Author Archives: Ryan Enggas

The Importance of Paper…

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Not just any paper – building paper. Or house wrap or Tyvek or any number of trade names. Its the paper-like material that goes under the siding and on top of your sheathing on your house or apartment building.

 

Why so important?

There are alot of very scientific papers out there that fully explain it, but in essence you building sweats or condensates. This is normal and its the difference in air temperature between two materials. This material also keeps outside moisture from coming in as well. Basically it keeps your building water tight and lets it breath at the same time. Hi-tech NASA stuff

 

Think cold beer in hot sun. 

When your building doesn’t have a house wrap under your siding – especially vinyl siding it can be bad…very bad. As in thousands of dollars bad.

 

Example

I’ve got a great apartment community client who unfortunately never had Tyvek installed when the property was built. The property is only 12 years old and this was definitely building code back then…. but that’s a whole nother blog post lol. So without Tyvek, water has found its way behind the vinyl siding and makes the windows leak. The property so far has spent tens of thousands getting repairs done. Great for me bad for them?

 

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This is a pic of my guys (Shawn, Brice and Craig – left to right) on end wall temporarily removing all of the siding and trim, installing Tyvek, then installing proper flashings above and around the windows and bandboard, then reinstalling the siding and trim. BOOM leaks solved.

We’ve literally done this on dozens of locations on this particular property and as you can see if they’d just done it the first time the right way you wouldn’t be reading a blog about the importance of paper.

 

 

 

Why do you buy from us?

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cornerstone construction

I want your most critical, critical feedback.

Twenty-Three Years Ago…

Twenty-three years ago, my father founded Cornerstone Construction to serve commercial and multi-family customers in Raleigh.

From the beginning, one of our main differentiators has been that we simply do quality work reliably and consistently. It seems almost too elementary, I know. But that’s really it. Folks just appreciate that we do what we say we will do, and they show this appreciation by giving us repeat business and referring their colleagues to us when there’s a new construction project afoot.

You know, it makes me feel like our family’s construction business is something of a cornerstone in Raleigh (drum riff, ha).

The Downside of Being a Well-Oiled Machine

Anyway, the upside of this, of course, is that we always stay busy, the phone keeps ringing, and our hammers stay swinging. The downside, though, is that it’s a bit out of character for a well-oiled machine to pump the brakes to reflect. Cornerstone is that well-oiled machine–awesome, sure–but I’m a believer that no matter how adept a business becomes at serving its customers, there’s always room for improvement.

My 2015 Resolution

As VP and apparent heir to the throne here, I made a resolution at the beginning of this year to pump the brakes more often. Stepping away from the metaphor, that means I made a decision to talk to customers more often to ask for their candid feedback on how we’re doing.

Although it would be easier to just make the assumption, “since customers keep doing repeat business with us, we must be doing everything right,” assumptions is not what Cornerstone is about. Just like in construction, where you “measure twice and cut once,” the best practitioners challenge assumptions and replace them with hard data.

So that’s what my goal is this year: ask our customers, “why do you buy from us?” By leaving my hardhat at the office for just a couple of hours a week to sit down and chat with our customers one-on-one, I can begin to gather hard, qualitative data from the men and women who, for the last twenty-three years, have been voting for Cornerstone with their dollars.

Why?

More than just saying thank-you, the best way I know how to show my appreciation for the folks who entrust us with their business is to simply ask, why do you buy from us? What are we doing right? What are we doing wrong? Let’s talk.

It’s your opinions that matter most.