The future of construction: This week, we bring you the second post in our series that highlights expert interviews discussing the future of construction. The series includes interviews from a custom home builder, a remodeler/green builder and a volume builder.
Did you miss part one of our series? Check out the article with Adam Copenhaver of CopeGrand Custom Homes to hear why building apps are the solution for custom home builders.
Picture this: Mountain-top chalets with exposed wooden beams and natural stone façades set in the pine-tree forests of British Columbia.
The best thing about these gorgeous homes? The builder paid respect to the land by building sustainable, green homes with low-environmental impact.
This week we have Bob Deeks, owner and president of RDC Fine Homes, an expert on all things green.
Bob and his team have been building and remodeling high-performance homes in and around Whistler, British Columbia for almost 30 years. RDC Fine Homes was at the forefront of building net zero homes, and they aim to create high performance spaces that remain comfortable in winter or summer.
Their expertise in custom home building and remodeling? You guessed it — energy efficiency.
Q: In regards to green building and remodeling, what do you see as the biggest change in these areas of the industry since you started RDC Fine Homes?
Bob: I would say that some of the biggest changes in my last 30 to 40 years in the industry is the homeowner’s appreciation for thermal comfort, indoor air quality and the recognition by the homeowners that these benefits directly transfer to energy efficiency.
Q: What has best prepared RDC Fine Homes for a more digitized future?
Bob: Our journey to digitization has been gradual. One of the biggest things that really helped us in the early days was digitized payroll — having the team digitally enter their time every day and then having that time automatically upload into the payment system.
This seems fairly simple, but I’m frequently shocked when I run into builders at trade shows who are still keeping physical timesheets.
Another digital advantage is having all of our files held in the cloud. That has been a huge advantage for us making sure everyone is looking at the same documents and has the most updated versions.
The third is having an online project management system like Buildertrend, which has been very helpful in connecting our team at RDC, our subs and our clients.
Q: Is there anything in the current remodeling and building industry deemed ‘the latest and greatest’ that you see as a passing fad?
Bob: There are a lot of shiny new toys out there, and we’re getting constantly bombarded by new, digital tools.
My advice to builders and renovators who are just starting is to just dip their toes into the digital world. Start with a limited number of digital tools because your team can very quickly get overwhelmed.
I would recommend starting by looking at a digital platform like Buildertrend.
More advice is to look at software applications that provide multiple tools. Be very wary of rushing in and trying too many things at once because it will really confuse and frustrate your team. Also, it can get very expensive quickly.
Q: What advice do you have for other green builders and remodelers?
Bob: The best advice I can give is to align yourself with an experienced energy advisor. This is someone who does the modeling for you on the energy efficiency of a project.
Create an energy model right away to see if the design you’re working with is aligned with your goals. An energy advisor can be very helpful in the early stages of design. They’re not going to be helpful if your design is finished and you want to layer on energy efficiency resources.
The other advice is when you’re looking for strategies for energy efficiency, first look for air tightness and windows.
Air tightness will do the most for you to achieve good energy numbers, thermal comfort and optimize your client’s request for clean indoor air quality. This will give you the biggest bang for your buck.
Q: What about client relations? Has using a construction management software strengthened your client communication?
Bob: The Customer Portal to assist with scheduling and client communication certainly has an impact on scheduling quality and budget.
It also really helps clients with their anxiety levels over the progress of their project. Particularly, the Daily Log tool. It’s a great tool if your team posts to it every day.
Your clients will get used to logging on and looking forward to those updates. The updates will connect your client to the progress you’re making. However, if you told clients to go there regularly but you don’t update it, you could certainly take something that’s a positive and turn it into a negative.
The other thing that is really effective is using the Change Order tool within Buildertrend as long as the team uses it in a real-time way.
I’d certainly encourage anyone who’s on the platform to really dig deep because it’s a powerful tool if you make it work for you. Like any advanced software program, it’s simple to get the easy stuff.
If you put the time into adapting your system to Buildertrend, you’ll get exponential value from it.
You really need a Buildertrend champion within your team.
Q: What role do you see technology in construction playing in the future of your business?
Bob: Everybody in our industry has experienced the challenge of an instance when interior design and architectural drawings are slightly different. This can wreak havoc with your teams when these don’t line up.
Align yourself with designers and architects that use advanced design software.
There’s some great, new software that takes digital images. They’re looking at mounting cameras to hardhats, which will give you a digital image of the progress at the end of each day. They’re calling it 4D BIM construction scheduling and sequencing.
One other thing that’s really important is lean construction practices. We’ve been following a lean journey for four years and have a long way to go.
With the cost of construction constantly rising and housing affordability becoming more of a problem, this will become critical in the future. Striving for a lean culture to drive improvement will be crucial for survival.
Q: Where do you see construction going in 2023?
Bob: Energy codes across North America are changing rapidly.
Ten years ago, energy efficiency was nice to have. In Canada, particularly in British Columbia, it’ll be codified in December and also in many other states in the U.S.
For anyone who hasn’t been changing their building practices to make their buildings more energy efficient, I’d start educating your team on it because if you don’t understand it. It’s going to hit you like a ton of bricks.
If you end up getting forced into this, it’s going to be extremely difficult and expensive.
Q: Can you talk a little more about how independent builders and remodelers can prepare for the future of green building?
Bob: Further out, carbon emissions or embodied carbon in construction is going to become a bigger part of what we need and are getting forced into.
Start educating yourself on low carbon strategies.
By 2030, the focus is going to shift from operational energy efficiency to operational carbon emissions and embodied carbon emissions. It’s already starting to happen, and that’s where the industry is going.
If you look, you’ll see that embodied carbon is particularly important to large builders. They’re looking for low carbon solutions.
Small builders and renovators are late to the party, but this is something that we cannot afford to be late to.
The future of green building and remodeling
RDC Fine Homes builds custom homes while maximizing energy efficiency. Bob Deeks credits Buildertrend for keeping them on track as they move into the future of green building and remodeling.
Bob advises builders to find low carbon solutions that work for their business. And to start educating yourself now so you don’t get left behind.
It’s time to step into the future of construction management. If you’re not already using the platform, schedule a demo today and learn how to work simpler.
Stay tuned next week for our third installment of The Future of Construction Series. We’ll deliver expert advice on volume building in the same Q&A style.
