Insights & Inspiration - What is the purpose of this blog?

When I began my carpentry apprenticeship in 2004 it was sometimes an overwhelming learning experience. I’m sure most tradespeople felt that way during the first few days, or weeks, or months. I had grown up with a carpentry background, mainly doing labour & painting in the summer during high school, but now I was doing work that mattered, where a nail in the wrong spot could create a roof leak or a poor measurement meant that a window wouldn’t fit. Mistakes would cost time and money.

You need 10,000 hours to be an expert in something and working 40-50 hours a week gets you up to 10,000 hours quickly. After a certain point muscle memory takes over and the different tasks flow quickly and easily. But you can only stuff so many batts of insulation in a wall and then seal it up with vapour barrier before you ask yourself ‘Why does it need to be done like this?'

I like to get to the bottom of things and know the reasons behind decisions. Trade school was important, with an emphasis on doing the job right, but didn’t really get into the why I was looking for. I discovered Fine Homebuilding, which has a big emphasis on building science and continuing to look for a better way to build. This was something you could really get into. Seeing other perspectives and methods for common tasks, like framing a wall or installing window casing was eye opening. The magazine is based in the US and the range of climates requires different building methods to handle everything from Arizona’s dry heat to Michigan’s wide range of temperatures. A lot of this was applicable to building in Eastern Ontario and I ate it up.

Once I moved to the estimating team at Quality Homes & Renovations it was another learning curve. Extrapolating my experience into material take offs and labour estimates came quickly. However, it was a new way of working with customers. The challenge is ensuring that my customer and I both have the same final image in our head, and that it is communicated to the crew on site properly. Thoughtful questions and planning ensure everyone is happy at the end of the project

I have two goals with this blog: the first is to educate about the different building materials and methods used by Quality Homes & Renovations and learn about the building science behind them. The second is to look behind the scenes at our estimating process and how we gather information to present the customer with a scope of work and contract price. I hope you stick with us and enjoy learning about building with Quality Homes & Renovations!