191: Alternate Home Building Techniques with Matt Risinger

On this episode of Still to be Determined, we’re going to be having a flashback of sorts in that Matt, our Matt, Undecided with Matt, is going to be in conversation with Matt Reisinger from the Buildshow Network and podcast. And no, this isn’t some sort of deja vu. Matt and Matt have had conversations before, and we have shared the conversations between Matt and Matt before, but this is a new conversation.

So, what will they be talking about? Well, we’ll find out in a few minutes, but first, welcome to Still to be Determined. This is, of course, the podcast that follows up on the channel Undecided with Matt Ferrell. And who am I? Well, I’m Sean Ferrell. I am the brother of the aforementioned Matt. Not the second Matt, the first Matt.

And I’m a writer. I read some sci fi, read some stuff for kids, and I’m just generally curious about technology. And with me, as always, is my brother, Matt, the aforementioned first Matt. Matt, how are you doing today?

I’m very confused which Matt I am right now, but I’m good. How about you?

Well, just know that whichever one you are, I’m glad to have you here.

And How am I doing? I’m a little discombobulated, as everybody might be able to tell. Uh, but I’m looking forward to the conversation that we’re about to share with everybody. People who are regular viewers will know that Matt, my brother, has discussed with Matt Reisinger before various, uh, approaches to building a home, various advances in technology, and that’s what their new conversation is about.

The two Matts discuss what technologies and techniques in home building are catching their eyes right now. My brother, of course, just recently completed building his home and utilize some of the things that they’re going to talk about. But there are some other things on the horizon that might be brand new to both of them, and they’re going to talk about what they think has the most potential going forward.

Things like 3D printing of homes, factory build homes, new design software that takes your design and sends it to a factory for pre cutting, and more niche techniques like ICF Foundations, Rammed Earth, and more. So on we go to the conversation between the two Matts, Matt Ferrell and Matt

Reisinger. The Matt and Matt Show.

We’re back. Matt, you ready for another podcast, my friend? Yes, I am . So we’re talking today, Matt, about non-standard building techniques that could be the future of homes. This is a topic that I think gets you and I both a little excited, doesn’t it?

Yes, it does. I’m super excited to think about all the different techniques that are getting, kind of getting a groundswell of interest around them.

Things like 3D printed homes, all that kind of fun stuff. There’s a lot of cool stuff happening. Let’s

start with cool stuff in your own home, though, Matt, because you chose to build a Unity home that I suspect by time this publishes you may be moved in by now but uh, tell me about Unity’s

Process. You know, what is the, what would you consider their construction method? Is that, is that prefab? Is it SIPs? How do you explain it?

Yeah, I think it would be, I can’t, it’s kind of a, it’s not, I don’t know if it would be SIPs, but I think it’s, it’s kind of a prefab home, but it is what they’re building in a factory is they build the walls.

The uh, Maybe it is SIPS. What do we consider a SIPS? It’s kind of a very, you know, it’s

a structural insulated panel, right? And I think of it as different than prefab, even though it is prefab, because there’s no drywall on the inside. There’s no… Fixtures installed, although one cool thing about them is they can install windows at the factory if you want, or you can do them on site, up to you.

So it’s a, it’s kind of a weird hybrid. Yeah.

The one that I had built, I had a chance to go to the factory, see my actual house getting built. Um, yeah, it was, it was awesome to see the actual wall panels getting built, but they construct the wall panels in a. You know, climate controlled facilities, so they don’t have to worry about inclement weather or anything like that to slow down the production time.

Everything is set up for the workers so that they can very quickly and easily move around the panels to build them fast. Put the windows directly in, put the doors in as well, and then they’re just delivered to site and assembled on site. So, for me, it was that structural insulated panel prefab method. I was drawn to it because of the efficiency, the less waste, um, there’s less…

Uh, wood that’s required and just tossed away because of the way it’s constructed, because you can share materials between projects very easily. So it’s, it’s a more efficient system for building a home. And it just really drew me to it because of that.

And any idea, Matt, on how thick your walls are?

They’re about, I think they’re 15 inches thick. So it’s like, that’s including everything because there’s a 10 inch I beam in the middle of the wall. And then it’s densely packed cellulose between zip sheathing. And then on the inside, there’s a two and a half inch stud on the inside where they attach the drywall to.

On the inside of the home. So once you’ve put all the siding on the outside and the drywall on the inside, the house is, the walls are

about 15 inches thick. Wow. And, uh, I was just looking up at the web. Looks like loose fill cellulose is roughly R3 to R4 per inch. You’ve got dense pack, so I don’t know exactly what your R value in your walls is, do you know off the top of your head?

I think it’s R35. Holy cow, that’s incredible.

And then the attic is going to have R60, blown in insulation.

That’s awesome. I don’t know code for your exact area, but it’s probably R40 in the roof, so you’re R60, but you’re also… You know, almost thermal bridge free, basically, throughout the house, walls and ceilings.

So you’re at least 50 percent higher than code on your ceiling, and you might be somewhere around double or not quite double on the walls, I would bet.

Yeah, now it’s, I believe, standard is what, R20 or something like that

for the walls? Yeah, somewhere in there. You’re, you’re in a colder climate zone, so it’s going to be higher than where I am.

Uh, any idea of what air tightness, uh, might be on your house?

It’s going to be passive house level quality, which is, what is that, it’s 0. 6 or

below. Yep, 0. 6. Yeah, for my nerds out there, that’s air changes per hour at 60 pascals, 50 pascals, sorry.

Yeah, the blower door test they did when they assembled the basic shell, uh, came out below .6, it was like .5 something.

Holy cow. And then we’re, it’s going to probably get better

by the time it’s all done. It’ll get better. That’s incredible, Matt. That’s so cool. And, uh, for those of you not seeing Unity, they’re a division of Benson Wood. Uh, and so there’s some, some version of some walls that are kind of like a modern timber frame, uh, where it’s wood, wood is the, is the main, uh, structure on the house.

But then usually they’re solid sheathed on the outside, I believe with Huber Zip system sheathing. Uh, is that still the case, Matt? Yes, it is. And then on the inside, either Huber Zip system again, or sometimes just bare OSB, usually a higher grade OSB. Is yours have one of those too? It’s Zip on the inside as well.

It’s Zip, okay. And then, uh, basically a fully taped, uh, and sealed outside. Mostly they deal with tape and stretch tape, maybe a little liquid flash. And then on the inside, they also tape, correct? On your house? Yes, they did.

Yeah, they taped

on both sides. So, so in other words, you’ve got this very, very airtight shell, uh, on the outside map, which is a lot like a, the way they build in Europe, uh, where it’s airtight, fully, uh, thickly insulated.

Uh, and so you’ve got this interesting hybrid that’s kind of prefabricated, definitely factory built, although assembled on site. Uh, the panels are crane sized, but they’re not like a room sized, if that makes sense. Uh, and it’s similar to SIPS. I’ve built a couple of SIPS houses in my, uh, in my career now, Matt.

Uh, and I have to say, I only used one particular SIPS manufacturer. Uh, and I liked them, but I wasn’t in love with them. Uh, and what’s interesting about Bensonwood is that their processes, their systems are so dialed. And you actually bought from Unity, which is kind of like their, uh, Model T kind of Ford factory, so to speak, where they’re like, Look, you can have any flavor of Ford as long as it’s black.

Yeah, right? Not entirely true, but they have like, I don’t know, a dozen floor plans at Unity. And it’s not like a, whatever you can, whatever your architect can draw kind of a thing. Now they do have another division called Bensonwood, which is really whatever your architect can draw. They’ll engineer it and figure out how to do it with their system.

With some, there are some, um, uh, there are some caveats to that because they build everything monopoly framing. Where any overhangs are built on top of the structure later, uh, and that way everything has a continuous air, water, and moisture barrier from foundation to ridge without any breaks. Fantastic way to build.

On the other hand, Matt, it’s kind of a totally new and very different type of non standard technique is this whole 3D printing. Have you spent any time looking at it or watching it or seeing any jobs? Yeah, I’ve not

been to any job sites, but I’ve done a lot of research on this. I’ve seen a lot of examples of it, and it seems super promising, but it also seems really early days.

Yeah. Because it’s… I’ve never seen a full house, like multi story house built this way. It’s always just like the first story is built with 3D printing and they do standard construction on top. And I think there’s limitations because of code and engineering requirements that are kind of limiting it right now.

But the 3D printing seems really interesting because it’s, it speeds up the production time. Just like with my house, five days of assembly on site, five days there was, there was no house. Suddenly there’s a house with 3D printing. It’s something similar. It’s like they can build the basic structure of the home really quick.

Yeah. So there’s a benefit there for cost and efficiency, but it also does seem very early days. I know you’ve seen some of the, uh, Houses up front, up close, with the actual production.

Yeah, Icon, which is one of the originators of 3D concrete printing, is based here in Austin, Texas. And I’ve got out to see a couple of their jobs.

I feel like they’re friends of mine now. Uh, I don’t own any stocks, so don’t take any, uh, don’t think that I’m, uh, tooting their horn because I’ve got any skin in the game. Uh, I’m super impressed with them. I think they’re going to scale up and you’re going to see Pulte and D. R. Horton and a couple other builders jump on board the ICON bandwagon and suddenly we’ll go from, uh, I don’t know what they’re, they’ve got this, I don’t know if you saw the video, but I made a video at Wolf Creek, Wolf Ranch in Georgetown, uh, just 45 minutes from my office.

And they were printing like 75 homes there, something like that. I think they could scale up, ICON could, and they could be printing 7, 500 homes in the next two or three years, and maybe in a decade, 75, 000 homes a year. Uh, and you’re right, they’re all, they’re only kind of first floor at this point, but in terms of resilience, durability, Um, you know, all those kinds of things paired with the right roof system.

Dang, I’m impressed. I think it’s really, really cool. And to go from cardboard sheathing, like some of the builders in that same Georgetown area are using, to, uh, two layers of concrete printed, one inner and one outer. Holy cow, what a difference. Yeah. Do

you know offhand, like, how well insulated they are?

Like, is the nature of the wall just provide a lot of R value? Or is it… Do you have to do something in addition?

Yeah, no, they’re also, uh, filling them with, uh, low density foam, uh, in that, in that void. So the ones that I saw kind of remind me of a Yeti cooler, where you’ve got an outer candy shell and an inner candy shell, that’s a real, you know, Yetis are heavy and, and durable because they got this thick.

Plastic on the outside. Uh, and then the inside is spray foam, basically nothing, nothing special there. And that’s what these homes have too. Just a, uh, a low density spray foam rather than a high density foam. And I like the fact that on the inside of the house, the concrete walls are showing, but the same’s true on the outside.

So they put it, they put that in the middle. And I also like that in a hot climate. Uh, you know, that outer concrete’s maybe heating up if there’s some sun actually beating on it. But now you’ve got the insulation, plus you’ve got this inner layer of concrete that should, in theory, be the same temperature as the house, that has some thermal mass, and should take longer to heat up, kind of Adobe house style.

It’s interesting. And I kind of, it’s, they’re taking the… The printer is going to the site and they’re, they’re building it on site. I can’t remember the name of the company offhand. Was it Mighty Buildings? They are doing a different approach where they have a central factory where they’re 3D printing the structures, sections of the structure, kind of like my Unity home.

They’re doing the same thing in a facility where they’re printing sections of the 3D printed structure and then they ship it to site. So, it’s climate controlled 3D printing and because it’s a central location, they can, in theory, Start to churn out very fast, uh, like a pipeline of just wall structures and different systems that they could be building on site elsewhere in a matter of days.

That’s pretty wild. How crazy. How cool is that? I’m going to look that up.

Yeah, I think it’s Mighty Buildings. I think that was the name of the

company. You know, I feel like, Matt, if we’re going to talk, if we’re going to hit this topic, though, we should at least hit the elephant in the room, which I know people that, that are…

Big fans of this style of construction, kind of non standard. Uh, do you know much about Katerra? Are you familiar with that name? No, I’m not. So, Katerra is really the best funded, uh, building component startup manufacturer ever. They were going to build, uh, apartments and multi families and… Uh, had huge factories, uh, in, I want to say Arizona and maybe Seattle or L.

A. Uh, and like crazy amounts of money, like in the hundreds of millions or maybe even approaching billions of dollars. Uh, and they had this promise of, oh, in a couple years, Katerra will be supplying the framing packages, you know, pre framed houses to all the builders in the nation, right? Everybody who’s building anything more than just a single family, potentially, would be buying from Katerra.

Well, they went out of business. Uh, and that’s one of the things that’s so hard about this kind of prefab, pre panelized, pre built home is that there’s just a string of companies over the last 30 years. That Builder Magazine or some other big publication were like, this is it. This is the Holy Grail.

These guys are going to be incredible. I saw a slide one time by a, uh, a speaker that showed all their logos and some of them like as back as far as the 70s and 80s to today and now Katerra, they were all in the ditch. You know, they all went out of business cause it’s so, uh, to build a house in a factory is so capital intensive, uh, and, and frankly, manpower intensive, uh, whereas As crazy as it seems, building on site with a pile of sticks and three framers actually is pretty efficient in the long term scheme of things, and that’s how we’ve been building houses since, uh, you know, the early 1900s in America, so it’s, it’s gonna take Big innovation to, to change that.

And, uh, you know, Bensonwood is one shining example of somebody that’s been able to do it. Uh, and they’ve been around a long time. I want to say Ted started his company around 1980, maybe late seventies. Uh, and it’s kind of slowly expanded and probably used his own capital or maybe very little extra capital from outside.

Uh, but in the scheme of things, I don’t know how many Unity ships a year. It can’t be more than a few hundred, right? It’s less than that, I think. It’s less than that, yeah. Incredibly well built, just not huge numbers.

I mean, to talk about Ted Benson, one of my conversations with him, we talked about… How they’re open sourcing the software that they’ve created for designing in 3D, the 3D planning software that they use, they’re open sourcing it so that any architect or builder out there could theoretically design a home, put the order in with a, like a, the unity factory, they pump out the panels and then they get shipped to site.

So it’s like they’re open sourcing it in a way to try to make. To kind of lay the groundwork for more of these kind of style factories that can start popping up around the country and more people could take advantage of this building style. Wow. And I love the fact that he’s open sourcing this. It shows that he’s really putting, like, his money and his efforts behind trying to better the…

Everybody. That’s like, it’s not just trying to turn a profit, which is, it’s great to see that he’s trying to like advance how we’re building our homes in the country to make better forever homes. That’s so cool. Um, so it’s like, for me, like when I look at Ted Benson and at Unity and Benson Wood, it’s like, they, they are kind of the shining beacon on the hill as far

as I’m concerned.

He’s a prince of a man too. What an incredible guy. Matt, have you ever heard of ReadyFrame before or seen my videos about ReadyFrame by any chance? Yes, I have.

I don’t know much about it, but I have heard about it. I

think ReadyFrame is, is the one, uh, technology that as we think about kind of non standard building that really has legs and that really could…

Be taking over in the tens of thousands, and I don’t know what their numbers are already, they’re probably already at 10, 000 a year. Um, but what’s really interesting about ReadyFrame, for the listener who doesn’t know it, Builders First Source, which is a big build show sponsor by the way, Uh, has this service called ReadyFrame, not all their 500 locations, but a lot of theirs, where they basically turn a truss Factory into a pre built, um, uh, stud factory for lack of a better term, where they, they take your house, they put it into the computer, uh, show you a 3D sticks model of the whole house, pre frame it on the computer, and then they send that cut list to the factory that basically says, all right, we’re going to cut all these studs to the exact size, the cripples, the, uh, you know, the, the Kings, the Jacks, the whole shebang to frame a whole house kind of normally.

But we’re, as we cut them, then we’re going to inkjet print a number and we’re going to bundle in a pack that makes sense. So instead of the frame, we’re going to get… Uh, you know, 32x4x9 foot pre cuts, well I used to actually get the pre cuts, but studs off the wall and figuring out the layout and figuring out everything he needs.

He’s going to get a bundle, bundle number 104, from the pile, and literally this job site has no saws going, uh, and also has very little waste on site. Like we go from at least a dumpster or more in framing. To a small pile of some bands and a couple of blocks, maybe, and that’s it. Uh, and it’s a, it’s a fabulous, uh, way to frame.

And I just built my very first ReadyFrame this past year. Uh, one of my project managers built his own house with it. And, and, uh, my company was involved. My, my normal framer did it. This is a framer who’s an old, crusty framer. Awesome guy. I’ve been doing it for a long time. I was like, I don’t know about this.

Well, sure enough, we build it in about 30 percent less time than he would have, uh, done it kind of traditionally. Um, but the big deal was not just the time, but the waste was almost non existent. Uh, and that means we get our trades on site faster. Uh, and it just absolutely made sense to this older framer who’d been doing it a long time immediately.

And the other cool thing I love about it is it doesn’t take the craftsmanship out of it. You know, the guys still have to be smart, forward thinking, you still gotta move lumber around, you still need labor on the job site, uh, you know, you’re not, you’re not taking American jobs, uh, you still have on site labor, you still gotta deal with the weather though, unfortunately, unlike your build that you didn’t have to deal with the weather.

Um, but this is really an incredible leap forward for kind of standard framing that we’ve been doing for a hundred plus years in America. That’s, that’s

really cool. It sounds like it’s a best of both worlds, taking advantage of the skill set that’s already there, but just making it more efficient.

Exactly. Huge. And that also honestly allowed us to kind of scale back the crew size needed as well, which is pretty cool. You know, normally we frame with a five man crew. Uh, and this time we framed it with a three man crew. So, I mean, it really is an incredible way of building that I think is going to really take off.

And one thing I’m working on, uh, is, uh, the house that I built for my family just recently. Uh, we’ve got a 3D model of that now through Builder’s FirstSource Digital Tools. Where, uh, they can show a rendering of my house, and you can click a few buttons and change the facade, uh, change from brick to siding, change the color of the siding, change from a metal roof to an asphalt roof, or change color.

Uh, I forget what they call it. It’s part of their digital tools collection. It’s, uh, Home Configure. And then, uh, the same is true with the inside too. They’ve got the whole inside of my house modeled as well, per the plan. So they can change cabinet styles and paints and all these crazy 3D renderings. And they’ve got a home plan library that they’ve already built out.

They’re gonna add my house before too long to that home plan library. I need to… Hopefully I’m not getting the cat out of the bag here. Um, but you could, in theory, Matt, go to mybldr. com, uh, click on my house, change some, uh, things around the way you like it, uh, change the, uh, selections and the colors and the material palette, and press a button and a ready framed house that you bought on their website, kind of like the Sears Roebuck catalog, which was incredible.

Uh, for many decades. That would get delivered to the house and I bet within another decade they’ll have supply chain partners through that whole process so that you could probably buy the cabinet package, the plumbing package, the flooring package, uh, all those other things along with it. But in the, in the meantime, you’ll be able to buy the full plans and specs, uh, as well as a ready frame package.

Wow. Pretty cool. Talk about plug and play. That’s, that’s the idea. Pretty, pretty impressive.

What about, um, ICF, because one of the things that I’ve always found fascinating about that is it’s a typically a different way to do a foundation, but I’ve also seen people building full homes out of ICF. It seems like it has some drawbacks to it because you have to deal with the insulation on both sides.

And sometimes you have to like cut through the styrofoam on the inside of the house to route cables and pipes and things like that. Do you think stuff like that has legs that could become more popular?

Yeah, it’s interesting. It’s been such a niche market for, for such a long time. And honestly, the people that do it tend to be folks like you, Matt.

Where in our last podcast, we talked about people that were, that were building forever homes. I think people tend to be drawn towards it. Uh, for that reason, I think, uh, where ICF shines is, uh, when you’ve got houses that are taken away with either flood, hurricane, uh, or other kind of natural disasters on a regular basis.

That’s where ICF really is an incredible. Uh, alternative. I mean, what was the, uh, Florida hurricane where you saw houses just gone except for one house and it was an ICF house. I forget where that, that was like two years ago. Do you remember that on the news? I

don’t, I don’t remember seeing

that on the news.

I can’t, I remember taking a picture of the NBC nightly news when I was watching it and it was one ICF house on the coast. And everything else was just wiped out from this hurricane in Florida. So I mean, that’s, that’s where I think ICF really shines because concrete construction is really what a good majority of the world does.

Uh, it is pretty intensive though, if you think about energy intensiveness, uh, I heard you talking about kind of reducing the amount of concrete in your build, but on the other hand, you know, a lot, what’s more energy intensive than having to build three houses over the course of a hundred years because of, uh, uh, because of things wiping them out, natural disasters wiping them out, whether it’s fire or flood or, uh, wind or whatever.

Uh, so I think for people that are in coastal regions, for people that are in fire prone regions, it’s a pretty incredible way to build. Yeah. It’s,

I’m, like you said, I’m trying to optimize the less concrete in my build, but I can totally understand why some people would want to kind of double down on concrete.

I mean, it’s the most used material in the world for a reason. It stands the test of time and it can take a beating. So it’s like, it makes a lot of sense why some people would want to do it that way. Yeah. Which, if you’re going to go that route, ICF seems like a promising path, um, to try to speed up the production, get good insulation value out of it, and have a well built house.

Boy, there’s a, there’s a lot of people out there, Matt, that are builders that absolutely fawn over ICF construction and can’t stop talking glowingly about it. Uh, I’ve done a couple, uh, that’s not true, I’ve only done one. I guess I’ve only done one. Uh, and I liked it. Um, but, in the end, I think that, uh, I probably could have done standard construction on that house, standard concrete, I should say, on that house, uh, formed walls, and had a similar result.

I mean, one, one of the things that’s the, uh, the dirty secret of ICF that no one will tell you, but if you’ve been around a while, you’ve seen it, is that those houses are a little harder and more difficult to waterproof, and if water gets in, the concrete doesn’t get hurt. But nobody likes water inside their house, and if you use traditional building materials on the inside, like drywall for instance, well now you got a problem if water gets in.

And so, uh, I know of several, uh, multi family projects that were built out of that type of construction that have issues, and… Not small issues, uh, and I can think of several single families that I’ve heard about, talked to homeowners, uh, over the years that have had those similar issues, because it’s, it’s not, um, necessarily an easy product to waterproof.

Uh, below grade walls, believe it or not, I think are easier to waterproof with it, especially with sheet applied goods. Uh, I’m a big fan of that,

uh, and you know, rain screens and uh dimple mats and all that sort of thing, but Again, this comes back to like we talked about in the last podcast, um, the amount of exposure on the house too. Uh, you know, if you’re building a house on the top of a hill where the wind hits it and water doesn’t necessarily come from the sky, it comes uphill with the wind, it just means that you’ve got to take your…

Uh, your level of waterproofing up a notch or maybe up two notches. And so that’s something that we don’t necessarily think of as homeowners building or sometimes even as builders building with new products is, you know, I need to think of all the horrible situations and scenarios where this house could get wet, uh, and plan for those worst case scenarios.

Are there any, like,

there’s a bunch of other, it’s more materials that jumped in my head? Not necessarily building techniques. Yeah. Are there any other, what’s like, have you thought about like hempcrete or hemp blocks, which can get some attention? They’re not, they’re not structural. They can’t take the weight, but they are incredible R value and they’re fireproof.

Fireproof. They have a lot of benefits, but there’s, you really have to engineer around it if you’re going to use it. Yeah. So I don’t know how good that is. How much like, like what’s the forecast there? Cause it feels like it’s so niche. It feels like that will

never quit catch on. That’s the hard part, man.

I think you have to really fall in love with it and really want it to do it. Cause it’s, it’s in that price tier, uh, that’s just up there. Very labor intensive. Very material intensive. And it’s not like it’s an everyday, like, Oh, just call the Hemp Creek guy who’s doing it all the time. Right. You gotta call a crew that’s from out of state or find an architect that knows how to work with it.

On the other hand, if you, if you’ve got some material sensitivities, if you’ve got chemical sensitivities, if you’ve got mold sensitivities, you know, sometimes those people are willing to, to dive deep and really figure out what they’re going to do, and that’s one that makes a lot of sense for those types of people.

But it’s, it’s such a niche product. You know, it’s, it’s a little like, uh, Rammed Earth in some respects. Yeah, exactly. Have you seen a Rammed Earth house before? Yeah, yes, I have. Super cool, super artistic, super architectural. Um, but dang is it labor intensive, uh, and especially if you want it to look good and not just look like you slapped it together and had some thought behind it.

I got to go to a, uh, a rammed earth house in Marfa, Texas, which is like this cool town that’s turned into the hot town where the celebrities go. Uh, and I did a video there, uh, on this house under construction that my buddy from Austin had his crew out there. Building in West Texas. Man, it was one of the coolest architectural buildings I’d ever seen.

Uh, funny story on that. I published that video and my, my buddy called me the next week and was like, You won’t believe it. A Border Patrol helicopter landed on our property. And the guys were like, hey, what’s going on? And the guy was like, is this the house that was on the build show that I saw last

week?

They’re like, yeah,

we’ll give you a tour. And so they gave him a tour. They thought he was coming to like, check on illegal activity or something. And he was like, no way, I was flying around and saw this house. I think that’s the one from the build

show. That is fantastic. That is awesome. That is so cool.

But I mean, what a, what a cool, you know, old slash new technology.

I mean, it’s like Adobe, basically, you know, these are, uh, these are. Natural materials that, uh, are pretty straightforward to build, uh, but you need labor, uh, although I guess that’s not entirely true. There is some concrete in Rammed Earth because they’re putting Portland cement in the mix just dry, uh, and kind of dense packing it.

But, uh, yeah, I mean, there’s, I think that some of those technologies, some of those products probably, Matt, are just going to continue being niche. I think what’s interesting is kind of going back to seeing… What happens to that 3D printing? Will that really take off? Will, will we see houses in mass? You know, not just maybe hundreds or even thousands, but could we see a hundred thousand plus homes a year?

That’s when, that’s when things are really a big deal in America. And in the meantime, I really think that ReadyFrame has legs. Uh, you know, I think the fact that it doesn’t necessarily change the way we build in America. Uh, and, you know, my house and lots of others that we see videos on, on BuildShare Network prove that you can build a really well built house.

Uh, using products that you get at the local lumber yard. You know, Builders First Source, uh, doesn’t stock European tapes and, uh, you know, crazy things that, uh, you have to ship in from, uh, from Poland. And yet, I can build a really well built house that will last 500 years, uh, from a little bit of concrete from my local concrete, uh, plant and some wood from my local Builders First Source.

Right,

yeah. It’s going to be the technologies that lean into existing infrastructure and talent and skills. Yeah. It’s going to be, those are going to be the ones that… Succeed. Yep. For sure.

And then ultimately I think where, where we land this podcast, cause I know we’re gonna kind of getting short on time is, you know, like your house, Matt, you build a really well built house.

You were very thoughtful in the process ahead of time. Uh, you build a house that would, uh, could be built by a multitude of, of different builders and have the same result. Uh, and then when you, uh, let’s say add some solar, add some battery on that. Uh, put a span panel in and kind of future proof it. Now you’ve got a house, Matt, that realistically in 2123 will get the kitchen remodeled, but the systems, the structures, uh, the insulation levels.

Might still meet code, uh, and would still be a very viable house that someone would go, Wow, my, uh, you know, my great uncle, my great great uncle, Matt, who had this thing called a YouTube channel back in, back before we beamed him straight in our mind, uh, was talking about these forever homes and built this amazing house.

And how cool is this that, uh, you know, the kitchen’s way out of date and the appliances are… Uh, you know, from, from last century, but other than that, this is a great house and, and will serve my family well a hundred years

from now. It’s about building that forever home. That’s the key. Yeah, for

sure. Matt, really appreciate you, uh, having me on the podcast.

I’m so glad you could join me again. This has been a fun conversation. Thanks so much. Pretty

fun. The Dual Matt Show. I like this, man. Maybe we need to, maybe we need to start having our own hosted podcast with the Matt and Matt Show. I wish I could say, comment below if you want to see more of the Matt and Matt Show.

So, our

thanks to Matt Reisinger for taking the time to speak with my brother. It’s always an interesting conversation when the two of them get together because the two of them really are looking… At the horizon and in the foreground and trying to pull those two things together and it makes for some interesting discoveries.

And I hope that if anybody in our viewership or listenership is thinking about building their own home, I hope the conversation has been helpful to you. If it has, please jump into the comments and let us know your thoughts. Let us know what you’re planning. Let us know what you’re thinking based on what you heard in the conversation.

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