Okay, time to get scientific.  There’s a lot of talk about greenhouse gas emissions right now, and people are looking at ways to reduce their “carbon footprint”.

Wanna know the easiest way?  Build with wood.  The production of any building material causes greenhouse gas emissions, mostly CO2, or Carbon Dioxide, which is a result of burning fossil fuels.  We have to burn fossil fuels to harvest trees for lumber, dig up iron ore for steel and mine limestone and stone aggregate for concrete.  Then it has to be processed into a product, another fossil-fuel burning process.  Not done yet… it still has to be transported to market on, you guessed it, fossil-fuel burning vehicles.  All of these processes result in CO2 emissions.

But here’s the really cool thing about wood:  you can actually REDUCE CO2 emissions by simply choosing to build with wood.  Blasphemy, you say?  Stick with me here.  Trees are known as “carbon sinks”, that is, they consume CO2 while they grow, storing the carbon and releasing the oxygen back into the atmosphere.  A good thing, right?  When a tree is harvested, that carbon is trapped in the final product INDEFINITELY.  So, over the life of a tree, it actually takes more CO2 out of the atmosphere than is created in the process of harvesting, milling and delivering to market.  The net result of building with wood is the removal of about 3/4 of a ton of CO2 emissions on average per cubic meter of product.  Concrete, on the other hand, adds about half a ton of CO2 emissions per cubic meter of product.  And steel?  Steel adds about four tons of CO2 emissions per cubic meter of product.

So, bottom line is, using wood is better for the environment than concrete or steel.  But, to be fair, not everything can be made with wood.  The real key is balance.  Without steel, I wouldn’t be in business.  Without concrete, my shop would be sitting in the dirt.  If you’re planning a building project, learn everything you can about your options.  Educate yourself.  And then choose the one that best fits your needs.  And if it’s also the best choice for the environment, all the better!

For more information, or to just be overwhelmed with the science, go here: http://www.bcclimatechange.ca/how-wood-products-help/wood-products.aspx

We love you out here in TVLand. We like the shows, the personalities and the ideas and inspiration that seems to flow non-stop from your creative little brains. You have singlehandedly given rise to an entire movement of do-it-yourselfers and, as a contractor, I’m okay with that. I like to see people tackling some of the projects around the house on their own.

On top of that, you give people great design ideas that they can pursue with local contractors to build their own dream home. I’m sure that there are countless stories from all across the nation about a home renovation or construction project that was inspired by HGTV.

The point of my letter is to thank you for the recent offer to appear on one of your prominent weekend shows and the chance to put my work in front of millions. When I got the call I have to admit that my heart was beating pretty quick! I was really excited to know that you would consider my work to be up to the high standards of HGTV.

But then you told me that it would only cost me several thousand dollars to give you my work free of charge and as a thank-you I would get a line of the end-credits all to myself. In small type. And scrolling fast. Oh, and bragging rights. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed and felt like I was being hustled by a snake-oil salesman.

Could you please create a show that gives people a realistic idea of what a project will cost? Homeowners need to understand that they really can’t remodel an entire house for only a couple thousand dollars and have it all done in a week. Projects like these take time, planning and money.

Rest assured, I will continue to watch your programming. But from now on, I’m paying alot more attention to the end-credits.

Sincerely,
Jason Frantz
WoodShop Artisans

I don’t dance much.  I’m a white boy from the Missouri backwoods and dancing was just not something I did much growing up.  I could buck hay bales all afternoon, build fence and drive the tractor, and I managed to keep up with my chores reasonably well, but dance?  Not interested.

But I find myself dancing on a fair number of shop projects, oddly enough.  Not the kind of dancing you’re thinking, I’m sure, but dancing nonetheless.  It usually starts like this:

“So we’ve talked about what kind of project you have in mind, how you want it built, what you plan to use it for and when you need it.  Do you have a budget in mind?”

Somewhere, music begins to play…

“Well, not really sure… Do you have any idea what it will cost?”

I might as well be wearing a tuxedo with a rose in my mouth as we take turns chasing each other around the room…

“The cost for any project is really in the details.  The more detail there is, the more labor is involved and that drives the cost up.”

Here, have a rose.

“We understand that, but we’re just trying to get a ballpark number for planning purposes.”

Is that castanets I hear?

And so it goes.

The funny thing is, I completely understand where the client’s coming from.  In their mind, if they tell a contractor how much they can spend then suddenly the project comes to that exact amount or higher.  If you lowball the budget, the contractor gets offended, but if you go too high, you risk paying more than you should have.  I know because I’ve done the same thing with contractors in my home.  Nobody wants to get ripped off.  Instead, we dance.

What it really boils down to is trust.  The best advice I can give to someone looking for a contractor is to find someone you can trust.  Talk to friends and neighbors, past clients, or just go with your gut feeling.  Believe it or not, finding someone you can trust is the easy part.  The hard part is actually trusting them.

Sit down and lay out your budget.  If you’re honest with your contractor, he’s much more likely to be honest with you.  When I know what a client’s spending limits are, I can usually tailor the project to meet those constraints.  That requires a bit more work on my part, but is usually worth it for a satisfied client.  And I would expect a client for a large project to interview and get estimates from several contractors.  Find the one you are most comfortable with and can trust.

Keep in mind that trust goes both ways and a contractor should be willing to trust you as well.  I’m always willing to share with clients the breakdown of an estimate.  I’ll lay out labor, materials and overhead so you know where I’m getting the numbers.  Not all contractors will do that, but it’s worth asking about.

Of course, you’re always welcome to dance.  Just don’t come crying to me if you get your toes stepped on.

I was thinking about all the tools in my shop the other day and realized something interesting.  There are some tools that I use that I can tell you exactly how many I have and what kind they are.  One air compressor and three nail guns, for instance.  I have three HVLP spray guns.  Five hammers.  But here’s the interesting part:  I have absolutely no idea how many cutting tools I have.  Even if I took the time to count them all, I would miss some and the final tally would be high.  Mostly, I suppose, because the majority of my work is done by cutting and shaping wood.  Which brings me to a point that I have reminded myself of time and time again: There is no such thing as a dull cutting tool, because when it is no longer sharp, it is no longer a tool.

So, you ask, why have a blog for a woodworking shop?  Simple: our website was feeling kinda dull.  It needed to be honed a little bit, sharpened up for the job that it does.  I’m sure there are a number of correlations I could make between cutting edge technology and wood cutting tools, but I’ll skip that for now.  Suffice it to say that this should be a really good place to answer some of the questions that always seem to come our way, to connect with some of our past (and hopefully future) clients and to share some good information and ideas that you may find useful.