May is the National Deck Safety Month.

In Today's podcast, Reuben shares his experiences in building decks and home inspections. He explains the attachment methods, how to prevent deck failures, maintenance and deterioration, and safety.

While decks are good D-I-Y projects to add living space, some components must work together and some building codes must be followed.

Related link https://structuretech.com/minnesota-deck-inspections

Building and renovating houses is getting expensive!

In today's podcast, Bill shares that the cost of materials has been rising. Capacity, logistics, and tariffs issues contribute to the increase in prices. Reuben shares about the current prices of lumber in the market.

The use of structural insulated panels, even a 100-year old iron bathtub may aid the expenses. However, Tessa shares that passive houses may do more because of their standard in energy efficiency in buildings.

Today’s episode digs into the topic of electricity. Tessa leads the technical talk about the difference between grounding and bonding: “why we have it,” “what it means, ” and “what it does.”

At the same time, Reuben explains the distinction between being electrocuted from being shocked. He also explains the difference between Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter and Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter. These are important to reduce the risk of electrocution and to keep a safe home.

Dan Sibinski with Keller Williams Classic Realty joins the show to discuss whether or not we’re in a housing bubble. Dan discusses the housing market trends in Minnesota, with a deep-dive into inventory, interest rates, and how those affect the market.

There are a lot of numbers and trends discussed during this podcast, and it will greatly help to follow along with the graphs and charts posted on the podcast section on our website at https://structuretech.com/podcast-structure-talk/housing-bubble/.

Daniel Felt, the owner of Kura Home Maintenance, joins the show for the second time. He catches up with Bill, Tessa, and Reuben about the secrets to the thriving success of their business. He shares about providing the various needs of their clients as they are expanding in promising states nationwide. He also highlights the importance of having a customer-focused team and how this culture has helped them increase their clientele.

Brendan Ryan, the president of the Examination Board of Professional Home Inspectors (EBPHI) joins the show to talk about the National Home Inspection Exam (NHIE). Brendan explains the complexity and importance of taking a psychometric exam for a home inspection license.  Passing the high-stakes examination is an advantage in the market as well as a requirement in various associations such as the American Society of Home Inspectors. He then shares how the exams were written and how often they are updated.

When we talk about real estate real agents, usually they would convince people to buy the property because of this and that. May it be in the seller’s market or buyer’s market, we never heard of them telling anyone anything other than “Why now is the good time to buy!”  But today, we will hear a different story that will knock us off our feet.

Michael Bartus, residential Realtor® extraordinaire of Lakes Sotheby’s International Realty, joins the show to explain why this might not be a good time for some to buy. The show starts off by digging into the conversations about reasons and some useful information for not buying a house today. Thus, Michael is very eager to impart his knowledge and experiences with his buyers to us.

Dirk van Reenen, the co-founder and owner of Inspector Empire Builder (IEB) joins the show to talk about the business of home inspections. The show starts off with Dirk introducing himself and his company. He shares how they work with other companies by opening up the lanes of growth in structure and the people in the organization, which opens up the scalability, growth, profitability, and time freedom of companies. He also points out that if you want to have a great business, you have to have great people.

Dirk also discusses the size and growth of IEB, where entrepreneurship flaws happen, and etiquette for hiring competitors from competitors.

Steve Trumble, the owner of Chimney Doctors in the Twin Cities, joins the show to talk about all things related to chimneys. The show starts off with Steve introducing himself and his company. He also discusses a metal fabrication company which he owns. Then, Steve, having  a massive amount of knowledge about this topic, answers the following questions:

• How can there be such discrepancies in most chimney inspections? Is there some type of standard that just makes it black and white?
  
• What are the three most often things you see when you're looking at the chimney?
  
• What percentage of chimneys would you say are built improperly from the get-go?
  
• What are some of the most common repairs that you make on chimneys?
  
• How do you get up in chimneys and do the work with the damper in place?
  
• How much do liners and smoke chamber repairs cost?
  
• What type of license do you need to work on a chimney? Is there any special training?
  
• What are these metal caps that your company, Sota Metal Fabrication, is making? What is it going to protect?
  
• What do you think is the average cost to replace a traditional concrete form?
  

Today’s episode features George Ury, a licensed Truth in Sale of Housing evaluator and one of the finest home inspectors at Structure Tech. Today’s focus is on Minneapolis Truth-in-Housing Evaluations, and the whole new energy component that was added last year. George discusses how the new TISH evaluations are going and shares some of the inspections he has participated in. He also shares how this is related to the company’s new service, the walk-through consultations.

Reuben then shares the feedback he is getting from the Walk-through Consultations. He shares how thrilled clients are with this new service and mentions some of the questions asked.

Related topic:

https://www.structuretech.com/podcast-structure-talk/podcast-minneapolis-energy-disclosure