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Miller spent years as a general superintendent and scaffold coordinator and superintendent. A graduate of the Schulich School of Business, Marton ran a hardscape installation business with his twin brother, soon gaining experience and designations in safety and project management.

After a few years in the field, Marton began working alongside Miller as a coordinator, with the pair making data-driven decisions. At the end of one project, they jointly decided it was time for wider horizons—time to start their own scaffolding company with a focus on improving current practices and introducing technology-based innovations to the field.

The year was 2017, and Hinton Scaffold Solution was created, combining decades of experience and the belief that improvements needed to be made in the industry.

Smarter thinking
“Scaffolding is used everywhere,” says Marton, Vice President and Director of Business Development. “Our tagline is, ‘Your safety is our success.’ We take on the risky work to give everybody else safe work access.”

In less than a decade, award-winning Hinton has grown to become one of North America’s foremost scaffold service and solutions providers. From labour and materials to on-site management, engineering and building information modelling (BIM) 3D services, estimating, Realistic Immersive Safety Education (RISE) training, and more, the company is known for its expertise, efficiencies, strong safety commitments, and doing things the right way every time.

“I’m a millennial, and I saw inefficiencies in the construction sector that could be improved by the use of technology, and I was astounded that it was not happening on these multi-billion-dollar major projects in Canada,” explains Marton. “It was very much at the field level of management. Scaffolding itself, on a project, is accounted for but not planned out in advance for various good reasons. So you need really good management to mitigate the cost of scaffolding on a project. Ultimately, that’s what we were doing.”

To streamline processes, Miller, who serves as Director of Field Operations, and Marton started digitizing some workflows. Specifically, they homed in on processes enabling them to collect data from the field, which also helped them to better manage scaffolding as an integrated aspect of a project’s construction.

Some of the inefficiencies they uncovered included people and material management, including downtime. Additionally, they created a key performance indicator (KPI), looking at the weight and movement of scaffolding.

“If you’re tracking the materials being used every day, you’re collecting weight and a per-piece unit rate per day—that’s very accurate if you’re doing it daily—and you’re able to turn it into a pounds per hour or piece per hour movement, depending on other variables such as weather or height of the work,” says Marton. “You get an average for the industry, the company, and your crew. If you’re tracking the people, which we are, you’re getting an average per person.”

Big believers in encouraging staff instead of chastising them, the two prefer to explain how to make improvements and reduce any inefficiencies rather than writing someone up.

Large-scale work
Although vital to construction, scaffolding can at times be taken for granted. Major projects often require 20 to 30 million pounds (about 9 to 14 million kg) of scaffold material. It can take years for scaffolding to be built into a project under construction, and six months to a year for it to be dismantled and removed to ultimately complete the contract.

The movement of scaffolding on sites is a process requiring rigorous tracking and inspection, vital information which is relayed to clients. To track the movement of scaffolding, Hinton uses QR code scanning and is working with a German manufacturer on radio frequency identification (RFID). Along with tracking, timers are also used to make the process more efficient.

If scaffolding is no longer required on a site, it can be removed and materials made available for recycling, thus Hinton is also working on processes to track recycling and deliver carbon credits back to clients.

“Down the line, we see significant value to using us and our system,” says Marton. “If we can determine specifically how much material is recycled within a project… we hope to translate that into actual carbon credits.” This extends beyond carbon credits to the amount of materials the company needs to bring to sites, and the amount of labour needed to build, and later dismantle, at the end of a project.

“So it’s efficiency over efficiency, and that’s what we’ve been working on since we started,” Marton says. The company’s approach provides insights in advance, and forecasts labour along with performance. “We provide a more realistic measure, instead of an estimate, because that measure changes as we go through the project. We continue to track our progress in material movement and update that number, so it becomes a communication tool with our client,” he shares.

“This means greater transparency. Instead of hiding against something—and having to ask for more money or justify what’s going on at the end—we are working toward something. We open up our reports, are transparent, and work better together.”

Respect for all
At Hinton Scaffold Solution, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is woven into the fabric of the company. The team comprises a strong, diverse group of workers of different backgrounds and identities. Friends for years, Marton and Miller call each other ‘brother’. Even when they worked together before the Hinton era, the pair recognized stereotypes in the construction industry and vowed to address them with positivity.

So it’s not surprising that when the company started six years ago, it was one of the first to have female leaders and black female leaders. Save for one male, all trainers are female, and there are many women supervisors. The team includes transgender members as well.

“Within our mandate, we have a goal of attracting women and youth and any group that’s been marginalized in any way,” says Marton. “We’re trying to attract them within our own company and our industry because our trade needs to grow.”

The rise—and ‘RISE’—of safety
Of course, the safety of workers is all-important in the construction industry. One of the key tools used—and created—by the company is RISE. Short for Realistic Immersive Safety Education program, RISE was developed two years ago by Hinton Scaffold itself with support in part from the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development.

RISE creates an immersive and realistic construction environment with virtual reality (VR) technology. By putting workers in simulated hazardous situations, RISE allows them to experience the potential dangers and consequences of workplace hazards in a safe setting. In addition, RISE not only enables workers to develop better hazard recognition and risk assessment skills, it goes further with a component on bullying, helping women and youth build confidence in a new and sometimes intimidating industry.

The company recently released a formal builder module for RISE. Providing an immersive construction experience beyond scaffolding, RISE benefits everyone in the field, from office coordinators to engineers visiting sites and workers getting involved in the trades.

“Construction hazard awareness is something everybody should do,” says Marton, “and we provide it for all of our workers and make it available to our projects. If they so choose, they can put people through for anybody outside of scaffolding. And with the scaffold building module, we are able to give people who aren’t in the trades—or people who are in the trades—a perspective of what a scaffolder does.”

How the company’s focus on maximum safety for its people dovetails with its social concerns is well expressed by Marton. “Today all the protections are in place to make this the safest industry in the world, and it pays well,” says Marton. “If we can bring more people into employment, I’m absolutely for it.”

The fact is, like other construction trades, scaffolding has seen a shortage of workers. But Hinton is taking crucial steps, working with school boards, trade programs, unions, communities, and correctional facilities to find new employees and give them a chance at a great future.

A place for people
In construction, there may be no better place to find it. Founded on experience, Hinton Scaffold Solution is based on respect. The company’s office was designed for remote work long before the pandemic. With 65 employees at present, Marton believes this number will rise to 100 by the end of the year. Currently negotiating a large project, he hopes the figure will climb to 600 next year!

Continuing to win awards for its work, including Select Top Contractor 2023 and the Consumer Choice Award three years in a row, Hinton resolutely focuses not on past successes, but on future growth. Marton and Miller see a day when ‘Hinton’ will become a household name in the scaffolding industry.

Already, some of the company’s processes and innovations are being emulated by others. Marton doesn’t mind and is flattered. “That’s actually what we’re driving toward—changing the industry. We’ve seen some of that happening, and we’re proud to see it. If you’re going to be leaders in your field, you have to be that leader. When you see others following suit you’re doing exactly what you set out to do.”

The post Supporting Change for an Entire Industry<p class="company">Hinton Scaffold Solution</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Jeffery Homes was founded by Scott’s parents, Wayne and Muriel, back in 1964 and maintains the same commitment to quality, value, and service to this day. Coming to Ontario from Nova Scotia at the age of 19, Scott’s father worked at General Motors in Oshawa as a millwright. With help from his older brother, he started out making a few homes—1,050 square foot bungalows—and eventually left GM to pursue his dream, leaving his pension and benefits behind. The decision was not an easy one for the Jeffery family, but it was one that had to be made.

“To go out on your own, you’ve got to have a lot of confidence that you’re going to make it work,” says owner Scott Jeffery. “It was a big decision on his part, and he made it work.”

After all these years, Jeffery Homes remains a proud, family-owned builder. Along with his sons Eric, 31, and Lucas, 29, Scott has assembled a team of industry pros.

Carrying on the commitment to quality set in place by his father, Scott works with trusted subcontractors and suppliers. Some have been working alongside Jeffery Homes since the 1980s. Others, including framers, are themselves in their second generation, with sons taking over from their fathers.

To work for award-winning Jeffery Homes, construction trades must not only be experienced, but respectful to each other and to the buyers who visit the site of their dream home as it’s being built. Standards for carpenters, bricklayers, electricians, and other trades are high because that’s what the company and its customers expect. “I’ve worked hard to build a team, and once you get the person that fits how we want to do business, you keep them,” says Scott. “At Jeffery Homes, we build each home to the same standards we would want in our own home.” Quality and attention to detail start long before shovels are in the ground.

Taking a bespoke approach to projects, Scott and the team look for a few choice locations that are unique and highly desirable. Preferring quality over quantity, Jeffery Homes creates between 50 and 100 residences annually. Earning new and repeat business alike, the company frequently has clients who prefer to hold on for a Jeffery Home instead of going with other properties.

Many of the company’s developments are so sought-after that they sell out quickly, such as the luxury townhomes of West Scugog Village in Port Perry, and Orchard East and Orchard West in Bowmanville.

Both Orchard East and Orchard West feature detached homes on premium 36 by 120 foot lots in Orchard East, and 40 by 120 foot lots in Orchard West. Jeffery’s completed projects include 51 homes at Courtice Woods in Courtice, Ontario; Brookhill in Bowmanville West; and Kedron Park, in Oshawa.

Continuing its tradition of creating entire communities of high-quality homes, the company’s latest projects include the 1919 Estates of Bobcaygeon—featuring modern, farmhouse-style estate homes on large lots of one to two acres—and VIEWS, in North Oshawa. Located in a growing area, VIEWS is situated close to schools, shopping, entertainment venues, and other key amenities, and the company is in the process of building 700 homes for the community.

From meticulous design/build services to planning, budgeting, and construction, Jeffery Homes handles all aspects of the building process under one roof. Refining its processes over the years, the company is accountable and efficient, ensuring everything goes as planned.

With its industry-wide reputation for excellence, a surprising proportion of Jeffery Homes’ sales are to repeat and ‘move up’ buyers who are now building their dream homes. “We’ve carved out a reputation in Durham Region as a premium, better-than-the-rest builder, not so much geared toward first-time buyers, although we’ve done some townhomes in the past,” says Scott.

While he respects most big companies, he feels that some are merchandisers more than builders. “They could have chosen to manufacture pants or something else, and they’re very good and smart at business, but technically, they don’t know anything about building a house,” he says. “They hire people who have the technical knowledge to build the house. So, are they really builders, or are they merchandisers?”

In contrast, the Jeffery Homes team is ahead of the curve in terms of client needs in this ever-evolving housing market. Committed to an outstanding level of workmanship and finishes, the company is also a leader in environmental initiatives, including Smart technology and Energy Star® building practices.

While many of us are familiar with the distinctive Energy Star blue logo on appliances, not everyone is aware that the independent rating system also applies to houses. According to Jeffery Homes, “It comprises a number of prescribed practices of home building whereby the house often surpasses minimum building code requirements by 25 percent or more. The house is tested at completion, and the system is simply ‘pass or fail.’”

Not only is Jeffery Homes an Energy Award Winner for 2021 and 2022, but it’s one of the first in Canada to build an Energy Star home. It was Scott’s father who set in place the parameters that made the transition to Energy Star so much more efficient.

“The way we were framing and putting houses together was on par with the Energy Star specs of that time,” Scott explains. “Once you start on that path, you can’t go backward. We’re building at that Energy Star level, Version 5.0, right now. We’ve continued to evolve with it and build our houses to that specification. It’s been ingrained in our company for a long time, and that’s the way we do it.”

The company is building several model homes at the moment, one of them through the Net Zero Ready program. According to the Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA), Net Zero Homes are up to 80 percent more energy-efficient than conventional new homes and produce as much clean energy as they consume. Superbly well-constructed, Net Zero Homes are known for their high-performance windows, extra insulation, advanced lighting and mechanical systems, and more.

Built to the same efficiency standards as Net Zero Homes, ‘Net Zero Ready’ Homes already have everything in place to accept renewable energy systems such as solar panels, but they’re not yet installed.

“Think of a Net Zero Ready Home as wired for its future renewable energy system, so that when the homeowners are able to invest in installing solar panels, it’s ready to go,” says the CHBA. “This is called ‘PV Ready.’”

Before working on the model Net Zero Ready home, Scott created one for his son and another for his sister, completely off the grid with solar energy and a backup generator.

With the future of the family-owned company in very good hands, Scott Jeffery is pondering stepping back from the company in the coming years, entrusting it to his sons and the excellent team in place.

“Whether you ever truly get away from it…” he ponders. “Well, I don’t think I ever will, but I’d like to have the flexibility that if you called me to go golfing, I could,” he laughs. “I’m not in the daily grind, as I put it. So that’s my goal in the next few years, but I don’t think I’ll ever disappear. I enjoy the interaction with the trades and working with my boys, and being here as a mentor,” he says. “Pick up the phone and call me. I might be in Florida or up at the cottage, but I’ll always be accessible to have someone to lean on.”

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The company consistently ensures quality assurance and homeowner satisfaction by collaborating with skilled, certified tradespeople and competent industry partners. The team also employs effective software solutions to offer rental property management services to landlords, whether with a single property or a portfolio of properties.

Huron Creek’s expertise also extends to the development of rental income units and condos for sale, as well as project management services for private clients wishing to build their ideal homes. The company maintains longstanding ties with a number of regional and national organizations and programs including the WRHBA, OHBA, Tarion, and Energy Star.

“I started with my partner Peter Catana almost 25 years ago now, when he was building around 40 to 50 homes a year at EastForest Homes Ltd.,” says Vice President Rick Martins. “At that time, during our best year we built 923 homes. When you’re growing, you only do that one way—by learning and trying to get better and surrounding yourself with good people.”

Together with Catana, Martins started building a family business, and while it continued to grow quite a bit and developed its own policies, procedures, and standards, it wasn’t a company beholden to shareholders, he says. There was the owner, and then there were the people in charge of doing what they were doing. This allowed for a lot of flexibility in learning, innovating, and continually coming up with new ideas.

“Peter’s vision was always one of, how can I provide something that I wanted when I came to this country?” Martins says. “My parents, for instance, were first-generation. They wanted the Canadian dream: a home, education for their kids, and a better life.”

Together with Peter at EastForest, the team built close to 16,000 units together, with the majority of them being products for first-time homebuyers, dwellings that have changed drastically over the years. “When I started with Peter, the first-time home product was a townhome, and at that time a townhome was $99,000 and a single [detached] was about $139,000,” Martins shares. “Today, a townhome is $800,000 and a single is a million.”

While townhomes weren’t considered viable products back then, over time they became both desirable and affordable, particularly for first-time buyers searching in the $300,000 to $350,000 range. For those having a hard time with that price, Huron Creek came up with a new product called the Quad—a semi-detached house with a finished basement, with a unit in the upper storeys and a separate unit in the basement—essentially four units housed inside what traditionally would be only two semis.

“When we started that, I think the first ones we sold were $90,000 for the basement units. Then when the Quad started to get into that $350,000 mark, we had to reinvent the wheel again, and we started building stack townhomes,” Martins explains. “Unfortunately, now, as much as we reinvent the wheel, land cost is so expensive that a starter dwelling—not a single-family home, but an apartment-style dwelling with its own entryway—is over $500,000.”

Throughout the 25 years they’ve been together, this kind of reinvention has been key, says Martins. For this company, getting better means that the company grows and evolves alongside the community, with the homeowners ultimately receiving a better product in a better neighbourhood.

To be sure, doing better is the name of the game. “We are always looking at energy efficiency as well; environmentally, how can we do things differently, better, smarter, with less material and a better product? It was always ingrained in us; it was innate,” says Martins. Reinvention has also meant taking a closer look at accessibility and age-friendly living, greater efficiency from an affordability standpoint, and helping to lower monthly bills for occupants.

“When you’re working with people who are like-minded, such as the staff here and we as owners, we’ve always been about, ‘how can we be better and do better?’ If you can achieve that, everybody wins. We’ve gotten better over the years, because when you’re building something, you always learn,” he says.

Martins is particularly proud of Westwood Village’s second phase in Cambridge, Ontario, which is going Net Zero Ready with the goal of all singles—about 65—to be fully Net Zero. The company is also building 144 Net Zero stack townhomes which will be affordable units through a CMHC program in the City of Kitchener. These homes will contain a dual-fuel system with tankless systems for gas and heat pumps in the units handling the air conditioning. Depending on the price of electricity or gas, a mechanism will change out to use the most affordable heat source.

“We’re always looking at doing something different,” Martins says. “We’re probably the first builder in southwestern Ontario, if not in Ontario, to adopt the AeroBarrier, a sealant product that we apply just after we’re done drywall in our homes that gets into all those little cracks and crevices and takes airtightness to under one, which is extremely tight.”

Another example is that, where Huron Creek used to use HRVs (heat recovery ventilation) because they were more common, the team now uses ERVs (energy recovery ventilation), as they’ve come to understand over the years that ERVs are much better in the sense that they will also condition the air. And while customers appreciate these details, Martins adds, at the end of the day, buyers today are most concerned about affordability.

“We’re at a crucial turning point,” he emphasizes. “Housing [costs are] probably at their peak due to taxation that we have and due to the land supply shortages. Homelessness is at an all-time high, housing affordability is out of reach, and then inflation is where it is. Our leaders need to say, ‘enough is enough.’ They also need to curtail our banks, because they’re making money hand over fist,” Martins says. “One simple fix is removing HST on new housing, and I understand the HST is a tax and it’s revenue that comes into the government, but they can easily remove HST on new housing and replace it with a flat tax across all housing.”

Short of the $24,000 that the provincial government gives in Ontario, there is no other rebate, he says, which means when Huron Creek builds a new home, it’s 12 percent more expensive. “Every time I build a new home, or someone else builds a new home, you’re technically inflating the price of housing, and like I said, there are simple solutions.”

Until these solutions take hold, however, availability and affordability will remain out of reach for many, particularly younger people who will end up living at home or making other, less desirable arrangements for their futures.

“Basically they’re going to have to cohabitate,” Martins says. “But I also say that community has to shift too; when my parents came over [to Canada], we lived with my aunt and uncle in their home and they had six kids and we made do. We’ve been a society of consumption, and truthfully, we have to take a look at some of those aspects as well.”

Other challenges facing the industry include labour shortages, particularly in the skilled trades, and the team at Huron Creek believes it’s important to encourage people of all ages and backgrounds to look into this rewarding career—whether young people still in school or those looking to make a career change. Martins himself went through university to be a teacher, and now runs a successful construction company. It’s that ability to pivot—a valuable skill he learned from his father—that has led to his ongoing success.

“You have to be able to contribute,” he says. “Young people were sold a different bill of goods, being told to go to university, and while it was a great experience for me, it cost me $40,000.”

Conversely, the construction industry—while facing its share of challenges—is one that Martins has succeeded in thanks to taking advantage of opportunities and working hard. There are still concerns to be addressed, however.

“Our systems are really broken, and they need to be fixed,” he says. “I’m okay with unions, and we actually use union trades and union companies, but I’m an open shop, and I really believe in the bidding system. People should be given an opportunity, and it has to be open and fair.” Shortages will continue to keep housing unreachable, he adds, and some union restrictions could make the issue worse as strikes are limiting who can and cannot bid work.

In the meantime, Huron Creek will continue to grow, learn, and find better ways to achieve the best products for its clients and provide the best working environment for its employees and its contractors.

“What sets us apart is our staff, our trades, and the family atmosphere,” Martins says. “Our company is all about family.”

As an example, anyone who gets married at the company receives a $500 cash bonus, while $500 is given for the birth or adoption of a child. Any employee with the company for two years or longer is eligible to receive a minimum $30,000 discount off the purchase of a Huron Creek home. “We were given a lot of opportunities, and while we worked for those opportunities, we were able to get ahead. And now we can give back,” says Martins.

“We’re always learning and always trying to be better. As long as you do that, you end up, I think, at the right place.”

The post Affordable, Liveable Homes, From One Family to Another<p class="company">Huron Creek Developments</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Certainly, half a century is a milestone to be celebrated in any industry, but for Cardel Homes, it is a chance to acknowledge how far it has come and the people who got it there—as well as an opportunity to position the company for another 50 years of success.

From humble beginnings
Cardel Homes came to be in a very unusual way. In 1973, while schoolteachers Del and Caryl Ockey were using their summer off from teaching to build their own home in Calgary, Alberta, they caught the attention of others in the community who were interested in having a home of the same calibre built for them.

The couple put their heads together, their efforts together, and the first three letters of their names together and the rest, as they say, is history. Cardel Homes became a family-owned custom homebuilder in the Calgary market.

From a handful of custom homes to start to more than 20,000 homes built in over 150 communities spanning four regions in two countries, Cardel Homes remains a family-owned company today, though its scope and reach has significantly grown.

In 1996, Cardel Homes ventured beyond the Alberta border to establish a presence in Ontario and in 2001 it traversed international borders to expand into Florida, and four years later into Colorado. Each of these expansions was borne out of the strong relationships the company has built throughout the years with its partners who asked for support in their own expansion activities.

According to Chief Operating Officer (COO) Greg Graham, “We were looking for long-term growth opportunities, stability within a market so that we can stay there and be there long-term. Every time we look at an opportunity, if we don’t see long-term duration, if we don’t see land position and lot position, we won’t endeavour to go there just to do one project.”

A winning philosophy
Despite the company’s impressive growth, now under the leadership of Ryan Ockey, Caryl and Del’s son who was sweeping floors and picking up nails at a young age, the roots of the company and the driving philosophy remain the same 50 years later.

“The philosophy, it’s about family, faith, and community,” says Graham. “The philosophy is filtered down through the organization where leadership treats staff as family and we listen to them, we engage with them, we enable them and empower them to make decisions and really try to support them in everything we do.”

For Graham and the leadership team at Cardel Homes, the goal is simple: “Do the right thing for our customers, the right thing for our community, and maintain that family attitude and hands-on approach in everything we do.”

Cardel Homes’ projects are built by their family for yours. From single-family homes to multifamily projects, which the firm added to its repertoire in 2002, Cardel Homes continues to set new benchmarks with its exquisite designs, thoughtful layouts, and calculated elevations.

“We believe our homes are built for real life, meaning we look at how people will use their homes, how they will furnish them and do the layout, the natural light, the traffic flow; design is certainly a big element,” says Graham of the care that is taken by the architectural team to produce quality homes that make sense.

The company’s “production mind-frame,” as Graham refers to it, includes an offering of low-rise single-family homes ranging from 1,200 to 5,000 square feet as well as townhomes, stacked townhomes, low-rise condominiums, and apartments. “We don’t get into the concrete and steel—that’s a very different business model—but as far as homes, low-rise or what we call ground-oriented homes, we build every style and every kind of those,” he explains.

In 2004, Cardel Homes made its foray into recreational products with the construction of the two main buildings at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in Golden, BC, as well as into the real estate, land acquisition, and development market.

As Graham explains, “We go out and we acquire land in all of our divisions and we take it through the entitlement process, we get all of the approvals in place, and we oversee all of the construction and onsite servicing to the point where we can turn over service lots to our homebuilding division. We certainly scrutinize the market to see what the land opportunities are for the future and that’s what we’ve been able to do in those four markets.”

Strong foundations
To ensure long-term, sustainable growth, Cardel Homes established itself in the market with a solid product and outstanding service while structuring the company like its homes—on a solid foundation and with the right team guiding it forward.

“The best thing about the way we’ve established ourselves is we do have a corporate office, our C-Suite, that provides oversight on all of operations, but each of our divisions has a division leader who’s accountable for running the operations and running the land,” says Graham.

He adds, “We’re there to support them, but we provide them with some autonomy. We empower them to make decisions. The corporate office is our investment arm, so they treat us as their advisor and they actually operate as if it was their business. When it’s a hands-on ownership mentality like that it’s pretty easy to see how they drive the business to success.”

With its level of talent, skills, resources, and support, Cardel Homes has discovered a successful formula that it has been able to replicate over the decades. While the core philosophy and approach has remained the same, the company goes a step further with its trade partners to identify and utilize the latest tools, materials, and innovative approaches.

“We still build houses the same way we did 50 years ago: we excavate, dig a hole, pour foundation, frame it up with wood frame, put a roof on it, put windows in it, and develop the interiors,” says Graham. “We work with our trade partners on innovation into their supplies (HVAC, air conditioning, tankless water heaters), we talk about concrete and how concrete is evolving and the technology therein, so we’re constantly looking for innovation in the way we do things.”

He adds, “We’re always looking for constant improvement and looking for new innovative ideas that we can incorporate into our business philosophy that we believe customers will embrace and want to have as part of their house. We can build the house; they have to make it a home.”

Ultimately, for Graham and the rest of the Cardel Homes team, “Our goal is to shape communities and build houses that our clients can embrace and turn into homes. We’re looking to make sure we can continue to deliver safe, secure, comfortable places where people feel they belong. Whenever we are away, we always look forward to getting home, so our job is to provide the structure that people feel they can come home to.”

Building for the future
This year, Cardel Homes is taking a moment to celebrate the milestone 50 years it has been in operation, while remaining deeply committed to ensuring that the company thrives for another 50 or more by overcoming the current challenges of the day.

“Both in Canada and the U.S. over the next ten years, government has to understand that they have to work in partnership with the development and home building community to meet those [housing] targets that they said are required. Otherwise, it’s economics 101; we’re going to have a shortage in residential housing, prices are going to escalate again, and we’re going to be back into this inflationary problem that we’ve had over the last couple of years,” Graham cautions.

Acknowledging that the character and function of communities must be preserved, more must be done to encourage development and reduce the red tape to ensure there are sufficient levels of housing to meet population demands. This will also require a concerted effort by government, education, and industry to strengthen the talent pipeline to ensure homes can be built.

The good news, however, is that Cardel Homes is well positioned to take advantage of the market. With good land positions in the various markets it serves, a strong knowledge of the building industry, the right team of professionals on its side, and a commitment to continuous improvement, with the support of its partners the company will continue to deliver its quality homes to customers.

“That gives us longevity, that gives us visioning that we can share with our partners and our trades; when you work for Cardel, as long as we continue to do good work together, you have a future here,” says Graham of the opportunities to grow in the industry.

When it comes to the future, he says, “We’re looking at it not only from the eyes of the company but from the eyes of our customers, our trade partners. One of the things we pride ourselves on is our quick reflexes. We make quick decisions, we have solid management, we’ve got great dedication to our industry, so I think that bodes well for our team, our customers, and our industry as a whole.”

The post Built for Real Life<p class="company">Cardel Homes</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

As the company behind Merrickville Grove, the Bellamy Farm subdivision in Smiths Falls, and other gorgeous, liveable developments, Park View’s projects are precisely planned and thoughtfully constructed, in the Ottawa, Ontario area.

“We tend to build in smaller communities, like Smiths Falls, Merrickville-Wolford, Kemptville, and Beckwith—not right in the heart of the city,” says Architectural Designer Logan Davidson. Renowned for exceptionally well-made homes, Park View is proud of its reputation as an award-winning builder striving for houses that are better for both the environment and the client’s budget.

The company is also behind Energy Star® Certified Homes. Built to high environmental standards, Energy Star Certified Homes provide many benefits compared to conventional properties. More tightly air-sealed than typical new homes, Energy Star Certified Homes have improved indoor air quality, upgraded mechanical systems, fewer drafts in the winter, and more efficient cooling in the summer.

For homeowners, this means cost savings of 20 percent or greater over typical homes. According to the Government of Canada, “A home is the largest purchase most of us will make. By choosing an Energy Star Certified Home, you will appreciate the difference of a home built to a higher standard.”

Range of properties
At Park View, prospective buyers can choose from a wide range of styles and sizes of homes to meet their needs, budgets, and lifestyles. This includes new and pre-construction homes, bungalows, and townhomes, which are increasingly popular. Since the family-owned business was launched in 2001, one of its key strengths remains its adaptability to evolving market conditions.

Since the pandemic, many homeowners living in larger urban centres with equity in their homes have sold their properties and moved to the Greater Ottawa Area and Park View Communities. “There’s been a big jump in the last year with a lot of people leaving Toronto and coming to Ottawa because they can buy a house in Ottawa with the equity of their current home in Toronto,” says Davidson.

The company quickly saw a rise in demand for generational homes, designed with separate suites for parents or in-laws. “We adapt as best we can, and provide a home for everybody,” says Davidson, adding that Canada’s rising mortgage rates are also influencing purchases, especially for first-time buyers eager to enter the market. This has fanned a need for more townhomes, especially since 2020.

Park View projects centre on creating communities which young families and older persons alike can call home. Even when building in tighter subdivisions, the company is generous with lot sizes and strives to go beyond minimum requirements. This provides less of a ‘jammed-in’ look, affording nicer streetscapes, bigger backyards, and more usable green space.

An indication of the demand for the company’s products is the community of 162 townhomes in Smiths Falls, all sold out. Then, in the heart of historic Merrickville, the Merrickville Grove project will include about 83 townhomes, while other works in progress number about 200 additional townhomes. “We’ve upped the ante on townhomes to meet the market need and affordability,” says Davidson.

Community spirit
It is harmonious collaboration with local representatives that continues to earn the company the respect of Ottawa-area townships such as Smiths Falls. Instead of producing a collection of cookie-cutter houses, Park View takes a bird’s-eye view that takes the entire area into account. For new homeowners and communities, this results in striking natural amenities, like designated wetlands and walking trails connecting to parks.

“It’s a nice step forward for a greener community, and we’ve led the way with how we designed it and what we provided,” says Davidson. Park View Homes has an obligation to the areas in which it builds and understands that it’s being entrusted to create not only well-made, energy-efficient homes, but also to make the local surroundings special.

“We do Energy Star homes, which are saving 20 to 30 percent on energy consumption compared to typically-built homes by today’s standards,” remarks Davidson. “That’s a testament to our quality as well because we build to a higher standard. All our homes are third-party verified and must meet certain standards for airtightness and energy reduction. So [the homes themselves are a big part of it], but I think it’s the small-community feel, which is what we build our brand around, that really sets us apart.”

Family success story
Park View enjoys an unusual workplace environment where all employees are treated like family. Before coming to Park View five years ago, Logan Davidson worked for larger corporations and found that the dynamics were different at Park View.

“They definitely make it a place where it’s easy to work but it’s also enjoyable to work,” he says. “They’re a large family, and they extend that family offering to employees.” Big into team-building, the company often gets staff into activities like barbecues, golf, volleyball, bean bag games, and more. “I think that goes back to the environment,” says Davidson. “If the environment is good and the staff are happy, then it’s a good experience for our clients.”

National award winner
Along with receiving frequent praise from buyers, Park View continues winning awards for its outstanding work. In 2022, the company took First Place at the Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA) National Awards for Housing Excellence. The honour was bestowed on Park View for the Best Detached Production Home 2,101 to 2,400 square feet for its Sussex model.

Also referred to as “Modern Country,” the Sussex boasts incredible construction and finishes, including nine-foot ceilings, hardwood floors, large windows, wood accents, and natural stone.

The Sussex also received the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association (GOHBA) 2021 Housing Design Award for Best Production Home: Single Detached – $1,000,001. “We have been a finalist every year since 2018,” Davidson says. That was the year he encouraged Park View to join the GOHBA, which benefits the company through its seminars, networking events, marketing, and more.

“Those two awards were massive for us,” Davidson shares. “They took our product to another level of recognition and pushed us to keep raising the bar. If you stay stagnant, you’re going to fall behind, but with these awards, you get a taste of winning.” The whole team attended and it really motivated them. “Now we let people know that when they buy that home, they’re buying a nationally recognized, award-winning home,” one that both exceeds client needs and blends seamlessly with its surroundings.

The post Make Families Happy, and National Awards Will Follow<p class="company">Park View Homes</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Known for merging aesthetics with functionality and for blending old world craftsmanship and modern manufacturing, the company’s work is in demand throughout Canada and the United States.

“Over the 43 years of the company’s operation, we have really developed skills within our staff to be able to increase our abilities, our production, and our sales in order to foster a bigger company,” Peter says. “Our staff are highly skilled in what they do, and that’s allowed us to grow to a size that I didn’t think was possible back when we started the company.”

The team has completed projects throughout the continent, from Boston and New York to Michigan, Virginia, South Carolina, and Florida. “We go all over the place, and we have become very skilled at doing that,” he says.

“I think one of the things that’s important about us is that we handle logistics very well,” Robert adds. “We can go to New York; we can go to Florida; we can go to Mississauga; we can go to Vancouver; we can go wherever necessary to be able to put a job in and get happy clients… when you can get a company that can go 1000 miles and get a happy client, that’s what separates us from other companies.”

Braam’s customization capability is another major point of difference. “We have grown to become one of the premier custom cabinet companies in Ontario and probably even within North America,” Peter says. “As far as customization goes, the reason people are looking for us far afield is because we have the ability to do virtually anything that they’ve seen in any magazine anywhere and even a combination of those items. For instance, our design team have begun incorporating a lot of white oak veneer with a j-pull or a channel pull in the top or the bottom of the drawer head. Very, very few companies have the ability to do that because you have to have a very wide variety of equipment to do that. You have to have a veneer press; you have to have a moulder. You have to have a lot of machinery that a lot of the smaller shops or a lot of the bigger shops that want to be mass production aren’t willing to do. So we have carved out a niche for ourselves. That’s for sure.”

The company’s in-house design team helps take customization to the next level. “In general, most cabinet companies—especially the ones that don’t allow very much customization—they’re not necessarily designers per se as much as they are cabinet salespeople,” says Designer Ava Rubee. “Braam’s has always put a lot of emphasis on design and function. So when we design kitchens, we have a lot of rules and a lot of guidelines we follow to make sure that the aesthetic [is there].”

As a result, the company’s work clearly stands out. “You can recognize a Braam’s kitchen when you see it because of the specific features we set ourselves apart with,” Ava says. Face frame cabinetry with inset doors is one particularly popular example, “because in Canada, no one does face frame cabinetry anymore,” she says. “In the States, there’s a lot of face frame cabinetry but most of it is with overlay doors, and each cabinet box is separate from the next, and then there are a lot of seams in between. Whereas Braam’s has created a very unique face frame cabinet that has an inset door with the frame being practically connected from one cabinet into the next. So when you look at it, it’s a very unique craftsman-type cabinet. It looks phenomenal, and there aren’t very many people that can really do that kind of product. So it makes us quite the destination for anyone looking for those types of cabinetry.”

The team has been busy with a variety of projects throughout North America. “We have a lot of very, very cool projects that are unique and different for our area, because the design aspects and the customization is just really phenomenal,” Ava says.

In one recent example, the team brought the glitz and glamour of Sin City to Ontario. “In our area here, we did a project last year that was inspired by Las Vegas, where the client wanted to have a very showy home,” Ava remembers, “and the amount of customization we did there between the high-gloss finishes, the custom metal details, the backlit countertops, and all the custom features was just extremely unique… It’s not the type of thing you see every day. Every aspect of it was extremely unique and custom, and it shows. That client wanted something quite glam, and we were able to achieve it for them.”

When delivering custom cabinets, the team works closely with clients in a four-step process. First, one of the company’s design team members sits down with the client to discuss ideas and offer advice and guidance. Next, that design team member walks the client through the different custom styles so they can choose exactly what they want. Then the manufacturing team and the installers bring the concept to life. Lastly, after the project is complete, clients are covered by service and warranty guarantees should any issue arise.

The team stays on top of the most recent developments within the industry to ensure it can offer clients the latest and best solution. “We strive to have very innovative products,” Ava says. “When it comes to designing our showrooms or doing any kind of project for a client, we’re always looking into new products, from fully-integrated appliances to built-in induction cooktops. [We’re always working] to bring what’s newest and most innovative in, regardless of where we have to bring it from,” she says.

“Some of the products we have to fly over from Spain and we do a lot of work to be able to integrate them into our Canadian market. But we’re always trying to stay on top of the current technological advances in the industry—whether it’s lighting, slides, hinges—just to give our clients the best possible outcome when it comes to functionality of their product.”

The result is top-of-the-line custom cabinetry that clients can depend on for years to come. “We want to make sure that ergonomically and functionally, those cabinets are going be able to withstand a lot of use and a lot of movement for a very long time,” Ava says.

The company is eager to continue to offer its unique, custom cabinets even after the founders retire. “I am 65; Rob is 63,” Peter says. “There’s a possibility of people taking over and furthering the company beyond where we are.”

They have already hired a Controller to streamline and grow the business, helping to steer it successfully into the next decade. With more than 40 years of innovation and success under their belts, Rob and Peter have laid a strong foundation for whatever the future holds for their company.

The post One-of-a-Kind Cabinetry<p class="company">Braam’s Custom Cabinets</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

A family moves from one country to another, works very hard, and finds success that’s passed on to the next generation. North America may have a prouder history of this than anywhere else—immigrants arriving and making their mark on communities in all industries and businesses. Best of all, each of these stories is unique and broadens our belief in what can be achieved.

That’s the story behind Forever Homes of London, Ontario. Founders Richard Fung and Betty Tam arrived in Canada from Hong Kong in 1990 and the company has been building new homes since 1993.

And while Forever Homes has constructed many wonderful homes, the company has also expanded beyond that to building communities. Vice President of Operations and son of the founders, Jeff Fung, talks about what makes Forever Homes special as the company marks its 30^th anniversary. “We’ve become multifaceted and offer a variety of services,” he says. Beyond homes, we have a land development division that takes undeveloped land and puts the roads and infrastructure in. We’re also looking to build more low- and high-rise apartment buildings.”

Affordable housing – a labour of love
An important portion of the projects that Forever Homes focuses on is building affordable housing. It’s a need that has become particularly acute lately and one that’s very close to the company’s founders. “When my parents came to Canada, the immediate goal was just to provide for the family,” says Fung.

This is a common theme for many new immigrants and today it is made more complex by the rise in housing prices. What was once affordable is now out of reach for many who are starting out. For the Fungs, before Forever Homes and before owning their own home, trying to find work in a new homeland to sustain themselves was the primary goal. This included working at a deli counter at a local grocery store and taking any other available jobs. Eventually, they were able to buy a home and provide more stability.

But the couple was also entrepreneurial, having run a successful printing business when they lived in Hong Kong, and they started up a small building business, first with renovations, and then building homes.

“It started off like any kind of small business; you just want to make it a sustainable business. And then you start thinking about other things and directions for growth,” Fung says. But as the business expanded, the importance of housing affordability was never out of mind. And today the Fung family still stands behind the sentiment of going the extra mile for customers, helping them feel confident and comfortable with their move to a Forever Homes property.

Experts and builders all agree, given the current state of housing affordability in Ontario, that more supply is needed to help slow the skyrocketing costs and meet the demands of a quickly increasing population. To that end, the Ontario government has committed to supporting the construction of 1.5 million homes over the next decade.

“It’s easier said than done. Even if the government can approve 1,000 homes next week, do you have the physical labour to build them?” says Fung. The opportunity is there, but there are hurdles like getting approval to build and other red tape requirements that can keep projects in limbo for some time.

Drive to diversify
That’s why diversifying the profile of Forever Homes by including apartment rentals and student housing features prominently in the business strategy. “The market is cyclical, there will be down points. A few years ago we were in an upward trend,” says Fung. “So staying in the marketplace is not always about how many homes you can build or how fast you can build them—it’s about if you can maintain yourself in the marketplace.”

With all this knowledge of industry and market trends, you might think that Fung has always been in the family business, but that’s not the case. “Probably like many kids that have parents who are home builders, I did things like sweep the floors and those basic jobs growing up in the summers, but I never wanted anything to do with the business when I was young,” he shares.

Instead, Fung went to university, earned a degree in accounting, and travelled for a time after graduating. It was about that time that Forever Homes was working on a student residence around Fanshawe College in London. “My dad needed some help looking after that. So he said, ‘Why don’t you just come and help me for a year or two? If you like it, great. If you don’t, you learned a little bit for a year or two.’”

Jeff has stayed with the company and helped expand its presence in the market. Along with Phil Gonzalez, Vice President of Construction, the two are looking to steer the next 30 years for the company. Says Fung: “Whether it’s a house or an apartment, you touch many different fields, from legal to financial to municipal and governmental. Then you also work with trades, contractors, and suppliers. So there are a lot of different people that you work with and build relationships with.”

Working with a variety of people to achieve a common goal was what kept him in the business. “I thought it was fun. And I think the nice part is that you have a physical object that’s there at the end. So something is standing that you can drive by and see however many times you want. It’s nice to physically see something you helped make happen and remember the process of getting it done on the job site from start to finish.”

As for trends in the home building industry, one of the major challenges that Fung sees in the near and long-term future is labour transitioning. “I think that’s going to be a challenge—moving from an older generation who worked onsite their whole lives to a newer generation that may not want to be in the cold and rain for four or five months.”

In addition, nothing stays the same in building, and the changing demographic of buyers and their attitudes toward buying may also shift. That’s why rental units in the company’s portfolio could play a bigger role in the long term.

30 years in, a long-term vision
Now, after 30 years in the home-building business, Forever Homes continues to grow to meet the future needs of customers. The long-term vision is to create housing solutions for the many stages of their customers’ lives, helping them transition as needs change and playing a part in their lives forever, as the company name suggests.

“That may start as student housing, which we’ve been a part of before. So they can start renting a student apartment or home or room from us, then transition into a rental apartment when they graduate,” Fung says.

“Maybe they get married and they move into a rental townhome, eventually buy a townhome and move onto a larger house. For most of their lives, they can find a product from Forever Homes that will suit their various needs.”

The post A Family Business that Cares for Other Families<p class="company">Forever Homes</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

“We’re proud to play a crucial role in minimizing the environmental impact on construction activities,” says President and CEO Brian Brunetti. “We differentiate ourselves as a company that not only provides effective waste management solutions, but also one that is committed to a greener future.”

In business since 1950, the Ontario-based company has diverted more than 3.85 million tons from landfills throughout Canada for both the public and private sectors.

The company is known for making waves in the industry. “YORK1 has never been a company to fit in,” says Brunetti. “It is a company that was established to stand out. We hold true to how the company started, through traditional family values while emphasizing forward thinking and innovation in our operations. As such, we have significantly invested in advanced waste management systems such as sorting and recycling technologies to optimize our processes and minimize environmental impact through waste diversion. So this commitment to innovation allows us to stay ahead of the competition by providing cutting-edge solutions to our clients.”

YORK1 has multiple divisions staffed with industry experts ready to think outside of the box. “Our teams are up for any challenge,” Brunetti says. “We love partnering with clients to find solutions to what was thought might be the impossible.”

These divisions work together to offer a complete solution, “allow[ing] us to provide a comprehensive range of services to our clients,” Brunetti says. “We like to think of ourselves as offering a one-for-all approach and we offer our clients a single trusted partner who can take care of multiple interconnected services and ensure that every aspect of the project is executed smoothly, safely, and efficiently.”

This smooth delivery can be seen throughout every stage of construction. “YORK1 really tries to simplify the construction projects by handling everything from pre-construction and more throughout our full suite of integrated divisions,” Brunetti says. “Instead of our clients engaging with multiple partners and companies, at YORK1 our clients can leverage one company for solid and liquid waste management, pre-construction infrastructure, and telecom. So we take charge managing and executing on tasks, from demolition and land clearing through to shoring and foundations installation. This coordinated effort ensures seamless execution for our clients.”

From comprehensive environmental services to a complete range of infrastructure services, the company’s multi-solution approach cuts out complications and headaches for the client at every stage. “By integrating all of these divisions at YORK1, we ensure that our clients receive a comprehensive solution that not only facilitates a seamless and efficient project for all of them, but also provides peace of mind through exceptional performance for our clients,” Brunetti summarizes.

YORK1 relies on a strong and supportive company culture to deliver its extensive services and positively impact the industry. “Company culture at YORK1 is really characterized by a strong commitment to excellence, innovation, and collaboration,” he says. “We try to foster an environment that encourages employees to strive for continuous improvement and really push the boundaries of what is possible. We value diversity, curiosity, and authenticity and we see ourselves to be mission-driven, customer-centric, and agile, but we also work hard to be diverse, inclusive, and empowering for our employees.”

This approach is mutually beneficial for both the customer and the employee. “By promoting a customer-centric approach where client satisfaction is really our top priority, employees are encouraged to understand client needs, provide innovative solutions, and deliver peace of mind performance. So the one-for-all approach fosters a strong sense of teamwork among our employees and really across all of our divisions. And this collaboration extends not only within our divisions, but also across different departments in our company, really enabling seamless communication and knowledge sharing, creating a supportive work environment where employees can learn from each other, tackle challenges collectively, and ultimately contribute to the company’s overall success,” Brunetti says.

“YORK1 continues to grow at an incredible rate and to meet these expanding needs of the business. It’s just extremely important,” he says. “Culture is so important.”

With this in mind, the company works hard to recruit and retain its talented workforce. “In the past two years, we’ve seen a great influx through both organic growth and acquisition of top talent into our business that has really propelled us forward as we continue to strive for excellence. Our employees are our number one asset. Their journey starts with us on day one, but it’s really our job and our mission to make sure that their careers evolve within YORK1. It’s a place where they can hang their hat for a really long time.”

Buoyed by such a strong and supportive culture, YORK1 has successfully executed a large number of noteworthy projects. One recent example is the early works project at the Exhibition Station section of the Metrolinx initiative in Toronto, Ontario. “This is a massive undertaking that will see the construction of a 15.6 km subway line with 15 brand new stations,” Brunetti explains. “This project really highlighted YORK1’s ability to provide multiple services for a single client. During the early works phase of the project, YORK1 took on a range of responsibilities including excavation, remediation, backfill, demolition, retaining wall installation, utility installation, hydrovac services, and waste and recycling management. So at YORK1, we’re really proud to be part of this initiative in bringing this critical infrastructure to the City of Toronto. This project will make the city more accessible and mobile than ever before, so we’re really proud of our coordinated efforts on this project.”

The team is eager to continue to stay at the forefront of the industry well into the future. “YORK1 has a lot of ambitious plans and goals,” Brunetti shares. “We aim to expand our operations geographically, to reach more clients, and contribute to responsible waste management and infrastructure development on an even larger scale than we’re doing today. We will continue investing in research and development to stay at the forefront of our industry and industry advancements, and this includes exploring emerging technologies and innovative waste management solutions that align with our commitment to sustainability and our environmental initiatives,” he says.

“Furthermore, we seek to strengthen our partnerships and collaborations with other organizations, including government agencies, environmental groups, others in the industry, and various technology providers. By leveraging these partnerships, we aim to enhance our service offerings, explore new markets, and really effect more positive change within the industry. Overall, we’re committed to driving innovation, delivering sustainable solutions, and maintaining a strong focus on client satisfaction,” summarizes Brunetti.

“Through these efforts, we envision a future where we continue to be recognized as a global leader in integrated waste management and infrastructure solutions. We’re excited for what’s ahead of us.”

The post A Company That Stands Out<p class="company">YORK1</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.