The SiteVisit

Send us Fan Mail Profit can feel weirdly random in construction: one month you’re slammed, the next you’re chasing late payments, and somehow “growth” still doesn’t show up in your personal bank account. We sit down with Dr. Ben Ashikoi, the Profit Doctor, to name the problem and fix the thinking behind it: profititis, when revenue rises but net profit stays flat or slides backward. We dig into a simple but powerful practice Ben calls Operation Dog Catcher: reviewing your last few years of p...

Send us Fan Mail BC can feel like a place where everything is needed and nothing gets built. Housing affordability gets worse, major infrastructure takes forever, and even when demand is obvious, shovels stay out of the ground. I wanted to understand why, so I sat down with Chris Gardner, President of the ICBA, to talk through what he’s seeing from the front lines of British Columbia’s construction industry. We dig into the uncomfortable numbers behind BC’s finances and why deficits and expl...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when an island’s growth runs faster than its infrastructure? We sit down with Rory Kumala of the Vancouver Island Construction Association to unpack the real levers behind affordability, from ferry redundancy and the Malahat chokepoint to five-year permit timelines, shifting building codes, and the uneasy math that keeps pro formas on the edge. It’s a candid tour through how costs stack, why uncertainty kills feasibility, and where policy can actually move the ne...

Send us Fan Mail A chance meeting on the show floor turned into a deep dive on one of the fastest-moving opportunities in clean energy: giving retired EV batteries a second life as commercial storage that slashes peak demand costs and keeps critical operations online. We sit down with Moment Energy to unpack how they test, package, and deploy end-of-life EV packs into safe, high-voltage systems that deliver real savings and resilience for industrial and commercial sites. We break down the te...

Send us Fan Mail Ever wondered who’s actually safeguarding a multi‑million‑dollar condo tower when the council is made of volunteers? We sit down with strata lawyer Katherine Uppal to unpack how buildings age, costs climb, and decisions get made under the Strata Property Act—often with limited time, thin records, and 200 skeptical neighbors watching. We dig into the governance flashpoints that derail progress: contested elections, proxy fights, and quorum drama that can stall urgent repairs....

Send us Fan Mail Ever feel like “labor shortage” misses the point? We sit down with John Reid of Faber to map the real bottleneck in construction hiring: connection. From their scrappy days building a trade show booth out of sheet goods to a platform with over 100,000 signups, John shares how faster matching, transparent skills, and clean performance data can move people from downloads to dependable crews on site. We compare two worlds—Vancouver’s slow, referral‑heavy buying culture and Dall...

Send us Fan Mail We explore how construction can close the gap between field expertise and business execution as AI accelerates change. Chris shares a candid path from project manager to GC to educator, laying out practical steps to protect margins, grow teams, and build resilient firms. • AI as a copilot for estimating, not a replacement • why labor shortages persist in hot markets • field-to-executive pathways that actually work • lightweight PM habits that lift margin • standardizing take...

Send us Fan Mail We explore how ADHD shows up on jobsites and in leadership, why admin feels harder than building, and how to design simple systems that create focus without brute force. We share tactics for working memory, notification overload, and consistent growth that fit ADHD brains. • what ADHD looks like across life, not just school • inattentive, hyperactive, and combined types clarified • why phones hijack attention when tasks feel boring or confusing • the working memory gap on fo...

Send us Fan Mail Construction companies possess an extraordinary yet frequently overlooked opportunity to build substantial wealth—one that extends far beyond simply increasing revenue or improving profit margins. Paul Atherton, founder of Highspire, reveals the powerful secret that separates thriving construction business owners from those merely keeping pace: leveraging construction expertise into strategic real estate development. As Paul explains, wealth creation happens through th...

Send us Fan Mail The mental health crisis sweeping through construction has reached alarming proportions, with suicide rates among workers soaring to five times the national average. But what's driving this crisis, and why aren't more industry leaders talking about it? Ryan Englin, a 15-year veteran consultant and author of "Hire Better People Faster," brings powerful insights into the hidden struggle of construction workers and the leadership failures that perpetuate it. After growing up wi...

Send us Fan Mail The cement industry is at a crossroads. As global construction demands soar, so do the sector’s carbon emissions—contributing nearly 8% of global CO₂ output. But Markus Kritzler, Chief Revenue Officer at Carbon Upcycling Technologies, believes there’s a way to build a better future—literally. Markus has found purpose in a game-changing innovation: a technology that transforms industrial waste into high-performance construction materials. Carbon Upcycling’s process reinvents h...

Send us Fan Mail In this enlightening conversation, Glyn Lewis, Founder and CEO of Renewal Development, reveals the surprising economics behind home relocation: each rescued home contains 100 tons of raw materials and 23 tons of embodied carbon that would otherwise go to waste. His company operates as a comprehensive service provider—handling demolition contracts for developers, coordinating the complex logistics of moving structures, and renovating them to become energy-efficient, affordable...

Send us Fan Mail Rick Wagner, President of Maxwell Floors and a 43-year construction veteran, tackles the tough conversations our industry needs. The cultural disconnect between developers' passion and field workers' daily grind manifests in concerning ways. Mental health claims sometimes mask a deeper lack of commitment, while the housing crisis creates a profound sense of disconnection when workers can't afford what they're building. Decades ago, homeownership required roughly ten years of ...