Building science: Matt Risinger

Show Notes

This episode of The Building Code features guest Matt Risinger of Risinger & Co. and The Build Show. Contrary to where he actually recorded the episode (Minneapolis, Minn.), he’s based out of Austin, TX.

Do houses really need to breathe?

While Matt was in Minnesota, he visited a job site that was using something he’s never seen before: a Minnesotan product called Tstud. Most houses are framed with insulation between 2x4s or 2x6s, leaving houses with inefficient framing. But the home on this job site was a little different due to Tstud. The Tstud is a thermally broken, insulated wall stud that brings an R-value of R20, rather than the R6.8 value of traditional studs. Matt has a video all about it – check it out here.

A common misnomer is houses need to breath … but in reality, people need to breathe, not the house. Matt posed the question, “Would you build a house with windows that only went within one inch of shutting, but didn’t actually shut?” According to him, this is the same as building a leaky house that “can breathe.” Matt and his team recommend building an airtight house and then bring air flow into the space, which is much easier, less expensive and more efficient.

Success of The Build Show

We also talked with Matt about one of his most recent YouTube videos: “This MISTAKE Nearly Put me OUT of Business.” The video talked about one of the biggest mistakes Matt has ever made in his business, which was building a house with a cost plus guaranteed maximum and not properly accounting for change orders. Matt now uses Buildertrend and has systems in place to make sure an issue like this will never happen again. He uses technology to his advantage to take the pain out of the process and make things easier. In his video, Matt focuses on the benefits of having an iPad in the field to have customers sign change orders right then and there and keep on top of other important project updates.

Matt enjoyed discussing another of his passions with us: building science. While he was working in Portland, Ore., in 2001, The Mold Crisis was in full effect. Homes only a few years old grew mold, which led homebuilders to buy the houses back. After this crisis took hold, Matt immediately wanted to learn the science behind the building, which is a passion he still weaves into his YouTube videos today.

As for using Buildertrend, Matt’s company has been using it for over two years, but the biggest gamechanger for his team was investing in our Onsite Consulting. The Buildertrend team helped them get up to speed with the platform much faster than they would have on their own. According to Matt, “That was money incredibly well spent.”

Risinger & Co.
Matt Risinger YouTube
Risinger Build Instagram
The Tstud
The Build Show: Insulated Studs
Matt Risinger + Buildertrend Video
Rehme Steel Windows & Doors
Aerobarrier
Buildertrend Onsite Consulting

The Better Way, a podcast by Buildertrend:

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Transcript

Tom Houghton:

Youโ€™re listening to โ€œThe Building Code.โ€ Iโ€™m Tom Houghton.

Paul Wurth:

Iโ€™m Paul Wurth.

Tom Houghton:

And on this episode, weโ€™re joined by Matt Risinger, owner of Risinger & Co, based in Austin, Texas. And heโ€™s the host of โ€œThe Build Showโ€ on YouTube. Matt, welcome to โ€œThe Building Code.โ€

Matt Risinger:

Guys, thanks for having me. Really appreciate it. Cool to be on with yโ€™all today.

Paul Wurth:

Hello Matt. Howโ€™s Austin, Texas right now?

Matt Risinger:

Believe it or not, โ€œThe Build Showโ€™sโ€ on the road today. So I am calling in from Minneapolis, Minnesota, where I just shot a Build Show, and Iโ€™m on my way to the airport. So Iโ€™m parked at the Mall of America right now, outside of the airport.

Paul Wurth:

Oh my, I was just there. I was. I was just there two weeks ago. It was my first time.

Matt Risinger:

Oh, is that right?

Paul Wurth:

Itโ€™s a look for humanity there. Iโ€™m telling you. You just buckle up when you get in there. Itโ€™s every person for himself.

Tom Houghton:

Itโ€™s huge.

Paul Wurth:

Especially inside the Nickelodeon zone.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Which is impressive, the rides, but itโ€™s just, a lot of hand sanitizer. That would be the recommendation.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Matt Risinger:

Yeah. This place looks pretty crazy, but Iโ€™ll tell you, Minnesota is beautiful. I just went to a job site about 45 minutes from the airport, in the woods, using a brand new type of framing than Iโ€™d ever seen before. An insulated stud called the Tstud. And man, it was really, really neat. I was impressed.

Paul Wurth:

What is unique about a Tstud? Because, act as if I donโ€™t know anything about building.

Tom Houghton:

Just act like it.

Paul Wurth:

Because that would be accurate.

Matt Risinger:

So Iโ€™m sure you know exactly everything about framing, Paul. But, for those listening who arenโ€™t familiar, most houses are framed traditionally with two-by material, either two-by-fours or two-by-sixes on 16-inch centers. And then we stuff insulation in between the framing. And itโ€™s akin to if you get out of the shower and you had to run down the street naked, would you grab a jacket to throw on, to get warm as you run down the cold street, or would you stuff insulation in between your ribs?

Paul Wurth:

Okay.

Matt Risinger:

Traditionally in America we stuff insulation in between our ribs in our houses and our ribs on our houses, the framing, are actually not particularly efficient. A stud has an R-value of about 6.8, but itโ€™s a two-by-six stud. Whereas the cavity in between, weโ€™re going to put, letโ€™s say a fiberglass batt, that might be an R19.

Matt Risinger:

And our framing counts for about a quarter of the wall space in our houses, about 24%. So if youโ€™ve got all this framing thatโ€™s not very well insulated, how do you insulate your houses and get them to be very efficient?

Matt Risinger:

Well, weโ€™ve done a lot of exterior insulation over the years, but this new framing product by these guys based out of Minnesota is a truss basically, to use as a stud, where theyโ€™ve got a two by three and a two-by-three with a criss-cross dowel and an X-shape up and down these two exterior and interior studs. And then they fill that with spray foam. And so, this two by six equivalent stud is now an R20 instead of an R6.8.

Tom Houghton:

Wow.

Matt Risinger:

So it, in effect, triples the insulation value of your studs, which could really double the insulation value of your whole wall assembly, by switching to these. Paybackโ€™s very short on this compared to other methods of energy efficiency gains. It frames like a traditional stud. It cuts like a traditional stud. Itโ€™s pretty cool. I was impressed. So we shot a big old โ€œBuild Showโ€ on it. Hopefully by the time the podcast is up, you can go to my YouTube channel and check it out.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah, weโ€™ll put a link in the show notes to that.

Paul Wurth:

Again, for those who donโ€™t know, not me. What is an R-value?

Matt Risinger:

R-value is a measure of resistance of heat flow. Your Igloo cooler or better yet your YETI cooler letโ€™s say, has a really good resistance to heat flow. So you fill your YETI cooler with ice, and even if that YETI cooler is in the back of your truck, two or three days later, you may still have ice. Where if you have an inexpensive Igloo cooler, the $50 cooler, usually the next day your ice is melted. And so, your cooler is resisting the heat flow from the outside heat to the inside where the ice is, to melt that ice.

Matt Risinger:

And thatโ€™s what our houses do as well. They resist heat flow and itโ€™s one of the four things that our houses need to control. Thereโ€™s four control layers in every house. Thereโ€™s a water control layer, an air control layer, a vapor control layer and a thermal control layer. And thatโ€™s what we usually talk about as R-value. Thatโ€™s your thermal control. Usually considered just your installation, but in this case, your framing could actually have an R-value as well and provide some insulation value to your wall.

Paul Wurth:

Thatโ€™s really unique. Whatโ€™s the name of that company? Weโ€™ll give them a shout.

Matt Risinger:

Yeah, itโ€™s called the Tstud. Their website is tstud.com. T as in thermal stud, or in your case, Tom.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. Itโ€™s the Tom stud.

Matt Risinger:

Itโ€™s the Tom stud.

Paul Wurth:

Are they available in every state or are they limited right now?

Matt Risinger:

Yeah, theyโ€™ve an interesting model there. Theyโ€™re stocked in some lumberyards in the North and Northeast, but theyโ€™re going nationwide direct, where if youโ€™re a builder in Texas and wants to use themโ€ฆ In fact, I have a builder friend whoโ€™s ordered a truckload already. Theyโ€™ll sell it to you direct, and they basically eat the shipping costs. Theyโ€™ll still sell it to you for a quote-unquote retail cost, and then theyโ€™ll eat the shipping cost. And theyโ€™ll send you a truckload to frame a whole house in Texas or California or wherever you are. Framing direct, kind of an interesting model.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. Weโ€™ll throw that up there. I saw a tweet recently. Letโ€™s just stay on this topic. You said something about a house breathing, and the common conception is that a house needs to breathe. That might be a misconception. Again, I didnโ€™t track on that. Can you explain that one?

Matt Risinger:

Sure, Paul. Itโ€™s a pretty common misnomer that houses need to breathe, and people talk about that all the time. But in fact, houses donโ€™t need to breathe, people need to breathe, right?

Paul Wurth:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Matt Risinger:

And so, when we talk about houses that need to breathe, or the people that say, โ€œOh, your house needs to breathe,โ€ I usually say, โ€œWell, why donโ€™t you just go out and build people with a window in the house that will never close, because building a leaky house is the same as building a house with a window that will never close.โ€ Would you build a house with windows that only went within one inch of shutting, but never actually shut. Thatโ€™s the same as building a leaky house. We want to build very, very airtight houses and we want to control the airflow on our terms, not when the wind is blowing.

Matt Risinger:

So a leaky house, you never can shut the windows, whereas a tight house, we want to seal it up really, really tight, as tightly as we can on the envelope, the exterior skin of the house. Thatโ€™s the windows and doors, thatโ€™s the framing, thatโ€™s all the penetrations, whether itโ€™s electrical outlets to poke through or plumbing vents, or whatever it is. We want to seal all of that up really, really tightly.

Matt Risinger:

And then we want to bring fresh air in on our terms. Just like your car, when traveling on the highway, you hit the fresh air button. That car has a mechanical system that can bring that air in, it can heat it and cool it, it can drop the humidity and it can remove the pollen before that air enters your car. Our houses have the same ability to do that for not much money, really, and for very, very high efficiency, so that we can make our houses very, very comfortable with very, very clean air. And then we can bring fresh air in on a measured, filtered basis and we can bring it in when we want it to be brought in.

Matt Risinger:

And oh, by the way, we want to bring it into the important places. 40% of your lifetime is spent in your bedroom, so wouldnโ€™t we want fresh, filtered, dehumidified cooler, heated air in our bedrooms? Yes we would, and we can do that for not that much money, really, in the scheme of building a house. Thatโ€™s my rant on air tightness.

Paul Wurth:

That makes sense.

Tom Houghton:

Thatโ€™s a good rant. From an outside perspective too, though, it makes me think that, thatโ€™s putting a lot of focus and attention and effort on the heating and AC units, that go into the house, right?

Matt Risinger:

Yep, it is, Tom. Youโ€™re right. But thereโ€™s also lots of temperate days, and thatโ€™s why we have windows that operate, right? So on temperate days when itโ€™s not a bunch of pollen in the air outside, or when itโ€™s not particularly humid or particularly hot or cold, you should open up in your windows. Let that outside air in.

Matt Risinger:

But in Omaha, just like in Texas, thereโ€™s some nasty days outside when you wouldnโ€™t want your windows wide open. And so youโ€™d want your system to operate very efficiently. And the way your system operates very efficiently is by not having to deal with a bunch of air infiltration or leaky air through the house. Instead, letting that air be very tight between the outside and the inside, and then putting high levels of insulation in, so that now we can use much, much smaller equipment. And really, we only need to do a puff of fresh air into the house. We donโ€™t have to exchange all the air in the house. Thatโ€™s how we build a very durable, efficient house.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. You mentioned windows and I want to go down that because you just did a video about change orders. What was the title? Something about a mistake that almost cost your business or something like that?

Matt Risinger:

Yeah. We made a great video with our friends at Buildertrend that I published last week, almost 100,000 views in a week.

Paul Wurth:

Yes. That was amazing.

Matt Risinger:

And I was talking about one of my bigger mistakes as a builder, was when I started out. I built a project for a client that I did cost plus a guaranteed maximum. And, my systems were not particularly well in place yet. During the course of the video while we were playing, we were showing some of my current systems. Iโ€™ve been on Buildertrend now for about 18 months, going on two years. And what a giant change. Now, I had fixed my change order issue prior to Buildertrend, but what an incredible thing to have an iPad out in the field to talk about a change order with the client, to actually do it right then and there in front of them, and have them sign it in the field. To be able to have those systems in those tools at your fingertips for a builder is incredible.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah.

Matt Risinger:

So the point of the story was, letโ€™s use technology to our advantage as builders, and thereโ€™s great tools out there like Buildertrend, that can take some of the pain and some of that organization and make it much more easy, and give you those systems and those tools and procedures, even if youโ€™re in the field. So, thatโ€™s what we talked about in the video.

Paul Wurth:

And that video seemed to totally resonate because like you said, you got a ton of views. Change order is something that we go to as well, right away. Itโ€™s one of those things that across all segments we serve, which is residential and a little light commercial, it definitely resonates. That video is really cool.

Tom Houghton:

Weโ€™ll put a link to that video in the show notes too. So make sure you go check that out.

Paul Wurth:

And I love that you plugged it, but my windows reference was not exactly that part of it. One of those 100,000 views was my wife. And the house you were in is amazing. Itโ€™s kind of like three-fourths of the way done, right?

Matt Risinger:

Yep, weโ€™re pretty close.

Paul Wurth:

Youโ€™re almost there. But you have these basically floor to ceiling windows that have that black thin trim. And thatโ€™s definitely a new style, right? A new trend. Basically you just cost me a bunch of windows. Do you want to talk about that style at all? Because, I think itโ€™s really cool.

Matt Risinger:

Yeah. Yeah. Thatโ€™s a local company thatโ€™s done well. Thatโ€™s a window thatโ€™s actually made outside of Austin, Texas. The company is about 20 years old and a builder friend of mine, whoโ€™s been in business 10 years or 15 years longer than me, was building a house 20 some years ago, that the client requested some steel windows and doors in the house, in a few specific places.

Matt Risinger:

And architects love steel windows because of the very thin sight lines that you can get with steel. When you build a wood window, you need a fair amount of wood to hold the structure of the glass and to make it structurally sound. But with steel, as strong as it is, you can have very thin sight lines. And, and thereโ€™s also just a certain feeling about a steel window and door.

Matt Risinger:

My dorm. I remember when I went to school in the nineties, was a โ€™50s dorm room that had steel windows, and they sweated in the winter time. They had some compensation on them, but they were at that point decades old and they still performed perfectly, because steel just lasts. Thereโ€™s little maintenance to do, but that house in particular has an entire window package of steel windows and doors, by a company called Rehme, R-E-H-M-E windows.

Matt Risinger:

And so 20 years ago, this builder said to his steel guy, who was actually doing fences on the job at the time, โ€œHey, this client wants these steel windows and doors. I got this company out in New York to bid it. It was super expensive.โ€ I wonโ€™t mention the name because everybody knows it, whoโ€™s a builder listening, but they know how expensive they could be. And the welder said, โ€œReally? Theyโ€™re that expensive? I bet I could make some of those. Why donโ€™t you let me give you a bid on a couple of the key windows and doors.โ€

Matt Risinger:

So here we are 20 years later, and that guy who was a fence welder also was a pretty smart engineer, and built an entire company around building these really excellent, finely crafted and customized for each project, steel windows and doors.

Paul Wurth:

You have a cut of that company, since it was your idea?

Matt Risinger:

No I donโ€™t.

Paul Wurth:

Discount at least?

Matt Risinger:

Peter, the founder, is just a great guy who I know and theyโ€™ve really refined it. Now they even have a thermally broken version where the inside and outside steel are broken, but they still sell the original version, which is not thermally broken and really feels authentic. And thatโ€™s what that house that I was building has.

Paul Wurth:

Thermally broken sounds very scientific.

Matt Risinger:

Itโ€™s a fancy term for meaning that the inside is broken thermally, meaning thereโ€™s a stop for the transfer of heat flow from the inside to the out.

Tom Houghton:

Does that mean that you could use these windows pretty much anywhere in the nation or in the world with varying climates I think, of steel windows and thinking of our cold climate here in Omaha during the winter?

Matt Risinger:

Yeah. You could use them, thatโ€™s right. I donโ€™t know about the coldest climate zones in America, whether it may be U-factors necessary for climate zones five and six. But in climate zone one and two, you technically donโ€™t need a thermal break, especially if you take the performance path of construction, which means that you basically show your inspector that the whole building meets the energy code, even if a couple of products in the building donโ€™t.

Matt Risinger:

For instance, your steel windows and doors. And so, thatโ€™s true in most parts of the country, that you could even use them in one or two places. But then the thermally broken ones, as you get to a more cold climate, youโ€™re going to want that thermal break on there for sure. And of course the thermal break is a benefit to us, even on our hot climate, like Texas. The only downside without a thermal break, besides some loss of efficiency, is that youโ€™re going to see some condensation on those windows, a couple of times a year when the conditions are right, when itโ€™s cold enough outside. Two or three days a year, youโ€™re going to get some condensation on those windows.

Tom Houghton:

We were talking about thermal breaks. Weโ€™re talking about R-values. Weโ€™re talking about efficiency. All of this seems to tie into your passion of building science.

Matt Risinger:

Yeah. Yeah. Iโ€™ve been very passionate about it for a long time, but just like I talked about in the video where a mistake was made and that got me really learning the business side and figuring out how to do change orders, Iโ€™ve learned building science also the hard way.

Matt Risinger:

I started as a builder in the early โ€˜90s with a national production builder and knew nothing about building science. We were building, frankly, not very good homes, and thereโ€™s still a few production builders out there like that. Although a lot of them had wised up and build a really good house today.

Matt Risinger:

But it was the mold crisis of 2001, when I was working in Portland, Oregon, that got me to learn and care about building a better house. I was building in a pretty rainy climate in Portland and in 2001, mold was on the national radar, because even Tom Brokaw on NBC Nightly News, was talking about the mold scare in houses and the mold crisis in America. And insurance companies were actually covering for mold problems and mold growth in houses.

Matt Risinger:

So lots of new home builders, like the one I was working for, were all of a sudden getting claims of mold in the house that was six months or a year old. And so, when I started working for this builder in Portland, Oregon, the week prior to working for them, they had just gotten sued by two or three clients and had bought back a few homes because of mold issues.

Matt Risinger:

And so, here I was this 30-year-old punk who had been building for a few years, but really didnโ€™t know much about the science and physics of buildings. I learned a lot quickly because of this mold growth issue. We were having mold growing in brand new houses.

Matt Risinger:

It was during that time that I started really learning everything I could about building science to prevent future building failures. And to this day, Iโ€™m still passionate about that because by understanding the physics of buildings or what we call building science, you can build a house thatโ€™s incredibly durable, thatโ€™s incredibly efficient, thatโ€™s incredibly healthy and itโ€™s very long lasting and you wonโ€™t have problems from clients that have issues in their houses. Thatโ€™s one of my main topics on my YouTube channel.

Paul Wurth:

So you went from Portland to Austin. Donโ€™t they both have something about keeping them weird, like โ€œKeep Portland Weirdโ€ or โ€œKeep Austin Weirdโ€? Thatโ€™s true, right?

Matt Risinger:

Yeah. Theyโ€™re definitely keep weird towns, thatโ€™s for sure.

Paul Wurth:

Theyโ€™re great towns.

Matt Risinger:

So funny.

Paul Wurth:

Howโ€™d you get to Austin?

Matt Risinger:

So I started my building career in Washington DC, and I met my wife when she was just starting in medical school. She actually transferred medical school, so I could stay in my builder job in DC. So I said, โ€œWell, when you graduate from med school, Iโ€™ll move for you, wherever you want to go for your training.โ€ So she picked a residency program she really liked in Portland, Oregon, and I flew out there to check it out and love the Pacific Northwest. So we moved there for three years.

Matt Risinger:

When she was finishing the program, we got pregnant with our first kiddo and we said, all right, where are we going to move? Should we go back East where I was from? I grew up in the Northeast, or should we move to Texas where youโ€™re from? And Iโ€™d always wanted to start my own building company. So it was a no brainer. Should we move to the East coast or should we move to Austin, Texas? And Iโ€™m sure glad I did. Austin has been a good town for me. Iโ€™ve loved living there, and itโ€™s been booming really ever since with a small dip for the recession. Other than that, weโ€™ve had incredible years in Austin in the building business.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. Right after recession, something thatโ€™s very close to us, technology companies started going to Austin in droves, right?

Matt Risinger:

Yeah. Yeah. And thereโ€™s a-

Paul Wurth:

So thatโ€™s a big Tech center now.

Matt Risinger:

โ€ฆ Thereโ€™s a huge tech center. And a lot of my clients are in the tech industry. I just finished a house last year for a guy who does data warehousing and has several server farms in Austin with his huge data company. Iโ€™ve got lots of tech executives that Iโ€™ve built houses for and it fits well with me too because my YouTube channel and the way that I talk about the science of building a better house, fits usually pretty well with tech people. They care about that stuff. They want things that are well-built and well-crafted. So, itโ€™s been a good place to have a building business.

Tom Houghton:

Since weโ€™re talking about tech and trends. Iโ€™d be curious to know, what other latest trends are you seeing in the building science space? What else are you excited about?

Matt Risinger:

One of the things that Iโ€™ve really learned a ton about recently, or even in the last couple of years, is air tightness. Iโ€™ve talked a lot about waterproofing over the years, because water is really your main priority as a builder. If you canโ€™t keep a waterproof house, youโ€™re going to have big problems, whether itโ€™s mold growth or whether itโ€™s just the phone call at midnight, โ€œHey, Iโ€™ve got a roof leak.โ€ Water is your No. 1 enemy as a builder.

Matt Risinger:

But then, after youโ€™ve conquered water and youโ€™ve made a waterproof house that keeps the framing dry, then number two is air tightness. And weโ€™ve made a lot of advances in air tightness and methods and materials for air tightness over the last five years even, I would say. And so Iโ€™ve learned a lot about that, even in the last one to two years, about how to build a very airtight house, because air is right behind water when it comes to priority. If youโ€™ve got air leaking in, you also could have water issues, because in Texas where I am, itโ€™s humid out a lot. And if that air is leaking in, itโ€™s typically going to find a cold condensing surface to condense on. And now that air drops itโ€™s humidity and youโ€™ve got mold growth or youโ€™ve got other problems inside the house.

Matt Risinger:

So we want very airtight houses, not just for energy efficiency, but also for health of our buildings and our occupants as well. And learning about those different techniques and methods has been a lot of fun for me. And thatโ€™s really, I think, the next frontier of growth for American builders too, because in Austin, Texas, weโ€™ve had to do blower tests, which is a measure of air tightness for quite a few years. But most parts of the country are not required to do that yet, but will be required in the next one to three years, to do that. So builders are going to be scrambling to try and figure out how to pass that test.

Tom Houghton:

For those of us who are currently in a house, letโ€™s say like myself. When we first moved in, the very first thing I did was added insulation to the attic to try to increase the R-value there. But we looked into doing blower door tests, because weโ€™ve been trying to make the house more energy efficient. Do you feel like the gains are there for people like remodelers, or is this just really a space for new build only?

Matt Risinger:

No. I would say that, especially when it comes to air tightness, thereโ€™s a lot of low hanging fruit in existing housing. For instance, Iโ€™ve done a couple of videos on a product called AeroBarrier and Aeroseal, which is a sister company, where you can actually retrofit a house to make it much, much tighter.

Matt Risinger:

Now itโ€™s harder to do in a fully occupied house with all the furniture in, but on a resale letโ€™s say, before you moved in, you could come in and do a process called AeroBarrier, and take your 20, 30, 40-year old house from incredibly leaky to very, very tight in just a couple of hours with AeroBarrier.

Paul Wurth:

And both from the new home construction where youโ€™re at, and from something like you just mentioned, what are some of the dollar amounts youโ€™re saving? On a month, a year, compared to the cost? Because Iโ€™m sure all the products you talked about, Matt, on the new build, theyโ€™re not less expensive than some of the traditional ways, but whatโ€™s sort of that ROI on that?

Matt Risinger:

Yeah, thatโ€™s a good question. So letโ€™s say if you had a 3,000-square-foot house that was built 20 or 30 years ago. For letโ€™s say three to $5,000, you could come in and AeroBarrier, and you could increase your insulation levels, and you could drop your utility bills in half pretty easily.

Paul Wurth:

There you go.

Tom Houghton:

Wow.

Matt Risinger:

Whatโ€™s your typical utility bills on a 2,500-square-foot house in Omaha, Nebraska?

Tom Houghton:

Itโ€™s like 150.

Matt Risinger:

Averaging 150, 200 bucks a month, letโ€™s say.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. Probably around that, yeah.

Matt Risinger:

So at $200 a month, thatโ€™s $2,400 a year in utilities. So if you could drop that in, weโ€™re talking about a thousand bucks a year in utility savings. So if you spent five grand, your paybackโ€™s five years, and every year beyond thatโ€™s gravy.

Paul Wurth:

Yep. That makes total sense.

Matt Risinger:

Thatโ€™s pretty good ROI. I mean, Iโ€™ve lived in my remodeled house now for 12 years and I keep thinking, oh, Iโ€™m going to build a new house for myself. And yet here I am, 12 years later, I still havenโ€™t done it. If we only think about three-year paybacks, we tend to be short-sighted.

Paul Wurth:

Right, exactly. Have a plan.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Well, great, Matt, this is awesome. Thanks for coming out. Thanks for all the interesting building science stuff that I totally understood.

Matt Risinger:

Glad I could get it into the zone for you guys.

Paul Wurth:

So, for those who donโ€™t know, Matt, you had mentioned โ€œThe Build Show,โ€ your YouTube channel. Youโ€™ve got over 377-plus-thousand followers on YouTube. You do really well on social. So weโ€™ll throw all of those links on the show notes. You should check it out. You have some awesome videos, not just the one that you just did for us, but across the board. Itโ€™s just great knowledge of the building industry.

Tom Houghton:

Yep.

Matt Risinger:

Paul and Tom, I really appreciate you guys having me on. Like I said, weโ€™ve been on Buildertrend now for going on two years and man, itโ€™s been so awesome. You guys have been phenomenal. And quick plug for Buildertrend. Iโ€™ll tell you, not too long after we made the switch, you guys started a service where you would actually come to us and do some training, and we paid to have two of your guys come and Iโ€™ll tell you that was money incredibly well spent, because we got up to speed on Buildertrend so much quicker. And now, here we are two years later and itโ€™s like an integrated part of life, where I can check on all my jobs, I can look at the Daily Logs, I know exactly whatโ€™s happening, I know what the Schedules are. All that is on my iPhone or on my iPad whenever I need it.

Matt Risinger:

So if you donโ€™t know a Buildertrend, you should get out there and learn about these guys. And, if you havenโ€™t taken advantage of some of their training, you should also do that if you are on Buildertrend, because thereโ€™s a lot of good business and systems help, if you use all their modules.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. We have two options. We talk about Buildertrend University, which we have every month, two days, come here and learn, so get away from your office, which is very helpful for people. And then, the other option is we come to you. We havenโ€™t really talked about that, Onsite Consulting. Weโ€™ll put links to that in the show notes as well.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. Our onsite consultants are great because they custom-tailor based on your business. They try to do some research beforehand, do some phone calls, get that all set up so that way they can maximize their time onsite to get you set up as quickly as possible.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. Everybody learns differently.

Matt Risinger:

That was huge for us.

Paul Wurth:

Accelerator for your Buildertrend usage. Yeah.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. Matt, thank you so much for your time and joining us in the show. We really love what youโ€™re doing for the industry. We wish you all the best and continued success for you and your team there.

Matt Risinger:

Thanks Tom. Thanks Paul. I appreciate it guys.

Paul Wurth:

You bet. Weโ€™ll see you in Austin, Omaha or at a trade show soon, Iโ€™m sure.

Tom Houghton:

Somewhere between.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah.

Matt Risinger:

All right guys. Itโ€™s all good yโ€™all.

Paul Wurth:

Appreciate ya.

Tom Houghton:

Thanks.

Paul Wurth:

Talk to yโ€™all soon.

Tom Houghton:

Okay.

Paul Wurth:

Bye-bye.

Tom Houghton:

Love what you heard? Donโ€™t forget to rate and subscribe to our podcast so you can hear from more guests that will benefit your business. Also, please check out our show notes page for more information on what we discussed on this episode. You can find it at buildertrend.com/podcast. Thanks for listening and weโ€™ll see you next time on โ€œThe Building Code.โ€

Paul Wurth:

Appreciate ya.


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