iBuildpdx – All Mod Cons BF141

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ALL MOD CONS

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WE LOOK AT A CONSTRUCTION COMPANY DEDICATED TO BUILDING ULTRA-MODERN HOMES, AND ASK WHAT THE HOUSE OF THE FUTURE MIGHT LOOK LIKE.

ALL MOD CONS PROJECT MANAGED BY: DECLAN JONES

What makes a modern home? It is a complicated question. Trends and fashions are continuously changing, and yet, unlike clothes, homes are not built just to wear out for the season. They have to last.

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duard Valik, founder and owner of residential construction company iBuildPdx, bases his company’s designs around a few core themes.

“Modern architecture uses a lot of concrete, metal and glass,” he tells us. “We have a lot of free standing spaces, and flat roofs, which are unusual for the Pacific Northwest. These houses aren’t very big, only 3,000 to 5,000 square feet, but they are really well designed and detailed and well executed.” iBuildPdx is a residential construction company that focuses on ultra-modern builds

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and remodelling projects, primarily working with architects to deliver customers their perfect home. It is a company concerned more with the quality of the homes it builds than the quantity.

“Our perfect client is someone interested in proper design and proper execution – someone interested in high-end design,” Valik says. “What sets us apart is that we properly execute these designs while communicating clearly with our clients. At the same time, no two of our houses look the same.”

That very selling point means that iBuildPdx needs to have a wide range of skills at its disposal.

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“There are always challenges because none of the houses we do are the same,” Valik says.

“We have to invest a great deal in finding proper management and proper staff who can represent the company out there in a marketplace with our architects and clients.”

It means that iBuildPdx has high expectations of its people, but the firm also ensures those people have the resources necessary to withstand the unique challenges of working the way that they do. It also requires a distinct skillset, often the skills required to run their own business.

“The staff that works here are unique individuals,” says Valik.

“A lot of the people we employ have had their own businesses, but didn’t necessarily want to work on their own. They wanted

to join a group of people that they have things in common with, focusing on the work they want to be doing and letting us take care of marketing, sales estimating, and sourcing materials.”

It means that iBuildPdx’s staff enjoy the camaraderie of other people at the top of their fields, and the structure and support that comes with being part of a business, while also enjoying the respect and flexibility they have come to expect as sole traders or small business owners.

As Valik says, “We retain staff by recognising that all our people have different needs.

Not just financial needs, but the need for flexibility of time, or the right to bring their dog into work, or the ability to work on their homes alongside our projects.”

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“SOMETIMES WE SAY WE ARE NOT BUILDING HOMES, BUT SMALL COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS.” Valik is a strong believer in treating people the way you want to be treated, with respect, while acknowledging that its team are A players.

“They have had businesses on their own, and they wanted to come into iBuildPdx,” Valik tells us. “These are people who have worked with us through the pandemic, price gauging, and the inflation that has hit the construction industry over the last few years. Together, we have a long-term vision that is not going month-to-month but looking to the next 12 to 18 months.”

It means that iBuildPdx is bringing a unique offering to the market.

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“There are not many companies like ours in this sector, so we are sought after,” Valik shares. “We are really, often literally, pushing the limits of some of these building technologies, especially for residential buildings.”

That means that iBuildPdx does not build houses for everyone. It is serving a very specific segment of the market that wants specific qualities from their homes. And what they want is changing.

“In the last ten to fifteen years, the people moving into our market have become much more particular about the design they want,” Valik explains. “There is a much bigger market of people willing to hire an architect, and then hire a construction company like ours to properly execute that design.”

While the market is growing, its demands are changing.

Customers are prioritising sustainability, and regulations and best practices are changing.

“We are building tighter homes, homes that are much more efficient,” says Valik. “Our clients are very environmentally conscious, so we are installing solar panels on a lot of houses, moving away from fossil fuels towards electrical equipment.”

As the demands of the residential construction sector evolve, it is adopting techniques and technologies from other construction sectors.

“One of the things that is changing in our market is that we are bringing in a lot of the techniques, styles and technologies from the commercial construction sector,” Valik observes. “We are introducing elements that you would not typically have in normal, traditional housing.

For instance, a recent home we built had a 60-foot-long ridge

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beam built into it. We had to close the street and bring in a giant crane.”

However, Valik also points out that there is much more to their work than simply building bigger.

“The architects we work with know that, and their designers are pushing the limit of what can be done in residential construction,” he says. “It is not just about how big it is, but how complex. Sometimes we say we are not building homes, but small commercial buildings.”

But while iBuildPdx is more than willing to learn from other commercial sectors, Valik is

adamant that the construction firm will continue to focus on what it does best.

“We are going to continue building these ultra-modern homes,” says Valik. “We will sometimes take on traditional homes and remodelling work, but we excel at these modern structures. We have been in the business for 13 years and, having done quite a few builds, we are very optimistic about the future. We are expanding our market and getting our name out there. People recognise us for the quality of our construction work, which we deliver on time and to budget.”

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