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The Hammer: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Canadian Contractor Magazine
The Hammer is your deep dive into the issues and information that drive Canada’s renovation and custom homebuilding contractors. Join Canadian Contractor editor Patrick Flannery as he talks to top experts from inside and outside the industry to generate new insights and ideas for your business. Find new and past episodes online at canadiancontractor.ca or subscribe through your favourite podcasting service.
Latest Episodes
The most recent episodes — sign up to get AI-powered summaries of each one.
- Yesterday53 min
Episode #83: Sweating the Small Stuff - Shon Zax, Buildman
Most of us curse the little low-value job where we're doing something the client could do themselves and that takes almost as much up-front administration as something much larger. That's why the effort is usually to move up the chain of project size and complexity to higher revenues and higher margins. Shon Zax, co-owner of Buildman, has moved in exactly the opposite direction, creating a flat-rate repair and minor renovation service carved out from his father's existing custom homebuilding company. Tune in to hear him explain how and why it works.
- 1 weeks ago1h 15m
Episode #82: The New World of Digital Contracting - Josh Noble and Erik Sommerfeld, Meinhaus
Josh Noble and Erik Sommerfeld run Meinhaus, an online contracting business that books over 100 projects per year without either of them meeting a client in person. Creative use of AI is part of the way they have been able to set up and scale the business. It's been so successful, they feel their model represents nothing less than the future of residential contracting, especially for smaller projects. Josh and Erik join The Hammer to explain what they do, how they do it and how AI might change almost everything about how we interact with clients and our work.
- 1 weeks ago29 min
Episode #81: Not Your Grandfather's Heat Pump - David Rames, Midea
David Rames, director of technical sales for Midea, joins The Hammer to explain advances in heat pump technology that make them work much better in cold climates than perhaps many of us thought. Crucially, he outlines a third option: hybrid systems where the heat pump pairs with a fossil fuel system to ensure optimum performance and energy use all year round, while potentially allowing contractors to reduce the capacity of both systems.
- 3 weeks ago51 min
Special Renovation Month Episode: AI Can Do A Lot - Chris Smith, Woodsmith Construction
If you haven't taken a deep dive into the potential for AI in helping your renovation business, this conversation with Chris Smith from Woodsmith Construction will leave your mouth hanging open. Smith has turned large-language tools such as Claude and ChatGPT into what are effectively professional office managers for his business, reducing his time spent on administrative tasks to two hours a day of oversight. He's using them now in every aspect of his business and has implemented these systems at nominal cost without the help of a single software engineer or paid consultant. Smith is not an industry booster or software salesperson - he's a regular renovation contractor with an amazing story to tell about how AI has transformed his business.
- Oct 2, 202629 min
Special Renovation Month Episode: Learn to Adaptiv - Dwayne Butler, BILD Renovation Council Chair
RenoMark has declared October Renovation Month and is celebrating with a firestorm of outreach to homeowners educating them about home renovation contracting and showcasing great work by their members. The Hammer wanted to get in on the action, so we invited Dwayne Butler of Master Edge Homes to talk about a big opportunity for home renovators today: adapting residences for use by elderly and disabled owners to enable them to stay in their homes. Butler explains the Canadian Home Builders' Association's Adaptiv Home course, which trains contractors about what kinds of renovations these projects require, and how to execute them safely and in accordance with regulations.
- Sep 23, 202639 min
Episode #79: Battling the Unprofessional - Wendy Moir, HCRA Ontario
In 2021, Ontario's Home Construction Regulatory Authority took over licensing and regulation of new home sellers in the province, leaving Tarion to adjudicate warranty disputes only between buyers and sellers. As the enforcer of homebuilder licensing requirements and watchdog for violations of the law and good conduct, CEO Wendy Moir has the sometimes challenging task of ensuring professional and aboveboard behaviour in our industry. She joins The Hammer to explain the HCRA's role, outline her approach to the regulatory enforcement and share her insights from many years of seeing it all in the construction industry.
- Aug 21, 20261h 3m
Episode #77: Reduce Complexity to Reduce Carbon - Rockford Boyor, Elastochem
Calculating the embodied carbon of a building is a process of adding up all the inputs. So it follows that the more inputs there are, the more opportunities there are to increase a project's global warming potential and make the project less sustainable. Not a big concern for most projects today, but soon will be as code authorities move closer and closer to limiting the allowable GWP of new builds and renovations. As a building science expert working for Canadian spray foam manufacturer, Elastochem, Rocky Boyor has taken a deep dive into these issues and realized that each layer in a wall assembly adds multiple sources of carbon that often aren't counted, but might be under a strict GWP-limiting regime. He brings the receipts with a story about a project where his company was able to eliminate three of five wall layers in a heritage retrofit by using spray foam insulation, thereby eliminating the carbon contribution of materials, transportation, installation and replacement for dozens of wall components.
- Aug 19, 202634 min
Episode #76: Building from the Inside Out: A smarter approach to continuous insulation. Mickel Maalouf, building science manager at Huntsman Building Solutions
With Mickel Maalouf, building science manager at Huntsman Building SolutionsBuilders and contractors: as energy codes evolve, smarter wall assemblies can help improve thermal performance, airtightness, jobsite efficiency, and long-term comfort. In this episode of The Hammer podcast, Huntsman Building Solutions discusses how interior-applied continuous insulation with closed-cell spray foam can help reduce thermal bridging, support faster construction sequencing, and deliver high-performance building envelopes for today’s Canadian projects. Listen now to learn what this approach could mean for your next build.
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About The Hammer
The Hammer is your deep dive into the issues and information that drive Canada’s renovation and custom homebuilding contractors. Join Canadian Contractor editor Patrick Flannery as he talks to top experts from inside and outside the industry to generate new insights and ideas for your business. Find new and past episodes online at canadiancontractor.ca or subscribe through your favourite podcasting service.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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