Recent Referrals, Thank You!

Wow! Here we are towards the end of June and boy is it HOT HOT HOT!! There are many fun things to do this time of year including swimming, hiking, biking, kayaking, or just grilling hamburgers on the back deck. Whatever your summer looks like we are glad we are a part of it. Special thanks to a few people who have referred our company to others. We really appreciate you for thinking of us!

Mike Loudermilk, MJL Grading Co. – Grading Contractor  770-992-1612

Greg Keenan, SDI Engineering – Engineer  www.SDIEngineering.net

Shannon Bechtold, FrontDoor Communities – Home Builder  www.FrontDoorCommunities.com

Welcome New Client: Liz Davies, ESD Homes

Liz Davies of ESD Homes found her calling 15 years ago while pregnant and renovating her own personal home. Understanding that renovations can be stressful and sometimes complicated, she reached out to a contractor to assist her with some projects.

Her experience using this contractor left more to be desired and she discovered very quickly that she was very capable of completing these jobs herself. She was very pleased with the work she was able to accomplish and she dove head first into remodeling and renovating homes for speculative sale.

Up until 2008 Liz was renovating and remodeling homes in Buckhead and midtown. After the speculative market crashed, she found herself working with homeowners directly.  Liz’s growing small company shared office space with one particular architect and learned the importance of good architectural design and execution.

Today most of ESD Homes’ clients are people who want to improve their current usable space. Many of these clients come to Liz from architects and designers who have given the clients a relative idea of what they want done. Liz and her team then come in and make each plan a reality.

Liz heard about our company from a friend and decided to use us for an addition she was working on in Atlanta. This project required adding a crawl space to the right side of an existing home, a garage to the front and retaining walls that extended from the home to create a driveway.

We asked Liz Davies about her experience working with Herbert Construction, to which she replied, “You guys were super professional from beginning to end. You asked questions and details about the project that weren’t clear on the plans. This helped me to think about what problems could arise so that I could plan accordingly.”

We really enjoyed working with Liz on this project and since the completion she has referred us to several others. We appreciate Liz and hope to work on many more projects for ESD Homes.

Welcome New Client: Brian and Randy Shiltz, t-Olive Properties

Brian and Randy Schiltz of t-Olive Properties have always been in the construction arena. Their father was a custom home builder in Big Canoe, GA until he retired in 2008.

The t-Olive brand was started by the Schiltz brothers in 2008 after they both left Hedgewood Properties and they decided to work together and finish houses that banks owned or other builders had started but couldn't finish during the downturn. Eventually their focus shifted to high-end remodels, custom homes, and basement finishes. Most of their projects now involve new home construction.

 Their typical customers come from production type homes and look to  t-Olive for their second or third homebuilding experience. They want a 10 year home and not a two year home. These homeowners are now at a point in their lives where they know exactly what they want and are able to afford it.

Brian and Randy pride themselves on being a small boutique custom construction company that builds homes from Atlanta to Ball Ground. They are also part of the Southern Living Custom Builder Program and represent the Atlanta territory.

Recently, they were working on a big addition located in Atlanta. They were referred to us by another builder who builds the same type of houses and thought we would be a good fit. This project called for tall garage walls with an elevated structural concrete slab, several site retaining walls, and the construction of a pool house that included basement walls.

“We needed someone who could ask the right questions about a project like this. You guys were so easy to work with in the field and in the office. It’s obvious that your team can easily handle technical and unusual jobs such as this and do it on schedule,” said Brian.

We love doing projects like these and hope to complete many more for Brian and Randy Schiltz at t-Olive Properties.

Welcome New Client: Jeff Dinkle, ECO Custom Homes

Eco Custom Homes was founded by Jeff Dinkle in 2000. Some of his first projects were speculative and built with his own money. Over the years he continued to build “spec” houses but the size and complexity grew into the $million+ range. This included the very popular high-performance “green homes” that have been in great demand for many years.

Currently Eco Custom Homes focuses on custom and high-performance homes, large home renovations, light commercial restaurant build-outs, and high rise residential projects. These projects typically float between $300,000 to $2 million+ in construction and are usually located inside the perimeter.

With the complexity of these projects, we asked Jeff what he felt he needed from a poured wall company. He explained, “I have had contractors mess up the foundation, and these are high-end modern homes that are supposed to have 0 defects. I need someone that has the ability, equipment, and skill to do complicated and technical projects.”

Jeff was looking for a new poured wall contractor and was referred to us by a friend.  He called us to help him with an addition he was constructing in Atlanta that required two phases of work for us. First, we extended the basement and added retaining walls to the site. We then came back to construct garage walls to the back of the property which required concrete line pumping from the street.

Once we completed the work and asked Jeff what his thoughts were regarding our process, he replied, “The ability to give a digitized layout and exactly replicate the dimensions of the plan are a huge asset for me. I do not have to question if the foundation will be square, I know it is. I am certain that if there is anything technical in a set of plans, you guys can do it.”

Complex projects are what we specialize in and we are glad we were able to show Jeff some of the ways that we make things easier for our clients.

Message from Doug...

Setting Goals Helps You Achieve What You Really Want

Last month my Dad and I attended the annual concrete convention in Las Vegas. The general mood of our contractor friends across the country matched that of what we see in Atlanta: Optimism.

There seems to be a lot of momentum and a strong tailwind for Metro Atlanta in general, and in its construction sector in particular.

Of course, growth in construction activity always seems to be accompanied by higher costs in labor and materials. We are already hearing about hefty redi-mix concrete increases coming in the first quarter.

While at the concrete convention, I spoke to almost 200 contractors about implementing systems within their companies. This was the fourth time I’ve been hired by the convention organizers to speak at the event, which is attended by concrete contractors from around the world.

Your Goals for 2017

As I’ve mentioned here before, I set personal and professional goals at the first of each year. A year goes by so quickly that without goal setting, I’m not as likely to accomplish what I really want. Goals help keep me on track.

Here are a few goals that I’ve set for 2017:

Create More Systems.

We’ll continue to document how we do things, find ways to be more efficient, and create formal processes for the tasks we do every day. By establishing more systems in our company, we’ll be able to do more work, promote people from within, and increase profits.

Do More Work.

We are adding crews and purchasing equipment. We will be taking on more work and adding new clients. If you haven’t used our company yet, give me a call. We can chat to see if our two companies are a good fit.

Increase Employee Training. Over the last five years our labor costs have increased dramatically. Each year we devote more time and effort towards finding, hiring, training and keeping laborers. While we’ve made a lot of improvements, we will invest additional time and money in each of those areas, with an emphasis on training.

Complete an Ironman 70.3. This fall I’ll do my first half-Ironman race. The Augusta Ironman 70.3 triathlon is comprised of a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride, and a half-marathon (13.1 miles) run. I’ll do the event – and try my best to keep up – with my friend Carl Hire and his daughters.

What have you committed to accomplishing in 2017? It’s already February…decide what you really want and keep moving forward!

To Your Success,

Recent Referrals - Thank You!

A big part of being successful in business is what others say about your company. Word of mouth is a huge part of what makes others try your services. We work hard at what we do and we are so thankful that our customers and associates notice. It means a lot that you share your experiences with our company to others. Also, we want you to know that a referral to our company is a sure bet. We will treat those that are referred with the gold standard of service, reliability and quality that made you refer them in the first place. A special thanks to the following people for doing just that! We appreciate you!

Brad Tasker, Concrete Management Services – Flatwork Contractor  678-910-7912

David Goldschmidt, DiG Architects – Architect www.DiGArchitects. com

Wes Buchanan, Bonner Buchanan Custom Homes – Homebuilder www.BonnerCustomHomes.com

Technical Bulletin – Drop Down at Retaining Wall

There is a potential for water leaks and water-related damage to homes that have concrete retaining walls attached to their foundations.

The problem arises when the retaining wall is constructed at the same height as the foundation wall that it connects to.  When rain water lands on top of the retaining wall, it can travel laterally onto the foundation wall.  Once on top of the foundation wall, it can cascade down the wall into the basement and cause water problems inside the basement.  If the water stays on top of the foundation wall, it can weaken the structure through the eventual rotting of the sill plate and floor trusses.

Without a drop between the retaining wall and basement wall, rain water can get into the basement. 

The simple but effective way to eliminate this is to drop the top of the retaining wall below the foundation wall height.  By lowering the top of the retaining wall 4” to 6” below the top of the basement foundation wall, you create a step in the concrete.  This prevents the water from travelling onto the foundation wall.

This step in the concrete should be right at the exterior framing line, regardless of whether siding, brick or stone is applied to the framing.  The step should still be constructed if the retaining wall gets faced with brick or stone because water will find its way down through the brick to the top of the concrete wall.

A drop between the retaining wall and basement wall prevents rain water from getting into the basement. 

This drop down at the retaining wall is one example of the many different issues that can cause structural and water-related problems in house foundations.  The key is to identify these problem areas and make the required changes to your foundation design.  At Herbert Construction Company, we continually review our clients’ plans and suggest beneficial changes before and during the construction process.

As these changes are incorporated into the way your foundations are designed and built, you will begin to eliminate the problems that cause warranty issues and annoying or expensive call-backs.  You’ll also improve your company’s reputation and increase your client referrals.

Plan view of the trouble spot between the basement wall and the retaining wall.