Construx and the Future of Housing with Rob Bertschy

I'm Ryan Bell of Isaiah Industries, manufacturer

of specialty metal roofing and other building materials.

Today, my co host is Todd Miller.

Todd, how are you today?

I'm doing fantastic.

How are you?

Awesome.

I'm doing great as well.

Good.

Do you have any jokes for us before we get started here?

I've got

a

quick story.

Um, I've been thinking more and more about, you know,

what am I doing my old age?

Um, a lot of people.

Are convinced I'm already there.

So I'm trying to figure this out and been trying to think of a hobby.

So I've decided to take up coin collecting.

I figure the change will do me good.

Probably.

will,

Have I done that joke before, I think

I don't think so.

I don't think so, but that's pretty good.

Maybe I just thought it.

You come up with that on your own?

Oh, no,

no.

No.

Like I said, I have very little original material.

You never know though you have before.

Well, I can talk about metal roofing pretty

originally, but this other stuff.

Before we get started here, I do want to remind our listeners that

we are playing our challenge words game.

Uh, so be on the.

The lookout or keep your ears open for any words that kind of

don't flow into the conversation.

And we will go over those at the end today.

Our guest is Rob Bertschy, co founder and chief revenue officer of Construx,

a company that's revolutionizing the construction industry with their

digitally fabricated building systems.

Rob has an impressive background in the industry, and today he'll share insights

into how Construx is addressing the issue of housing, a growing population with

limited resources and a carbon budget.

Rob, it's great to have you on the show today.

Thank you for joining us.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ryan and Todd.

Um, appreciate you guys having me on here.

Well, I'm looking forward to it.

So, uh, let's jump right in.

Um, I can't remember exactly where I came across you guys.

It was like a promo type video.

I saw on LinkedIn that another page had posted.

Um, but as soon as I saw the video, I was like, Oh my gosh, we've got

to have these guys on our show.

Um, because I just thought it was so cool.

So can you start by giving us a brief overview of what, what you do?

Construx what it is and kind of what sets you apart from

traditional construction methods.

Absolutely.

Um, you know, we're approaching the problem, the housing shortage, um,

you know, in a way where we feel we're not able to build enough homes.

You know, there's a, there's a shortage.

Cost is 1 thing, but we just, we can't, we simply just can't keep up.

So, and that's due to a couple reasons.

1 of them being.

The skilled labor shortage, and so that's the problem we, we set out

to tackle is, is increasing the number of starts that can be done by

developing a system, a building block system that allows homes to be framed.

You have to 4 times faster, so builders.

You know, that are able to build 20, 30, 40 homes a year.

Now we're offering the opportunity to, to be able to double that

output, um, with a much higher, you know, uh, certainty of outcome.

Is that the kind of housing shortage?

Is that kind of what inspired the creation of Construx or did it start as something

else and kind of evolved to this point?

I mean, yeah, it started as, you know, we, all of us

have been, you know, had worked in construction and understood the problems.

Um, And, uh, uh, my co founder, Nicholas, he had a lot of experience,

you know, building cabinets and was 1 of the 1st, uh, cabinet makers to.

Um, uh, boy, a CNC machine, um, to do precision cutting.

So he took kind of the manual process and, and moved it into the digital world.

And then in doing that, it was like, man, why don't we make houses this way?

Why aren't we using technology to precision build houses?

Um, so that's kind of where it all started is just.

realizing, seeing what's happening, seeing kind of the decline in quality.

Um, you know, and just thinking, you know, when, when you, you know, automotive.

And many other industries, um, you, you know, if you, if you bought 2 cars

that were the exact same, you would expect the doors to open the same.

You would expect the, uh, um, you know, the radio to work the same, but in

housing, we, we don't have that standard.

Um, you can, you can frame, you know, the exact same house for different times, and

you have 4 different outcomes, crooked walls, crooked studs, things out of place.

You know, you, you get material on site with a plan to build, but,

but if the, uh, uh, guys typically, you know, they're going to grab

the board that's closest to them.

So if it's a 10 foot board, and they need an 8 foot, they're

going to cut 2 feet off.

And then at the end.

They're running back to the store to grab more material.

So you don't from a quality standpoint, don't have that predictability

and from a cost standpoint.

You're kind of crossing your fingers and hoping that, you know,

the, the, the material there is used a lot of lumber companies.

They use, they send out, you know, 20 percent extra material because they

know, um, that there's going to be, you know, uh, you know, overages and, and,

uh, um, things that are used wrong.

So, to mitigate that, they're just, we'll send you, we'll send you more.

So our, our approach is a little bit different in that we try to just send you.

Only what you need, um, and nothing extra and do all the heavy lifting on

the front end on the engineering side.

So that when the parts go together, if you build 4 homes, they're all the same.

Every 1 of them came off the same floor.

We'll cut on the same machines and and that gives.

You know, the installers familiarity, so that each time, you know, there's,

there's not a lot of thinking.

It's not.

If you lose your, you know, your, your, uh, cut guy on your crew and you get a new

one, they don't have to be trained, right?

To, to make good cuts.

It's, it's already done for them.

Um, you don't have to teach how to read a tape measure.

You don't have to, um, you know, teach how to operate other tools.

So we've kind of taken the, that, uh, the hard part out of it, if you will, um,

and, and, and do that in a computer model.

And then, uh, so that it's easier for.

The end user in the field, you know, the guys that are doing the heavy

lifting making it really easy for them.

And given the builder, you know, just a, uh, a higher, um, certainty of

outcome on that kind of first critical path in the construction project,

which is, which is the framing.

So is it like, like if I wanted to build a building with you,

is it like, I, I come to you and have an idea for how much room I have.

And it's like working with an architect that will kind of.

Design the space, or is it more like, oh, we have these modular pieces

or sections that just go together.

Great

question.

We, we do it, you know, we have a portfolio of designs of

things that we've built, but they've come, you know, from, from builders

that have plans from architects.

So, so the, the nature of our system.

Is it's different from like a panel house or a modular house where there's

these big sections and have to get, you know, they got to make it down the road.

They got to fit under bridges.

Uh, they can't be super heavy and we've, you know, simplified it into

smaller little kernels, smaller, little, little Legos that that, uh,

more pieces that can be put together.

Um, so when you transport, you're not, you don't have these, uh,

uh, limitations on on your ceiling height and your wall height.

We can design.

Pretty much anything and just break it into smaller little Lego

pieces that can be assembled.

So with that, you don't lose any of the curb appeal or the

architectural piece of it.

We can do, you know, fun, you know, overhangs and, and, uh, and dormers.

And, you know, really, we don't have too many limitations.

If it can be drawn in, in, in CAD.

Had, um, it can be built.

So it gives us a lot more design flexibility.

Interesting.

That was kind of going to lead into my next question was how, how

visually appealing can these be?

I mean, when I think of Legos, you can only do so much with Legos, but it

sounds like there's more flexibility.

Well, you know, it, it, it, it seems that way on the, on the smaller

kits, but if you go to, you know, to Lego land, or you see the millennial Falcon,

you know, that sure that's 2000 pieces.

Um, you can get, you can get pretty creative.

So, if you think back in, you know, a few years ago, when electric cars were

coming out, they looked different.

People could say, you know, that was, that's an electric car.

I don't want one of those.

It's, that's, that's weird looking.

Modular started out kind of the same way.

We were like, we don't want a modular house.

It looks like it's different than the other houses in my neighborhood.

So, a Construx house, you, you can't tell the difference.

I mean, you'll tell the difference in the energy efficiency and just the

overall sturdiness of the structure, um, due to our, our, our, our wall

thicknesses and just the, the, the way in which it's, it's built, but

from, from the outside or inside, once it's covered with siding or drywall,

it looks like every other house, um,

So, uh, you fabricate these, uh, framing systems using a

single source, low carbon material.

Can you tell us a little bit about that and explain what the benefits of it are?

Yeah.

I mean, we, you know, we use a, um, 95 percent renewable OSB material.

And, and it's not traditional, you know, that you would see and, uh, you

know, just your, your basic sheet.

Did we use a premium material?

Um, that's manufactured by, by huber engineered wood called advanced tech and.

It's a very dense, um, you know, water resistant, insect resistant,

just super stable and sturdy, um, you know, engineered, engineered product.

So that's the, uh, you know, what gives it a lot of the rigidity.

Um, and we also, you know, use, you know, three quarter inch.

I mean, the whole thing is built out of three quarter inch subfloor.

And when you're first at something, You have a lot of scrutiny, right?

So you have to, you know, overbuild, I guess, if you are our in house engineer

said, don't ever say over engineer.

There's no such thing.

So, so, um, but, you know, where we started this in Charleston,

South Carolina, we have hurricanes.

We have seismic.

We have high humidity.

We have tons of bugs.

Like, like, we have.

All the all the challenges and construction for soils,

like, everything exists here.

So, you know, we're like, if we can build in Charleston, we'll,

we'll be able to build anywhere.

So they were really designed in the beginning.

Much like, you know, airplanes, like, you have these super rings.

So your floor, your wall, your roof is essentially 1 trust 1 support member.

Um, and then you fill in the middle with smaller little little blocks.

Um, so.

In a typical home where, where you have walls and then your roof attaches to

it with, with, and then you have to put all these metal hurricane clips

all around and you get a high wind situation and the roof blows off and

then everything kind of implodes.

With this, it's, it's a, it's a 6 sided interlocked box that is, is

literally this piece can't move because this piece is there and it is.

You know, if, if, uh, if, uh, if a storm that's strong enough comes, it'll probably

lift the entire house up and move it.

Um, there's not a piece of it that can, can blow off.

That's pretty cool.

Um, are you locked into this, this certain material or does that

something you guys are keeping an eye out for anything new that might show

up on the market or be developed?

Yeah, that is another great question.

We are not tied to a specific material.

We.

You know, started with a, you know, part of our model is, you know, let's use

what's available in the marketplace.

Let's use, you know, what people have already developed.

It's suitable for this purpose and and and adapt the use of it.

So Huber never set out with their sub floor to be able to frame houses with it.

But the material lends itself very well to that plywood OSB, but it's

also, you know, what's in the market.

So it's, it's, it's, it's, it's somewhat overkill for what, what we really need.

There's a lot of mass and structure in this house.

So as we grow, you know, our, our vision to, to bring costs out of the

actual home, bring the cost of building the home down is to get, you know,

more ported vertically integrated.

With the material and to develop a spec that is, that is, that is, you

know, designed and engineered just, you know, for what we're doing.

So, as we scale and we have, you know, um, the volume, then we feel

that, you know, the big, the big companies, uh, the warehousers, the

Georgia Pacific, will work with us to.

Develop our own spec.

Um, but right now there's no demand for it.

If we said, hey, we want you to make a board.

That's that has these specifications.

They're going to say, well, you know, you need to buy a million sheets

of it for us to be able to do that.

And we're not at that volume yet, but we hope to be able to.

Engineer our own, you know, material.

Um, and, and there's so many things out there.

Um, Ryan, they've got, you know, there's an emerging technology

with, with bio-based products, um, hemp-based products.

Um, there's a company out of North Carolina that's, that's using a, uh,

um, essentially a grass to make a board.

So, so the market is, is, is, is really kind of moving towards

these more sustainable materials.

Now the materials we use, the forested products, they're sustainable.

There's, um, you know, uh, a great, you know, um, lots of work that's

been put into managing the forests.

Um, but it still takes, you know, 11 years to grow a pine tree that gets converted

where, you know, grasses or perennials, you know, can take, you know, a few

months to grow, um, and have even higher.

Um, strength to weight ratio, then then would so as that market, you

know, develops, um, we feel that there will be some, some emerging products.

Um, and we, we kind of want to lead, you know, the R and D.

Of those as well to get, you know, a, a board that, um, can be produced and, you

know, as little as, as, as nine months, um, versus, you know, 11 plus years.

So I'm going to put a plug in there that I think it'd

be cool to figure out how to use.

Um, old banana peels, um, banana peels just seem to hang out around forever.

So anyway, but no, I do want to ask you a serious question.

Um, so how does this all jibe with, um, fortified housing?

I assume that you're kind of attuned to that program as well.

And I know it has more to do with specific components like windows and roofs and

so forth, but, um, it just seems like.

You're ideally situated to, uh, really tap into the, uh, fortified trend as well.

Yeah, we, we've definitely looked into that and understand that,

but you're, you're right, it does incorporate, you know, more things.

So we.

With the framing system, we're about, you know, 15 to 18

percent of the overall house.

So we provide, you know, a really strong and sturdy structure, but we

don't get into the windows to the roof.

Um, so we, we definitely meet the criteria from a, from a, from a

strength standpoint, energy efficiency standpoint, but it's been tough

for us to get that certification because we're not the whole house.

But you guys, that's somewhere, you know, with, with the roofing

business, you probably have.

You know, similar challenge, um, and, and maybe, uh, you know, can offer us

some advice on, on how to navigate that.

Yeah, it's, it's definitely kind of taken, taking the,

uh, roofing industry by storm, no pun intended, but, uh, Fortified comes up

pretty regular around here anymore.

That's for sure.

Yeah.

I'm understanding it's, it's, you know, from 30 to up to 40

percent off your insurance rates to, to, to have it designated.

Wow.

I didn't realize that.

Um, so, uh, where, where does the manufacturing of this stuff happen?

Is it, is it all taking place where you're at currently and needs to be shipped

across the country or, um, are there any special machines kind of required?

Well, that's another, you know, interesting and to me, unique

thing about our business model that will allow us to scale faster is.

The nature of our products doesn't require any super sophisticated,

specialized equipment.

Um, we're cutting shapes out of wood.

We're taking, we're building models in, in, in three dimensional in CAD.

Then we're converting them into, into flat parts that are cut on a CNC machine

and then reassembled into blocks that are then, that are then placed, um,

you know, step by step into a house.

So what we found is.

You know, this equipment exists all over the place all across

America, and it's underutilized.

Um, the American furniture, you know, industry, you know, utilizes this cutting,

you know, parts for furniture, cabinetry, um, all sorts of different, you know,

companies exist that use CNC machines.

And we found that they have excess capacity.

Um, they've made the investments in the machine and, and they have, you know, the

ability to add another shift or, or, um, a lot of times these machines are just idle.

Um, they use them for certain things, but the rest of the time they sit idle.

So we've been able to develop a network of factories all across the country that

have extra capacity or, or available capacity to, to cut these parts.

Then the assembly process is very easy.

Um, it's, it's a rubber mallet and, and glue and staples.

So it's, if you can, you know, put a puzzle together, um, it's

actually probably easier than a, than a puzzle because the pieces are

thicker and there's less of them.

So, That makes, you know, um, the, the, the labor pool, you know, is really

broad, um, for that type of activity.

So our goal is to be able to manufacture within 300 miles

of, of any, any given market.

Um.

To cut down on the on the transportation and and again continue to bring costs

down to make the homes more affordable

I'm kind of curious.

Um, you mentioned comparison to a puzzle and my wife does the thousand

piece puzzles But about how many pieces are individual components

would there be in a typical house?

Are we talking?

Hundreds or thousands or

yeah, it's it's going to be in the hundreds So you're going

to have in a in a our most popular model is a three bedroom two and a half

bath Uh, 1500 square feet story and a half, um, and it's about 500 pieces.

Okay.

So there's, there's about say 70 different

pieces, um, that make that up.

Um, so a lot of them are, are repeated, you know, uh, repeated parts.

So.

Well, your videos are really interesting to

watch how it all goes together.

Um, really fascinating stuff.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Our largest piece is, you know, probably.

80 pounds, two feet wide by, by eight feet long by, you know, eight inches thick.

Um, that's probably the most common, common part.

So two people can easily install that.

What's the timeframe on that?

Like you're, you talked about your most popular, uh, model.

What, how long would it take for, for that to be put together?

That takes, you know, if you have.

4 people working and then 1 person managing the instructions and

kind of quarterbacking it, then you can do it in 5 or 6 days.

Wow.

Once you're good at it and you throw more people at it.

So you can build these homes like team red starts over here and team yellow starts

over here and we work towards the middle.

You could.

You know, you could build it in and, you know, a day if, uh, if you had, you

know, the right number of people, um, we do, you know, single story, affordable

homes that are that are like, uh.

Take 24 feet wide by 52 feet long that are just, you know, all, uh,

equal spacings, no, no, no dormers, no staircases, uh, no second floors.

And those are three days to, to build.

That's pretty cool.

Um, our listeners are going to think puzzle is one of our challenge words,

but it's not, but I was gonna, you guys both threw it out and I was, I

had the question in my head, I was, or I was going to say, you know, when

I saw the video reminded me of it.

Like a big 3d puzzle, basically,

it kind of isn't in, uh, you know, without the challenge

of Of trying to figure out, you know, which it's like a puzzle, but

they're all border pieces, right?

You know, they all and they're all the same pieces.

So you're not searching.

Does that look right?

And going over here?

Like, it's it, but they fit together like a puzzle and everything self aligns.

So everything is indexed and has tabs and when it fits in, it just self align.

So you don't need tape measures.

You don't need levels.

Like the, the, uh, the system itself is, um, you know, all self aligning.

I'm going to go back to talking about, you briefly

touched on the job site waste.

Um, can you go into that a little more and kind of talk about your, you know,

your processes that you have there?

What does that look like?

Like how much have you cut back on job site waste by using something like this?

We have zero waste.

You know, any waste is created at the factory and is then, um.

Uh, you know, recycled their recycled into animal bedding,

um, a number of other things.

So the, uh, what shows up on site is it's, you know, only what you need.

And when the last piece is up, the house is done.

There's nothing left over.

There's nothing missing.

And, uh, you know, there's.

You have, you know, some, you know, you need a trash can on site cause

you're using, you're using adhesive to, to put these parts into place.

So you'll have, you know, empty cans, but it's no need for a dumpster.

So you said it, it takes a hammer glue and staples.

Is that what you said?

Yeah, it's, it's, uh, you know, the, the part, the parts are all

held together, you know, with friction joints, um, and like, like mortises and,

and then, uh, we glue them for, uh, added.

You know, um, kind of a second layer of defense.

And then, and then we just stapled them into place with like a seven

sixteenths by inch and a half staple, but the strength in, in, in rigidity

is in, is in the friction joints

kind of makes me think of good old furniture

that we just don't get anymore.

Yeah.

Dovetail joints and, and, uh, Um, yeah, I forgot the name of that, that, uh, that,

that box that, um, it's like a little, um, I think it, you know, comes from, from

Asia, but it's a, it's like a trick box.

It's got all these joints in it.

You just can't get it apart unless, you know, the secret, you know, the

secret place to, you To push on it.

So it's a lot like that.

Once it goes together, it's just all interlocked.

And, you know, when you get it, the other beautiful thing of this is you get

a digital twin of your, of your home.

So, you know, you get all the files, you know, like, like what is behind the

walls, you know, you know, where it is.

So if you want to do an addition, or you want to add a doorway in at some point,

or you need to make a repair, or You know, exactly what needs to go there.

So you can take, take that file.

Um, it's just a file that you would take to pretty much

any, any cabinet shop locally.

They're, they're not going to want to build the entire house because maybe they

don't have the space or the equipment, but to build, you know, 1 or 2 boxes to fit in

that space is, is, is no different than.

You know, designing up a cabinet box and, and, uh, and cutting it.

What about, uh, what about energy efficiency?

I mean, you kind of touched on extreme climates or, or weather seismic.

What about, I'm assuming these are pretty energy efficient too, then.

Yeah, they're, they're very energy efficient.

We, you know, use undersized units.

That's a lot of our structures are, are, we use many split systems because

they're, they're, um, you know, they only.

Conventional systems just to have too much tonnage for the size of structures we're

building, but we have 8 inch walls, which gives you a 6 and a half inch wall cavity.

So you can get really high R value.

I'm out of that and then the itself has a has a, you know, I think in our value

of, uh, you know, somewhere around 2.

so these are really, really tight structures.

We.

We almost compare these, you know, to like a yeti cooler, right?

That's going to hold your eyes for days and days because it's it's thick.

It's super well insulated and it's and it's super tight.

Yeah.

High hers ratings.

Um, and, uh, you know, depending on on on the, uh, you know, the climate and

we're, you know, around here, we're are 40 all the way around walls roof.

Are

there any challenges you've faced or encountered in trying

to convince traditional builders or contractors to adopt something like

this, or is it kind of a no brainer?

Convincing contractors and builders to try something

new is always a challenge.

Um, You, you live that comment

by the way.

I, I got, I got my training, um, for the first, first

half of my career with Milwaukee tool.

And when, when, uh, We were trying to convert the world off

of DeWalt nickel cadmium batteries to lithium ion, and everyone's

like, no way I'm not doing that.

It's new.

It's more expensive.

Um, Milwaukee, they, they're, you know, they're whole hogs and bandsaws.

They're not, you know, cordless, cordless tools.

Plus I've got 200 batteries and 50 tools on, on this.

So I'm not, you're not changing me at all.

Well, you know, fast forward, you know, 15 years later.

And, uh, you know, everything's lithium ion, right?

So it is a, it is a tough adoption curve.

Um, but part of why we really, uh, focused on on just the framing is

because of that adoption curve.

Um, it's a smaller piece of it.

It's it's we're not trying to layer new on top of new on top of new.

Uh, we're not trying to, to, to say, Hey, we have this framing system and we have

this siding system and we have this window system and we have this roofing system.

Like, we just want to solve the, you know, work on one problem,

which is a true pain point.

Uh, every builder will tell you framing is a pain point.

So when they, when they see this, you're like, this is a.

This is a viable solution.

So then it comes down to cost.

And depending on the market, we're, you know, compared to California,

where we're half the cost is it helps to frame their Canada is the same way.

But then you get, you know, in areas like.

Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, you know, framing is, is really, really cheap.

So we're 10, 15 percent higher.

Um, so I think that's, that's really the challenge on, on some markets is.

We see the benefit, we love it, but, um, it's still really

cheap to stick frame a house.

So, um, you know, our.

So the adoption, they get it, but I think our biggest challenge in that is, is costs

and continuing to, because when you're better, faster, stronger, it's great.

But when you're better, faster, stronger and cheaper, then it's a no brainer.

There's also limitations, right?

We're not a fit for everyone like these, you know, large custom homes with, with a

bunch of chopped up roof lines and, and, you know, um, just, you know, You know, an

average of 1500 to 2000 square foot house will take us a couple 100 hours of design

time for an engineer to model these up.

So just the cost that goes into creating and converting this or, or,

or building this into a digital, um, you know, system that could be cut is.

At some point, it doesn't make sense on on just, you know.

Large custom homes, um, yet, but.

We feel technology is advancing.

AI is, you know, uh, making, you know, major advancements.

And I think, you know, in the next few years, like, like software,

we'll be able to do a lot of the heavy lifting on the, on the design

side and maybe we do get there.

What about like the commercial set, like apartments, condos, that

seems to me like it'd be a really easy, they're all the same kind of repeating.

Is that something you guys are.

You work with or

yeah, there's there's no constraints in the

system for being able to do that.

It's really just we don't, you know, we started in residential.

We understand that world very, very well.

What's required the load rating.

So, and we've spent.

A tremendous amount of dollars and testing working with universities, 3rd party

testing to get to the system we have.

So it's just a matter of making.

Additional investment to, um, you know, to, uh, to show how we.

Um, you know, exceed standards of commercial construction,

but the system you're right.

You know, it's, it's, it's the same thing.

It's.

In some ways, easier.

Um, less architectural features, just, just kind of square boxes,

but it'll be a future iteration.

Do you have any, uh, examples of projects in mind of where

your, your system is kind of, you know, been used and really, you know,

blown it out of the water in terms of performance or aesthetics or both?

Yeah, I think, you know, we do very well in,

in, in the sub 2000 square foot.

So kind of the.

8 to 900 square foot accessory dwelling, um, to, you know, the, uh, 3 bedroom,

2 bath, you know, the area that the larger builders don't want to, um,

necessarily, you know, play in, um, from a, from a margins perspective.

So, the smaller that's kind of been our, our, our niche, um, today, and

we really shine there because it's, it's, it's really fast to assemble.

You know, the, uh, you know, 800 square foot, um, you know, accessory dwelling,

like two days to put it together, uh, in a, in a backyard that, um, you know,

you're not disturbing neighbors and, um, you know, with, with saws and machinery.

So I would say, you know, that kind of smaller, um, starter home

is that something that could be a one person job?

It's, you know, it would be tough for it to be a one person job.

Um, but I think it could be a two person job.

Uh, some of these places, like somebody needs to hold it in place

while, while it gets stapled or.

Two people need to lift it up and put it in at the same time.

It would be a lot of work for one person, but we do have a guy on our, on our staff.

He's one of our engineers, but he's, he's six foot nine and built like a tank and

he could build one of these by himself.

Yeah, I'm definitely, I'm not that I'm just, I'm asking.

Cause I'm like imagining a office that's outside of the home in my backyard.

That's not quite a shed, a little more than a shed, but it's been

a dream of mine for a while.

I'm curious.

You mentioned that, you know, ideally you'd like.

This idea of being within 300 miles.

Um, is that pretty much the footprint you've been within so far?

Or have you been able to venture out beyond that footprint with, with some

of, uh, the jobs you've already done?

We, we we're doing jobs.

We have a job in Maine right now.

We have a job in Florida.

We have a job in Texas.

We have a job in Georgia.

So we're doing all that outta one facility because, you know, to the,

the factory that we're using, um.

We want that excess capacity, so we need to give them the volume and the

work to be able to give that to us.

So, as we, you know, fill that capacity, then we'll move to other factories.

But it's, it's been our, you know, um, experience that it's, it's, it's

better to fill up 100 percent of capacity and then move and versus,

you know, 1 here, 1 here, because they just don't without the volume, the

factories aren't that interested in.

Um, you know, doing one house here or there, but.

So we're, we're kind of subsidizing the, the, the shipping on some of those just

to make it, um, you know, the projects make sense, um, to be able to do that

as we were, but you guys saw us on a, on a, on a video online, like we, you

know, it's 90 days ago, I think is when we first did any public marketing.

Um, we've been kind of in stealth mode and in the beginning.

We built about 30 homes and we were essentially our own customer, our own

GCs because we needed to work out all the kinks, develop all the assembly guides,

make all the videos, just make sure that.

When we send this product to a builder that the experience is really good

and it's as easy as we say it is.

So we put a lot of effort and time and resources into the

upfront work and have just now.

Really launched to, uh, um, you know, to outside builders.

Final question here before we kind of wrap up, um, what advice would

you give to any young entrepreneurs or innovators that are looking to

disrupt the construction industry?

Like you guys are,

Oh, wow.

Um, I think, you know, focus in on, on, you know, what you do well

and what your core competency is.

Um, I think.

The construction industry, as I mentioned before, is 1 of the hardest

industries to adapt a new technology.

Um, we're very resistant to change.

We've been doing things that, you know, the same way.

Uh, for so long, you know, if it's broke, don't fix it.

So, focusing on, you know, what you do really well and not trying to, you know,

deploy too much new and doing it in smaller chunks, I think, is a, is a, uh.

Um, advice and then, you know, try to leverage or apply

technology in the right areas.

Um, what we see and what we're doing is, you know, the next generation

of builders, you know, they grew up building with games like Minecraft.

So they're very familiar with putting blocks together and designing

things in a computer and seeing it.

They didn't grow up with, you know, tape measures and saws and, and, and,

and being able to, you know, make, you know, complex, uh, cuts or even

understanding, you know, what, what those, uh, um, you know, mistakes are.

So, I think focusing on, on to us, the next generation, the future of builders.

Is, is, is where, you know, we feel we'll be successful versus

trying to convert people that have been doing it the same way.

Um, you know, for the last 40 years,

That's really interesting.

And this has come up before, but what you said about like Minecraft

and stuff, that blows my mind.

Um, and I've asked people, uh, our guests before what they, they think

is going to come of these kids that are building these ridiculous.

I mean, I spent days building these.

Ridiculous worlds out of blocks.

Um, and I'm just curious where that's going to lead to in the future.

Yeah.

Well, I think with, with a system like Construx, every house, every new design

we do adds to our library of parts.

So eventually we're going to have such a large library of parts that

these kids or any designer can just.

Picking shoes and, and, um, you know, design their own homes.

Like, like, I, I envision.

You know, configurator on our website and the not too distant

future where you can literally go and build exactly what you want.

It'll tell you exactly what it's going to cost because it'll calculate the

exact usage of materials and cut time.

So that.

You within.

You know, a half hour on a website can know exactly what your

framing package is going to cost.

Um, and exactly how long it's going to take to put it together and exactly how

long it's going to take to get to you.

And no, um, you know, plus or minus budget.

It's, it's, it's precision.

Well, thanks so much, Rob.

This has been great.

Uh, we're thankful for the time we've had with you today.

I'm just about to wrap up what we call the business end of things.

Is there anything that we haven't covered that you'd like

to share with our audience?

I don't think so.

I think we covered, we covered everything

well before we close out, uh, we like to do a little, uh, something

fun here at the end called rapid fire.

Uh, these are seven questions that are kind of serious.

Some can be serious.

Most of them are silly.

All you got to do is give a quick response.

Are you up for the challenge?

I am

awesome.

Todd and I will alternate asking questions.

Do you want to go first, Todd?

Absolutely.

Question number one, Rob, if you could invent a holiday, what would it be

called and how would people celebrate it?

Oh, wow.

Um,

that's a hard one.

It kind of is.

I don't think, I don't know.

I think I would, would want to create a, um, a float fest holiday where

everybody takes an inner tube out to a river and floats down it, like that's

a past time that, that I grew up.

Uh, doing in Arkansas and.

Um, you know, I, I tried to, to, uh, bring that to, to Charleston and our tidal

creeks and, um, you know, starting to take off here on, on John's Island, but I

think every, everyone deserves a day out on the water floating in an inner tube.

Love it.

Good answer.

Yeah, great answer.

That is fun.

A lot of fun.

Question number two.

What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten and actually liked?

Oh, I was in the Peace Corps in South America in

Ecuador and, uh, a delicacy there is called cuit, which is a guinea pig.

Um, so guinea pig is actually pretty good.

Does it taste like chicken?

It does.

Really interesting.

Hmm.

I'll think about that one.

Okay.

Next question.

If you could be a fly on a wall or a fly on a wall, someplace, where would you

land and what would you eavesdrop on?

Other than, other than being in the room after I have calls

with, with developers and builders to hear, you know, what they're,

what they're really thinking.

That's on my mind lately is, you know, how did that go?

What are they thinking?

What are the next steps?

I

could learn a lot from that.

Yeah, that's a good answer.

I think I may eavesdrop on people who are eating Guinea pig for the first time.

Just kind of see what that's all about.

Question number four, who has been the biggest influence in your

life and how have they shaped you?

I think my, you know, that's, that's, uh, you know, a team,

I think my, my years at Milwaukee tool and in working with world class

people, um, Taking a company, you know, from, you know, a hundred million

in sales to 2 billion in a decade, um, just to that, I feel like I got

the equivalent of, you know, several master's degrees in different areas.

So, so that, that leadership team.

Which is still in place today, um, was just, you know, I think, you know,

very influential in, um, teaching me all aspects, but really how to disrupt

and how to, you know, we're going to upset a lot of people in what we're

doing, um, but, but truly disruptive game changing innovation, um, you know,

innovation is a word that's used a lot.

And what, what true innovation is not changing the color of something

or changing this, but like truly disruptive industry changing, um, this

is how things are done in the future.

Um, you know, I, I attribute it to that team.

Very cool.

Wow.

That would be an interesting topic on its own to have on a show sometime.

Um, that is, uh, I didn't realize Milwaukee tool went through that

kind of growth and that kind of time period, but, uh, fascinating.

Next question, what do you hope to accomplish in the next five years?

You know, I, I want this to, you know, be a, a, a mainstream,

you know, Construx a recognized name in the industry, a system that's, that's

truly changing, um, how things are done and I want it, you know, to see,

to see more and more people copy it.

Um, take charge and use digital fabrication to, uh, to build homes.

I think it's, it's the future.

I think it's, um, we, we know the thing, the current way is not sustainable.

Um, so I would like to, uh, you know, in five years have, you

know, competition and, um, you know, be able to, to start solving.

You know, the shortage and being able to build, you know, truly more houses.

That's that's what this is all about is people.

People deserve a home.

People deserve to be in a house and and, um, you know, that they can afford.

And it's not just us.

This is global.

Um, you know, the, the need is, is, is everywhere.

So I just want to be able to.

Hopefully see that trend is, uh, you know, we can't build enough to like, now

we're, we're getting closer and closer to that, you know, eating into that deficit.

Well, I love what you're doing.

Great, great concept and product for sure.

Question number six.

Uh, this one is not very gossamer.

It's pretty serious.

So you can take a few seconds to think about it, but would you rather have

hands for feet or feet for hands?

Well, I think I would rather have hands for feet.

Yeah, I'm with you.

I stubbed my toe a lot.

So I've got one of those extra long middle toes, you know, that, uh, that just.

Yeah,

shoes on going for, so I end up stubborn that toe a lot.

Oh, last question.

So what is a product or service maybe that you've purchased recently that

was just a real game changer for you?

Sort of a, you know, where's this been?

All my life moment,

you know, I just got a zero turn lawn mower.

I've got six acres in, in, uh, and I've had a, uh, you know, just a regular

riding lawnmower and, um, you know, it's.

Wanted one and wanted one.

And I, I mean, every summer I've been like, I'm going to get one this

year and I finally got a zero turn.

And that is, that's given me like a weekend back, um, at least in, in the

time savings and, uh, and it's fine.

Like, I'm like, I look forward to it.

Like, I'm like, I wish the grass would go a little faster.

I, I, uh, It's

I, I drove my first zero turn.

Uh, last weekend we were at my in laws, uh, and I hopped on it.

I was, I was doing some stuff to it and drove it around a little bit.

And I'm like, this is fun.

Like I would mow.

I would mow out here for fun.

I think I couldn't, I, I couldn't.

Couldn't get it to go straight.

So I don't know that my lines would be straight, but

that's okay.

Like designs in the grass are like, that's the new thing.

Just do zigzags.

Well, Rob, thank you again for your time today.

For anyone that wants to get in touch with you, what's the best way they can do that?

You can go through our website, build Construx.

com.

LinkedIn, Instagram, you know, we check, we check everything.

So

awesome.

We will put all that in the show notes.

Well, uh, before we close out here, we've got to recap our challenge words.

We were all successful, although I'm not sure I even use mine, right.

But I had to throw it in there.

Um, Rob, your challenge word was.

Colonel.

Colonel.

And you did a great job working that in pretty early.

Very nice.

Todd, your word was?

I had banana and I worked it in a dorky way, but I got it in there.

Might've been obvious on that one.

It might've been a little obvious.

Might've been.

And mine probably was too.

Mine was gossamer.

Well, thanks so much.

Uh, again, Rob, we appreciate your, you being here.

Yeah.

Thank you guys for the opportunity.

Absolutely.

Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of construction disruption

with Rob Bertschy, co founder and chief revenue officer of Construx.

Please watch for future episodes of our podcast.

We are always blessed with great guests and don't forget to leave us a review on

Apple podcasts or give us a thumbs up on YouTube till the next time we're together.

Keep on disrupting and challenging those in your world

to better ways of doing things.

Don't forget to have a positive impact on everyone you encounter, make them smile

and encourage them to simple yet powerful things we can all do to change the world.

God bless and take care.

This is Isaiah industry signing off until the next episode.

Of construction disruption.