The Huddle - Episode 138 - Blue Collar Cruise #7

Set sail with us for the 7th installment of Blue Collar Cruise! This time, Paul and Jose are back to break down the latest news, innovations, and trends shaping the flooring and construction industries. From groundbreaking technologies to industry-shifting updates, this episode is packed with insights to keep you informed and ahead of the game.

💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode: Industry Trends: Stay up to date on what’s new and what’s next in flooring and construction. Game-Changing Innovations: Explore the latest tools, materials, and strategies reshaping the trade. Expert Breakdown: Get real insights from Paul, Daniel, and Jose on how these changes impact installers, business owners, and the industry as a whole.

Why This Episode Matters: At The Huddle, we’re committed to driving Forward Progress in the flooring industry. The Blue Collar Cruise series is all about keeping you informed, connected, and ahead of the curve—giving you the tools and knowledge to thrive in your trade.

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The Huddle Podcast is where the flooring industry comes together to connect, learn, and thrive! Recognized as the #1 podcast in the flooring community, we provide an unmatched platform for professionals to discuss everything from installation techniques to industry trends.

At The Huddle, we’re all about driving Forward Progress—empowering seasoned installers, contractors, and flooring enthusiasts to grow, innovate, and lead in their craft. Whether you’re looking for real conversations, actionable insights, or inspiration to take your career to the next level, The Huddle is your home for real discussions that matter.

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welcome back to another weekly episode of the Huddle your weekly Playbook helping you gain forward progress in

your flooring career we are here to help you guys win so to our new viewers welcome to the team to our weekly

viewers welcome back what's up Jose what's going on brother how's

things another day in the life of Jose all right baby that's a beautiful life right there some

days some days some days it's uh just

normal well uh pardon me ahead of time if I keep clearing my throat I'm coming

off of being sick for longer than I would have liked to and uh still got a

little horse so um pardon me if I kind of during this episode but uh this week

is a another episode of blue collar Cru we got some cool topics for you guys uh

for anybody that's new the blueco collar cruise is really we go out on the internet find uh

cool articles about construction flooring uh maybe not always cool but

you know interesting subjects I should say about uh our industry and and uh the

construction industry at large so we like to share those with you we kind of prep a little bit and and uh get our

opinions formed so we just kind of give you our opinions about this stuff and then uh open it up to conversation so if

you're new with us please uh if if you are uh you know connecting off of one of

the one of the social platforms communicate comment give us some uh give

us some questions give us some love let us know what you think about these topics and and your stance on it so

we'll give it few minutes let some more join looks like we got what's up Jorge Jose with an

H oh I love that I love that little oops love that little

skit so uh your week starting out good sounds like your brother's at a pre- bid

which is U always awesome things picking up up there has it been pretty busy up

in the your neck of the woods I think I think if you're not busy you're not trying right um because if you're not

busy with work on the floor then you should be busy on on getting work and making connections so it's to say that

always something to do yeah dude there's always something and you know it if you think if I think about like

when I was an installer just installing before we we shifted and and started uh sales as well it's when people used to

tell me oh I don't have any work what do you guys got what do you guys got and it's like I'm out trying to find work

bro like I like what like I get it I don't have any either but I'm gotta grind gotta grind there's always

something to do yeah yeah you're either selling measuring bidding scheduling

ordering installing whatever yeah so one thing the one thing for me to look at it

like that is when I was younger my mother told me um when if I if I didn't have a job then my full-time job was

looking for a job amen is either I'm working eight hours a day at work or I'm working eight hours a day I'm finding

work yep never let that go yeah hey jge we are uh staying warm

here in witto I tell you what we got 70 degrees today we were at like 60

something yesterday so we had a 80 degre swing we were negative like five or

negative 8 last week so yeah we are we are staying warm here

Jose I'm looking I'm looking at my weather be to stay warm yeah we're at a

we're around 48 degrees so that's like summertime it feels like springtime we're 70 and sunny it's it's crazy I

I've been outside a few times a day I was like man all right well let's kick off the

topics here um couple uh couple topics in regards to

we got some topics covering the tariffs uh payment delays in the construction industry I think most of us

have some some concern around that uh why Mondays might be the dangerous most

dangerous uh day of the job well it's statistically the most dangerous day on the job and this article kind of

um considers the reasons why behind that and then we got tougher concrete that's

coming out of Princeton University and it is five and a half times stronger

than conventional concrete and guess what it's all inspired by our bone

marrow which is pretty cool and last if we get there uh one of

the uh this is from the conversation uh they they asked the

question would a mandatory five-day Work Week solve construction's work life balance issues so if you don't know our

industry is one of the um hardest worked um and part of that's the labor shortage

so it's it's like physically having enough people to get all the work done

um but I also think it's a schedule issue so we we may dive into some of

those topics let's get started with the first one this is the tariffs as many of you know president Trump has uh

temporarily paused tariffs from from the imports from both Canada and Mexico for

the next 30 days um this has come both the tariffs

and the paws has come uh via executive order um but it's got its yin and yang

you know it's got its uh supporters as well as people who uh are in strong

opposition to it so we're going to discuss this a little bit so it was initially set on uh to

take effect on February 4th uh as you know as previously stated

these tariffs tariffs have been put on pause for uh 30 days it's an it's a 25%

tariff on goods from uh Canada and Mexico and 10% tariffs on imports from

China where it comes in is industry leaders from trade organizations like the National Association of home

builders warned that higher tariffs on materials like softwood Lumber and gypsum uh both of these products as you

know we use a ton of would increase not only housing cost but overall development cost um and it says More

than 70% of these materials come from Canada and Mexico so that's a that's a

figure I had no idea of but 70% of our soft wood so that's like Pine fast

growing Lumber and uh gypsum come from Canada and Mexico so the impo opposing

tariffs uh or I I I don't know if I'd call it

imposing but the potential tariffs taking effect would be much more expensive for housing causing obviously

the housing market starting to retract a little bit homes are becoming a little bit more affordable from the studies um

and this would just reverse that so I think that retailers and business groups

um like the national retail Federation and some others are you know really

pushing back on what these tariffs would do to small businesses uh John Murphy

for example senior vice president of the US Chamber of Commerce uh has the same concerns and

says that um you know these tariffs will only raise costs for American Consumer and disrupt business across the country

so these are the these negotiations are continuing who knows if they actually

take effect my person belief and I'd love to get your take uh on

this my personal belief is it's Trump doing Trump stuff it's Trump trying to

get his way which is you know by all accounts what he

feels best is for America and trying to get his way through these tariffs and um

I think he's shown that if if the other countries will do some of the stuff that he wants securing the Border

having Fair Trade uh agreements um and this goes so deep that

I get into like all those things but I think if they show some some movement

he's willing to to do some uh halting and and holding off of the tariffs and

potentially removing them all together but um what's your thoughts I I feel

like just Trump doing Trump stuff and it's probably well let's let's put it in

into let me just say this he's a businessman right he understands that um

the consumer which would be us right now right does have a lot of power over the

the companies or entities providing the materials if the consumer says you know what no I don't I don't I don't want it

then their sales also stop how much money would they lose in 30 days or do

they have the potential of losing um and and he's just trying to sweeten up the deal uh for for the US to make it

more lucrative um because I get it now you said the 70% and you know and I read

a couple other articles too that said that we actually have the resources for

us to provide it within our own country it just it's expensive for us to provide

labor to those companies in order to produce that so that it's either putting a tariff on something that's being

shipped in or like internal tariffs because it cost so much money to pay an American to go work and and like long

term though long term if they could come up with with uh some some better

Arrangements uh between one another it would be more beneficial for everybody long term um yeah there there's always a

good and a bad to these things you know what I mean like part of me says you

know this is just going to hurt the economy uh the other part says what he's

fighting for uh should probably be fought for is you know having uh illegal

immigration just go rampid um I'm all for immigration in fact my kids would

not be around if it wasn't for my wife's family immigrating here from Mexico two generations ago uh doing it legally and

getting here um you know I think most people who've done this process uh and I

have some guys that I work with that have been through the process of getting their US citizenship they feel really

slided by all this you know people coming into the country and not having to you know like coming in they they

spent one guy one of our main guys I mean he spent five or something like

five years getting his citizenship and so it's tough I do think that needs to be reworked to where it's a more

streamlined but at the end of the day it's one of those deals where um that's

what he wants that's what he's driving for and uh there's some other things I

think that uh come into this but um most notably is it it makes me

think of like some of the people talking about well without illegal immigration how are

we going to you know service these industries like

construction industry the agricultural industry and all this well none of us

none of us should be for that like put Americans to work I know plenty of people that could work we just got to

put them to work um now we've always had this problem or at least in the last

last 50 years we've had this problem of jobs that Americans just don't seem to

want to jump into and um maybe it doesn't pay enough I I I don't know the

solution to that I just know that you know um these tariffs could cause

problems uh it'll be interesting to see how everybody works together on a

geopolitical level on a global political level to uh resolve the issues um and

you know keep this country growing I think that's one of the things we need is growth here and um

that growth is where the economic activity can come from so I also don't

this is just my opinion I also don't like the our country just being a

consumer and not a producer of things we consume so much we're a consumer nation

and I would like to see our country get back to producing things and being able

to you know not just our economy solely live on Black Friday or you know buying

stuff right yeah live through the sales and then then this I mean we're we're

marketed to that way as as a as a country like you said a consumer all we

do is consume and you know and every dollar in that's earned you're lucky to get 60% of it right to you because we

pay we're taxed on everything that we do um and the whole that goes back to like

all the immigration thing the whole influx and population and not being able to control that and the tax dollars um get put to use to

help sustain that right because you know I get it some they're leaving leaving a place that they don't

want to be for you know the greener grass or some of the the innocent children that they have they don't

they're just following right like like I get it I I get the humanitarian portion of it but it's like I get why they want

to come here and we should want them to come here we just have to there's a lot of work in this subject can go down such

a rabbit hole but oh yeah 100% you know at the end of the day if we can clean up

our immigration policy to allow this to happen more effectively I think that's part of the has to be part of the

solution but what do they call it like um people were like sponsors right like there's got to be like some kind of

sponsor program like if you're you know family member who's been here and and you have you have ties to help out um

there's got to be some kind of way to vouch for all of that and I think it's just a matter there was just no control

um and he put down one of our good friends your your and my good friends

Jeff King talked about this last time I was in Vegas with him and and and discussed like you know there are ways

to um to do this that's much more effective and I believe he's going to be

uh presenting some of these things his his firm is to you know Capital Hill and

trying to get some of those things put into place I think that's where a lot of efforts from America should be and and

our our folks is how do we fix this thing so that it's not a continuous problem if you um you

know if you just throwing tariffs at it I don't

know that that's the most effective but at the end of the day that's what happened it's a scary tactic it's a like

how I feel about it too I do think like a scare tactic and not stay scares both

sides right oh my we're gonna have to pay for inflation then the other side is oh we're gonna lose our best customers

yeah that's right like hey Mr worried about inflation you're the best customer let's Flex some muscles and say let's

just grd our teeth for a minute and hope for the best and if it doesn't work out then we go back to the drawing board

right but it's just somebody's got to start it yeah well it at the very least

it kicked off a conversation that the nation's having now that I think anytime we can have conversations and discuss

these things openly together um on podcast like this as well as uh with

your friends and family and business partners just having a conversation

that's where you know good ideas come from I mean this

this pretty much kind of sums it up that as negotiations continue the industry leaders and policy makers remain divided

on the best approach to balancing the trade National Security uh tra drug trafficking

specifically fitel and economic stability so dude those are huge items

that are we're talking about that we're you know there's no easy answer right you're talking balancing the trade

National Security economic stability and drug trafficking like these are huge things we're talking

about here so we don't play to to know the answers we're just kind of chatting through it and giving you our opinions

so if you have opinions you know let's let's uh let's get them up and uh you

know yeah be be controversial guys like yeah put it up there like don't be shy about that it's and it's a touchy

subject too right you can't nobody wants to say the wrong thing or have the wrong approach uh but nobody wants to seem

insensitive I think yeah I think uh you know you can certainly have a heart for

something but still know what what like have to have the conversation about what

is the best fo forward for both sides but no in no negotiation do both sides

get everything they want and that's what we got to remember so hi hiring uh Ali says uh hiring

remote employees will make a difference in the shortage of Workforce I think he's right on on on a lot of things that

could be done remote I have a remote assistant and she is fantastic I've had

in-house assistance and she is way better and so some of that is um very

possible with today's technology but you can't install floors if you're not here

if you're not there framing up if you're not there so that part of it it's going to be

tough thanks for all the comments uh what's your what's your final thoughts

there you think it's it's a scare tactic that'll go away

um I hope it's a scared tactic that'll go away right what I what I think it is

and what I hope it is they are one and the same but um it's like any any other um any other

venture or any other plan right it could it could fail but it's a it's a risk

that had to be taken at some point in time in order for us as a country to understand the value we bring globally

um we'll never we'll never know that unless we Flex those muscles and say okay why am I why am I always generating

revenue for everybody else instead of you guys like you know it's like the cousin who comes over to your house all the time eats all your steak but never

brings steak you know what I'm saying well you know that that kind of brings up the in a roundabout way like one of

the things I dislike the most is people who don't like their country they don't

like America if if that's you I feel really bad for you you know I

I this is a great country we all have our flaws both humans and countries but

there's a reason we have an immigration issue is because people do want to come

here who lived elsewhere so uh don't be hating on America Jack um love love your

country love your family love your neighbor that's that's uh that's that's a a big step in the right direction all

right so maybe something a little more straightforward here but uh still

complicated but it's a huge problem is payment delays in the construction industry so this is not just a

commercial flooring contractor's problem or commercial uh issue this is in

residential too if you work for Builders or things like that um you you have this

problem too part of the Builder in the residential World part of that problem is also

speculation so a builder speculating that he can develop and build all these bu these homes and that they're going to

sell well if he's not selling enough of them it holds him up on being able to

have the cash flow to pay people and in in commercial construction it works a

little bit different you know our endusers get financing or whatever they

uh they need if they need financing they get financing mostly and then secure

that financing and a banker is involved in approving those payments but the

problem is these payments uh the slow payments are costing

construction companies is staggering 280 billion

annually and that's from the payment delays and inefficiencies so it says

that daily losses are nearing $767 million and that this financial

strain is causing sever cash flow issues for contractors subcontractors um and that payment

processing times have now reached an average of 90 days and that's double the recommended 45-day threshold uh it says

this is leaving firms uh struggling to cover expenses like payroll materials

and project Investments uh the delays are also pushing some businesses to the brink

forcing them to rely on short-term loans or uh you know delaying their own

payments to their vendors um and frankly it comes all the way down to labor and

people not getting paid uh this is a creating a terrible Rippling effect and

and I'm seeing it even here in Kansas I know it's worse on the coasts but um you

know the financial burden of these slow payments is not just that you're not

getting the cash but a lot of our vendors offer discounts if we pay early

yeah and you know we can't even take advantage of those sometimes you're borrowing money just and then you got to

pay early to try to offset some of the cost so if you're doing like a normal

loan um say a a line of credit at your company and it's going to cost you say

eight eight and a half percent or something well that means $100,000 is

going to cost you around you know a th000 bucks a month or maybe even up to $2,000 a month well

if it's 90 days that's three months that's $6,000 off your bottom line that's not money that you

provided as an investment service and then that you make a profit off of right this is just a pure cost that comes

right off the bottom line of companies so fixing this problem would man I'm

glad this is written about because this is a major problem in our industry um

and I don't know do you think that it gets

um what well let me address a com Jorge says check your contract to make sure

what net they uh you know what the net pay is well one thing about most

commercial contracts is it's it's called pay when paid or pay if paid so the

financial burden of 90% of your commercial contracts are written hey

we'll pay you within seven days of receiving money from the owner and our net with the owner is 30 days now that

means the owner has to pay them on time net 30 yeah it's a trickle effect for

sure and then seven days later you uh

you are due your payment but there's also a standardized and you know this Jose being in this business like we have

certain times of the month we can bill so if you the most common or the fifth

10th 15th 20th and 25th and then sometimes the 30th so what this does is

say I send my pay app in on the the 20th but I received my materials on the 10th

well then I've got a 10day gap my my terms with my vendors are net 30 so I

have to pay them in 30 days if I bill on the 20th the very soonest I'm going to

get paid is the 30th of the next month well that's 40 days later yep I've and

I've already lost and paid 10 days worth that I may have to borrow money maybe to cover that

vendor so it's it's there H part of the problem is this

7-Day waiting time like you and I were discussing and the article goes on let

me let me point out a few Solutions the article uh talks about is first off it

points out that traditional payments uh systems especially in construction offer

a strong often struggle to handle the Dynamics so it's a multi- paying uh

multi-layered Payment Processing system but all that could be solved with things

like it it says here automated uh payment uh Aid driven automation

blockchain technology which we've talked about on this podcast before where it's

it's these things get checked off and as soon as those things are checked off the payment moves like there is no wait time

it goes from one account to the next and there's not this 7 Day take that s days

off like make it n 30 a lot of people's lives would be easier

but that was a large mouthful what's your thoughts around that well I'm GNA ccle all the way back

to the the beginning uh where it's 280 billion annually um right

like we're losing that but someone is gaining that right the financial establishments are gaining that and and

what what it is is is they're already using our our funds to they're leveraging what we put in to for them to

grow but now they can't pay us yeah they're not paying us for that and we're the the

amount of money in addition to what we're already paying on interest and then you add that on top of it man

that's start thinking about that like there's got to be an easier way to structure that so that way everyone is

benefiting from it because that sounds uh that sounds pretty one-sided right there yeah that's that's that dollar

amount is crazy to me um but then you break it down to the to the payment terms right Master contract her contract

uh with the the um the contractor and then then it comes to us and then we still got to pay employees we still and

then you're right about like that whole thing you can't you

can't you can't Factor those those uh variables into any of your bids you're

going to be high all the time you're gonna be so yeah you're gonna be so worried oh I got a factor R this extra

you know um three and a half percent because I know that I'm not going to be able to turn into invoice because I have

to the contract says that once it's received and insured or secured I got to send in these docks and then I'm gonna

miss the billing cycle so yeah I'm not going to get my first check for 60 days yeah it's yeah you start factoring in

that stuff you'll find yourself not working yeah like you just

um you know it's been laid out for me before that you you know using

technology we have now you have a account that has the money for the job

the dependencies to get paid and they get checked off and if we REM if you made some of

that stuff automated instead of having to go to some humans desk to get approved each time which is what happens

it goes to the Banker's desk to get approved once that gets approved then the money moves and now it's going to

the project manager to approve uh his Subs on the project and it could be 50

100 Subs on a commercial job more more and you're you're approving you got to

go through each a uh AI like dude come on this stuff could be

automated and and just check the box boom boom boom boom boom and I think that you would

find better service um in the construction industry if

payments flowed more uh easier and more frequently um also I don't see why we

have to do it on 30 days why can't they process payments on a 15-day period like

every 15 days you you're you're processing cuz see I I know I'm like you

guys so and and a lot of flooring companies are this way we pay our subs every week for the week they pre uh

performed previously so we got like a like a 15-day fluff right like we will never it

says net 15 but typically we're pretty good unless unless we forget the to okay

it on the desk like that happens calling sick for a few days and you just miss

three three more days yeah and Rollin says you know don't let one thing go wrong then getting paid

could start all over again he you know he's right you know a lot of the

contracts also state that like yeah and it could be paperwork which is

ridiculous for somebody to not get paid because they don't have a piece of paper and um it's not even always like it

wasn't even our fault Daniel was turning in the documentation that was requested in order for us to get uh paid right the

pay app everything else it's just like I didn't see it I didn't see it so um

guess what you gotta wait till next month because oh I didn't see it was there passed it don't get me started on

all of the different um construction technology platforms

that you have to deal with as a sub from procore gcpay a lot of gc's have their

own uh like all these different systems that you have to apply through your

payments and it it can get it's it makes it like you're right there should be a

universal a universal way uh that all payments go because this stuff of the

way that each GC handles it differently is also part of the problem this um this

article goes on to say that embedded Payment Systems provide seemless integration with accounting software

reduces Administration cost and eliminates chargeback risk so embedded

Payment Systems is what that's called by leveraging these Technologies construction firms can significantly cut

uh Payment Processing times and improve cash flow the future of construction payments lie in the Automation and

predictive analysis or Predictive Analytics AI powered tools can analyze

payment system or payment patterns to forecast potential delays while mobile

first Solutions allow for on-site financial management with all this

technology I'm going to go off script here there it's so much easier now for

them to say yeah you got done with this this piece of your job or it's done to

the point where I feel comfortable paying I understand that one of the things that makes it complicated in our

industry is that you know people could bill for things that they don't have

done right like billing more percentage than what you have done so I

understand that somebody has to that like that has to be um

um confirmed but with mobile technology and all the stuff at our fingertips it

should be uh you know if the industry would Advance these or Embrace these

advancements they could modernize their payment systems and gain not only could

they gain competitive Advantage but long term it just adds to stability and growth to our industry well and and then

people will take more risks right you'll have smaller businesses that are willing to take more risk because it's they're

not hitting that brick wall and that large gap in Pay um yeah you're getting pay you're getting your money a little

faster you're going to take a little bit you can obviously you know you're exactly like um it's like a when you're

getting you know you're getting a paycheck every week right say you work at a corporation or a factory you you

work you're getting a paycheck every week you you plan your life on that your pay periods right and unfortunately when

you don't know if you miss that window of opportunity you don't submit missing something or or you know let's just say

Daniel was the one paying someone and he's been on vacation for a week um unfortunately didn't guess what pay

on vacation we know from go Carrera that that can all be automated we do right

it's all automated meaning you they could like so I'm sorry I didn't see

it like Ai and automated Payment Systems

can verify that that document was digitally received and it's stamped done

and the sub gets the confirmation that that was done so that this can't be done

but I feel like you know that that frankly and I won't say this is true but

there's just a lot of people in the world that believe that General Contractors hold on to the money and

then uh invest it in um other ways and earn a percentage um I know that uh that

gets talked a lot about on by our audience and brought up um so where

there's smoke there's fire there's probably some of that going on especially on the larger jobs but yeah

you know I feel like this could really solve you know the just modern Payment

Systems could solve and like you said people would would companies would take

more risk because they have better cash flow yeah the uncertainty is what stops

anyone No One's Gonna only only weird people right only people from your my uh

um spirits take that risk and take that big a risk we gotta be insane sometimes

with the amount of risk we take as as business owners in general but

being in commercial construction as a small business owner sometimes you got to check your

pulse and see if are you really alive because the am really crazy that's what

Daniel's here for Daniel helps me out with that because I'm like hey look at this look at this idea look at this right here yeah we could do this you're

you're the you're definitely the risk taker of the two like the one that kind of throws caution at the wind for the

opportunity and I think he draws you back that's what makes you guys such a great team yeah he does he he says one

out of 100 [Laughter] ideas so we got a couple other uh topics

so let's see what the audience wants to talk about we got why Mondays are the

most dangerous day on a building site and then tougher concrete inspired by

human bone let's give the uh we'll keep talking about the payments for

again tougher concrete inspired by human bone or the fact that this um article

says that Mondays are the most dangerous day on a job site and why so one more piece on the payment

thing is if cash flows good then you

have a lot more cash looks like Daniel might join us hey or

if he doesn't join us he might join in the uh conversation um but you you are more willing to take

some additional risk um what that turns into though is that the really good

companies have more money to invest look we're not going to let companies don't just let money sit in the bank it's

either going to the banks or we're investing it into uh into new equipment

like the money going go somewhere um it's going to get invested into new

equipment into more employees into more efficient systems something if we have

the better cash flow and the greater profit that comes along with not having to finance our

receivables so yeah just just think about the the I

mean if you're a company that's doing a a substantial amount of work how many how many employees how many more

employees you can afford to hire if you were able to minimize that cost at the end of the year and training all the

training stuff people would invest in training more like there's a lot of

win-wins if if you can get the money moving faster and there's proven ways to

do that I'm not entirely sure who who clicks that light switch and says we're

going to do it this way now you know I don't know how that happens but this article kind of talks about like

adoption of but uh to me it seems like Architects and general contractors would

have to be the ones that that push for more efficient Payment

Systems sounds like a plan to me okay well let let's go I I mean we can talk

about safety uh and why Mondays are the most dangerous um most dangerous day on

a building site and this is coming out of the conversation and it's really based on a Australia's construction

industry uh well that's one of the places they studied um and they state that the

industry has uh our industry the construction industry has a high a notably higher rate of workplace

injuries compared to national average we know that because our in insurance is so much more

expensive but in 2023 alone it says 45 workers died on construction sites

uh surpassing The Five-Year previous 5-year average of 33 the leading cause

of fatalities are being struck by moving objects Falls trips and slips in

addition to these fatalities the sector reported more than 16,600 serious workers compensations

claim with workers facing extended recovery times and higher compensation cost in in previous years they're saying

that this pattern that a concerning pattern is the Monday effect which re

refers to higher frequency of accidents on Mondays compared to other

workdays so it looks like uh this this study

covered China Spain Hong Kong uh and

Australia I wonder what us uh if they fall in line with this

stuff but I I have my Ser it says several

factors uh contribute to these elevated risk according to the study unrealistic

deadlines I think we can check that box here in America worker shortages check

and lack of adequate safety training now that one I think we do probably better

than the other countries but um I think certainly if you are in commercial

construction I mean we have another job kicking off this week that you know I

mean you want to talk about safety gear and like cut resistant gloves our guys are

required all the time now what's that I said is it for scans

because that was probably the most Cutthroat Safety project that and this

is years ago brother like I'm going back 14 years there's just like I've

never the the Amazon projects we did a couple

years back were really like this as well but this is a new hospital and I get it

um safety is is important I guess my point is I think we do pretty good as

Americans um on on safety training but

this brings up the unrealistic deadlines and worker shortages which I think is

probably two of the biggest things for America the fact is is

that man you know the stress of like hey we got to get this done we got to get this done and that comes from the

GC most times but it's really coming from the owner because you're working in

some facility that produces something or does something that makes money and

every day they're closed for example a hospital every day that bed is not filled is how much money that they're

losing and so depends on what room and then they want then they put liquidated damages in which cause additional stress

and you'll do just about anything you can possibly do to knock it into LDS

yeah so like safety that's when safety can become like a second thing people

are working unbelievable long hours it adds stress fatigue communication starts to

break down all that stuff and uh you know and let's be a realistic man in in

the construction industry uh doesn't matter if you're a flooring guy or whatever the extracurricular habits of

some over the weekend aren't really going to complement your Monday attitude

you know for being realistic there and that was one of the things I wrote down is long weekends because of

extracurricular activities could start a groggy Monday and you said something

about um accidents right like could be just yeah yawning and

driving to higho you know and just something like

that um yeah the Mondays uh are

certainly a the Monday effect is not just caused by this stuff it is caused

it is on the backside of a weekend so when you start talking about um all of

that stuff stress and all this stuff it you know some people will bury

themselves in un productive activities over the weekend just trying to erase

the the stress um so even that's part of it I think when it comes down to it

there needs to be um more realistic expectations I don't think any contract

should ever be awarded based on time uh I think that that pushes General

Contractors to make unrealistic um uh uh promises and then

Force those down to their subcontractors who have to abide by their schedule and

it prioritizes safety in kind of a latter part yeah right the schedule's

more important and and then and then also and to top that off is all the technology because you know 20 years ago

I remember that they used to you say have the props will get done when it gets done we have a year to do

it there's no sense in rushing it but then they started coming up with a fast track Fast Track projects concrete that

hurens uh or cures uh quicker and and um pre-fabricated walls that it can go up

and set an expectation um and people still have to learn and if something went wrong they

weren't able to adjust and and yeah they still kept the deadline or or somebody

got done early theyd push it up oh guess what we can get done early now and I'mma move up move up my grand

opening yeah yeah and that's that's another deal as as you

just displayed is that when you do get better when you do start beating time

they start cutting it off of the end and you don't that's not just all that

schedule like thing is something that needs to be worked out in my opinion um

but it goes past just the um safety I think that's uh

obviously this this study uh says that you know part of all that is is um uh

contributing to less safe practices but to eliminate this stuff you've got to

start to um allow people to work work at the pace in which the job should be done

and I know that you guys have dealt with it but we've had to run two two shifts on jobs and sometimes you win you win a

job because you're willing to do it and it's it's a tough place to be in because you want it you got to keep keep the

revenue going you know you're a business you got to pay lights every month and employees every week and insurance and

all this and so trying to keep all that going and still uh be safe and and

so yeah I don't I don't know it's I get it sometimes it's quicker just to grab a

a baker and a ladder and a bucket and stack it all up and and change that light bulb sometimes it is quicker just

to do that right there that one time when you don't have balance on a

Monday that one time yeah yeah that one time well let's move on to something

that's kind of cool uh we got about 10 minutes left here see if we can fit this one in tougher concrete and insired by

bone so researchers from Princeton have developed a new cement-based material

that's 5.6 times tougher than conventional concrete it's Innovative uh

well it says thanks to its innovative bio inspired design the team uh at

Princeton uh Incorporated hollow tubes within the cement past to significantly

enhance its ability to resist cracking and avoid catastrophic failure this

approach was inspired by the tough uh outer layer of human bone which resists

fracture and cracking due to its internal structure uh the new material promises to improve the durability of

cement in the construction and uh in construction and

infrastructure uh let's see it says that in a study published in Advanced

Materials on September 10th the team demonstrated that this tube like

architecture of the material increases the resistance cracking and improves its

ability to uh deform without sudden failure I mean that's that's what your

bones do they Bend and they're they're you know they will break obviously but

it's pretty cool that they're going so much of our construction was done off of

like how nature does things you know well I mean this it is our our

template that's what everything is based off of and you know it's only a matter of time before someone took it literal

in order to find the solution you have to look within look within grasshopper you w't find the

solution and that's what and you you know you think about it and yeah that's they're right

you make it more pliable you take material you take materials out of it

right take about you know how your your your bone the internal parts of your

bone your bone marrow uh is different geometry size shapes orientation and

they took that chaos of and and you know

there's rhyme and reason to it but they kind of took that chaos and were able to improve uh the material's toughness

without sacrificing any strength um goes on to say that methods that strengthen

concrete with fibers or plastic SS that's the old technology this new

technology doesn't rely on using like you know the fiberglass um stuff you got

to burn off those flooring guys hate so much yeah

well it may I don't know it may be harder to nail or it could be less dense

and easier to nail and while still providing the strength yeah I don't know

uh but this is not using those fibers we hate or Plastics this is a new uh

technology or technique that relies on geometric Design Within the materials

itself so you're not really adding foreign material to the cement it's just

the way that they uh the way they construct it it's just making yeah yeah

and you know that that uh that brings up a good point like or makes me think of this

does that mean that the composition of the some of the material harder materials that we install now has a change in order to fluctuate and to move

with the deflection that this now has um well that that that that is a good

question my friend will our industry have to change expansion rate can this

only go a 100 by 100 feet or are we talking continuous um well the way it says is

that this framework allows for more precise customization of the materials uh of the material Beyond

Simple like you can do more with it essentially

um it says that they're now looking to expand the application of this technology by using Robotics and

additive uh manufacturing to further refine the design and exports potential

so this isn't something out there yet it just got kind of discovered here in the

last six months uh but at least in infrastructure let's say you don't use

it in construction but in infrastructure like roads Bridges things

like that yeah right you get you get a uh that would be the roads would be huge

right like like we're because we have Winters we have a lot of asphalt and more dur yeah you don't get these

blowouts from the free thought Cycles yeah and and that's the thing is uh you know that yeah well I wonder hopefully

it doesn't trap moisture over time and in some places like where we live crack crack I'm sure they're testing all those

future possibilities of of it um but you know they pretty much close this article

out with the potential to make the structures more durable and damage

resistant so yeah pretty cool I I always love these type of types of articles that

people out you know what I mean like it's a whole new disc whole new discovery um

that that opens a lot of questions like well what's that going to do to the moisture is moisture going to move

through it easier that was one of the first things I thought of is like if it's got more spacing and tubing and and

like capillaries is it going to allow for moisture to go through it easier thus causing us to have to really

rethink the way we do flooring if they ever use it in slab techn you know on like slab right slab um

construction interesting stuff it is I wonder I wonder what other like you know

this is generalized you we deal with concrete a lot but I wonder what is new coming out in the flooring industry that

that we're unaware of what's been in the works the last 10 years that yeah we need to get somebody ready to hit the

market that's like in the design field of one of the Mills and say hey what

kind of stuff you guys working on give us yeah you can us dirty block you yeah we could block you out and give you a

voice over yeah we can do it like Anonymous yeah so anybody you just wear

a mask we'll we'll give you one of

them A P Diddy mask give him a P Diddy mask so we didn't get to this last one

but I I'm just going to read the headline and we'll we'll uh see see what your I want to know what your first

answer is would a mandatory five-day Work Week solve constructions work life

balance woes now there's a whole article to this but I just want you to consider that topic that that's the headline what

do you think my answer from my experience and who I am is no because

and biggest thing is that I feel if I'm not working on the business someone else

is working harder than me and advancing more than I am they're putting in more

effort more work than me um I don't like that

feeling I think without reading uh using any of the body of that

article yeah my my initial thought is no because of what we just talked about

schedule's rule every day a company's not open uh it costs some XY the amount

of money and so then every day that they're not open they it puts pressure

on everybody that's building the facility and I just don't see people

willing to just work a Fed day work week and and and then at the end of the day

have liquidated damages and all this other stuff or get penalized in some way that you know because you didn't get

work done and we all know it's the electrician's fault

like no I mean it's it we all know that like once one thing gets off early I

remember a job one time got their still got delivered three months late that

held off everything and they still had to get done in time and so what do you

think that did to a job site it was a disgusting Nightmare and because of that

I don't think it' work I don't think it could ever get implemented no no and

and the the schedule thing is what what puts us in the POS like puts me in that position of someone's working harder to

me right because my Saturday my Sunday it's not the regular Monday through Friday where we're out bangging out

projects it's I'm setting up for a successful next next week or I'm taking

care of the things that because of my schedule I wasn't able to get to during that that week um I'm a little crazy

when it comes to stuff like that but yeah it's just could you imagine just working five days like five eight hour

days yeah I used to I used to do that when when I wasn't I don't think I've

ever ever been in the position but I did I only did that like

when I was younger like before 18 years old but then even as you get older and you do work five days a week the other

as an adult the other two days are working house it's just like says no it wouldn't because uh people have

habits and that won't change yeah well we've come to the end of our episode we

didn't get to all the articles I hope you guys enjoy when we bring this stuff to you something to think about uh chime

in in thanks for all the uh participation thanks to the audience I'm sorry I didn't get to everybody's uh

comments and questions uh we were kind of yeah Daniel usually uh takes care

that really well for us so I want to thank everybody for joining us today uh we'll catch you guys next week uh same

time Tuesdays 3 o'clock uh central four o'clock your time Eastern and um yeah

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you're why we do it so we will catch you guys next week thank you everybody see you guys