November 10, 2024 • 30 mins
What if you could build your forever home without breaking the bank? Join us on the Carolina Contractor Show as we unravel the secrets to balancing quality and cost in home construction with our special guest, general contractor Donnie Blanchard. Our conversation starts with some light-hearted banter, including a flight of fancy where Donnie's charm lands Donald Trump on the Joe Rogan podcast. We quickly steer back to reality, diving into the Carolina Panthers’ quarterback quandaries, and how those sports lessons oddly mirror challenges in the housing market today.
Navigating fluctuating interest rates while planning a new build can feel like playing a high-stakes game of chess. Eric and Donnie share insights on making smart financial moves, like the potential benefits of refinancing and the importance of understanding long-term costs. They stress the need for a reliable builder who won't compromise on quality, especially when crafting a custom or forever home. From excellent insulation to thoughtful design choices, we highlight ways to make proactive investments that promise long-term savings and enhance the comfort of your home.
Ever wondered how to save big on building materials? Discover intriguing tales of homeowners sourcing discounted materials and the rising trend of luxury vinyl plank flooring as a cost-effective, stylish choice. Learn how quartz countertops are gaining ground over granite for their low maintenance appeal, and hear Donnie's personal journey to becoming a certified cabinet dealer. Tune in to uncover practical strategies to make your construction dreams a reality without sacrificing quality for cost.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And welcome boys and girls to another exciting,
action-packed edition of theCarolina Contractor Show.
My name is Eric Smith.
I work for Home Builder Supplyin Wilson-Greenville.
Across from me, or next to me,or above me or below me,
depending on your video screenorientation is general
contractor Donnie Blanchard,also owner of Sure Top Roofing,
also owner of Blanchard BuildingCompany, and he is also the
(00:20):
reason Donald Trump is going onthe Joe Rogan podcast.
He's got his connections andsaid Mr Trump, you need to do
this.
And the Donald said he's goingto do it.
So way to go, donnie,congratulations, donnie's and
Donnie's working together.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I never thought Donald would be such a popular
name growing up.
Now you're cool.
It being cool depends on whoyou ask.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah, that's both of us, man.
We're not going to really talkfootball because there's only
one undefeated team left, andthat's mine, kansas City Chiefs.
So there's really nothing elseto talk about.
Comes football, would you agree?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I would, and I want to add a side note there Did you
realize that they play thePanthers?
I want to say, the last week inNovember those tickets are
going for over a grand andobviously it's not to see the
Panthers.
So you know, we had a chance ata couple of tickets and it
ended up being a scheme.
So a realtor that I'm buildinga house for invited us to the
game and the tickets didn't endup going over so well and thank
(01:11):
goodness she caught that.
But I told my significant otherhey, you know, maybe Taylor
Swift will be there and she wason board after that.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Do you think making Bryce sit down and putting in
the red rifle has proven not tobe the problem with Carolina now
?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
It's week to week, to be honest with you, and as a
fan I'm just really frustrated.
And you know there were twoweeks in a row where I called
our very own Mick Mixon you knowvoice of the Panthers for so
many years and he's sinceretired.
I called Mick and I said look,you got to tune back in.
I just watched two Panthergames from start to finish and I
don't think I've done that in afew years, to be honest.
So I don't know that AndyDalton was a long-term solution
(01:52):
in the first place, but with himtaking the reins I just think
these NFL teams and defensiveschematics are so good and the
coaches are so smart that theyjust need a couple of weeks of
game film and they can pick thatguy apart.
But coming in sort of like theCam Newton thing back in, he
killed it his first season andhe had a sophomore slump because
they watched a year's worth ofgame film and they knew exactly
(02:12):
how to handle the dude.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
So you got to adapt nonstop in the NFL to pull it
off and you remember when Camcame back for a short stint in
his first game back, it wasgreat and everybody got excited.
As a matter of fact, we hadmick mixing on the show right
after that game and then theywent right back to losing again
because they all just said, okay, let's review the tape.
(02:34):
And I think what we're seeingwith carolina I watched the game
last week and start to finish,which, like you, was the first
time I've watched a game inyears start to finish with
carolina.
Their defense is horrible andhaving an arguably better
quarterback subbing in there forBryce, he still has no target.
This is a top-down problem.
(02:56):
You don't have targets.
Your D is bad.
Sitting your QB isn't theproblem right here, it is
overall management selection,and just be glad that they get a
number one pick next seasonprobably the way they're playing
, though they'll probably tradeit for a bag of balls or
something.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah, he's had a year to get everything organized and
situated around, you know,tailored around his skill sets,
and so still not able to pull itoff.
And I'm not pulling the plug onBryce Young, but the rumors are
that he may be traded and thedude had a pedigree that won the
Heisman Trophy in college, butI just don't think that that, or
his size, translates very wellto the NFL.
(03:34):
That being said, cj Stroud, whowe took Bryce Young in front of
last year, had a great season.
He's kind of stinking it upthis year.
So, um, it may be.
The same thing I've said aboutcam, that sophomore slump is a
real thing.
So I don't know, I don't.
I don't want to give up on theguys, but I do know life was
much better in the fall when thepanthers were rocking it out
and winning just about everygame.
(03:56):
You know cam used to givechildren in the stands the, uh,
the, the football after everytouchdown and he did the, the
dab which I wasn't, wasn't, youknow it, whatever the kids liked
it, the Superman thing.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
And then he started wearing flowers on his head and
it all went to hell that may bethe point that it turned on him
You're right, but I will nevertake away from Cam what he did
for the team and the good timesand how he treated the fans.
For sure, I think his skillsetstarted to diminish, which is
normal, but he didn't believe itin his brain and he couldn't
cash those checks, much likeAaron Rogers and the jets All
right.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
So we got to cut it off, we got to stop this.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
We're going to turn this into a hour and a half show
Just talking about football.
Not that we don't want to dothat, but this is the Carolina
contractor show.
What we'd like to talk about isyour house.
I always direct you to thewebsite first,
thecarolinacontractorcom, andyou can find the links to say
this show on YouTube becausewe've got it up there.
You can find the Facebook andthe IG and any way you want to
(04:52):
contact us.
Past shows we've got hundreds.
Cool little fact, donnie do youknow?
Of all the gazillion podcaststhat are out in the world, the
majority of podcasts have threeepisodes or less banked.
Yeah, People do it a couple oftimes and that's it.
And we've got over close to 250.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
There's a thing on our where we upload our podcast
and it does a tracker and itshowed we were I want to say we
were top 800 in the world,something like that, in terms of
downloads and everything.
So I don't know how manypodcasts there are out there,
but I do know that we have a lotof loyal listeners and we
appreciate the heck out of it.
I watch that ticker every time Iupload a podcast and totally my
fault, I own this one, but I'mclosing three houses out this
(05:34):
month and to have three jobs allin the closing phase, you know
each, each one has a 40, 50 itempunch list and so there's more
to it than just keeping thingsrolling in the middle third of
the house or even when you'regetting it out of the ground.
There's so much more to it whenyou close one out and I want to
apologize to everybody that hasgone a week or so without me
getting a new podcast upload andit's like they're hungry for it
(05:55):
.
As soon as I drop it it justgoes.
You know 800,000.
And that makes me feel so good.
So when I close these housesout, I'm putting my word out
there on the air that we'regoing to do a lot better.
I'm going to get all theYouTubes produced and cut, and
so we're going to have a lot ofgreat content here shortly.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
And I want to say that is the most perfect,
unplanned introduction totoday's show topic.
It's where you can save moneywhen you are building a house.
And again, as we mentioned,Donnie's not only a general
contractor, he owns BlanchardBuilding Company and he's
closing houses and he buildsthem and so he knows the ins and
outs.
And when you're building ahouse and I'm talking to you,
(06:32):
Donnie, as a home buyer in thiscase it's just stressful, All
the things you got to thinkabout.
There's so many choices and youdon't know where to go.
All you hear is houses cost somuch and you don't want to give
up some of your dreams or designaspirations when building a
house and you don't necessarilyhave to give them all up to save
(06:55):
a fair amount of money.
So today what we're going totalk about is those places you
can save money when you arebuilding a house.
So there's no better guest tohave on than our host, Donnie
Blanchard.
Real quick, we've talked, Donnie, a lot about interest rates.
You were the great predictorand said interest rates would
get cut starting this year.
So a lot of people think thisis the opportunity for me to buy
(07:15):
a house because the interestrates are going to go down and
that's not necessarily meaningyou're going to save a lot of
money.
So I just took a real quickmath problem here and I made it
so simple.
I'm going to give the price ofa house at $350,000.
We're not talking points, taxes, insurance, just you owe
350,000 on a mortgage.
The current interest rate, as arecording of this show, was
(07:36):
7.197%.
That's about 2375 a month,2,375.
You're waiting for that fullpoint drop.
It might take into next yearbefore you get it.
You'll save $232 a month if youget that one point drop.
You might lose out on the houseyou wanted or the lot to buy
because you're waiting for thatdrop.
(07:57):
And say it goes from seven downto five, that same mortgage
goes from $23751,880.
That's a big chunk of change.
That's like $500 a month.
But depending on what type ofhouse you're buying, as in your
forever home or a temporary, youcan't let the interest rates
rule the roost?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
No, because you can always refinance and I know that
a lot of folks just want toplay it super safe and they're
just cautious as a lifestyle andthose folks may not want to
take the jump.
But there's also people whohave growing families and
they're outgrowing their currentliving situation and maybe they
found an off-market deal andthere's a time to jump on it,
(08:37):
even with a higher interest rate, and I really think that that
higher interest rate onlyimpacts you when you're talking
$500,000, $700,000 plus house.
I don't think that it has thesame impact if you're talking
$200,000, $300,000 house, whichthere aren't very many of in
(08:57):
terms of inventory.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Well, when it comes to building a house and trying
to save money, peopleautomatically think quality gets
skipped and so they don't wantto.
You know, try to cut a corneris not the right phrase.
They don't want to try to beconscious of their budget
because they think they're goingto get cheaper material or a
cheaper build or uh, it's justnot going to be quality.
But there's the old sayingcheap, fast and and quality, you
(09:22):
can pick any two, you can'thave all three.
But in your world of buildinghouses, quality doesn't go out
the window when you're trying tosave money in the bill.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
No, and I'm glad you said that, shout out to a guy
named Jeff Reynolds.
You know, he was my heating andair sales guy for years and
years and he was just such awhiz with all that and he used
to tell me that he would tellhomeowners that, and I think
that that's just a realistic wayto look at it.
He worded it a littledifferently.
He said there's good, quick andcheap.
Pick any of the two, but youcan't have all three.
(09:51):
So I kind of take that to heart.
As a contractor, subcontractor,I want to get it done as
efficiently as I can financially, I want it to happen in a
timely manner and of course, thequality has to be there.
So I think if, as a businessowner or subcontractor, if you
(10:12):
can figure out a way to pull offall those, then that's the
perfect recipe to be a successin business.
But it is hard A lot of times.
If it's cheap, it's going totake forever, the quality might
not be there, but for mostpeople I think that's really a
good rule of thumb to live by.
And I want to go back to ourprevious point.
We were talking about theinterest rate thing.
I thought of something when youwere saying what you did last.
That, and I said it really onlyimpacts you when you have a um,
(10:34):
you know, half million and updollar house.
But I think the rule of thumbwe talked about a long time ago
and this is just for easy mathsake is every point of an
interest rate affects yourmortgage.
For the 30 year mortgage itaffects it by 20,000 on a
hundred.
So that's one of those thingswhere if you feel like the
interest rate could drop threepoints which I don't think it
(10:56):
ever will, not in the nextdecade that's a chunk of change.
That's 100,000 for every500,000.
So if you're buying that bighouse and that's just another
thing to take into considerationand another reason to wait If
you have a source that says, hey, we know interest rates are
going down in the next two orthree months, I think the big
(11:17):
question to ask them is well,how much Going down doesn't
really mean anything if it's noteven a point, because that's
not a $100,000 swing in anaverage mortgage.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
I think that's good advice because, again, if you're
buying a house and having itbuilt, you've got so many
questions and things you'rethinking about.
It's really hard to balance itand it's why it's important to
have a good builder who couldtalk you off the ledge and let
you know that, hey, BlanchardBuilding Company is here.
We're going to make sure youdon't get poor quality or poor
workmanship, Because if you hadto pick two, if I did give me
(11:48):
quality first, and I'm willingto wait for it With a custom.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
That's the name of the game A custom.
It doesn't really happen fastbecause you're making decisions
along the way and a lot of thesepeople who are building their
forever houses.
If you put them in a box andsaid, hey, we can't get started
until you make these 100decisions, they'll never get
started.
It's a situation where youalmost need to see the framework
.
You need to see the structureof the house.
You need to stand there atcertain times of day and see how
the sunlight comes through thewindows and then you start
(12:14):
picking things out.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Well, that's why some of the suggestions we have on
this episode of the CarolinaContractor Show are going to be
proactive investments, thingsyou can do almost before you
even have the framing up.
Things to think about to savemoney that will still give you a
good quality build, and a lotof these things can save you
thousands, maybe tens ofthousands.
We know excellent insulation,done right, will save you so
(12:37):
much money over the life of ahouse.
But it all starts with thedesign of the house.
You got to come up with yourbasic idea and the KISS acronym
works, the keep it simple,stupid.
Just you know, if you're goingto do a custom house, you can
still keep it kind ofstraightforward, right?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, getting into to cut up designs.
You know the fancy details justreally get expensive and you
know it's hard to tell a personno, because nobody wants a
cookie cutter house.
I guess some people.
If you're going to sell it,it's just a place to live and
they're realistic about that.
But it seems to be in my worldthat everybody's building their
forever house with me and that'sa huge compliment.
(13:14):
But, um, if I were to getinvolved during the design phase
, um, I would say that, um, usecommon sizes for windows and
doors.
Uh, that that's, that's a bigdeal.
Uh, 10 foot ceilings are thenew thing and not the new thing.
But but everybody wants that.
And when you do a 10 footceiling, usually you do a eight
foot door just to look right.
(13:35):
A six foot eight door doesn'tlook right with three and a half
feet over top of the doorwaywith a 10 foot ceiling.
So anything that's non-standardin the house, that that takes
months to get in and it's not asbad as it used to be, but
anything custom, special order,you know that, being in the
supply industry, it takesforever to get in and you know
your front door.
That's the main thing you seewhen you pull up to a house.
(13:57):
I might argue that the roofmight be in contention with that
.
But anyway, those front doors,what are you seeing them go for
5,000, plus for the fancy ones.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Oh the sky's the limit because you have so many
options.
Oh the sky's the limit becauseyou have so many options.
And, like you said, once youget out of a standard 3068 or
something you get out of astandard entry-sized door,
whatever your mind can come upwith there is somebody that can
make it the most.
I've seen was quoted somebodyat like 28 and change for a door
, 28,000, not 2,800.
And it was going to be six toeight weeks and the first build
(14:28):
came incorrect.
So it took them, you know,several months just to get to
the entry door windows.
Same thing there's lots of fancycuts you can get, but if you
and I'm a fan of single hung howmany times you open that double
hung?
It doesn't add a lot to theprice, but you will save a
little bit if you go with asingle hung.
And, as we've talked many timeson the show, windows today are
(14:50):
better than the super expensivewindows of just a decade ago
when it comes to our values andkeeping the cold out in the
winter and the heat in, and viceversa in the summer.
So there's no need to sit thereand go with the super duper big
name brand windows because ithas, you know, oil rub bamboo,
wood, trim around it orsomething like that that sounds
(15:11):
like a good looking window, butno, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Single hung Energy Star used to preach single hung
all the way because they'recheaper.
You don't have any break in theseal around that top sash.
That being said, if you have asecond story, those are going to
be nearly impossible to clean.
You're going to have to hire aroofer to get on the outside.
So you know the double, theadvantage of the double hung,
and I want to.
I don't want to speak for you,but I'm guessing 20 or $30 a
window is probably about what itis.
(15:34):
The average house has 20windows.
So you're talking $600 savings.
But if you're a stickler forcleaning the windows, then
that's going to be an issue.
And are you seeing a trend withblack windows?
Speaker 1 (15:46):
I'm not going to say it's a trend with black windows.
I'm going to say it's moved,definitely 50-50.
It used to almost be white trimin and out, but now I'm seeing
darker trims and some of thewood trims are coming in.
That would be on the interiorside of the house.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Well, the deal with the black or the bronze windows
is they were hard to get invinyl, so they weren't very
affordable.
And when I built my house, what?
12 years ago?
Aluminum clad was the only wayto get a darker finish like that
.
And now they have fiberglassoptions, which I'm a fan of, but
the fiberglass is pricey, itcomes in just under the aluminum
clad.
And then vinyl is the way to goin terms of something that's
(16:19):
affordable, and I say that, andthey still charge a ton and I'm
thinking it's a painted product,I wanna say and nobody's seen
it stand the test of time yet.
So if the front of your housefaces south, you get a lot of
sun exposure and you have apainted vinyl window.
I don't know what that lookslike in 20 years, but I do know
that most of the bigmanufacturers are coming out
with a line of the black vinyljust to meet the demand.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
You talked about, donnie.
When you pull up to the houseyou see that entry door, but
then that roof sets the wholehouse from the street.
How important is the roof to ahouse?
Speaker 2 (16:53):
It's very important, I think, and when I build a
house that has as much squarefootage in the attic that's
unused as it does in the livingspace, it kind of stings.
But then you walk out front andit looks beautiful.
So that just seems to be whateverybody wants, and if you're a
person who stores everything inthe attic, then maybe you can
justify that.
But in terms of cost, the wholetheme of the show is how do you
keep prices down when you build?
(17:14):
And, um, that everything isabout square footage, your roof
square footage, your interiorsquare footage.
And really, when you're talkingabout things like paint,
sheetrock flooring, there's nohiding that square footage.
So I think that, um, that youknow a simple roof line, not cut
up, you know, not a lot.
Maybe throw a gable or two outfront just to try to break up
(17:35):
the front elevation, but, uh,the roof line definitely has an
impact.
And since you're on the roof,I'm going to get on my little
soapbox about, uh, dormers andchimneys.
You know, um, dormers are, uh,one of those things where
sometimes I don't know, I don'treally like them that much.
I mean, you could say that theylook good in that colonial
style house that has the roofwith the three dormers spaced
(17:55):
out.
You know, if my framer turnedme on to this, I was brand new
in the business and he said,dude, I hate a dormer and I, you
know, explain why.
And there are as many cuts in adormer as there are building a
whole room of a house and if youthink about all the corners and
the, it's got to have a roof onit, it's got to be flashed all
the way around and from aroofing standpoint it's just a
(18:16):
leak prone area.
Same with a chimney.
When there was a call formasonry chimneys back in the day
, I get it, you got the biggestchimney on the block.
You know brick or stone andit's beautiful and you know
that's how you heat your homeand it needs to be good and all
the things and efficient andbulky.
But now, with vent free gasfireplaces that most people have
(18:38):
, or even with a ventedfireplace, you don't need a
masonry chimney.
And a masonry chimney from the,from the bottom up, it has to
have a thicker footing than whatthe rest of the house has to
have.
You've got to get it up.
It's a multi-phase thing.
You've got to get it up, youknow, to the foundation or the
floor level, and then you haveto frame around it and you have
to let the Mason come back inafter, usually closer to the
finished stage of the house touh put a veneer on the inside of
(19:02):
the house, and it's just amessy thing.
And the big deal with me iswhere it protrudes through the
roof.
You know you've got, um, aporous product, meaning either
the block or the brick or, uh,even the rock or the mortar
between the rock.
You know all that can canabsorb water, and so you've got
a porous product above a roofline and I just think that's a
big no-no, unless you just gotto have that look Um, no no,
(19:23):
unless you just got to have thatlook Crazy story.
We had a Parada Homes house inElon.
You know multi-million dollarhome.
It had two chimneys that wentup about 13 feet above the roof
line and they were both fake.
They didn't do anything.
It was only gas fireplaces inthe whole house.
The chimneys kept leaking andit's a popular thing for a brick
mason.
I know that everybody can't seemy hands, but you step it out
three quarters for a brick andyou step it back in, just kind
(19:46):
of like a neat little detailfrom the street.
Well, the builder and I gottogether and we couldn't he
couldn't find the leak.
And everybody points the fingerat the roof and I'm thinking
I've already checked out theflashing that it's not.
It's not me, it's, it's, it'sgotta be the masonry.
So we get on rain suits, we, weharness off in the middle of a
rainstorm, get up on the roof,just kamikaze style and just
(20:07):
crazy, and we're up there on theroof and basically we were
watching the flow of the wateraround those chimneys Because,
mind you, this is a parade ofhomes, house and it was first
place house and you got a leakin a multimillion dollar home
that you can't figure out.
Well, I take a eight penny nailand I go to the head joint in
between two bricks, which is thevertical joint.
I go to the head joint and withtwo fingers, when it was
(20:27):
saturated, I pushed that eightpenny nail right through,
showing that when the mason putall that together, the bed joint
is on the bottom of the brickand so it normally goes all the
way through that three and ahalf inches the head joint.
If you've ever seen a brickmason do this, they slap the
bottom, boom and then they skimthe side where the head joint is
.
So the vertical joint in abrick doesn't go all the way
(20:48):
through that three and a halfinches, and this one had less of
a head joint than even what'snormal.
So that was what's going on andthat brick was absorbing all
that water and of course it wasstepped out three quarters of an
inch for several brick coursesup and it was almost like the
water was running down a set ofsteps and running inside the
house every time it hit the nexthorizontal surface.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Is it possible?
Speaker 2 (21:15):
to purchase materials in large quantities when you're
building one house, or is thatreally not practical, donnie?
It depends on if you've got themeans to store the materials or
if you have a trailer and a wayto load and unload those
materials.
Because you know, I can make aphone call right now and by
lunchtime tomorrow I can have awhole house worth of lumber on
the ground and the supply house.
Of course they charge for that,but, um, you know, I, the first
time this has ever happened,I've got a, a really neat
(21:36):
homeowner, um, just awesome guy.
And about a month after westarted the house he said I got
my license.
I said, well, cool, great, whatlicense?
He said my contractor license.
I said what do you need me for?
But anyway, he said the bank.
But anyway, no, he's, he's,he's got his contractor license.
Super smart guy.
(21:57):
And for about a year heaccumulated all the materials
for his house and so he found adeal on insulation and he stored
that.
He had the means trucks,trailers, skid steers to load
and unload.
He bought about 50 percent ofthe framing package and he got
it all at a discount.
He bought all the osb for thesidewalls and the roof and of
course he just stored all thatand and maybe by the time we got
(22:18):
around to getting into the jobsite a handful of stuff had
gotten wet or you know, it justwas unusable.
But for for the most part youknow that that's possible.
But what it takes to pull thatoff is is not going to be
friendly to the averagehomeowner or to the builder.
So I would say buying in bulkunless it's things like flooring
you get a good deal on flooring.
You can put that in your garagefor the time being, but not for
(22:40):
the whole house, but a fewitems, yeah, you can do that.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
And you know what?
I think we're going to have tomake two shows out of this,
Donnie, because we've got somuch to talk about, but that's
fine.
I want to jump into anotherthing about where you can save
money.
I have hardwood, hardwood,hardwood, pine floors in my
house, yeah, and they need to befinished, refinished, and my
wife likes the idea of theluxury vinyl plank and I talked
to a guy who did flooring and heprefers that because he said
sanding, staining and sealingand finishing.
(23:11):
He said it takes a lot of workversus the luxury vinyl plank.
He said you have so manyoptions and it can be put down
relatively faster.
He said you know, I pull upsome quarter round and replace
that.
Do you have any of the luxuryvinyl or do you have an opinion
on using that when buildinghouse versus like genuine
(23:32):
hardwood floors?
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Oh yeah, every house that I have right now has LVP,
and so that that it it's reallycome a long way.
I want to say about 10, 12years ago, maybe a little bit
before that, it was one of thoseproducts that you couldn't use
in a wet area, so itdisqualified itself from being
in bathrooms, kitchens and soforth.
But, um, they re-engineered ormost companies re-engineered the
(23:53):
core the core for the lvp andmade it waterproof.
So literally they guarantee itto the point where they say it
can be understanding water for acouple of days.
When the water subsides, youcan take it up, let everything
dry out and put the same floorback down.
So I don't think I've seen aworst case scenario like that.
But it's the most popular thingwith the most options, the most
colors and I think it looksphenomenal.
(24:15):
You know you don't have to justgo with a hardwood pattern
anymore.
They have things that replicatetile and you know just a lot
more options they've ever hadand the product's better than
it's ever been Would it take alot of work.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
if somebody else said I don't want it, I want to go
back to the hardwoods that areunderneath it.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah, oh, no for sure , you would just have to sand
and finish the hardwood.
I thought you meant is itreversible, like, can you flip
it upside down?
You have two different designs?
Yeah, exactly, well, no, thebig deal that they pulled off
too.
Part of the waterproofattribute for the LVP is that
you used to have to put down anunderlayment under your, your
flooring, and so, uh, peoplewould, before they put down
(24:56):
laminates.
What it was the slang, or, uh,floating floor was the slang
before they, um, put the LVPacronym on it.
But, um, they figured out a wayto coat the bottom of most of
the LVP so that you don't haveto do the underlayment on it.
And the underlayment, by theway, was super expensive, and so
you know you're talking anextra five $600 on a job just to
get the underlayment.
And they figured out how to putall that into one package and
it's.
(25:16):
It's just a really good product.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Some other material costs you can save on is
fixtures and hardware.
There's cabinet makers.
I know there's a long wait forcustom cabinets.
There's cabinet makers.
I know there's a long wait forcustom cabinets you dealing with
that, oh yeah for sure.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
And um, I want to jump right back and I'll come
back to cabinets, the, theshopping for fixtures online.
Um, like you mentioned,doorknobs, hardware that's all
easy peasy.
You can't put your hands on itbefore you buy it, but a lot of
times those things, if you buyone or two, you can have it next
day and just check it out andmake sure it passes the test.
The big thing that I see islight fixtures and plumbing
fixtures.
There's a markup.
(25:48):
When somebody has a big, fancyshowroom, they have to charge
for that because they've got alot of overhead.
They've got people working onsalary and with the plumbing
supply house in their defense.
You know they've got thecounter guys in the back who
deal with the plumbers and thesmall parts that the average
homeowner wouldn't have to thinkabout.
But I have seen some of myhomeowners in the last two years
save as much as $10,000 to$20,000 by being patient,
(26:10):
shopping for the good deals,going bathroom by bathroom.
They figure out the colorscheme they want, whether it be
dark, bronze, black fixturesseem to be a hit, and here
lately, what's it called?
It's a brushed gold color, soit's like a brushed brass.
Maybe it's a softer brass andnever did I ever, after living
with my grandparents for a whiledid I think brass would make a
comeback, but just a differentversion of it.
(26:31):
And once you get that colorscheme, you know you can really
find some good deals online withthat stuff.
And it's a popular wives' taleto say that they sell something
different online than they sellin the big box stores, and we
talked about that three or fouryears ago on the show.
Can you imagine the logisticsnightmare of a manufacturing
company having to put you know adifferent this product for
(26:54):
Lowe's in one box, this productfor Amazon in another box?
And I just want to say that, interms of the theme of the show,
that LVP, choosing to go withLVP and buying your plumbing and
light fixtures online areprobably the biggest game
changers that we talked aboutall day.
Sorry not to be long winded, butfast forward to cabinets.
Cabinets are all over the place.
(27:14):
I personally am a conspiracytheorist when it comes to this
because I think in my hometownthe cabinet salespeople have
colluded.
The price of cabinets doubledalmost in a 12 month time span.
You know the same house it was18 grand.
All of a sudden it was 32, 35grand and I'm thinking you know
what happened and the cost ofeverything went up and I think
they took full advantage of thatand just jumped right in there.
(27:37):
But we did the TV show lastyear and we got hooked up with a
company on the other side ofRaleigh and it actually took me
forever because they don't, theydon't want to do this.
You just have to be persistent.
And I got certified as acabinet dealer so now I'm savvy
with the design part.
I know what goes where and Ican get my cabinets at a
(27:57):
fraction of what they were beingsold to me for before.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Sweet hey, uh, last thing countertops granite going
out of fashion and quartz is thenew trend.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
I mean, that's what I'm seeing.
Yeah, I have granite because Ibuilt before quartz jumped them
in the popularity category, butI will say that my granite
around my sink and I havegranite in a bathroom that I
have to not maintain but I haveto seal and I'm not good about
it.
To be honest.
You're supposed to seal andmaintain it a lot more frequent
(28:31):
than I do, but I am seeingquartz and quartzite you know
alternatives to that just reallysteal the show and it's a good
look, I can't deny.
Quartz doesn't have pores, soyou don't have all the sealing
and the maintenance to deal with.
So I think that may be why theylook better and they're less
maintenance, and who could askfor more than?
Speaker 1 (28:49):
that Price difference .
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yeah, quartz is a bit more, but it's not thousands,
it's hundreds more, so it'spretty darn close.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
So when you're building that house, that's
definitely an investment worthmaking at the build stage
because that's not cutting acorner, but it's a good
investment.
That's absolutely right, yes,sir.
Well, donnie, we're going tohave to make two parts of the
show, because there's so manyplaces as you go through the
build of a house that you cansave money and not sacrifice
quality, and you again, beingthe owner of Blanchard Building
(29:18):
Company, a general contractor, Ithink a lot of people want to
hear the details you have andthe advice you have when
building a house in places youcan save money.
So next week could we like dothe second half and hit some
other subjects where you cansave money while building a
house?
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Let's do it, man.
I'm excited I see what we gotleft to talk about and we didn't
scratch the surface.
No, we couldn't because it wascourts Nice.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
We'll do that.
So hit the websitethecarolinacontractorcom.
You can see the show on YouTube.
You can download it eventually.
If you have a question about itor something you want to know
where you can save money whenbuilding a house, ask the
contractors the button on thewebsite you click and that goes
right to Donnie.
There's an opportunity of a ofa lifetime, so to speak, because
it's your chance to asksomebody who builds houses where
(30:03):
can I save money or should I gowith this or that?
And you'll get a response fromhim.
And next week we'll hit some ofthe other subjects.
We've got like three or fourcategories we want to talk about
.
So we'll have a Carolinacontractor show part D.
So until then, we will see younext week on the Carolina
contractor show.
Take care everybody.
And welcome boys and girls to another exciting,
action-packed edition of theCarolina Contractor Show.
My name is Eric Smith.
I work for Home Builder Supplyin Wilson-Greenville.
Across from me, or next to me,or above me or below me,
depending on your video screenorientation is general
contractor Donnie Blanchard,also owner of Sure Top Roofing,
also owner of Blanchard BuildingCompany, and he is also the
(00:20):
reason Donald Trump is going onthe Joe Rogan podcast.
He's got his connections andsaid Mr Trump, you need to do
this.
And the Donald said he's goingto do it.
So way to go, donnie,congratulations, donnie's and
Donnie's working together.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I never thought Donald would be such a popular
name growing up.
Now you're cool.
It being cool depends on whoyou ask.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah, that's both of us, man.
We're not going to really talkfootball because there's only
one undefeated team left, andthat's mine, kansas City Chiefs.
So there's really nothing elseto talk about.
Comes football, would you agree?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I would, and I want to add a side note there Did you
realize that they play thePanthers?
I want to say, the last week inNovember those tickets are
going for over a grand andobviously it's not to see the
Panthers.
So you know, we had a chance ata couple of tickets and it
ended up being a scheme.
So a realtor that I'm buildinga house for invited us to the
game and the tickets didn't endup going over so well and thank
(01:11):
goodness she caught that.
But I told my significant otherhey, you know, maybe Taylor
Swift will be there and she wason board after that.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Do you think making Bryce sit down and putting in
the red rifle has proven not tobe the problem with Carolina now
?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
It's week to week, to be honest with you, and as a
fan I'm just really frustrated.
And you know there were twoweeks in a row where I called
our very own Mick Mixon you knowvoice of the Panthers for so
many years and he's sinceretired.
I called Mick and I said look,you got to tune back in.
I just watched two Panthergames from start to finish and I
don't think I've done that in afew years, to be honest.
So I don't know that AndyDalton was a long-term solution
(01:52):
in the first place, but with himtaking the reins I just think
these NFL teams and defensiveschematics are so good and the
coaches are so smart that theyjust need a couple of weeks of
game film and they can pick thatguy apart.
But coming in sort of like theCam Newton thing back in, he
killed it his first season andhe had a sophomore slump because
they watched a year's worth ofgame film and they knew exactly
(02:12):
how to handle the dude.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
So you got to adapt nonstop in the NFL to pull it
off and you remember when Camcame back for a short stint in
his first game back, it wasgreat and everybody got excited.
As a matter of fact, we hadmick mixing on the show right
after that game and then theywent right back to losing again
because they all just said, okay, let's review the tape.
(02:34):
And I think what we're seeingwith carolina I watched the game
last week and start to finish,which, like you, was the first
time I've watched a game inyears start to finish with
carolina.
Their defense is horrible andhaving an arguably better
quarterback subbing in there forBryce, he still has no target.
This is a top-down problem.
(02:56):
You don't have targets.
Your D is bad.
Sitting your QB isn't theproblem right here, it is
overall management selection,and just be glad that they get a
number one pick next seasonprobably the way they're playing
, though they'll probably tradeit for a bag of balls or
something.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah, he's had a year to get everything organized and
situated around, you know,tailored around his skill sets,
and so still not able to pull itoff.
And I'm not pulling the plug onBryce Young, but the rumors are
that he may be traded and thedude had a pedigree that won the
Heisman Trophy in college, butI just don't think that that, or
his size, translates very wellto the NFL.
(03:34):
That being said, cj Stroud, whowe took Bryce Young in front of
last year, had a great season.
He's kind of stinking it upthis year.
So, um, it may be.
The same thing I've said aboutcam, that sophomore slump is a
real thing.
So I don't know, I don't.
I don't want to give up on theguys, but I do know life was
much better in the fall when thepanthers were rocking it out
and winning just about everygame.
(03:56):
You know cam used to givechildren in the stands the, uh,
the, the football after everytouchdown and he did the, the
dab which I wasn't, wasn't, youknow it, whatever the kids liked
it, the Superman thing.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
And then he started wearing flowers on his head and
it all went to hell that may bethe point that it turned on him
You're right, but I will nevertake away from Cam what he did
for the team and the good timesand how he treated the fans.
For sure, I think his skillsetstarted to diminish, which is
normal, but he didn't believe itin his brain and he couldn't
cash those checks, much likeAaron Rogers and the jets All
right.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
So we got to cut it off, we got to stop this.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
We're going to turn this into a hour and a half show
Just talking about football.
Not that we don't want to dothat, but this is the Carolina
contractor show.
What we'd like to talk about isyour house.
I always direct you to thewebsite first,
thecarolinacontractorcom, andyou can find the links to say
this show on YouTube becausewe've got it up there.
You can find the Facebook andthe IG and any way you want to
(04:52):
contact us.
Past shows we've got hundreds.
Cool little fact, donnie do youknow?
Of all the gazillion podcaststhat are out in the world, the
majority of podcasts have threeepisodes or less banked.
Yeah, People do it a couple oftimes and that's it.
And we've got over close to 250.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
There's a thing on our where we upload our podcast
and it does a tracker and itshowed we were I want to say we
were top 800 in the world,something like that, in terms of
downloads and everything.
So I don't know how manypodcasts there are out there,
but I do know that we have a lotof loyal listeners and we
appreciate the heck out of it.
I watch that ticker every time Iupload a podcast and totally my
fault, I own this one, but I'mclosing three houses out this
(05:34):
month and to have three jobs allin the closing phase, you know
each, each one has a 40, 50 itempunch list and so there's more
to it than just keeping thingsrolling in the middle third of
the house or even when you'regetting it out of the ground.
There's so much more to it whenyou close one out and I want to
apologize to everybody that hasgone a week or so without me
getting a new podcast upload andit's like they're hungry for it
(05:55):
.
As soon as I drop it it justgoes.
You know 800,000.
And that makes me feel so good.
So when I close these housesout, I'm putting my word out
there on the air that we'regoing to do a lot better.
I'm going to get all theYouTubes produced and cut, and
so we're going to have a lot ofgreat content here shortly.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
And I want to say that is the most perfect,
unplanned introduction totoday's show topic.
It's where you can save moneywhen you are building a house.
And again, as we mentioned,Donnie's not only a general
contractor, he owns BlanchardBuilding Company and he's
closing houses and he buildsthem and so he knows the ins and
outs.
And when you're building ahouse and I'm talking to you,
(06:32):
Donnie, as a home buyer in thiscase it's just stressful, All
the things you got to thinkabout.
There's so many choices and youdon't know where to go.
All you hear is houses cost somuch and you don't want to give
up some of your dreams or designaspirations when building a
house and you don't necessarilyhave to give them all up to save
(06:55):
a fair amount of money.
So today what we're going totalk about is those places you
can save money when you arebuilding a house.
So there's no better guest tohave on than our host, Donnie
Blanchard.
Real quick, we've talked, Donnie, a lot about interest rates.
You were the great predictorand said interest rates would
get cut starting this year.
So a lot of people think thisis the opportunity for me to buy
(07:15):
a house because the interestrates are going to go down and
that's not necessarily meaningyou're going to save a lot of
money.
So I just took a real quickmath problem here and I made it
so simple.
I'm going to give the price ofa house at $350,000.
We're not talking points, taxes, insurance, just you owe
350,000 on a mortgage.
The current interest rate, as arecording of this show, was
(07:36):
7.197%.
That's about 2375 a month,2,375.
You're waiting for that fullpoint drop.
It might take into next yearbefore you get it.
You'll save $232 a month if youget that one point drop.
You might lose out on the houseyou wanted or the lot to buy
because you're waiting for thatdrop.
(07:57):
And say it goes from seven downto five, that same mortgage
goes from $23751,880.
That's a big chunk of change.
That's like $500 a month.
But depending on what type ofhouse you're buying, as in your
forever home or a temporary, youcan't let the interest rates
rule the roost?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
No, because you can always refinance and I know that
a lot of folks just want toplay it super safe and they're
just cautious as a lifestyle andthose folks may not want to
take the jump.
But there's also people whohave growing families and
they're outgrowing their currentliving situation and maybe they
found an off-market deal andthere's a time to jump on it,
(08:37):
even with a higher interest rate, and I really think that that
higher interest rate onlyimpacts you when you're talking
$500,000, $700,000 plus house.
I don't think that it has thesame impact if you're talking
$200,000, $300,000 house, whichthere aren't very many of in
(08:57):
terms of inventory.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Well, when it comes to building a house and trying
to save money, peopleautomatically think quality gets
skipped and so they don't wantto.
You know, try to cut a corneris not the right phrase.
They don't want to try to beconscious of their budget
because they think they're goingto get cheaper material or a
cheaper build or uh, it's justnot going to be quality.
But there's the old sayingcheap, fast and and quality, you
(09:22):
can pick any two, you can'thave all three.
But in your world of buildinghouses, quality doesn't go out
the window when you're trying tosave money in the bill.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
No, and I'm glad you said that, shout out to a guy
named Jeff Reynolds.
You know, he was my heating andair sales guy for years and
years and he was just such awhiz with all that and he used
to tell me that he would tellhomeowners that, and I think
that that's just a realistic wayto look at it.
He worded it a littledifferently.
He said there's good, quick andcheap.
Pick any of the two, but youcan't have all three.
(09:51):
So I kind of take that to heart.
As a contractor, subcontractor,I want to get it done as
efficiently as I can financially, I want it to happen in a
timely manner and of course, thequality has to be there.
So I think if, as a businessowner or subcontractor, if you
(10:12):
can figure out a way to pull offall those, then that's the
perfect recipe to be a successin business.
But it is hard A lot of times.
If it's cheap, it's going totake forever, the quality might
not be there, but for mostpeople I think that's really a
good rule of thumb to live by.
And I want to go back to ourprevious point.
We were talking about theinterest rate thing.
I thought of something when youwere saying what you did last.
That, and I said it really onlyimpacts you when you have a um,
(10:34):
you know, half million and updollar house.
But I think the rule of thumbwe talked about a long time ago
and this is just for easy mathsake is every point of an
interest rate affects yourmortgage.
For the 30 year mortgage itaffects it by 20,000 on a
hundred.
So that's one of those thingswhere if you feel like the
interest rate could drop threepoints which I don't think it
(10:56):
ever will, not in the nextdecade that's a chunk of change.
That's 100,000 for every500,000.
So if you're buying that bighouse and that's just another
thing to take into considerationand another reason to wait If
you have a source that says, hey, we know interest rates are
going down in the next two orthree months, I think the big
(11:17):
question to ask them is well,how much Going down doesn't
really mean anything if it's noteven a point, because that's
not a $100,000 swing in anaverage mortgage.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
I think that's good advice because, again, if you're
buying a house and having itbuilt, you've got so many
questions and things you'rethinking about.
It's really hard to balance itand it's why it's important to
have a good builder who couldtalk you off the ledge and let
you know that, hey, BlanchardBuilding Company is here.
We're going to make sure youdon't get poor quality or poor
workmanship, Because if you hadto pick two, if I did give me
(11:48):
quality first, and I'm willingto wait for it With a custom.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
That's the name of the game A custom.
It doesn't really happen fastbecause you're making decisions
along the way and a lot of thesepeople who are building their
forever houses.
If you put them in a box andsaid, hey, we can't get started
until you make these 100decisions, they'll never get
started.
It's a situation where youalmost need to see the framework
.
You need to see the structureof the house.
You need to stand there atcertain times of day and see how
the sunlight comes through thewindows and then you start
(12:14):
picking things out.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Well, that's why some of the suggestions we have on
this episode of the CarolinaContractor Show are going to be
proactive investments, thingsyou can do almost before you
even have the framing up.
Things to think about to savemoney that will still give you a
good quality build, and a lotof these things can save you
thousands, maybe tens ofthousands.
We know excellent insulation,done right, will save you so
(12:37):
much money over the life of ahouse.
But it all starts with thedesign of the house.
You got to come up with yourbasic idea and the KISS acronym
works, the keep it simple,stupid.
Just you know, if you're goingto do a custom house, you can
still keep it kind ofstraightforward, right?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, getting into to cut up designs.
You know the fancy details justreally get expensive and you
know it's hard to tell a personno, because nobody wants a
cookie cutter house.
I guess some people.
If you're going to sell it,it's just a place to live and
they're realistic about that.
But it seems to be in my worldthat everybody's building their
forever house with me and that'sa huge compliment.
(13:14):
But, um, if I were to getinvolved during the design phase
, um, I would say that, um, usecommon sizes for windows and
doors.
Uh, that that's, that's a bigdeal.
Uh, 10 foot ceilings are thenew thing and not the new thing.
But but everybody wants that.
And when you do a 10 footceiling, usually you do a eight
foot door just to look right.
(13:35):
A six foot eight door doesn'tlook right with three and a half
feet over top of the doorwaywith a 10 foot ceiling.
So anything that's non-standardin the house, that that takes
months to get in and it's not asbad as it used to be, but
anything custom, special order,you know that, being in the
supply industry, it takesforever to get in and you know
your front door.
That's the main thing you seewhen you pull up to a house.
(13:57):
I might argue that the roofmight be in contention with that
.
But anyway, those front doors,what are you seeing them go for
5,000, plus for the fancy ones.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Oh the sky's the limit because you have so many
options.
Oh the sky's the limit becauseyou have so many options.
And, like you said, once youget out of a standard 3068 or
something you get out of astandard entry-sized door,
whatever your mind can come upwith there is somebody that can
make it the most.
I've seen was quoted somebodyat like 28 and change for a door
, 28,000, not 2,800.
And it was going to be six toeight weeks and the first build
(14:28):
came incorrect.
So it took them, you know,several months just to get to
the entry door windows.
Same thing there's lots of fancycuts you can get, but if you
and I'm a fan of single hung howmany times you open that double
hung?
It doesn't add a lot to theprice, but you will save a
little bit if you go with asingle hung.
And, as we've talked many timeson the show, windows today are
(14:50):
better than the super expensivewindows of just a decade ago
when it comes to our values andkeeping the cold out in the
winter and the heat in, and viceversa in the summer.
So there's no need to sit thereand go with the super duper big
name brand windows because ithas, you know, oil rub bamboo,
wood, trim around it orsomething like that that sounds
(15:11):
like a good looking window, butno, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Single hung Energy Star used to preach single hung
all the way because they'recheaper.
You don't have any break in theseal around that top sash.
That being said, if you have asecond story, those are going to
be nearly impossible to clean.
You're going to have to hire aroofer to get on the outside.
So you know the double, theadvantage of the double hung,
and I want to.
I don't want to speak for you,but I'm guessing 20 or $30 a
window is probably about what itis.
(15:34):
The average house has 20windows.
So you're talking $600 savings.
But if you're a stickler forcleaning the windows, then
that's going to be an issue.
And are you seeing a trend withblack windows?
Speaker 1 (15:46):
I'm not going to say it's a trend with black windows.
I'm going to say it's moved,definitely 50-50.
It used to almost be white trimin and out, but now I'm seeing
darker trims and some of thewood trims are coming in.
That would be on the interiorside of the house.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Well, the deal with the black or the bronze windows
is they were hard to get invinyl, so they weren't very
affordable.
And when I built my house, what?
12 years ago?
Aluminum clad was the only wayto get a darker finish like that
.
And now they have fiberglassoptions, which I'm a fan of, but
the fiberglass is pricey, itcomes in just under the aluminum
clad.
And then vinyl is the way to goin terms of something that's
(16:19):
affordable, and I say that, andthey still charge a ton and I'm
thinking it's a painted product,I wanna say and nobody's seen
it stand the test of time yet.
So if the front of your housefaces south, you get a lot of
sun exposure and you have apainted vinyl window.
I don't know what that lookslike in 20 years, but I do know
that most of the bigmanufacturers are coming out
with a line of the black vinyljust to meet the demand.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
You talked about, donnie.
When you pull up to the houseyou see that entry door, but
then that roof sets the wholehouse from the street.
How important is the roof to ahouse?
Speaker 2 (16:53):
It's very important, I think, and when I build a
house that has as much squarefootage in the attic that's
unused as it does in the livingspace, it kind of stings.
But then you walk out front andit looks beautiful.
So that just seems to be whateverybody wants, and if you're a
person who stores everything inthe attic, then maybe you can
justify that.
But in terms of cost, the wholetheme of the show is how do you
keep prices down when you build?
(17:14):
And, um, that everything isabout square footage, your roof
square footage, your interiorsquare footage.
And really, when you're talkingabout things like paint,
sheetrock flooring, there's nohiding that square footage.
So I think that, um, that youknow a simple roof line, not cut
up, you know, not a lot.
Maybe throw a gable or two outfront just to try to break up
(17:35):
the front elevation, but, uh,the roof line definitely has an
impact.
And since you're on the roof,I'm going to get on my little
soapbox about, uh, dormers andchimneys.
You know, um, dormers are, uh,one of those things where
sometimes I don't know, I don'treally like them that much.
I mean, you could say that theylook good in that colonial
style house that has the roofwith the three dormers spaced
(17:55):
out.
You know, if my framer turnedme on to this, I was brand new
in the business and he said,dude, I hate a dormer and I, you
know, explain why.
And there are as many cuts in adormer as there are building a
whole room of a house and if youthink about all the corners and
the, it's got to have a roof onit, it's got to be flashed all
the way around and from aroofing standpoint it's just a
(18:16):
leak prone area.
Same with a chimney.
When there was a call formasonry chimneys back in the day
, I get it, you got the biggestchimney on the block.
You know brick or stone andit's beautiful and you know
that's how you heat your homeand it needs to be good and all
the things and efficient andbulky.
But now, with vent free gasfireplaces that most people have
(18:38):
, or even with a ventedfireplace, you don't need a
masonry chimney.
And a masonry chimney from the,from the bottom up, it has to
have a thicker footing than whatthe rest of the house has to
have.
You've got to get it up.
It's a multi-phase thing.
You've got to get it up, youknow, to the foundation or the
floor level, and then you haveto frame around it and you have
to let the Mason come back inafter, usually closer to the
finished stage of the house touh put a veneer on the inside of
(19:02):
the house, and it's just amessy thing.
And the big deal with me iswhere it protrudes through the
roof.
You know you've got, um, aporous product, meaning either
the block or the brick or, uh,even the rock or the mortar
between the rock.
You know all that can canabsorb water, and so you've got
a porous product above a roofline and I just think that's a
big no-no, unless you just gotto have that look Um, no no,
(19:23):
unless you just got to have thatlook Crazy story.
We had a Parada Homes house inElon.
You know multi-million dollarhome.
It had two chimneys that wentup about 13 feet above the roof
line and they were both fake.
They didn't do anything.
It was only gas fireplaces inthe whole house.
The chimneys kept leaking andit's a popular thing for a brick
mason.
I know that everybody can't seemy hands, but you step it out
three quarters for a brick andyou step it back in, just kind
(19:46):
of like a neat little detailfrom the street.
Well, the builder and I gottogether and we couldn't he
couldn't find the leak.
And everybody points the fingerat the roof and I'm thinking
I've already checked out theflashing that it's not.
It's not me, it's, it's, it'sgotta be the masonry.
So we get on rain suits, we, weharness off in the middle of a
rainstorm, get up on the roof,just kamikaze style and just
(20:07):
crazy, and we're up there on theroof and basically we were
watching the flow of the wateraround those chimneys Because,
mind you, this is a parade ofhomes, house and it was first
place house and you got a leakin a multimillion dollar home
that you can't figure out.
Well, I take a eight penny nailand I go to the head joint in
between two bricks, which is thevertical joint.
I go to the head joint and withtwo fingers, when it was
(20:27):
saturated, I pushed that eightpenny nail right through,
showing that when the mason putall that together, the bed joint
is on the bottom of the brickand so it normally goes all the
way through that three and ahalf inches the head joint.
If you've ever seen a brickmason do this, they slap the
bottom, boom and then they skimthe side where the head joint is
.
So the vertical joint in abrick doesn't go all the way
(20:48):
through that three and a halfinches, and this one had less of
a head joint than even what'snormal.
So that was what's going on andthat brick was absorbing all
that water and of course it wasstepped out three quarters of an
inch for several brick coursesup and it was almost like the
water was running down a set ofsteps and running inside the
house every time it hit the nexthorizontal surface.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Is it possible?
Speaker 2 (21:15):
to purchase materials in large quantities when you're
building one house, or is thatreally not practical, donnie?
It depends on if you've got themeans to store the materials or
if you have a trailer and a wayto load and unload those
materials.
Because you know, I can make aphone call right now and by
lunchtime tomorrow I can have awhole house worth of lumber on
the ground and the supply house.
Of course they charge for that,but, um, you know, I, the first
time this has ever happened,I've got a, a really neat
(21:36):
homeowner, um, just awesome guy.
And about a month after westarted the house he said I got
my license.
I said, well, cool, great, whatlicense?
He said my contractor license.
I said what do you need me for?
But anyway, he said the bank.
But anyway, no, he's, he's,he's got his contractor license.
Super smart guy.
(21:57):
And for about a year heaccumulated all the materials
for his house and so he found adeal on insulation and he stored
that.
He had the means trucks,trailers, skid steers to load
and unload.
He bought about 50 percent ofthe framing package and he got
it all at a discount.
He bought all the osb for thesidewalls and the roof and of
course he just stored all thatand and maybe by the time we got
(22:18):
around to getting into the jobsite a handful of stuff had
gotten wet or you know, it justwas unusable.
But for for the most part youknow that that's possible.
But what it takes to pull thatoff is is not going to be
friendly to the averagehomeowner or to the builder.
So I would say buying in bulkunless it's things like flooring
you get a good deal on flooring.
You can put that in your garagefor the time being, but not for
(22:40):
the whole house, but a fewitems, yeah, you can do that.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
And you know what?
I think we're going to have tomake two shows out of this,
Donnie, because we've got somuch to talk about, but that's
fine.
I want to jump into anotherthing about where you can save
money.
I have hardwood, hardwood,hardwood, pine floors in my
house, yeah, and they need to befinished, refinished, and my
wife likes the idea of theluxury vinyl plank and I talked
to a guy who did flooring and heprefers that because he said
sanding, staining and sealingand finishing.
(23:11):
He said it takes a lot of workversus the luxury vinyl plank.
He said you have so manyoptions and it can be put down
relatively faster.
He said you know, I pull upsome quarter round and replace
that.
Do you have any of the luxuryvinyl or do you have an opinion
on using that when buildinghouse versus like genuine
(23:32):
hardwood floors?
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Oh yeah, every house that I have right now has LVP,
and so that that it it's reallycome a long way.
I want to say about 10, 12years ago, maybe a little bit
before that, it was one of thoseproducts that you couldn't use
in a wet area, so itdisqualified itself from being
in bathrooms, kitchens and soforth.
But, um, they re-engineered ormost companies re-engineered the
(23:53):
core the core for the lvp andmade it waterproof.
So literally they guarantee itto the point where they say it
can be understanding water for acouple of days.
When the water subsides, youcan take it up, let everything
dry out and put the same floorback down.
So I don't think I've seen aworst case scenario like that.
But it's the most popular thingwith the most options, the most
colors and I think it looksphenomenal.
(24:15):
You know you don't have to justgo with a hardwood pattern
anymore.
They have things that replicatetile and you know just a lot
more options they've ever hadand the product's better than
it's ever been Would it take alot of work.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
if somebody else said I don't want it, I want to go
back to the hardwoods that areunderneath it.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah, oh, no for sure , you would just have to sand
and finish the hardwood.
I thought you meant is itreversible, like, can you flip
it upside down?
You have two different designs?
Yeah, exactly, well, no, thebig deal that they pulled off
too.
Part of the waterproofattribute for the LVP is that
you used to have to put down anunderlayment under your, your
flooring, and so, uh, peoplewould, before they put down
(24:56):
laminates.
What it was the slang, or, uh,floating floor was the slang
before they, um, put the LVPacronym on it.
But, um, they figured out a wayto coat the bottom of most of
the LVP so that you don't haveto do the underlayment on it.
And the underlayment, by theway, was super expensive, and so
you know you're talking anextra five $600 on a job just to
get the underlayment.
And they figured out how to putall that into one package and
it's.
(25:16):
It's just a really good product.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Some other material costs you can save on is
fixtures and hardware.
There's cabinet makers.
I know there's a long wait forcustom cabinets.
There's cabinet makers.
I know there's a long wait forcustom cabinets you dealing with
that, oh yeah for sure.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
And um, I want to jump right back and I'll come
back to cabinets, the, theshopping for fixtures online.
Um, like you mentioned,doorknobs, hardware that's all
easy peasy.
You can't put your hands on itbefore you buy it, but a lot of
times those things, if you buyone or two, you can have it next
day and just check it out andmake sure it passes the test.
The big thing that I see islight fixtures and plumbing
fixtures.
There's a markup.
(25:48):
When somebody has a big, fancyshowroom, they have to charge
for that because they've got alot of overhead.
They've got people working onsalary and with the plumbing
supply house in their defense.
You know they've got thecounter guys in the back who
deal with the plumbers and thesmall parts that the average
homeowner wouldn't have to thinkabout.
But I have seen some of myhomeowners in the last two years
save as much as $10,000 to$20,000 by being patient,
(26:10):
shopping for the good deals,going bathroom by bathroom.
They figure out the colorscheme they want, whether it be
dark, bronze, black fixturesseem to be a hit, and here
lately, what's it called?
It's a brushed gold color, soit's like a brushed brass.
Maybe it's a softer brass andnever did I ever, after living
with my grandparents for a whiledid I think brass would make a
comeback, but just a differentversion of it.
(26:31):
And once you get that colorscheme, you know you can really
find some good deals online withthat stuff.
And it's a popular wives' taleto say that they sell something
different online than they sellin the big box stores, and we
talked about that three or fouryears ago on the show.
Can you imagine the logisticsnightmare of a manufacturing
company having to put you know adifferent this product for
(26:54):
Lowe's in one box, this productfor Amazon in another box?
And I just want to say that, interms of the theme of the show,
that LVP, choosing to go withLVP and buying your plumbing and
light fixtures online areprobably the biggest game
changers that we talked aboutall day.
Sorry not to be long winded, butfast forward to cabinets.
Cabinets are all over the place.
(27:14):
I personally am a conspiracytheorist when it comes to this
because I think in my hometownthe cabinet salespeople have
colluded.
The price of cabinets doubledalmost in a 12 month time span.
You know the same house it was18 grand.
All of a sudden it was 32, 35grand and I'm thinking you know
what happened and the cost ofeverything went up and I think
they took full advantage of thatand just jumped right in there.
(27:37):
But we did the TV show lastyear and we got hooked up with a
company on the other side ofRaleigh and it actually took me
forever because they don't, theydon't want to do this.
You just have to be persistent.
And I got certified as acabinet dealer so now I'm savvy
with the design part.
I know what goes where and Ican get my cabinets at a
(27:57):
fraction of what they were beingsold to me for before.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Sweet hey, uh, last thing countertops granite going
out of fashion and quartz is thenew trend.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
I mean, that's what I'm seeing.
Yeah, I have granite because Ibuilt before quartz jumped them
in the popularity category, butI will say that my granite
around my sink and I havegranite in a bathroom that I
have to not maintain but I haveto seal and I'm not good about
it.
To be honest.
You're supposed to seal andmaintain it a lot more frequent
(28:31):
than I do, but I am seeingquartz and quartzite you know
alternatives to that just reallysteal the show and it's a good
look, I can't deny.
Quartz doesn't have pores, soyou don't have all the sealing
and the maintenance to deal with.
So I think that may be why theylook better and they're less
maintenance, and who could askfor more than?
Speaker 1 (28:49):
that Price difference .
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yeah, quartz is a bit more, but it's not thousands,
it's hundreds more, so it'spretty darn close.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
So when you're building that house, that's
definitely an investment worthmaking at the build stage
because that's not cutting acorner, but it's a good
investment.
That's absolutely right, yes,sir.
Well, donnie, we're going tohave to make two parts of the
show, because there's so manyplaces as you go through the
build of a house that you cansave money and not sacrifice
quality, and you again, beingthe owner of Blanchard Building
(29:18):
Company, a general contractor, Ithink a lot of people want to
hear the details you have andthe advice you have when
building a house in places youcan save money.
So next week could we like dothe second half and hit some
other subjects where you cansave money while building a
house?
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Let's do it, man.
I'm excited I see what we gotleft to talk about and we didn't
scratch the surface.
No, we couldn't because it wascourts Nice.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
We'll do that.
So hit the websitethecarolinacontractorcom.
You can see the show on YouTube.
You can download it eventually.
If you have a question about itor something you want to know
where you can save money whenbuilding a house, ask the
contractors the button on thewebsite you click and that goes
right to Donnie.
There's an opportunity of a ofa lifetime, so to speak, because
it's your chance to asksomebody who builds houses where
(30:03):
can I save money or should I gowith this or that?
And you'll get a response fromhim.
And next week we'll hit some ofthe other subjects.
We've got like three or fourcategories we want to talk about
.
So we'll have a Carolinacontractor show part D.
So until then, we will see younext week on the Carolina
contractor show.
Take care everybody.
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