The Construction Life - podcast cover

The Construction Life

What is The Construction Life? The Construction Life is a daily routine of waking up at 5am, working out, showering, preparing lunch, sending off the family, driving to the construction site, organizing and preparing for the day's work, building, having fun on the job, wrapping up at the end of the day, returning home, spending time with the family, and preparing for the next day. It's a lifestyle that involves a constant commitment to hard work and a love for what you do, and it's never about settling for "good enough." The Construction Life is about striving for excellence every day.

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Episodes

#559 Megan Weston-Jesso of Water Plumber Girl talks Water Treatment and real-world issues

Stay connected with The Construction Life Podcast by texting Manny at 416 433-5737 or emailing him at manny@theconstructionlife.com . If you have something to contribute to the podcast, email info@theconstructionlife.com to schedule a time to join us in studio. Are you interested in the latest trends in building, renovation, home improvement, real estate, architecture, design, engineering, contracting, trades, and DIY? Look no further! Our construction podcast and social media content cover a wi...

Apr 07, 202435 min

#558 Matt Botelho of Botelho The Plumber running a one plumber business these days

Stay connected with The Construction Life Podcast by texting Manny at 416 433-5737 or emailing him at manny@theconstructionlife.com . If you have something to contribute to the podcast, email info@theconstructionlife.com to schedule a time to join us in studio. Are you interested in the latest trends in building, renovation, home improvement, real estate, architecture, design, engineering, contracting, trades, and DIY? Look no further! Our construction podcast and social media content cover a wi...

Apr 06, 202455 min

#556 Toronto's below grade expert, Martin Halliwell of Footprint Engineering Inc. In With The Old

“The rate of evaporation exceeds the rate of leakage”. Martin walks us through the big players of the pre-2000s, and the technological advancements that we have made and should make below grade. We discuss Eglinton crosstown issues, overengineering, Toronto terrain, Martin's patents, rebar issues and reducing the waterproofing footprint on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Find Footprint Engineering Inc at FootprintEngineering.ca and Martin Halliwell on LinkedIn. Reach out at 519-24...

Apr 04, 20241 hr 48 min

#555 Preparing for the rainy days in construction with Mark Romeo of Romeo Mechanical

Preparing for the rainy days with Mark Romeo of Romeo Mechanical at CMPX 2024. Romeo tells us about working in commercial, the different rules for different industries, expanding into service, how technology is changing the industry, finding the competitive price point, and curating social media for hiring and networking on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Find Romeo Mechanical at RomeoMechanical.com and @RomeoMechanical. Reach out at Info@RomeoMechanical.com . Check out Dahl Valve...

Apr 02, 202457 min

#554 Getting all the information up front with Sam the Plumber about the 3 important details from clients

Getting all the information up front with Sam the Plumber at CMPX 2024. He tells us about the 3 important details that he asks for from clients to save him future headaches. We discuss issues with off shore products, finding upstanding manufacturers, new creature comfort tech requirements, the joy of being paid quickly and the importance of hiring the right trade on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Find Sam the Plumber at SamthePlumber.ca and @SamthePlumberOakville. Reach out at in...

Mar 31, 202458 min

#553 Advice for new trades struggling to get a foot in the door with Elie Yaacoub of The Plumbing Expert

Advice for new trades struggling to get a foot in the door with Elie Yaacoub of The Plumbing Expert at CMPX 2024. We talk about building skills for better employment chances, lack of government support, and missing commitment in apprentices. We also discuss the basics of customer relations, construction slowing down, lacking pushes for Canadian tech, and the disappearance of good faith on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Find The Plumbing Expert at ThePlumbingExpert.com and @The_Pl...

Mar 29, 20241 hr 4 min

#552 Reconstructing Notre Dame with French carpenter Brendan Goux, from Paris France

Reconstructing Notre Dame with French carpenter Brendan Goux. Brendan shares the extent of Notre Dame's fire damage, the precision of the replication efforts, the interesting material details and the stressful installations. He also tells us about carpentry school in France, teaching new carpenters, helping people find their passion in carpentry, and travelling to learn about carpentry from different places on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Find Brendan on Instagram, YouTube and ...

Mar 27, 20241 hr 40 min

#551 Sharing listener stories on this first call-in episode of The New Tough, Gianluca, Angelo, Jonathan

Sharing listener stories on this first call-in episode of The New Tough. We discuss neurodivergence in construction, lacking empathy, self-censoring, change in different sizes companies, and the scarcity mindset. We break down the danger of construction's Faustian deals and the challenge of getting comfortable higher ups to change for the betterment of the industry on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Thank you to Carys, Jon and Alexander for sharing your stories! Check out the "BPD...

Mar 26, 20241 hr 34 min

#550 Collaboration in the small world of the trades with Brandon Khan of Modern Water Solutions

Collaboration in the small world of the trades with Brandon Khan of Modern Water Solutions at CMPX 2024. Brandon tells us about in-home water treatment, changes in the younger generation, understanding patience, marketing in construction, issues with influencers, and maintaining health on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Find Modern Water Solutions at ModernWaterSolutions.ca and @ModernWaterSolutions. Check out Dahl Valve at DahlValve.com and @DahlValveMan on Instagram. Reach out o...

Mar 25, 202446 min

#549 Improving skill development in the trades with Aaron Boland of Expert Plumbing and Drains

Improving skill development in the trades with Aaron Boland of Expert Plumbing and Drains at CMPX 2024. He tells us about helping his employees with retirement, planning out profit-share RSP contributions, and dealing with uneducated trades performing poor installs. We also discuss the fail rates in trades schools, first come first serve education, and why we need more money to go into keeping people in the trades on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Find Expert Plumbing and Drains ...

Mar 24, 202431 min

#548 Getting well rounded experience in the trade with Johnny Tobiasz of Brento Plumbing

Getting well rounded experience in the trade with Johnny Tobiasz of Brento Plumbing and Mechanical Inc at CMPX 2024. We talk about excitement about learning new tech, dealing with different pipe materials, managing client-bought fixtures, and finding good people in today's labour pool. We also discuss whether radiant heat is worth the cost and how we can convince young people about the benefits of thre trades on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Find Bento Plumbing and Mechanical In...

Mar 24, 202456 min

#547 TCL Roundtable Understanding the Ministry of Labour with ex-inspectors and the years of being on our jobsites

Understanding the Ministry of Labour with ex-inspectors. John Savoia brings in Kevin Brown, Vince Lacolino and Phillip Ferreira to talk about inspector discretion, underreported injuries, vulnerable workers, balancing production and safety, and the issues with our current deterrent system. Is safety getting better? Find out on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Find John Savoia of RSG International at John Savoia on Linkedin. Find Kevin Brown of Cobalt Safety at CobaltSafety.ca and S...

Mar 20, 20242 hr 25 min

#546 Pushing the limits of architecture and design with Joel Tanner of SMPL Design Studio

Joel tells us about bettering his business, only doing custom work, learning from overdesign, cultivating relationships, and managing cost expectations. The market is changing on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Find smpl Design Studio at smplDesignStudio.com and @smplDesignStudio. Reach out at 905-529-7675 and Contact@smplDesignStudio.com . Stay connected with The Construction Life Podcast by texting Manny at 416 433-5737 or emailing him at manny@theconstructionlife.com . If you h...

Mar 17, 20241 hr 45 min

#545 Social media made him a better plumber, with Hunter Douglas of HD Plumbers

Hunter tells us about learning from the online plumbing community and becoming a plumbing influencer. We also discuss tool theft, issues with "environmental" marketing schemes, dealing with shitty clients, and US vs Canadian plumbing on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Find HD Plumbers at HDPlumbers.com and @HDPlumbers. Reach out at 951-545-1679 and HD.Plumbers5225@gmail.com . Stay connected with The Construction Life Podcast by texting Manny at 416 433-5737 or emailing him at mann...

Mar 14, 20241 hr 35 min

#544 Making budgeting easy with SynkedUP's Weston Zimmerman.

Weston walks us through how SynkedUP breaks down every aspect of your business to understand real expenses and profitability. We discuss tracking ignored costs, producing wish list budgets, the danger of outdated budgets, implementing software and avoiding reverting to old ways on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Try out the SynkedUP.com budgeting tools for free today at https://synkedup.com/get-the-budgeting-tool/ Get a budgeting consultation with a SynkedUP expert looking over yo...

Mar 12, 20241 hr 33 min

#543 Dealing with labourers in a labour shortage with Luke Obrzut of Transform Masonry Group Inc.

Luke tells us about managing poor work ethics, training people with skills from other countries, earned patience, and the difference between a bricklayer and a mason. We discuss keeping tools from relatives, nicknames of the trades and what the hardest trade is on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Find Transform Masonry Group Inc at TMasonG.com and @TransformMasonryGroup. Reach out at Luke.TMG@hotmail.com . Rules, compliance, regulations - these are all super critical things! We use...

Mar 10, 20241 hr 48 min

#542 HVAC Roundtable with Marcio Martins of Redmond Distributing, Bill Ashton, Tyler Stott & Aaron Bond

Marcio of Redmond Distributing, Bill of Ashton Heating and Cooling, Tyler of Stott HVAC Systems and Aaron of Yes Plumbing and Heating, we discuss mentorship, rebate issues, pros and cons of heat pumps, degasification, building the best systems, maintenance, and investing in your employees. Tune in to find out what most people don't know about HVAC on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Check out Redmond Distributing at CMPX on Thurs, March 21 at the Pint attached to the convention cen...

Mar 08, 20242 hr 6 min

#541 Misconceptions about happiness with Teresa Greco of Steps to Happiness Coaching

Teresa tells us about being conditioned to search for external happiness and what we can do to connect with ourselves and find true happiness. We discuss learning to be present, dealing with unsupportive social circles, the loneliness pandemic, the prevalence of mental health issues, and finding happiness at the end of life on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Find Teresa Greco at TeresaGreco.ca and @TeresaGreco_StepstoHappiness. Reach out at StepstoTrueHappiness@gmail.com . Also fi...

Mar 07, 20241 hr 49 min

#540 Turn the tables on TCL as Manny gets interviewed on this show by Weston Zimmerman

SynkedUP's Weston Zimmerman interviews Manny for his The Cost of Doing Business podcast. Weston asks Manny some direct construction questions about how he got started and how he handled things through his construction career. Try out SynkedUP's budgeting tools for free today at SynkedUP.com . Get a budgeting consultation with a SynkedUP expert looking over your shoulder to help you optimize your company's budget for profit. For free! If you love what you see, you can use the TCL discount and get...

Mar 06, 202459 min

#539 Living in and renovating an old home with young apprentice Brayden Churchill

Brayden shares what it’s like being a carpentry apprentice, maintaining historical looks on heritage buildings, dealing with unforeseen issues, and old vs new building practices. We also discuss facing unfamiliar tasks, the dirty trades stigma, preparing an exit plan, and trade school changes on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Find Brayden Churchill on Instagram @BraydenChurchill and on LinkedIn at Brayden Churchill. Also check out Covenant Construction at CovenantConstruction.ca ...

Mar 05, 20241 hr 37 min

#538 Learning to love hard work with Eric Burke of Burke's Brick Work.

We talk about being a better mentor than our mentors, rebuilding old features, destructive freeze-thaw cycles, poor repairs, and the changing industry focus on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Find Burke's Brick Work at BurkesBrickWork.com and @Burkes_Brick_Work. Reach out at 289-200-8290 and BurkesBrickWork@gmail.com . Also check out Burkie's Turkeys on Facebook, helping people in need and going into it’s third year. Thank You Eric for starting something so amazing. Stay connected...

Feb 29, 20241 hr 50 min

#537 Facing aging and end of life with Alberto Rocha, Selena Paglia, and Jonathan Cinelli.

Alberto Rocha, Selena Paglia, and Jonathan Cinelli tell us about the realities of growing old in hyper-independent North America and what we can do to make aging easier. We discuss sustaining abilities, pressure on the family, how to ask for help, and handling difficult end of life conversations on this episode of TCL - The New Tough. Find Selena Paglia at Opulife.ca and @ OpuLife.ca . Reach out at 647-400-1074 and Selena@Opulife.ca . Find Alberto Rocha at PremierPhysiotherapy.com and @ Premier....

Feb 26, 20241 hr 47 min

#536 Accidental success in woodworking with Mike Huber of @hubermachine.

Mike tells us about changing careers, competing with commercialism, making one-off items, and working in a constantly changing environment. We also discuss issues with trades, dangerous wood treatments, and creative custom ideas on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Find Mike @HuberMachine on Instagram. Stay connected with The Construction Life Podcast by texting Manny at 416 433-5737 or emailing him at manny@theconstructionlife.com . If you have something to contribute to the podcas...

Feb 25, 20241 hr 44 min

#535 Building in uncertain fiscal times with Mike Fairles of Praxis Building Group

Mike and Manny talk about false information about pricing, company rebranding, and avoiding raising property tax. We also discuss transformable living spaces, modern mechanical rooms and growing awareness of healthy homes and habits on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Find Praxis Building Group at PraxisBuild.ca and @PraxisBuild. Reach out at 905-580-MIKE (6453) and Info@PraxisBuild.ca . Stay connected with The Construction Life Podcast by texting Manny at 416 433-5737 or emailing ...

Feb 24, 20241 hr 37 min

#534 Reconnecting with lost family heritage with Devin Meireles, author of The Portuguese Immigrant.

We talk about losing connection with where the family is from, understanding the struggles of our ancestors, and recognizing the opportunity to learn family stories. Tune in for a conversation everyone can relate to on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Find Devin at LusoLoonie.ca and @LusoLoonie. Also check out his books, The Portuguese Immigrant and Finding Madeira on Amazon. Stay connected with The Construction Life Podcast by texting Manny at 416 433-5737 or emailing him at manny...

Feb 23, 20241 hr 38 min

#533 Woodworking & connecting kids to trades with Chris McKaskell, Heather Cummings & Sarah Blackler

Trade school programs and connecting kids to the trades with Chris McKaskell, Heather Cummings and Sarah Blackler of Covenant Construction and Millennium Construction and Design Inc. We talk about getting kids into design and craft, finding respectful workplaces, and getting doers and thinkers to understand each other. We also discuss residential vs commercial woodworking, involving clients in the process, and standing up for your value. Find out what scope creep is on this episode of The Constr...

Feb 21, 20241 hr 59 min

#532 Shaping the next generation of plumbers with Robert Schrader of Central Technical School.

Robert tells us about combatting parents' biases, preparing students for apprenticeship, connecting students to industry and learning new things from young trades. Shop class never ended on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Reach out to Robert at Robert.Schrader@TDSB.on.ca . CMPX – Canada’s largest HVACR and plumbing tradeshow – is just around the corner. It’s happening in the South Building of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, from March 20th to 22nd, 2024 and it’s the ultimate ...

Feb 20, 20241 hr 35 min

#531 Developing thermally modified wood products for North Americans with Thermory USA

Kevin, Brendan and Jordan join us to talk about diverting from tropical hardwoods, introducing new products, and bringing a factory to North America. We also discuss saunas, grade standards, installation, innovation and dealing with change-resistant trades and imitators on this episode of The Construction Life Podcast. Check out Thermory at ThermoryUSA.com and @ThermoryUSA. Reach out at Support@ThermoryUSA.com . Check out Russin at Russin.com and @RussinLumberCorp. Reach out at Sales@Russin.com ...

Feb 19, 20241 hr 29 min

#530 CCE Live to YouTube Innovative Strategies in Masonry Construction Business Tyler & Eddie TMC Masonry

Tyler Cabral and Eduardo Brenes from TMC Masonry to explore their innovative approaches and experiences in the masonry construction industry. From brand recommendations to modifying machinery, Tyler and Eduardo share valuable insights into their strategies for success. The conversation kicks off with a discussion on brand recommendations and the importance of choosing the right tools and materials for masonry projects. Tyler and Eduardo delve into their experiences with modifying machinery to en...

Feb 17, 202430 min
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