Building codes are not sharp knives inspectors use to chop off the heads of contractors, they are books full of options for constructing safe and efficient buildings
Two twenty-somethings with an amazing career trajectory in construction talk about their very different paths and their similar outlook for the future.
"When you know how hard it is to build a complicated roof, you tend to start designing roofs that look attractive but maybe aren't quite as complicated, so that the affordability aspect of the house is there. You're building in the value engineering in the beginning of the process instead of designing the house and having it valued engineered after it's done."
Fernando Pagés Ruiz is ProTradeCraft's Latin America Editor. He is currently building a business in Ecuador and a house in Mexico. Formerly, he was a builder in the Great Plains and Mountain States. He is author of Building an Affordable House and Affordable Remodel (Taunton Press).