Message from Doug...

Tell People What You Do

We attended the World of Concrete convention in Las Vegas.  While there, we
chatted with other concrete contractors to learn the latest, best tools
and techniques for constructing exceptional foundations.

As a homebuilder, have you ever had a client tell you about a feature in their friends’ home, and they didn’t realize that you could do the same for them? 

“I didn’t know you did that,” they reply as you tell them you’ve been building homes with that feature for years.  You may be surprised at what people don’t know that you do.

In January, I finished the Charleston
Marathon.  This was a 2014 goal of mine. 
I completed two triathlons last Fall but
couldn’t quite squeeze a marathon in at the
end of the year.  Charleston is a great city to
run 26.2 miles – very flat and scenic.

It is a company’s responsibility to tell people what products, services, extras, options and add-ons they offer.  We all get so entrenched in our own business that we just assume that others know what we provide.

What features or options do you offer that your friends, prospects and customers don’t know about?  Now is the time to show them everything that you can do for them.  This is a good way to separate your company from others in your market.

Next month I’ll tell you how to do this by taking advantage of the photo-crazed mindset of today’s home buyer.

Following through on my own advice, our Feature Article this month reveals some of the services and options that Herbert Construction offers.  When you look through that article, you may find something you didn’t know that we provided.

The World of Concrete organizers hired
Doug Herbert to speak at their event in
Las Vegas.  He showed attendees how
to create effective systems within their
construction companies.

By the way, if there is a service or product that you wish we provided, send me a quick email (Doug@HerbertConstruction.com) telling me what that is.  We may just add it to our lineup in 2015.

Project of the Year

One of the things we discuss in our Newsletters is our ability to do complex foundations.  On page 3 you’ll see two projects that fit that description.  Both projects are entries in the Concrete Foundations Association ‘Project of the Year’ competition.

The project photos and descriptions were recently on display at the World of Concrete in Las Vegas.  While there, some of the 55,000+ attendees voted on their choice for the Project of the Year.  We’ll keep you posted if either of our projects win the national award.

 To Your Success,

Recent Referrals - Thank You!

A big part of knowing whether or not your business is healthy is to monitor the number of referrals that you receive. When you have a steady stream of referrals, it means that you are on the right track. Thank you to the following customers and associates for referring others to our company.  We really appreciate it!

Matt Chapman, Thomas Concrete – Redi-mix Concrete  www.ThomasConcrete.com

Mike Henson, JR Industries – Construction Supplies  www.JRIndustries.net

Randy Pimsler, Pimsler- Hoss Architects Inc. – Architect  www.PimslerHoss.com

4 Options Our Homebuilders Can Offer Their Clients

If you are like most homebuilders, you occasionally run into a home buyer that has a request you haven’t heard in a while.  While we can’t help you if they ask for a dog grooming station in their laundry room, we can help you with a few other things they may request. 

Here are four concrete-related options you can offer your clients.  If they ask for any of these (awesome) options, tell them, “Yes, I can do that,” and then call us.  We’ll take it from there.

1. “Yankee” Basement
Your home buyer wants a basement, but they’ve picked the flattest lot in the county.  No problem.  We’ll put in a full basement – often called a ‘Yankee Basement’ in Atlanta.  Before moving to Atlanta, we constructed close to 2000 full basements in Michigan.
You’ll have to include an egress window to meet building code requirements.  We have many options available for that.  You can also offer an entry door with steps that walk up from the basement level.  We’ll also help you with the waterproofing and drainage issues that are unique to full basements.

Carl Myers of Heartwood Properties
fit this full basement onto a tight
lot while providing a stairway for
easy outside access.

Nellie Poston Custom Homes is building this
Yankee basement on a flat lot in Marietta.
The stairwell allows for access into
and out of the basement.

2. Safe Room Under Porch

Instead of filling in that porch foundation with dirt, turn it into a money-making option that you offer your homeowners.  We are already constructing tall porch walls for you in this area.  So, have us put a door opening in the mating wall; have your slab contractor pour the safe room floor; and put the porch slab on a metal deck.  Viola! You’ve just created a safe room, wine cellar, tornado shelter, panic room, gun room, ‘prepper’ storage room… whatever your home buyer can imagine.

You’ll differentiate yourself from the other builders with a great option for an unused space.

You can offer your home buyers an
optional Safe Room under the front porch.

This safe room that we constructed
is concealed by a hinged book case.

 

3. Safe Room On Slab

The folks at Bercher Homes asked
us to construct this concrete safe room
for their house on a slab foundation.

The homeowners for our great client, Bercher Homes, wanted a safe room in their new home.  The only problem was that their lot was too flat for a basement foundation.  We constructed an above-grade safe room that is integrated with the mono-slab foundation.  This is something that can be offered for any house with a mono-slab foundation.

4. Concrete House

What’s better than a designated safe room within your house?  How about making the whole house a ‘safe room’ with above-grade concrete exterior walls?  Benefits of concrete homes include shelter from tornadoes, falling trees and fires.  Other benefits include increased energy efficiency, a tighter building envelope, improved air quality, and elimination of mold and insects.

We’ve constructed the shell for concrete homes here in Atlanta and throughout the Southeast.  Notable projects include a home in the City of Milton for an ex-NFL player as well as a national award-winning house near New Orleans, LA.

 

We constructed the concrete
shell for this national award-winning
concrete house near New Orleans, LA.

This weather-resilient concrete
house is for a private residence
near Cartersville in Bartow County.

Basement Project of the Year Competition

The Concrete Foundations Association of North America holds an annual competition for the most difficult concrete structures built throughout the country. We have won an award for the each of the past four years for challenging projects that we’ve completed.

For this year’s competition, we entered two interesting basement foundations in the competition.  We’d like to thank Greg Spencer and Brad Quin for their confidence in us to construct these unique projects.

Blue Ridge Mountain Cabin

 

Greg Spencer of Building Knowledge is building this mountain
cabin in Blue Ridge. We entered this basement project for
the “Single Family Less Than 2,000sq. ft.” category.

The first project is a basement foundation for a mountain cabin in Blue Ridge built by Greg Spencer of Building Knowledge. The basement was literally built onto the side of a steep, rocky mountain. The shape of the basement had to be modified to work around a large rock outcropping. The lot sloped 13’-0” from back to front in the 24’-0” depth of the house.  The small footprint required multiple footing jumps and seven different wall heights.

 “Because this job site was so difficult, there were many variables in trying to make the house fit on the site. The folks at Herbert Construction worked with me and helped me find the best solution to getting the house and foundation situated correctly.”

– Greg Spencer, Building Knowledge

 
 

Private Residence in Acworth

Brad Quin of BeQuin Homes is building this home located
in Acworth. We entered this basement project for the
“Single Family Greater Than 5,000 sq. ft.” category.

The second project we submitted is a large, private residence in Acworth built by Brad Quin of Bequin Homes. Using our Robotic Total Station to lay out the job helped us ensure that the complex basement was square and correct. This impressive project had a concrete safe room, used a total of 414 yards of concrete, and had a footprint of 125’x153’. There were 14 different wall heights, including 18’-0” tall walls.

“This is a big house, I really needed to get the foundation put in correctly. I knew HCC specializes in technical jobs of this scale. They did a great job and really came through for me.”

– Brad Quin, BeQuin Homes