Canadian Contractor July/August 2015

Smart Tech Kitchens

LEED Platinum Construction

Designers Talk Trends

Vancouver’s North Shore

page 22

page 36

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ge pa

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THE MAGAZINE FOR PROFESSIONAL RENOVATORS AND CUSTOM HOMEBUILDERS

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CONTENTS

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Cover Story

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O E ke Ta NG LE AL CH

COVER STORY

The 90 Day Profitability Challenge 18 Do you know how much money you are going to make in the next 90 days? Mike Draper, Renovantage, shows you how to figure it out.

Smart Tech Kitchens

22

We interview award-winning designers on what makes an ultra-modern upmarket kitchen sing.

Good Works from Saint Gobain 30 The building products giant, celebrating 350 years in business, makes a serious commitment to turning disadvantaged youth into contractors.

Helping Clients Find the Money 34 Calgary builder PLANiT partners up with “merchant direct” credit company Financeit to help their customers fund renovations.

OAM®

Professional Painting in Calgary

42

A profile of The Urban Painter, an entrepreneurial painting firm that is riding high in The Stampede City.

Saint Gobain ®

30

350 years

Urban 42

Painter

us on: www.canadiancontractor.ca

July/August 2015

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CONTENTS

Handy Man 10

Maxwellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Picks 56

departments Online 6 A look at some of the great stuff we have online at canadiancontractor.ca.

Editorials 8 Does your contracting business have a brand name? Rob and Steve talk about why it matters.

Site Notes 10 An interview with Wayne Jackson, a one-man handyman dynamo in Amherstburg, Ontario.

Voices 12 A sample of some of the online comments from our 16,500 contractor e-news subscribers.

Maxwellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Stuff We Like 49 How to create incredibly sharp hand tools in two minutes or less.

Enviroslate roofing. DeWalt miter saw.

What Would You Do? 58 Tell us how you would handle this sticky business situation. If we pick your answer, you will win a DeWalt cordless framing nailer.

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Hone Run 58

What Would You Do?

ONLINE CANADIAN

Visit us online

CONTRACTOR

VIDEO

A WAY TO PUT ALL YOUR CONTRACT PAPERWORK IN YOUR POCKET RENOMii is pretty cool. In a nutshell, it’s a way to upload all your projects’ paperwork so that all those hundreds of pieces of job-related information don’t get lost. Your client can log in and access them, you can access them. Your contracts, change orders and other critical documents are all on your mobile device, or wherever you want them.

Type “RENOMii” in the search bar at canadiancontractor.ca to find this video easily

VIDEO

MAKING YOUR OWN MOULDINGS ONSITE USING A ROUTER In under 3 minutes, our tools editor Steve Maxwell shows you how you can can do custom handrails, door and window trim, crown moulding, wainscoting – endless types of "millwork" – using a simple router and some attachments. As Steve says, this type of router usage by contractors, onsite, is not "typical." But it can make you money.

Type “Router” in the search bar at canadiancontractor.ca to find this video easily

SALARY SURVEY

PRICE OF MATERIALS ISN’T THE BIG DEAL WE ALL THINK IT IS Well, most of us kind of “knew” this, but now the proof is in. Contractors don’t rank the price of materials, supplies and tools as highly as anxious lumberyards and big box stores often think they do. Only 28 per cent of the contractors we surveyed, in our annual Canadian Contractor Salary Survey, told us that “Price” was the most important factor when they shopped for an item.

CANADIAN

Type “Salary Survey” in the search bar at canadiancontractor.ca to find this video easily

CONTRACTOR.ca BUILD | GROW | PROFIT

Volume 16, Number 4 July/August 2015 canadiancontractor.ca | Tel: 416 442 5600 |

Editor Steve Payne spayne@canadiancontractor.ca

80 Valleybrook Drive, North York, ON, M3B 2S9

Contributing Editors John Bleasby, John Caulfield, Mike Draper, Kim Laudrum, Steve Maxwell

Canadian Contractor, established in 2000, is published 6 times a year by Annex Business Media.

ISSN 1498-8941 (Print) ISSN 1929-6495 (Online)

Art Director Mary Peligra mpeligra@annexnewcom.ca Publisher Rob Koci rkoci@canadiancontractor.ca Production Manager Gary White gwhite@annexnewcom.ca Circulation Manager Beata Olechnowicz bolechnowicz@annexnewcom.ca

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Mike Fredericks, President & CEO Annex Business Media Tim Dimopoulos, Vice President, Annex Business Media East Corinne Lynds, Editorial Director Subscriber Services To subscribe, renew your subscription or to change your address or information, contact us at 416 442 5600 x3547 Subscription Rates: Canada $45.95 per year, Outside Canada $83.95US per year, Single Copy Canada $9.95.

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We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

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EDITORIAL

Voices

WHY YOU NEED A BRAND NAME

By Rob Koci

The Holmes Referred Contractor Program went away last summer, though you can still see that logo on the side of renovators’ trucks.

It doesn’t take long to apply to become a Baeumler Approved Contractor – just go to their website and fill out a form. If you join your local homebuilders’ association, the RenoMark brand is all yours. If online exposure is important to you, you can pay HomeStars or TrustedPros some money and get their logo on your vehicle, your website, or anywhere else you want to put it.

The business of selling brand names to contractors and renovators has gone into overdrive. Our industry is in a brand-rush for at least three reasons: • Increased regulation is scaring the hell out of some independent contractors. They realize they must either get bigger to cover regulatory costs, do more cash work or die. Getting bigger means getting more work – and having a brand name appears to offer it.

• Lack of skill in the face of today’s more educated homeowner is

”

making some contractors very nervous indeed. They are looking for a brand to hide behind.

If you have no

brand affiliations, your competition is real.

”

Rob Koci Publisher

rkoci@canadiancontractor.ca

• Reno horror stories are scaring the hell out of most homeowners and they are looking for a contractor with a brand they can trust.

If you have no brand affiliations whatsoever, the competition you are facing from contractors with all those logos on their trucks is real. So what do you do? Here’s my sincere advice if you decide to go shopping for a brand: • Look very long term. Does the brand have sustainable value?

Does it have any value at all?

• “You get what you pay for” is most true in the world of brands.

• Ask yourself if the brand name you are considering has a good chance of being exploited by contractors with no skill or scruples.

If it does, don’t sign up.

Paying someone a couple hundred bucks just to show their logo on your business card will do very little for you if there are clowns and con artists waving the same flag.

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EDITORIAL

Voices

IN PRAISE OF NO-NAMES

By Steve Payne

When a bunch of squirrels invaded my family’s townhome last month (well, our attic), the condo management firm sent in one of the biggest North American brand names in pest control to deal with the situation.

The friendly, reassuring franchisee who waddled up a ladder to our roof put a live-trap by the access hole in the fascia. The next day, he’d caught a squirrel, whereupon he took the trap down and sealed up the access hole with sheet metal. Never to contact me again.

The whole thing took just 24 hours – to prove that he was totally incompetent and his company’s brand name didn’t mean squat.

The squirrels who remained inside let us know all weekend that the clock was ticking on the stink they were going to emit when they died.

I asked the property manager to send us a competent operator to fix the mess. Two young lads arrived, without logos, a one-off firm that was not a franchise. No brand name but their own.

They first walked all the neighbouring townhouse roofs for 20 minutes, trying to find out if there were other access points before they dealt with ours. Then one of them entered the attic to check things out – the brand name firm hadn’t even bothered.

Only after about an hour of these inspections did they go about unscrewing the sheet metal from the original access hole.

”

No purchased brand name

was necessary.

They then screwed on an exclusion door – a one-way funnel of wire – rather than a live trap. All the remaining squirrels exited on their own in the next few days.

No brand name, no logo. Total expertise and attention to detail. Problem solved.

Contractors, you don’t need a purchased brand name if you operate like these pros.

”

Steve Payne Editor

spayne@canadiancontractor.ca

www.canadiancontractor.ca

July/August 2015

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SITE NOTES

Tips on Running a One-Man Handyman Operation An Interview with. . .

Put flyers everywhere: grocery stores and hardware stores.

Wayne Jackson, Wayne Jackson Handyman Services, Amherstburg, Ontario.

Get the word out as much as you can. Put your name on your

Wayne Jackson is a throwback to another time. No puffed up titles for him! He’s happy to be what he is – a handyman.

For the past 29 years, Wayne has been building, renovating and repairing just about everything in the homes and gardens of his many loyal customers. Currently he’s based in Amherstburg, Ontario, in the extreme southwestern part of the province.

Our Contributing Editor John Bleasby asks Wayne how he’s managed to turn something so simple into a good living.

“Wayne Jackson, Handyman” and my phone number. It’s not for

How long have you been handy?

Since I was six. Anything my mother bought I tore apart, just to see what made it tick. I grew up on a farm and so I started working for a lot of the farmers, making things work.

You market yourself as a handyman, pure and simple.

No grand titles?

I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes or hurt anyone else’s business. Plus, I want to cover as wide a spectrum as I can with small jobs. I don’t want to limit myself by saying I’m a contractor or any kind of specialist.

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vehicle. I have a red van with 5-inch letters on both sides saying my clients; I want neighbours five or six houses down to read my name and number. It’s a business card that I drive around in. Advertise in the local paper. Some people feel if you’re not in the local paper, you’re not in business. My wife had them create a heading for ‘Handyman’. I’m the only one in the section!

I also have a website that brings in about 20-25 per cent of my inquiries. That’s been really good.

Are you able to enjoy 12 months of work?

I send out a mailing in the spring to promote outside work. In the fall I do another mailing for inside jobs, like bathrooms, vanities and so on. I ask customers to make lists of what they want done.

It’s more cost-effective for them. It’s expensive to hire me to change a light bulb.

What are your Red Flags with prospective customers?

I can tell if it’s going to be a good relationship or if there’s going to be trouble. I run into some who want a ‘deal.’ People with money are often the worst. You give them a quote and they want you to knock 10 per cent off to get the job or even 10 per cent off at the end of the job! And people who say that Mike Holmes says to get three or more references and quotes, stuff like that. My answer is simple: ‘Hire Mike Holmes.’ If a customer is going to start a relationship like that, I’m a bit hesitant to get involved. I never drop my rates. I charge for my experience and the cost of

Do you work solely on your own or do you have employees?

Mostly on my own. I do my own plumbing, carpentry, and tiling, but I don’t touch anything electrical. I bring in specialty trades when I need them, but I get the client to hire them directly.

running my business.

You’ve recently moved to this new area. What are the challenges you’ve faced marketing to a new client base?

I’m finding a lot of people here expect me to do the cash thing, which I don’t do. When the GST dropped from 7 per cent to 5 per cent, it wasn’t so bad. Now it’s the HST at 13 per cent, so the cash thing has started again.

the work done to date, every Friday. I try to avoid problems right

What would you say to someone starting up their own one-man operation?

Everyone wants more, I guess. But the fact I’ve been in business

July/August 2015

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Collections are not something many independent operators like to do. How do you manage that part?

I ask for materials payments up front. And I get paid weekly for off. For example, I don’t pick colours for paints, but I choose the brand. The guy in the paint shop doesn’t really care; he’s not doing the job.

How has being a handyman worked out for you financially? for 29 years speaks for itself.

corotechcoatings.ca Š2014 Benjamin Moore & Co. All trademarks are registered trademarks of their respective owner.

VOICES

CRAPPY CHINESE SHINGLES Alec Caldwell wrote an online post for us on June 17 called “Just What Our Industry Needed: Cheap, Crappy Chinese Shingles.” It detailed the appearance in Canada of thin, lightweight shingles that don’t meet CSA standards. And guess what? They don’t need to, at least for renovation applications. Only new homes require CSA-certified shingles. Time to close that loophole, we think. Here is a sampling of our online comments from contractors.

“What is cheap now, ends up costing more…”

Excellent article that shines a light on a growing problem in the Canadian construction industry. It’s not just shingles, however. Stucco and plaster materials that are not up to code are being used regularly here in Calgary by contractors who cheat innocent, unknowing customers.

This usually results in cracking, water damage, and mould on the frame of the house. Another growing problem, at least here in Calgary, is windows made from cheap Chinese materials and hardware. Not only are the companies selling these windows destroying the market with their ridiculously cheap prices, I have my doubts about their certifications, as I have seen them first hand and they are an abomination. People need to remember that what is cheap now, ends up costing significantly more in the long run.

Michael

“Shingles falling in Milton, Ontario” I saw shingles falling off of townhouses in Milton, Ontario last February. I inspected them and found they are much thinner than the 25-year shingles from IKO. My roofing supplier told me they are from China. So beware of your shingles. I try to avoid anything Chinese made. I never frequent dollar stores. I make every attempt to investigate product origin. I do not support sellers or manufacturers that pass along Chinese material or product. It is time we closed the doors and started supporting Canada and the standards we need to stay safe. Punish manufactures and companies that move their businesses to China.

Rey Talusa

ASKING CUSTOMERS TO RATE YOU John Bleasby hired about 30 subtrades when building a house near Coldwater, Ontario – and noted in his online post that not one of them asked him, at any time, how happy he was with their work. This kickstarted a discussion on our site about how few of us ask our customers how we are doing. And what that ends up costing us.

“Make it simple for your clients to give feedback” Asking for feedback is something we consider often when we deal with our clients. The simplest answers to “Why Don’t More Contractors Ask for Feedback?”are: (1) It can be challenging to get the feedback so contractors give up on even asking, and (2) Contractors don’t understand the significant value that such reviews can bring to their businesses long term.

How to deal with these issues? First, make it simple for your clients to write feedback or to give you a review. Give them options for places to do this as opposed to just giving them one

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VOICES

spot. Second, teach your staff why and how they should ask for reviews. Often the difference between getting feedback and not is in the way you ask for it.

It should also be noted that many contractors are wary of negative responses. They shouldn’t be. Disappointing feedback is simply a tool to improve the way you do things.

Jess Sugar

“Paper feedback cards no longer seem to work” Oh, how I love client feedback. Funny, though, when you do a great job, you get a brief thank you. But when you make a mess, boy do you find out about it. The client will badmouth you all over the place, but never send you a note telling you what you did wrong. A phone call, yes, but never a note delineating the problem.

We heard once that a client was so very ticked off at our service that they were telling all their friends about it. Then they told one of our really loyal clients about this – and got stopped in their tracks. Our loyal client asked our unhappy one, “Did you ever call them to tell them what was wrong?” The unhappy client answered, “Why would I do that? No one ever comes back to fix a mistake!” The reply from our loyal customer: “They do! Why did you not call?”

So the next day, the customer calls and reams me out. I pull the file and note that there has never been any contact from the client since we left her premises two months ago. I ask what happened – and why did she not call? Apparently, after we left, her son tried to light a fire (in the fireplace we worked on) and smoked out the entire house and caused her to have an asthma attack. She had not used it since. So I offered her a free service call to find out what was going on. The finding? Her son had neglected to open the damper. It was that easy to solve. But because we had had no communication, we were badmouthed.

For many years we left feedback cards with our clients, along with their invoices. We used to get 95 per cent of them back regularly – but that eventually changed to about 5 per cent.

Maybe it is because we are doing a lot of repeat clients, I don’t know. We have tried putting a feedback area on our website – but hardly anything ever trickled in. Seems that clients do not want to give feedback anymore unless they are really mad at you.

I think clients are so inundated with the auto-calling after nearly every service they have done, that when they see a paper or internet or mailing opportunity to give feedback they just toss it.

We do still receive nice notes and cards with any incoming cheques from time to time and we really appreciate these as the clients have obviously taken more time and thought than just handing us a form they feel they must return. We keep these in

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a book in our sitting area. We also put any feedback that we get up on our website under testimonials.

Yvette Aube

“Whip out a tablet or mobile” I think one great way contractors can get immediate feedback on their work is to whip out a tablet or mobile with the site loaded up and ready to go. Have the client rate the service of work right there! This takes all the work out for the client, takes less than 30 seconds to do, and you can reuse those testimonials to market your work – for years! Just imagine if you did that for every job!

Win-win!

Marci

THE LITTLE VOICE THAT SAYS ”NO“ Steve Maxwell posted online about that worrisome feeling that some clients just can’t help giving us when we are pitching our services to them, or giving them a quote. We have all blown past that signal in our guts. And we have all paid the price. Here is one reader’s personal experience…

“Ask all potential clients this question” I think all of us in the construction business have had that negative gut feeling about potential clients, but have ignored the signals. One thing that I was taught years ago that has helped me immensely is to ask this question of a potential client: ”Have you ever built before and how did it go for you?” In short order, the potential client will tell you about their fears, past experiences, and what they think of the construction industry.

One of my best examples of how powerful this question is happened a number of years ago. We were building in an active new subdivision and a potential client came over and asked us if we could give him a price on his new build. It was a substantial house and, of course, I said sure. Then I asked “The Question.”

He answered that, yes, he had built new houses twice before.

I asked how that had gone for him. “I had to take both those “b_____’s” to court,” he replied. I said I was sorry to hear that and suggested he contact me when he had his final plans put together.

When he called back a couple of weeks later, I told him I was booked solid. He burned the contractor who took on the contract for a substantial sum of money. By the way, he was a lawyer.

Gavin Parsons

VOICES

ALBERTA RENOVATION WARRANTY PROGRAM

THROWING IN WORK FOR ’FREE’ In our last issue’s editorials, Rob and Steve argued about when, if ever, it is a good idea to do minor additional work – as part of a larger renovation contract – for ’free.’ Here is how one Nova Scotia contractor sees it.

In May, we wrote a brief news story about the launch of the new Alberta Home Renovation Warranty Program. We asked for feedback from the province’s builders. Here’s one of the responses.

Money Grab I don’t think this Alberta Home Renovation Warranty Program will help home owners at all. If it is administered by the same people who run the Alberta New Home Warranty (Editor’s Note: It is) it will get the same results. I’ve worked for clients who have had their new homes leak – which led to extensive wood rot – because of poor building envelope work built during a boom by a major Calgary home builder. There were major renovation costs. They got nothing but a run-around and excuses from the builder. There are many people in the same situation, and I believe this is a major story here that most media do not want to address.

Also the stringent application requirements (for this new program) will probably weed out 95 per cent or more of renovation contractors that would like to be accepted into the program.

Homeowners should then probably be prepared to spend about 40 per cent more for their renovations – if any contractor can possibly meet these high standards. If they exclude that many contractors by their extreme selection process, I would hazard a guess there wouldn’t be much point in needing a warranty then anyway Honestly, this is a money grab because they have gone to great effort to limit their liability right from the start.

Ben Kuypers

’Extra cheese at no charge?’

Doing freebies is risky, especially for new contractors with minimal experience trying to create a client base. My advice is to be careful. Several years ago while renovating a pizza shop in Sydney, Nova Scotia we were completing finish work when, unknown to me as supervisor, the client asked the carpenters to install additional shelving made from off-cuts from sheet goods used in the millwork. She thought the request was minimal and should be ’free.’ When I found out, attempting to protect my company’s interests and to help the client understand our business, I respectfully told the client that this would involve additional charges. I asked her, if after her restaurant is open for business and I order a pizza with extra cheese, can I get the extra cheese at no charge? She replied, ’Certainly not: everyone knows cheese is very expensive.’ I replied, true, cheese is expensive. And extra shelving is like extra cheese to me.

Michael Campbell

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FINANCIALS

90 DAY PROFITABILITY

CHALLENGE Do you know how much money you are going to make in the next 90 days? If you’re on salary, probably.

But if you’re a self-employed contractor, probably not.

Here’s how to get a better handle on the money coming your way in the next few months.

By Mike Draper

A

lthough it is very common for contractors to not know how much they are going to make in the next three months, it doesn’t make it right. Imagine getting in a car with an unknown amount of gas in it – with a broken fuel gauge, no less – and embarking on a long road trip. You’d be asking for trouble, right? Well, the same thing applies to your business if you don’t know your profitability and cash flow for the months ahead.

Not only do you need to know how your money is flowing in the months ahead to stop your business from running out of gas (cash), you also need to know how much money you are making so that you can know if what you are doing is giving

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you the results you want.

Knowing how much you are going to make in the near future may seem like an impossible task.

However, it is possible with some planning. There are three things that are required to figure it out.

• • •

How much work you are going to produce How much that work will cost you How much your overheads will be

If you know the value of the work your company will produce in the next 90 days and you take away how much that work will cost you to do, and what your overhead costs will be, what you will be left with is your Net Profit.

FINANCIALS

Let’s take a moment to differentiate between Net Profit and Cash Flow. They are not the same thing. Contractors often show a profit on their Profit and Loss statement, but they don’t have any money in the bank. That’s because the timing of payments received and payments going out doesn’t always coincide. For example, you may have to meet your payroll obligations before you get paid by the customer. You may also have to pay deposits or pay COD for materials before you get paid. Both of these examples will result in negative cash flow even though you show a profit.

Let’s look at each of these three areas in more detail.

Month 1

Month 2

Month 3

Total

Revenue

$50,000

$60,000

$50,000

$160,000

Cost of Goods Sold

$35,000

$42,000

$35,000

$112,000

Gross Profit

$15,000

$18,000

$15,000

$48,000

Gross Profit %

30%

30%

30%

30%

Overhead Expenses

$8,000

$8,000

$8,000

$24,000

Net Profit

$7,000

$10,000

$7,000

$24,000

How much will your company produce?

Although you might not be able to know exactly how much work your team will do every day, you can take a look at your project management schedule at a high level.

It should tell you what the planned timelines are for all your projects. By knowing the timelines of your projects, you can calculate the overall value of that work. This will give you your target revenue for the next 90 days.

Even if you are not using a project management system you need to be able to estimate how much work or how many projects you plan to do over the next 90 days. This target now needs to drive your production. Taking control over the amount of work that your crews and subs deliver is a critical part of your success. Without a target and some control you will severely reduce your likelihood of success. The other major benefit of knowing how much to expect your company to produce over the next 90 days will help you better manage your cash flow. You need to make sure that the customer’s payment schedule is set up so that you don’t finance their project.

Calculating the cost of the work performed If you know how much work you are expecting your crews and your subs to produce, then you should be able to calculate how much it will cost you to do that work – Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). The timing of when a sub will send you the invoice is not the critical point here. The critical point is to be able to review the estimates you produced before you won the project, to get the costs that you allocated to that work.

The common point between how much will you produce and how much will it cost you to perform the work is that you must have a plan of what work you are going

ILLUSTRATION: GLENN MCEVOY

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FINANCIALS

To be truly successful and to be able to consistently make the money that you want to make, you have to have a project management schedule.

to do. This is the hardest part of the process.

I often see financial statements from contractors that do not allocate costs correctly. A very common mistake is to not include the payroll costs of workers and Workers’ Comp as part of COGS. Many contractors put them down as overheads. But for true project management, Cost of Goods Sold should include all expenses associated with doing the work including labour, material, sub-contractors, equipment rental, as well as Workers’ Comp and payroll taxes for field personnel.

There are many companies that sell project management or client management systems for this exact reason. To be truly successful and to be able to consistently make the money that you want to make, you have to have a project management schedule. Think about it like this. If you make a plan on paper and you don’t like the outcome of how much you will make in 90 days, you have a chance to change the outcome before the 90 days even start. If you don’t plan it and just wait to see the outcome 90 days from now, it is too late to do anything about it.

If the amount of money you made was not to your liking there is nothing that you can do about it and you’ve just lost 90 days. Just as importantly, the next 90 days won’t be much different!

The key to making money is to have a concrete plan and to continuously monitor your progress on the plan. Should you start to fall short of the plan, the sooner you can address the root cause of what is going wrong in the execution of the plan, the sooner you can take action to get back on track. To go back to the analogy of driving a car, if you know where you are planning to go and the route that you will take to get there, should you make a wrong turn you can figure out how to get back on course. You will reach your intended destination.

Calculating Overhead

ILLUSTRATION: GLENN MCEVOY

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Calculating overhead shouldn’t be too hard to do. You will have financial statements from previous months that you can use as a starting point to know what expenses you have had in the past and that you will likely have in the next 90 days. Simply put, overhead expenses will be all expenses that you will incur that you have not included in the cost of work performed. Typical overhead expenses will include administrative costs, owner’s wages if not included above, leases, rent, advertising, phones, insurance, internet, web site, truck repairs and gasoline, etc.

Now add the cost of overhead and the cost of performing the work together. This number will be your total expenses for the next 90 days. Go back to the amount of work that you will produce and subtract the total expense number that you just calculated. The number that is left is how much you will make.

FINANCIALS

Hopefully that number is not only above zero but it equals how much money you want to make over the next 90 days. If it does equal what you want to make, then your next step is to follow your plan.

Let’s take a look at what you can do if the number is not as much as you want to make in the next 90 days. First, I would suggest taking a look at your overhead to see what overhead items you could eliminate that would not impact your ability to produce the work that you do. Once removed, if the number is still not what you want to achieve, then the next step is to look at the work that you are planning to produce. There are only three possible scenarios here. Either (1) you are not producing enough work in the next 90 days, or (2) it is costing you too much to do it, or (3) you have a combination of both.

At this point you will need to review the project plan to find out what can be done to increase production over the next 90 days. Look for areas of inefficiencies, areas where you could put multiple trades on-site at the same time, hire someone who can work faster or has larger crews that are able to produce more work in the same amount of time than someone you have worked with in the past. These may be tough decisions, but if the crews you have now can’t produce the work that you want then you might have to look for other crews. Are you willing to let your current crews stand in the way of you reaching your goals or are you going to take action to help you reach them?

Take a look to see what options you have to reduce the cost to do the work without sacrificing your quality standard. You could look at doing a better job procuring material, shopping at different stores and using suppliers who can provide shipping to cut down on wasted time picking up and delivering materials to site. When I go to a building supply store during the day I am shocked at how many times I see two people from the same company walking around the store picking up materials or components that they forgot to get the time before. Better planning of the job can save a ton of time wasted going back to pick up more supplies.

Research new products and technology that can make the job go faster. Make sure clients have made critical decisions that they need to make so that they don’t hold up the job. Any time that can be saved will help you produce more work in less time. More work means more money.

The Break-Even Analysis If you still aren’t reaching your goals, you need to do a Break-Even Analysis to determine where you stand. If your revenues don’t support your expenses, you will get in trouble very quickly.

Using the same numbers we used to determine your profitability, here is how you calculate break-even.

Month 1

Month 2

Month 3

Total

Overhead Expenses

$8,000

$8,000

$8,000

$24,000

Divided by Gross Profit %

30%

30%

30%

30%

Break-Even Revenue

$26,667

$26,667

$26,667

$80,000

If you do all the things we just spoke about and you still won’t hit your goal, then it sounds like you need more sales. That is a whole other topic to be covered in the next issue of Canadian Contractor. cc Mike Draper is vice president, coaching, at Renovantage.com

KITCHENS

SMART TECH

Kitchens

By Kim Laudrum

This award-winning kitchen by XTC Design Inc., Toronto, brilliantly blends “streamlined and modern” with “warm and organic.”

Photos: Larry Arnal Photography 22

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KITCHENS

Kitchens, dollar for dollar, allow you to offer your renovation clients the best return on their investment.

Canadian Contractor spoke to award-winning kitchen designers to find out the recent Canadian kitchen trends that you need to be aware of.

H

ands-free and touchless features – “smart tech” in kitchen designer language – are all the rage in high-end kitchen renovations for up-market clients.

“We’re seeing a lot more smart technology in kitchens today,” says Erica Westeroth, senior designer and partner, XTC Design Inc., Toronto. “There are more hands-free or touchless features in all kinds of applications, from faucets, cabinetry lighting, or even to operate cabinetry to lift doors out and up.”

Installing smart tech in a kitchen requires a learning curve for most contractors, but it isn’t difficult, designers say. “There’s a whole mechanism that goes in behind the cabinetry. Blum makes the system, which includes a servo drive. They have a very good service program to help train tradespeople on installation,” Westeroth says.

At his downtown Toronto showroom, Anthony Binns, a third-generation cabinetmaker, peers with a keen eye along a long length of white lacquered upper cabinetry made

by German company Eggersmann. When installing smart technology, it’s important to have exact measurements. Any small shift can keep the smart boxes from “communicating with each other,” Binns says. This could cause a malfunction.

The cabinet door might not lift with a finger press. The client is paying top dollar for this ease-of-use function, so accuracy is extremely important, notes Victoria Shaw, Binns’ partner at Eggersmann Toronto.

Modern aesthetic “We’re also seeing cleaner lines, a trend toward a more modern aesthetic,” XTC’s Westeroth says. Hardware is linear or recessed. The layouts are simpler, not a lot of angles or curves. “Is it easier to install? It’s less time consuming. A more contemporary look does not require a lot of moldings, for example. But you can’t hide anything exacting.”

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KITCHENS

Aesthetic lines are simpler so you have to add texture to the design for interest, Westeroth says. Riff-cut oak, for example, is a popular way to add texture and warmth.

“People want modern with warmth,” Binns says. “They love simple lines and a well-organized kitchen.”

Easy-to-access storage The popularity of cooking shows, Binns says, has influenced how people live in their homes now. Decades ago, guests would not have seen anything happening in the kitchen. Dinner would magically appear at the dining room table. But now, kitchens are integrated with family rooms as part of an entertainment hub. A well-organized kitchen is key to keeping it uncluttered. Efficient use of space, not necessarily more space, is key: “More storage isn’t always the answer,” Binns says.

“A galley kitchen is the best way to cook, really. Everything

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Top: A stunning kitchen in the showroom of Eggersmann Toronto. It combines the beauty of wood grain with ultra-modern streamlining.

Above: Anthony Binns and Victoria Shaw, principals, Eggersmann Toronto.

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KITCHENS

is right within reach,” says Shaw.

One of Eggersmann’s “wow” factor innovations is a feature wall that, when pressed, will turn a series of hidden doors to reveal floor to ceiling racks of kitchen storage. When placed behind the island, this creates a galley-type kitchen. But it can also be turned back into a dramatic feature wall.

Another trend is to deploy fewer upper cabinets, Binns says. To demonstrate, he opens a drawer in an island and pulls out a wooden rack with dinner plates, which he then brings to the table. “Accessibility and ease-of-use is what it’s all about,” he says.

Above and right: Ease-of-use features in today’s upmarket kitchen cabinets include “smart tech” functionality. Examples here are from Eggersmann Toronto.

Lighting There is a big trend to using LED lighting in creative ways.

One example is a line of blue lights recessed right into the cabinet doors as a way to add function and colour, as in this kitchen from ATD in Oakville, ON. LED lighting is energy efficient and doesn’t heat up like halogen does. It lasts much longer, too.

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Come to Toronto on our dime!

Be a voice for our industry December 1 & 2, 2015

We are looking for 32 contractors from across Canada who want:

FREE • Travel to Toronto • Hotel • Food • Entry to Construct Canada

AND who can share their business and product challenges.

RenoFocus is a series of focus-group sessions behind closed doors in which manufacturers and suppliers gather market information from successful contractors.

EMAIL Publisher Rob Koci for more information: rkoci@canadiancontractor.ca Please put RenoFocus in the subject line

KITCHENS

Colour Like the striated lines of the riff-cut oak, colour is also used to add interest to the otherwise stark feel of the modern aesthetic.

“It’s all a very personal thing,” notes Westeroth. “Some clients want a shot of red, purple, fuscia, chartreuse or cranberry red. Then there are others who are still too shy about it. They want beige, taupe or grey. It’s safer.”

XTC Design won the 2014 Kitchen and Bath award for a kitchen featuring purple walls with walnut cabinetry, a striated marble waterfall island, and porcelain-flooring tile. There is a wall of windows next to the kitchen, Westeroth explains, so there is a lot of natural light there, which allows the use of a darker colour in this location.

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Wood Sometimes a designer has to compromise.

Westeroth found this to be true when her clients, a couple with discerning – and opposite – tastes, asked her to design a kitchen for them that was streamlined and modern for her, but warm and organic in feel for him. The result earned XTC Design another major Kitchen and Bath award, this time in 2015. (See photo, pages 22-23.)

The kitchen features stainless steel, butcher block and red lava-stone countertops. The apple-wood island features a striated pattern done on a horizontal grain. “The overall effect is very organic and natural. It had to read warm and comfortable,” Westeroth says.

Wood remains an important feature in designing kitchens, says Shaw. In the Eggersmann showroom a feature wall of contrasting dark and light birch makes you feel as if you are standing among trees. It balances the harshness of concrete materials with nature.

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“We do a lot of wood cabinetry and mix components a lot. We still do a lot of shaker cabinets because of their versatility. They can fit with contemporary or traditional design,” Westeroth says. “But the latest trend is to more clean lines.”

Cabinet door finishes have improved dramatically, says Binns, as he demonstrates the mirror-like reflective quality of a lacquered board in his showroom. Edging, too, is improved, making it possible to mitre corners more easily. It all adds up to a greater selection for clients. cc Kim Laudrum is a regular contributor to Canadian Contractor.

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COMPANY NEWS

Good Works

Building-products giant Saint-Gobain celebrates 350 years in business with a pledge to make builders out of disadvantaged youth

By John Caulfield

S

aint-Gobain, the international buildingproducts manufacturer, is marking its 350th anniversary by strategically partnering with YouthBuild USA through a three-year $600,000 grant and a commitment to launch a trade school in South Africa.

Since 2010, France-based SaintGobain – which is perhaps best known in Canada for the RSI and acoustical products it markets under the CertainTeed brand – has provided financial and building materials support to the Bostonbased YouthBuild USA, a nonprofit organization that provides education, counselling, and jobskills training to unemployed young American adults, generally highschool dropouts.

That support has focused on the organization’s Green Initiative Program, a sustainable building and job-training program for disadvantaged youth; and specifically on YouthBuild programs in four communities where Saint-Gobain has business concentrations: Philadelphia, Penn., Worcester, Mass., Schenectady, N.Y., and Canton, Ohio.

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Saint Gobain, well-known in Canada for the CertainTeed brand, opened a series of public pavilions in Philadelphia recently. The LOOK pavilion is comprised of numerous mirrors inlaid with LEDs. By day, its exterior reflects the surrounding environment; by night it becomes a perpetually shifting cube of light. Saint-Gobain started as a mirror company in France in 1665.

COMPANY NEWS

Through this partnership in the U.S., former out-of-school youth have been given the opportunity to build energyefficient homes in their neighborhoods while earning a high school diploma or its equivalent. Since its inception in 2010, the program has impacted more than 1,050 YouthBuild students nationwide.

And Saint-Gobain and YouthBuild USA have completed three U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED-certified homes.

Its latest pledge brings Saint Gobain’s total funding of YouthBuild USA to $1.3 million over the course of seven years (2010-17). The extended partnership will make possible the following activities over the next three years: • YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School will complete two projects already underway at Wingohocking Street in Philadelphia, launch a renovation of the school’s Community Celebration Room, and identify a third project.

• YouthBuild Schenectady (operated by Social Enterprise and Training Center) will identify and complete a second project.

• YouthBuild Worcester (operated by Training Resources of America, Inc.) will identify and complete a third project.

• YouthBuild Canton (operated by Project REBUILD) will identify and complete its first project.

• YouthBuild and Saint-Gobain will continue implementation of the “Scientists in the Classroom” program that leverages Saint-Gobain scientists and engineers to expose students to curriculum and careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Showing love to the City of Brotherly Love Aside from announcing its expanded relationship with YouthBuild USA, SaintGobain has also pledged to reinforce its commitment to North America, where over

the past five years alone it has invested more than $3 billion and where it currently employs 15,000 workers; as well as its connection with Philadelphia, which dates back to 1948. CertainTeed has long been based in the suburb of Valley Forge, Pa. The company is in the process of building a 43,000-square-foot Innovation Center and new headquarters on 65 acres in the suburb of Malvern, Pa. Last October, CertainTeed opened an R&D Lab on that campus.

Saint-Gobain’s funding efforts have helped more than 1,050 YouthBuild students nationwide.

Philadelphia is one of only four cities worldwide – the others being Shanghai, Paris, and São Paulo – where Saint-Gobain this year will exhibit Future Sensations, a series of pavilions that showcase the company’s businesses and products in energy, aerospace, transportation, commercial and residential construction, medical and life sciences, and high tech.

For example, the LOOK pavillion is comprised of numerous mirrors inlaid with LEDs. By day, its exterior reflects the surrounding environment; by night it becomes a perpetually shifting cube of light. The DISCOVER pavillion, which is

exclusive to the Philadelphia exhibit, is a 70-foot dome that informs visitors about how the company’s products have impacted the lives of Americans. Perhaps the coolest pavilion is LISTEN, a padded cube that uses “spatialization” technology to ricochet different sounds throughout the booth.

15 generations and counting To mark its 350th anniversary, SaintGobain has posted an online exhibition – www.saint-gobain350years.com – whose 700 documents include a timeline of 22 important dates in the company’s history, a 3D reconstruction of its glassworks as it would have been in operation in 1785, a gallery of innovations that showcases Saint-Gobain’s contributions to architecture and housing, and a scrapbook of its leaders, inventors, and other important employees.

Nostalgia is nice, but Saint-Gobain also knows it’s in a “what have you done for me lately” world. Pierre-André de Chalendar, Saint-Gobain’s chairman and CEO, who flew in for the Philadelphia press conference, acknowledged that the company’s growth would continue to hinge on innovation. Saint-Gobain, he said, is “more focused on the future than the past,” and is on the lookout for “solutions” that can be expanded to other parts of the globe.

Saint-Gobain currently has 182,000 employees in 64 countries, including South Africa, where YouthBuild has operated for a decade, and where Saint-Gobain runs an accredited training program that prepares disadvantaged youth to work in the construction industry. Saint-Gobain and YouthBuild International plan to open a YouthBuild school in Samrand, South Africa, about 20 minutes from Johannesburg. Saint-Gobain will provide a training facility, trainers, and building materials. Initially, the program will serve 50 disadvantaged youth. cc

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COMPANY NEWS

CertainTeed targets Canadian builders The company’s insulation products now carry a Health Products Declaration, while its MemBrain moisture barrier product, developed in Europe, has now reached Canada

CertainTeed MemBrain being installed.

W

hen homeowners talk about going green, they are actually “investing in their own comfort,” says Drew Brant, vice president of marketing for CertainTeed’s insulation division.

So CertainTeed’s product development revolves around “comfort” on four levels: thermal performance, acoustics, air tightness, and moisture management.

The challenge is distinguishing products that, to consumers

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and even some pros, seem a lot alike. “There’s not that much difference from batt to batt,” acknowledges Greg Silvestri, president of CertainTeed Insulation. What separates insulation suppliers, then, are often their relationships with customers. And at a time when some suppliers have backed away from the Canadian market, CertainTeed, Silvestri says, is “redoubling” its efforts to serve Canada.

Canada accounts for 15 per cent of annual worldwide insulation sales for Saint-Gobain, CertainTeed’s parent company. “Canada is still one of the world’s largest consumers of insulation,” says Drew.

And it is clear that air tightness and sustainability are the hooks upon which CertainTeed is hanging its marketing hat.

The company’s latest campaign trumpets fiberglass insulation as a better choice than stone wood insulation – a favorite among some Canadian contractors – because the manufacturing process uses far more recycled materials, it is more efficient to transport and easier to install, it costs less per square foot, and it rates at least as highly as stone wool for thermal resistance, sound performance, and restricting moisture infiltration.

To further emphasize the advantages of fibreglass insulation, and to help builders and architects make informed specification decisions, CertainTeed in January issued the industry’s first Health Product Declarations for fibreglass insulation. The Declarations aim at establishing standards for a common reporting language for disclosing information about the ingredients used to make a building product and its associated health information.

Air tightness goes hand in hand with moisture control for wall systems. And in May, CertainTeed Insulation Group Canada intoduced MemBrain, a patented polyamide-based material that the company is positioning as a “smart” alternative to poly vapour barrier sheeting.

MemBrain, which has been available in Europe for a decade, is pricier than polyethylene sheeting: it will add between $300 to $500 to the cost of an average 2,400-square-foot house. But CertainTeed contends the investment is worth the cost because its product adapts its permeability depending on different climate conditions. MemBrain’s water vapour permeability increases as the relative humidity in a wall cavity increases, thereby water vapour escapes the cavity easier, which in turn prevents mould – John Caulfield and mildew.

REAL ESTATE

Help your clients

find the money

Sonny Belanger of PLANiT Builders, Calgary, like an increasing number of contractors, has partnered up with Financeit, a “merchant direct” credit facility that provides funding to 70 per cent of his clients.

By John Bleasby

Y

ou’re a builder. You want to grow your business. But at the same time, growth can mean increased administration costs and collections issues. Perhaps you lose business because potential customers get bogged down with financial approval for a renovation, repair or addition. What do you do?

Sonny Belanger of PLANiT Builders in Calgary thinks he has found the solution: a partnership with Financeit, a fast growing Canadian loan intermediary that allows builders instant and direct on-line access to consumer financing. It’s been a perfect fit for PLANiT, with their focus on garage construction and basement renovation.

Like many contractors, Belanger often found the approval process at traditional banks too slow. Credit applications took 24 hours or more, sometimes with requests for follow-up meetings.

“It’s a fast-moving city; people want to make decisions quickly and move on with their lives. Financeit’s software allows us to confirm financing on the spot, literally in seconds.” For Belanger, putting these financing tools directly in his hands is unique and has given his business a marketable advantage.

”They come to us for convenience, transparency and extremely competitive rates.”

What kind of customer needs Financeit? Typical clients are young first-time home owners and dual-income professionals. They have good cash flow, yet hold insufficient equity in their homes to leverage a secured line of credit at a traditional bank. “They come to us for convenience, transparency and extremely competitive rates,” explains Financeit sales manager Dave Murray. “Through our builder partners, they have access to our credit facilities 24/7.

Their personal financial information can even remain confidential from the builder, depending on the application. After approval, our customer service personnel look after them right to the end of the

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loan period.”

Financeit started its merchant-direct financing program in 2011 and has grown rapidly in Canada with parallel programs in auto and marine/RV loans.

“We are a technology platform, partnered with multiple financial institutions standing behind us, Murray says.” The company’s main thrust today is the home PLANiT Calgary team improvement market.

Financeit offers unsecured, five year fixed rate loans up to $50,000, amortizations up to 15 years, and open monthly payments tailored to the client. Interest rates are comparable to new car loans, ie., well below credit card rates or ”lenders-of-last-resort”.

Most Financeit partners receive guaranteed payment upon project completion. Larger qualifying contactors like PLANiT receive full payment, 100 per cent upfront. The benefits of turning collections over to a finance company are potentially enormous, as any small to medium size contractor would recognise. Even dispute resolution, which Murray claims is minimal, is negotiated through Financeit.

Providing instant loan approval to clients, coupled with an assurance of full payment, has had a powerful impact on Belanger’s business. He estimates 70 per cent of his clients use the facility. The resultant minimization of his administrative costs allows Belanger to focus his efforts on growth. As proof, Belanger estimates that PLANiT currently has teams working on over 170 projects simultaneously across Alberta. “The jobs move much quicker. We don’t have to stop and wait to collect payment. Offering a full financing package as part of our services is very important; we’ve become very good at it.” cc

CREATIVE EYE

Shore House, North Shore, Vancouver Developer: Steve Hoiles Architect: Mark Kerschbaumer

By John Bleasby Urban infill has become increasingly common in Canada’s larger municipalities as new building lots disappear. The challenges are varied: New designs should in some way blend in with the neighborhood, while at the same time upgraded zoning and code regulations are observed, neighbours sight lines respected; all this within a manageable project budget.

In 2009, developer Steve Hoiles built a modern LEED house, on speculation, on half of a severed 66-foot-wide lot in Vancouver’s upscale North Shore neighborhood. Hoiles teamed up with architect and fellow Ontario transplant Mark Kerschbaumer in a collaboration of design and environmental awareness.

“Like me, Steve has always been interested in the West Coast style of modernism. Other projects in North Vancouver were craftsman style; there simply was no supply for people looking for modern,” explains Kerschbaumer.

The Highest-Rated

LEED PLATINUM House in Canada

Main Staircase The use of reclaimed wood beams from a demolished auto-repair shop, reshaped into the dramatic main staircase, as well as the roof beams, was an irony not lost on environmentallyconscious developer Steve Hoiles.

The result was the Shore House, the country’s highest-rated LEED Platinum residence. The Hoiles/Kerschbaumer vision regarding design, budget ($200 per square foot), energy efficiency, and reuse/recycling of materials established a new building template that can only be appreciated when one realizes that other builders at the time were building LEED-directed houses for $500 - $600 per square foot.

Kerschbaummer applauds Hoiles on his methodology. “Steve was able to build a really energy-efficient house for not much more than others were building their standard homes” Hoiles, a self-described green-initiative developer, Continued on next page All Photos: Steve Hoiles

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Basement Suite The entrance to the separate 1,000 square foot apartment is below grade.

CREATIVE EYE

Main Level Natural light streams down onto the open main floor living space from a light well.

The stability of engineered white-oak flooring permits in-floor radiant heating.

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CREATIVE EYE

Shore House, North Shore, Vancouver Continued from previous page

estimates the extra cost after thorough analysis, was only 10 per cent.

“The material surcharge is never a big deal compared to labour.”

Of particular interest to builders is the use of 24-inch wall framing, combined with Roxul’s stone-wool ComfortBoardIS on the exterior to reduce thermal bridging, an innovative approach at the time. The added exterior insulation also took advantage of exemptions from lot setback requirements in The City of North Vancouver, allowing Kerschbaumer to maximize interior space while meeting code.

Kerschbaumer says that ComfortBoard “is not another vapour barrier on the outside wall like polystyrene. We get a lot of rain, which can blow in behind trim and siding. The ComfortBoard product allows the exterior wall to breathe. It is not hygroscopic.” Hoiles adds, “Rain is far more difficult than snow. How you manage water egress is a really big deal or mould results.”

The Shore House is brimming with other energy-efficient, environmentally friendly features including LED lighting, energy-efficient appliances, plus what Hoiles describes as “passive green benefits” such as cleverly sourced postconsumption recycled materials, fly ash concrete in the ICF foundations, and a rainwater storage system.

Typical of many North Vancouver houses, the Shore House has separate accommodation in the basement, a threebedroom 1,000 sq. ft. suite. The main living area (2,000 sq. ft.), features a master plus three more bedrooms, making a total of seven bedrooms in the house.

Continued on next page All Photos: Steve Hoiles

Front Pre-Siding The Roxul ComfortBoardIS is applied before the siding is installed.

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CREATIVE EYE

Main Level Kitchen A flood of colour on the backsplash, a dash of natural light over the sink and from the rear patio door (outside of photo frame), reflect off the white counters and island to bring lightness into the open kitchen.

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CREATIVE EYE

Shore House, North Shore, Vancouver Continued from previous page

Yet the house has a remarkably spacious feel, the result of the near-open main floor. Light flows though skylights, high-wall windows and down a large light well in the centre of the house. “I’m a huge believer in natural light. We get a lot of rain here, a lot of grey days.

In many long narrow houses, the interior can become quite dark if light cannot filter into the centre.”

Following the awards and recognition associated with the Shore House, the duo went to work on other projects in Vancouver before Hoiles relocated his business to San Diego. Kerschbaumer continues a very successful and award-winning practice in Vancouver. ”What we did then has now largely become standard in the market,” observes Hoiles.

All Photos: Steve Hoiles

Mies Corner The inside corner detail, called a ‘Mies Corner’ (after architect Mies van der Rohe), is a salute to modern design.

It separates the siding that uses two styles of western red cedar (beveled tight-knot on the left, clear no-knot on the right) from the vertical grain western hemlock used on the eaves.

All are protected by natural water-based penetrating stains manufactured by CBR Products in Vancouver to accent the mosaic wood grains.

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CREATIVE EYE

The simple double-shed roof, which dominates the buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s exterior appearance, allows for easy drainage within the modern format.

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PROFILE

Jon and Dave Bryant

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PROFILE

CALGARY’S

URBAN PAINTER How Jon and Dave Bryant are succeeding in the coatings business by doing a lot of things other painters aren’t.

By Steve Maxwell All photos: KlixPix/Charles Hope Photography

This article first appeared in PRO PAINTER magazine in Spring 2015. To get a free contractor subscription to PRO PAINTER, please email spayne@canadiancontractor.ca

If you want to see how a small, young, nimble and successful 21st century painting business operates, you won’t find a better example than Calgary’s The Urban Painter. Founded by college painter and natural-born entrepreneur Jon Bryant in 2005, and now run along with his brother Dave as director of operations and a core team of employees, this business is doing a lot of things you won’t see other painters do. Their recipe comes down to things that are often talked about but not always delivered: consistently high-quality results, treatment of clients with exceptional politeness and respect, professional financial analysis, and the use of 21st century information and promotional tools to make the most of every opportunity. It’s a recipe that proves running a painting company can be a smooth, sustainable and profitable business, especially in niche markets.

It also shows that every business is an extension of its owner.

“As a kid I started a number of small businesses,” explains Jon, “but made a promise to myself to start a real business by the time I was 20.

I’d painted a fence for my grandparents and I’d seen other university students running painting companies and saw a lot of potential. I ran my business seasonally for several years before my brother Dave and I went full-time two years ago. Since then we’ve ‘taken things seriously,’

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PROFILE

and we’ve exceeded many of our goals and we’re having fun doing it. We’re excited to see where our team can take the business, but there’s still so much to learn.”

Simplicity, Reliability, Courtesy and Quality The Urban Painter does 50 per cent residential and 50 per cent commercial jobs, “with the odd new construction project if we like the contractor,” smiles Jon. “A total crew of eight keeps up with work in the winter, with about 25 painters employed during busy summer months.” The company structure revolves around key crew leaders who manage two or three people in each crew.

“We’ve had crew leaders manage up to three crews at once on simple jobs,” says Jon. On the surface, all this sounds fairly typical for any small painting business, but there’s more than a few things that are quite different about The Urban Painter. And most of them

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spring from the fact that Jon isn’t your average “painter-turnedbusiness owner”.

“It’s never crossed my mind to paint on my own,” says Jon. “I believe strongly that a good team will always out-perform me or any other single person. A great parable taught to me by a business mentor is this: one man alone will be killed by a lion, but several men working together can kill that lion.”

Jon earned a bachelor’s degree in commerce in finance from the University of Calgary, and he’s carried this experience through to The Urban Painter. “The main thing I learned at school is that an understanding of the finances of a business matters a lot,” explains Jon. “Especially cash flow. But even with my background, starting out was hard. It took us three years of work to be profitable. No major financial problems, it just took time.”

It’s no surprise that an ongoing challenge for The Urban Painter is the same challenge faced by any painting company:

PROFILE

Left: The Urban Painter never subs out work, instead using only trained staff for all jobs. The crew members wear company clothes and aim for exceptional neatness and polite customer relations.

finding and keeping good painters. But for a company that prides itself on achieving consistently high-quality results, this challenge simply has to be met.

“The second question we always ask when interviewing prospective painters is ‘how do they handle patching’,” says Dave. “The answer is useful because it gives a clear indication of whether the candidate knows anything about quality painting and the prep behind it. Quality craftsmanship is of utmost importance to us.”

So what kind of wall patching answers does Dave like to hear?

For large cracks he likes to see painters use fibre tape followed by three or four coats of mud feathered out and sanded. For holes, we use either metal backing plates or install new pieces of drywall followed by mud. Dings and nicks receive mud and sanding.”

What’s the first question asked of new painters? “What do you enjoy about painting?”

Training and Focus Calgary has had a hot labour market for more than a decade. This means workers tend to be more mobile and less loyal. And while you might think this would reduce the incentive to train, that’s not what happens at The Urban Painter.

“We do a lot of onsite training,” says Jon “and we even follow a training manual that we’ve created. When I consider the possibility of trained painters leaving us after we’ve trained them in The Urban Painter system, I ask myself ‘what happens if we don’t train and the person stays?’ That’s far more costly for us than someone leaving after they have been trained.

“Every so often we lose a team member, because they’re offered a higher wage by another company. But that’s not the norm. Our priority has always been to be a great place to work with competitive wages. Part of this is that we make every effort possible to provide consistent work, a great working environment,

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PROFILE

Above: Dave Bryant takes payment from a client using an on-site credit card reader.

and opportunities to advance. We’re an all-employee company and do not sub work. This allows us to have a strong team and achieve consistent results, not to mention that we feel safe having people we know in our customers’ homes.”

Despite training and a commitment to provide consistent work, Jon finds great painters increasingly harder to find. “We generally follow the logic that great attitudes can be trained,” says Jon. “That being said, it takes a lot of work to find great painters .”

“The biggest personal challenge for me is staying focused,” says Jon. “As an entrepreneur I can easily get side tracked by other ‘interesting’ business prospects. I’ve been involved in other businesses in the tech industry and medical insurance while trying to maintain the painting business and I wasn’t able to stay focused well on any of them.”

Urban Painter Marketing One of the things about The Urban Painter is the way its website

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– www.theurbanpainter.com – stands out. It’s simple, professional, attractive and it includes an important call to action: a simple, online opportunity to get quotes. “Although I have a passion for design and web development,” says Jon, “our website was built with the help of a designer and a local developer. It’s that focus thing again.”

“Overall marketing efforts are very important to us, as we only work in specific areas to keep our crews close and effective. In fact, we intentionally limit our work area to achieve this. We do a lot of online search engine optimization and are always actively sending out post cards, door hangers and posting signs in the areas we want to work. On the commercial side we get a lot of work through word of mouth from our clients who appreciate what we do for them.”

“The most challenging part of running our painting business has been to stay focused,” says Jon. “There are always so many ‘bright and shiny’ opportunities everywhere that we could follow,

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PROFILE

Nuggets of Wisdom From Jon There are no short cuts to good quality or reputation.

Personal bonding matters in a crew... A lot! but that would dilute our focus. The only way we have been able to grow is to stay true to our target clients and give them excellent service every day. You need to be focused for this, and focus means saying ‘no’ sometimes.”

“Currently we have enough work to keep our crews busy, so we get to pick and choose a little on the type of jobs we do. With the current economic climate in Calgary, we’ll see if this persists, as summer is our busy season. My father always told me, ‘Getting the work is hard, but doing the work is easy.’ There’s a lot of truth in this, but we’ve been fortunate to have plenty of work over the years. That said, it has been challenging to achieve consistent, timely results and maintain our brand experience.”

Every business has its doom and gloom commentators, and the painting business is no different. While some people will tell you how hard it is to make a go of it as a professional painter these days, that’s obviously not true for everyone. And that means it’s not true at all. Focus, attention to details and making use of new marketing opportunities still pays off. The Urban Painter proves it. cc

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Page 56

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Create incredibly sharp hand tools in two minutes or less Page 52

P RO D U C T S , T E C H N O L O G Y & T I P S F O R C O N T R AC TO R S

HONE RUN

STEVE MAXWELL’S

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MAXWELL’S MIND

Three Lessons from a Cathedral

By Steve Maxwell

O

f all the projects that people have built throughout history, the great cathedrals of Europe are my favourite. Besides the fact that they’re awesome examples of refined design on a massive scale, every time I see one I’m reminded of three things that help me build better today. Perhaps they will help you, too.

Cathedrals make me want to be a better craftsman. We live in a time when there’s a tool for everything, and I’m thankful for it. But isn’t there something especially impressive about doing a lot with a little? The hammers, chisels, points and wedges used by the armies of cathedral stonemasons were as simple as tools get. Everything was powered entirely by muscle, nothing was computer controlled, nothing was laser-guided. Can any builder of today fail to be impressed by how much was accomplished with so little? In fact, doesn’t it take the eye of a builder to fully appreciate the skill that went into a cathedral? How could regular people even begin to understand? That’s why cathedrals always encourage me to get better.

Cathedrals make me want to be more patient, too. Every substantial cathedral took more than a century to build, and the one in Cologne, Germany, took 600 years to complete. The only two cathedrals that I know of under construction today both began more than 120 years ago and they’re still growing. I’m not sure why, but I find it inspiring to think that I could have started as an apprentice on one of these projects, learned my craft, practiced it day after day until I was an old man, then retired only to see a portion of the work done. Cathedrals leave me more patient, and they remind me that great accomplishments sometimes demand great timelines.

Cathedrals put my years on earth in perspective. The closest I’ve come to working on a cathedral happened in the winter of 1989. I was a mason on the restoration of St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in Hamilton, Ontario, and there’s one moment that’ll stick with me. We were repointing inside the 180-foot tall sandstone spire, you can see on the right, and when the capstone came off for cleaning, I couldn’t resist climbing up the scaffolding inside for a look out the top at the city. The opening was just large enough for my head and shoulders, and while I took in the sights of a modern city, I could also glance down and see the tool strokes and initials of the men who put those last stones in place back in 1857. They did awesome work, they’re gone now, and my view of the city from the top of the spire must have been so different than theirs. All this reminds me how short our time is on this earth, how fast time rolls along, and how I need to make the most of what I’ve got. Isn’t that a cathedral lesson we should all think about now and then? steve@stevemaxwell.ca www.canadiancontractor.ca

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MAXWELL’S S t u f f We L i k e

HONE RUN Create incredibly sharp hand tools in two minutes or less

By Steve Maxwell

E

ven in a world dominated by power tools, a sharp chisel or block plane is still sometimes essential for the best trim and interior millwork. And that’s one side of contracting that clients especially appreciate because they see it every day. The problem is that creating and maintaining sharp edges with stones in the old fashioned way takes way too much time. That’s why I started sharpening all my edge tools with a buffing wheel back in the mid-1980s. The process takes less than one minute to transform a dull chisel into something that’s sharper than a new razor blade, and

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this approach can even remove small chips and dings from edges without grinding.

My system is based on a pair of round buffing wheels – one made of hard felt, the other made from circles of cloth sewn together. Both are spun by a salvaged 1/4 hp, 1750 rpm motor, driving a ball-bearing mandrel via a 2-to-1 pulley arrangement, boosting the speed of the wheels to 3450 rpm. The hard wheel is used to hone flat or concave edges, and this is probably all you’ll ever need. I sometimes do carving in my work, and buffing the inside surfaces of curved gouges is the only time I use the soft cloth wheel.

MAXWELL’S S t u f f We L i k e

tool against the wheel. The edge will be scary-sharp in no time, ready for you to get back to work. It’s really that simple, but there are two tricks you need to keep in mind.

How It Works Instead of rubbing a chisel or plane iron against a stationary stone by hand, you hold a tool against the rapidly spinning edge of a buffing wheel that’s been coated in a very fine abrasive. Both sides of each tool are held against this moving surface in turn, where they’re honed to a shiny finish in a short time. A honing session that would normally take 15 or 20 minutes of monotony with a sharpening stone now happens in a few minutes or less.

Switch the buffing wheel on, hold a block of abrasive compound against the spinning wheel to charge the surface, then hold the

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MAXWELL’S S t u f f We L i k e

The first and most important involves safety. The tip of any tool must always point in the same direction as the buffing wheel rotation, not against that direction. Ignore this requirement and the tool will be caught and flung out of your hands dangerously.

Power buffing is quite safe as long as you remember this detail.

buffing is tangent to the edge of the wheel. It’s essential that the tip of the chisel or plane iron doesn’t get rounded over or made more blunt than its ideal angle of 25º to 30º. Rounding so the cutting tip is steeper than this means the tool won’t slice like it should, even if it is smooth and shiny.

After buffing the tip of the tool you’ve been working on, the edge will always shine like polished silver. That’s impressive, but cutting performance is what really counts. Grab a piece of softwood and try slicing the end grain at a slight angle. A really sharp edge will slice the wood with no tear-out or roughness at

The second crucial issue has to do with cutting performance.

Since the abrasive action of this honing technique is so aggressive, it’s possible to remove visible amounts of metal from a tool tip quickly. This is why the process is so fast, but it also poses a challenge. You must hold the tool so the surface you’re

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MAXWELL’S S t u f f We L i k e

all. It’s really something to experience. The tool will be magic.

Another test involves shaving hair. If you’ve got enough hair on your hand or arm to spare, a truly sharp blade will cleanly cut that off better than a new razor.

What If It Doesn’t Cut? If a buffed tool edge is shiny right to the edge but doesn’t cut cleanly, it always means you held the tool tip at too steep of an angle relative to the buffing wheel.

The solution is to reshape the tool on a grinding wheel, creating the proper bevel angle. This process is no longer called honing, but grinding. It’s a much coarser technique than honing and it removes more metal. The good news is that you shouldn’t have to grind tools very often once they’re working well with edges ground to the correct angle and honed skillfully. So, what is the correct angle? That depends on the tool involved.

The edges of general-purpose woodworking tools like bench chisels and hand planes should have a bevel angle between 25º and 30º for proper performance. Block planes and chisels you’ll use for slicing and paring work better with a shallower bevel of about 20ºC. The trick is making this happen without overheating the tool. If the metal gets too hot it won’t be able to hold an edge any more.

Bench grinders are cheap and effective at removing metal, but they can cause huge heat build up in tools, too. The simplest and cheapest way to grind without too much heat is using a cool-running, soft-bond wheel on your bench grinder. Soft-bond wheels aren’t very common, but it pays to track one down for delicate, heat-sensitive applications like tool grinding. I buy mine from Lee Valley Tools (800-267-8767; www.leevalley.com).

Want a really simple grinding option? A woodworking belt sander performs surprisingly well. Clamp it upside down in a portable workstation after putting on a 120- or 180-grit abrasive belt. There will be a few sparks as you grind, so be careful.

Remove the dust bag and blow off all sawdust before you begin so nothing catches fire. The trickiest part of using a belt sander for tool grinding is getting the precision you need. Since there’s no opportunity to install a tool rest, you’ve got to get good by hand and eye. It’s no big deal, though.

You can still overheat tools on a white wheel or a belt sander, so you need to be cautious. Don’t make sparks for more than two or three seconds before dipping the tip of the chisel or plane iron into cold water for five seconds. Keep the grinding and cooling process going until the entire bevel area shows an even, fresh surface, with a small burr of rough metal formed at the tip. With this done, you can hone and have a better-than-razor-sharp edge in a minute or two.

Building your success as a contractor always comes down to hundreds of details done right. Chisels and planes might only be a small part of your tool collection, but sometimes they’re the only things that can make you look like a hero where it really matters.

As long as they’re sharp, that is. cc

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MAXWELL PRODUCTS MAXWELL’S PICK

ENVIROSHAKE Enviroslate Roofing Natural slate is one of the most expensive roofing options going, but a new Canadian alternative looks identical from the ground, it costs 50% less than mineral slate, and it can be installed with regular roofing tools on regular roof structures. Enviroslate is the latest composite roofing material from the same people who created the cedar look-alike roofing product Enviroshake back in 1998. Enviroslate is made using the same blend of recycled plastic and wood fiber feedstocks, so the reliability behind the lifetime warranty offered is more than just wishful thinking. What surprised me most about my tests with Enviroslate is the authentic look it delivers.

It’s exceptionally similar to natural slate on the workbench, and even experienced slate installers can’t tell the difference from the ground. www.enviroshake.com/enviroslate

MAXWELL’S PICK

DeWALT DCS361M1 20V Cordless Compound Miter Saw This is the first Canadian print review you’ll see for this tool, but it won’t be the last. Ease of use for light- and medium-duty applications is the reason why. Weighing in at just over 30 lbs, this tool uses DeWALT’s standard 20V battery and crosscuts up to 8 1/8” at 90º in my tests. Although designed primarily for smaller cuts and trim, the thin-kerf blade on the DCS361M1 had no trouble chewing through 1 7/8”-thick cherry in my shop. I’m glad to see how this saw preserves the same classic features I’ve come to love in older DeWALT miter saws: super-easy miter angle adjustment that locks positively; an LED cutting light that uses the shadow of the blade to show where cuts will happen; dual sliding rails that deliver more stability than single rail designs.

The only thing missing is preset detent stops for bevel angle, but that’s no big deal. Adjustable bevel stops at 0º and 45º can be flipped out of the way for back cutting, plus an easy-to-see bevel scale makes it simple to tilt the blade over for flat cutting crown. $399 bare tool; $499 tool with one battery and charger. Available in stores late July. www.dewalt.com 56

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WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

Off The Book The Stillwells are trying to hire Dan Summerville’s carpenter to do some work on the side. But there’s a powerful reason they need to save some money.

By Rob Koci

D

an Summerville’s best carpenter and lead hand on the Stillwell job, Dave Chillingham, did the right thing (as he always did) and told his boss that Ms. Stillwell had just asked him to work on the basement drywall “off book.” That is, for cash after hours. And without Summerville’s knowledge.

It was a shock to Summerville, but not just because the drywall was on the scope of work for the reno he was currently doing for the Stillwells. He was shocked because the Stillwells always paid in full, on time, and with taxes included. Summerville checked his books: To date, the Stillwell’s had done $180,000 of work with him. Simply put, they were his best client. Ever since the Stillwells bought the century home 20 years ago, Summerville had been their contractor of choice.

Clearly, the Stillwells were about to renegotiate the basement out of the existing contract. But why? What had happened that they decided this

was okay? A little digging (Summerville’s daughter Jenny went to the same school as the Stillwells’ son) revealed a possible reason. Mr. Stillwell had recently been diagnosed with a serious illness. Jenny had heard rumours that the Stillwells wanted to try an unfunded treatment in Mexico. Not a word of it came to him from the Stillwells themselves, so they clearly either wanted to keep it quiet or the rumours simply were not true.

If it was true, should Summerville stand by and pretend that he has not heard about Mr. Stillwell’s plight? But if he gives the go-ahead to Dave to do the work, what message would that send to his employees? If he didn’t hold the line on this kind of behavior now, would the line disappear?

What would you do if you were Summerville? See the options at right.

WHAT SHOULD SUMMERVILLE DO? 1. Keep silent about what you know, let the Stillwells renegotiate the contract, and let your employee Dave do the work for cash.

2. Ask the Stillwells about the health issue, tell them you know why they might have tried to hire your guy for cash, and ask them what you can do to help?

3. Not reveal what you know, but also not allow Dave to do the work even if the Stillwells negotiate the basement out of the contract.

4. Something else? (Please give us a brief description.)

WIN!

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LAST ISSUE’S WINNER – “THE DISCOVERY” In our last case study, a renovation contractor, Brigham Wild, finds a box of cash – estimated to contain over $150,000 – hidden in the wall structure of an abusive client’s house. The client, Buster Belichek, has been threatening to take Wild to court and there is a real likelihood that Belichek may not be paid. We asked if Wild has any options other than immediately handing over the money.

Winner: Ben Kuypers, Ben Kuypers Design Group, Calgary.

“My answer is option number 2: Give the money to Belichek and do the make goods.

A good rule of thumb for any situation is, "If you are thinking of doing something you don't want anyone to find out about, don't do it.” If you are going to be a good contractor is that just dependent on how good the client is going to be or is it always? There's no real “maybe” or “when it suits me.” It is hard to resist not saying anything, in this case, when the client doesn’t know about a situation. But that is the precise moment when you need to step up and be forthright. Walk the talk.”

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HOW TO ENTER Email the number that matches your best answer, with your comments, to rkoci@canadiancontractor.ca. Please title your email “What Would You Do?” We will select the answer that impresses us the most and send the winner the DEWALT nailer.

www.canadiancontractor.ca

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