 Hey, this is Michelle Getzinger and I'm here at a new construction project with sticks and stones And I can't wait to introduce you to Adam Stickel So Adam and I met about five years ago at the University of Pittsburgh Fellowship Program for Entrepreneurship and I was working with Blooms our family granite business and you were working with primrose home Primrose own your family business a lot has changed for us a lot has changed in five years all for the good though Absolutely. Yep. Can you tell us a little bit about this project you're working on? Yeah, absolutely. This is a custom home project Okay, it's 2,400 square feet farm style house three bedrooms two bathrooms Homeowner gets to select absolutely every finish in the house. That's great. What a great setting too It seems country, but it's so close to the city It is they have lived out here for multiple years now in the area and they wanted to keep the kids in the same school District, they really enjoyed it here. That's awesome So this is a new construction. They bought the lot and then how does that process work? So once they buy the lot we go through a design process with them where we Identify the key features in the house that they want We then identify either a plan online that we can purchase or we network with local interior designers and architects Okay, to draw the plan exactly the way they want it from there We go to a bank and see if we can appraise the house for what they'd like to spend And then you have to go to the township, correct? Yep, then we go through the permitting process with the township Any time we're in Allegheny County, we also have to go to the county itself for some permits Okay, so Adam tell us about some other projects other than this farmhouse that you're building right here that you're working on right now So just finished up a large renovation in the historic part of Squirrel Hill Oh, I did a whole house renovation. It started in just a couple rooms. It was actually a referral from one of our EFC fellows And so that was really exciting just about to get started with a renovation project in Swickley, okay as well, and then I have a new construction project over in Hampton Township Wow, so what's been your favorite or your most challenging and or both products that you worked on? Recently probably the most Challenging project that I worked on was a new construction home in Fox Chapel. It was a very modern contemporary home But this the footprint of the home was reversed the smallest level of the house was the foundation And as each story went up the house got longer and wider. Oh, wow, so structurally it was a challenging project How did you deal with that? People on our team, you know our architects and our engineers as well as bringing in our trade professionals You know early in the design process to be able to make sure that they were on board with What we wanted to do. Oh, that's awesome. So how did you come up with the name sticks and stones? So the name actually came from sticks the sticks part of it came from my high school baseball playing days That was my nickname And so that's the first part of it and then we we finished off with the and stones really based on the biblical Reference that Jesus makes about building a house on a foundation of rock Rather than on the phone on sand. Yeah, that's great Yeah So we're up here in the loft and Adam's gonna tell us a little bit about some of the challenges that he faces when he's doing these Rennos and the new construction so tell us a little bit about what happened here So up here in any project one of the hardest things for customers and homeowners is to visualize What the space is gonna look like? What we were able to do here is this was actually supposed to you were supposed to come from the hallway and step down into this room Okay, but once we got on site We realized that that's not really what the homeowner wanted And so we changed the construction of the first floor wall so that we could eliminate the steps Okay into this room and we also could make the room larger than it was on the plan So in custom construction, it's all about the inflexible And trying to meet the homeowner's needs and their dreams. Yep Most renovations that's that's a problem, right? There's absolutely never goes as planned. No, you never can not Expect the unknown is what we talk about. And so as you tear into walls, you don't know what's behind the walls as you Visualize you think that this is enough space and then you get in the space and it's not enough space You move walls and so you never know so you have to have flexibility and somebody who's willing to be flexible Setting those expectations with the client that this is a fluid process and things are going to change and We're going to hit hiccups and right So one of the things that we encourage all of our clients to do when we create an itemized budget for their project Is we have a line item labeled contingency? Okay, and so if that and what we do is we put a budget there That's normally somewhere between two and three percent of the project. Okay, and if they use that money on The unforeseen Least they've budgeted for it if they don't use it. It's money that they save it doesn't go into our pocket It goes back to them, right? And so that's a way to plan a little bit of buffer for those unexpected costs. That's a great idea So some of the features that I like to use in custom construction and that we use on all of our projects is The subfloor that we use here is an advanced tech subfloor What we like about this is I've used it for ten years now and never once has a hardwood floor squeaked Or never once have I had tile crack when I use advanced tech subfloor and you've been through plenty of old homes in Pittsburgh And how often do you hear the squeaky floors and see the crack tile? Another feature of this home is we use Marvin's integrity windows. And so what this is it's actually a window that's a extruded Plastic window on the exterior and wood on the interior Why we like to use the plastic is it doesn't fade like aluminum windows do and it doesn't move Like a vinyl window does okay, so there's two two features of this house that I wanted to point out What makes the advanced tech any different than normal plywood? So the technology behind it is there's actually a resin that is completely through the product Okay, top to bottom and so when you cut it to the resin is still there There's other plywoods out there where that resin is just on the edge So anytime you cut a piece it exposes it to to be just like regular plywood Yeah, during new construction. It's gonna get wet and so it's going to expand and no question asked And but you have to nail it right away So anytime it expands when it does contract that nail becomes loose and that's what causes the squeaky floors over the years What's the percentage difference is it more per more expensive than normal plywood? I'm assuming yeah, is it significantly more? It's about so per sheet You're talking somewhere in the range of 13 to 15 dollars. Okay, so on a house this size We might be using 75 sheets of it Okay, so there is a an upgrade but when you think about the fact that you don't have the callbacks Right worry, and if anything ever does happen with it this company does warranty it for 25 years Oh, wow, that's great. It is yeah, and they stand behind that warranty a lot of people don't I actually They had one in their history that I know of one batch that was not good and they actually went in and bought the three homes The day that the product was put into really they completely bought it They relocated people helped them find new homes Wow And then what do they do with them and then they tore them all apart redid them and put them back on the market Wow That's that's incredible. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. You don't hear that No, you don't and it's nice that you're doing things the right way in the beginning Yeah, it's so key because you know to be a contractor or a home builder here in Pennsylvania There's no licensure requirement. There's no continuing education requirement And so we talk about at sticks and stones, you know, we hold certifications We're part of the National Association of Home Builders and we do continuing education every year So that we can separate ourselves and so that we can learn about new products new sciences and try to stay ahead of the curve That's great. One of the things that makes sticks and stones different is they're continuing education and certifications that they have and one of The things that fits this house is a program called aging in place. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, so aging in place is a philosophy of building and a science of building where Homeowners build a home so that they can live there over decades Right now. This is a family home. We've got children with their parents But eventually as we all know or hopefully as we all know Our kids move on to their own place So what we did here so that the parents still could have everything that they need is we made this house Are we we chose a house so where the master suite is on the first floor? So the kitchen the family room the dining room laundry room in the garage are all on one level And so when those kids do move on is the parents get older This is a place that's accessible for them no matter what stage in life. They're in that's great This is going to be like four-foot shower Tub and the master closet Over here. So we bought these plans offline. This was we found something that he liked and just Used the plan yeah architect actually out of the south. It's a pretty it's a pretty layout. Yeah it turned out great and so and you know little things like Making sure that you're to get the best energy efficiency making sure that you're cocking the bottom plate here and new construction and so that Prevents air from coming in between the the subfloor and the walls So I'm just trying to do those little things to make sure that we're Yeah, and I see over here you also sealed it up. Yep We've sent since we're not finishing the basement now any penetrations any holes that we've made from the walls down into the floors We're sealing all of those up so that we don't have any cold air coming into the conditioned spaces in the winter Or warm air coming into the conditioned spaces in the summer. Yeah, that's awesome So Adam tell me a little bit about some of your biggest challenges in your industry right now Currently right now some of the biggest challenges are on the labor side You know finding Really good tradesmen people who are skilled at what they do Because it is so easy that it is such a busy market and it's so easy to gain Entrance into this market that you get a lot of people who just don't do quality work Or might know not know the right way to install products the right way to meet the codes And so finding the right team of people is really critical Yeah, right now we subcontract everything out we used to employ some carpenters, but we decided that It's best to subcontract things and what that does is it gives us flexibility So if we're building, you know on the east side of Pittsburgh or downtown Pittsburgh or as far away as Deep Creek, Maryland We've done projects It allows us to find the right team in those communities who know the community well who know the code officials well and We have a lot of experience with those neighborhoods Yeah, how how can somebody get a hold of you and what can an average Joe just use you for a renovation? Yeah, anybody can use us You know we are open to all renovation projects And if it's not a good fit for us if we feel like we're not the right company We do have teams of contractors Across Western PA that we can make sure you're referred to somebody who does good quality work But the best way to get hold of us really is by phone because these type of projects You know they need that true face-to-face conversation will come out and take a look at any project At no charge and give you a preliminary estimate as part of that process. Wow, that's great. Very cool