The Build Insite Podcast

Five carpenters. Four hours in the car. One day off the tools. That's what education looks like when a builder actually means it.

Matt from MS Constructions has driven his team down from the Vic and New South Wales border to the Bowens Rethink Building Hub, and he's brought his qualified chippies and construction manager with him. Joining him is Jake, who did his apprenticeship under Matt and has since watched two major NCC changes land inside his first few years on the tools.

In Part 1, Matt talks openly about scaling the business back, why turnover stopped being the scoreboard, and how hiring for attitude instead of skill changed the way his crew shows up every day. Jake shares what it was like coming through an apprenticeship with no clue what he wanted to do, and what he's learning now about condensation, wraps and passive principles that simply weren't taught a few years ago.

There's also an honest conversation about mistakes. Matt reckons he doesn't trust a builder who says they've never had a problem, and he explains why pulling failed work apart with his team has become one of the most valuable training exercises in the business.

What You'll Learn:
- Why hiring for attitude beats hiring for skill, and how culture holds a small team together
- What scaling back actually did for build quality, client selection and stress levels
- How working across two state licences forces a higher building standard
- Why involving your whole team in code changes takes the pressure off the builder
- How social media has become a client filter and a training tool at the same time
- What condensation, mould and the NCC changes mean for builders who haven't updated their practices

Chapters
00:00 – Introduction
00:42 – Meet Matt and Jake from MS Constructions
01:26 – Building Across Two State Borders
03:28 – Why Matt Brought His Whole Team Four Hours
05:06 – Jake's Apprenticeship Journey
06:53 – How the Business Has Changed
08:44 – Hiring for Attitude and Team Culture
09:54 – Scaling Back and Choosing Quality Over Turnover
11:17 – Using Social Media to Attract the Right Clients
13:00 – Learning From Mistakes and Failed Work
14:28 – NCC Changes, Wraps and Condensation
16:25 – Why Builder Education Isn't Optional

Hosts: Dean Backman & Luke Callery
Guests: Matt & Jake  from MS Constructions

🎧 Listen to the Build Insite Podcast on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
🌐 Explore more at: https://buildinsite.com.au/
📸 Follow us on Instagram: @build.insite

Day one on site, and there's asbestos. What happens in the next ten minutes tells a homeowner more about their builder than anything in the tender.

In this second half of the conversation at Callery Creek House, Zoe and Andrew get into the part of a build that most people only understand in hindsight: how communication actually works between a homeowner and a builder, and what happens when it doesn't. We recorded this on handover day, with the keys about to change hands, so everything is still fresh.

They share the advice they'd give anyone about to sign a building contract, from working out your own values before you start researching, to visiting an open home and talking to a builder's current client. There's also a warning about builders juggling too many sites at once, and a strong case for getting every site meeting decision confirmed in writing.

It's not all process. Zoe wrote a blessing and had it embedded in the concrete pour, which landed at the threshold by pure chance, and a gum leaf left a perfect stencil in the burnished slab that they chose to keep. We also talk about the night Zoe found herself at the Master Builders National Awards as a current client, watching her own builder go up on stage.

What you'll learn:
- Why the first problem on site tells you more about your builder than the sales pitch
- How to set a communication rhythm before you sign, and why it should be in the contract conversation
- Why documenting site meeting outcomes in writing protects both sides, not just one
- What to ask about a builder's workload and site supervision before you commit
- Why locking in selections before construction takes stress off the critical path

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:20 Advice for homeowners choosing a builder
00:53 Do your research and visit a site
02:42 Why communication makes or breaks a build
03:21 Day one and the asbestos discovery
04:18 Agreeing a meeting rhythm before signing
05:53 Why everything needs to be documented
08:32 A blessing in the concrete pour
12:14 The gum leaf in the slab
13:53 The Master Builders Awards night
16:14 Tips for homeowners starting a build
18:49 Why your builder's workload matters
21:23 What they wish they'd known
22:13 The two week look ahead and the whiteboard
25:13 What they'd do differently
25:50 Getting selections done early
26:49 What this home means to them
28:14 Wrap up

🎧 Listen to the Build Insite Podcast on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
🌐 Explore more at: https://buildinsite.com.au/
📸 Follow us on Instagram: @build.insite

Most build stories get told by the people getting paid to be there. This one comes from the couple who lived in the middle of it, for nine months, with three kids and a dishwasher in the bathroom.

In this episode we're sitting at the finished marble benchtop of Callery Creek House with Zoe and Andrew, the homeowners. It's a rare thing to hear a renovation unpacked from the client's side of the table, and they don't hold back. We cover how a "bit of a tizzy up" turned into a full two storey extension, why an 18 month design process was worth every minute, and what it actually feels like to live on your own building site while it's being built around you.

Zoe brought a long held commitment to sustainable design and passive house principles to the project. Andrew brought a refusal to let her compromise on them. Between the two of them, and an architect willing to design for performance, the brief was set well before a builder was ever engaged. That timing turns out to be one of the biggest lessons of the episode.

We also get into how they chose their builder, what almost sent them in a different direction, and the one thing that ultimately got Callery Building over the line. Spoiler: it wasn't the glossy finished photos.

What you'll learn:
- Why careful design takes time, and why you should be worried if it doesn't
- What early contractor involvement gives you, and what it costs you to skip it
- The real pros and cons of living on site during a renovation, from both sides
- How to interview builders and what homeowners are actually assessing
- Why showing the hurdles publicly builds more trust than showing the highlights

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:28 Meet Zoe and Andrew
02:13 Buying the house and the original bungalow
03:38 What sold them on the location
05:12 From a tizzy up to a full renovation
07:55 Where the sustainability passion came from
09:57 Lessons from previous builds
11:47 Living on site during the build
16:18 A word on site safety
16:43 Time, quality and cost
18:36 Engaging an architect
20:07 Why early contractor involvement matters
21:04 Why good design takes time
22:55 What they learned about each other
26:01 Choosing a builder
28:24 Why social media sealed the decision
29:25 Advice for builders
30:19 Wrap up

🎧 Listen to the Build Insite Podcast on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
🌐 Explore more at: https://buildinsite.com.au/
📸 Follow us on Instagram: @build.insite

The code is moving. Slowly. But there's a lot you can do without waiting for it.

Part two with Jess from Climasure picks up where we left off, starting with the state of the NCC and what the next update means for builders. South Australia's energy efficiency pause, the drained and vented cavity change everyone's talking about, and why blower door testing already sits in the code as a verification option that almost nobody uses.

From there, Jess gets practical. If you want to build better but can't overhaul everything on your next job, where do you start? Her answer is a step by step: benchmark with a blower door test, then get serious about membranes and moisture management, then build the team around it. Because a builder pushing high performance without the right client, trades and designer is fighting uphill.

The back half goes into the two rabbit holes Jess is currently down. EMFs, including the moment a monitor reading dropped because the electricity was travelling through her body. And mould, which she calls a silent killer for good reason, with a story from a client whose respiratory problems cleared up only after a leaking shower wall came out.

What you'll learn:

- Where the NCC is heading, and why drained and vented cavities are a game changer for moisture management
- Why air tightness sitting in the code as an option is still a win, and how the UK does it differently
- The step by step for builders who want to improve without blowing the budget
- Why energy efficiency upgrades have unintended consequences if you don't understand the whole system
- What foil backed membranes can no longer be used for, and what to check on your spec
- Why hidden mould is so serious, and what a mould inspection actually involves

Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
00:21 - Where the NCC is at
03:09 - Drained and vented cavities
04:00 - Is the code heading in the right direction
07:56 - The rabbit hole of building science
09:28 - Where to start if you want to build better
12:32 - Membranes and the one product Jess swears by
14:41 - What's next: the EMF rabbit hole
18:05 Mould, moisture and chronic illness
21:03 - Studying building biology
22:17 - Where to find Jess and the Building Sciology Podcast

🎧 Listen to the Build Insite Podcast on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
 Explore more at: https://buildinsite.com.au/
📸Follow us on Instagram: @build.insite

You can't control what you don't measure. And in most homes, no one's measuring anything.

Recorded on site straight after the final blower door test at the Callery Creek House project (4.1 air changes an hour, for the record), this episode brings back one of Build Insite's most popular guests, Jess from Climasure. Third time on the show, and she's brought a whole new rabbit hole with her.

Jess walks us through her path from doing energy efficiency star ratings for the building code, to realising that what gets designed, what gets assessed and what actually gets built can be three very different things. That realisation set off a domino chain: blower door testing, ventilation, Passive House, hygrothermal modelling, and now building biology. We also get into her own podcast, the international guests she's landed, and the internet's very strong opinions about insulating brick cavity walls

Then things get interesting. Jess has just started working in the EMF space, taking radio frequency, electric field and magnetic field readings on a certified Passive House site before the slab was even poured. Plus the everyday stuff most people never think about, like what happens to particulate matter when you fry an egg on a gas cooktop, and why the CO2 in your bedroom is probably sitting at more than double what it should be.

What you'll learn:
• Why a blower door test is the cheapest, easiest way to measure how a building actually performs, and exactly what it exposes (window installs, downlights, skirting gaps, even your key lock)
• When you can test mid build on a membrane system, and why anticon makes that a lot harder
• What EMFs are, how they're measured, and why "you can't control what you don't measure" applies here too
• The indoor air quality numbers worth knowing: CO2 targets, particulate spikes from cooking, and the monitors Jess uses at home and on the road
• Practical advice for younger builders who want to build better but don't know where to start

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:50 - What Jess has been up to at Climasure
02:12 - From star ratings to building science
04:30 - Starting a building science podcast
10:01 - The brick cavity wall insulation debate
11:56 - EMFs explained
14:52 - Indoor air quality: what you can't see
19:34 - Where builders should start with testing
23:29 - What a blower door test actually is
25:27 - The best and worst results Jess has tested

Host: Luke Callery
Guest: Jessica Kismet from Climasure

🎧 Listen to the Build Insite Podcast on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
Explore more at: https://buildinsite.com.au/
📸 Follow us on Instagram: @build.insite