Ever feel like there's a better way to build?
Speaker:So do we.
Speaker:I'm Matt and welcome to the Mindful Builder Podcast, where we believe
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Speaker:Thank you so much for being part of our community.
Speaker:We truly appreciate you and now onto this week's episode.
Speaker:So we're fitting in again, the Performance membranes.
Speaker:Uh, we are lucky enough with their link with Climber to be able to use
Speaker:their facility to record our podcast.
Speaker:With Pro Climber now being a major sponsor on our.
Speaker:On of our show, so we greatly appreciate, uh, appreciable.
Speaker:Is that the word?
Speaker:Fuck.
Speaker:I've screwed that up already for their help.
Speaker:Aha.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You
Speaker:are, you are tertiary educator.
Speaker:What's the word, Andre?
Speaker:Appreciative.
Speaker:Appreciative.
Speaker:Appreciative.
Speaker:That's the word.
Speaker:So Joel wouldn't have known that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Anyway.
Speaker:Wouldn't known.
Speaker:We've known are super, super lucky with our guest today.
Speaker:Um, someone we've been speaking to.
Speaker:Uh, for a while we've been working with for a long time to come on.
Speaker:Um, and you would know him as Joel's brother Andre, so
Speaker:that's fantastic.
Speaker:Uh, it's a fantastic intro.
Speaker:Thanks Matt, brother.
Speaker:So we don't, don't need the
Speaker:story at Bink.
Speaker:We don't need to know who you are 'cause Joel's already told it on this podcast.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Do you know what?
Speaker:Joking in total jokes.
Speaker:Andre.
Speaker:Um, we are gonna give you an opportunity to speak Yeah.
Speaker:The real story to, to introduce you to our audience and maybe give the, uh, real
Speaker:story behind Bink and who you are and, and how you got to where you are now.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:Can I, can I first start off though?
Speaker:Uh, I just wanna set the scene.
Speaker:So from this point forward, I'll be referring to Joel
Speaker:Heidi, build as the flog.
Speaker:The flog.
Speaker:The flog.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And you are the,
Speaker:so the boring brother and the flog, correct.
Speaker:That's how we're getting it.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:Is that, is that what the episode's called?
Speaker:That's actually correct.
Speaker:The Boring Brother and the Flock.
Speaker:Um, Matt and I have just both written that down.
Speaker:Who are you, Andre?
Speaker:Uh, how far back do you wanna go?
Speaker:I reckon go back because your, your story, well, story, journey,
Speaker:whatever the fuck you wanna call it.
Speaker:It's like, it's not linear.
Speaker:You know, you, you, I reckon we had, have had a conversation with you 30 years ago.
Speaker:You, you probably wouldn't say to him, oh, well, I'm gonna own a window
Speaker:company in the high performance space.
Speaker:Am I right
Speaker:in saying that?
Speaker:Oh mate, a hundred percent.
Speaker:A hundred percent.
Speaker:I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do, um, what that was gonna look
Speaker:like, um, for a very, very long time.
Speaker:Um, I was living at Mum and Dad's till I was in my mid twenties.
Speaker:Um, still really struggling to understand, you know, what I wanted to do.
Speaker:Uh, I, I always had just an underlying ambition, but it was really misplaced.
Speaker:Just didn't know what to do with it, you know, and, and, um, you know, I,
Speaker:I, I followed the, the normal path.
Speaker:You know, I, I did year 12, got good grades.
Speaker:I was always academically capable, lazy, like most, most other boys.
Speaker:Um, and, uh, and so I, you know, I, I got the score I needed, went to university,
Speaker:kinda got a little bit lost there.
Speaker:Again, I, I was there because I was kind of told, meant to,
Speaker:meant to, meant to believe that that's what I should be doing.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Uh, and did it and kind of just spread by to be honest.
Speaker:Um, and
Speaker:what was the, what was the degree that you were in?
Speaker:Uh, so I did a, uh, I did a double degree in, uh, it and, uh, accounting.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Um, and, um.
Speaker:Yeah, look, I, I didn't really enjoy the accounting side of it at all.
Speaker:Um, again, just, I just didn't have any, any perspective.
Speaker:Um, I couldn't put it into, into, into real terms, you know, so just
Speaker:couldn't, couldn't understand why it was important or what would be good for me.
Speaker:Uh, in hindsight, if I, if I to do it now, I think I'd get a lot more benefit
Speaker:and more enjoyment out of that, just from the business side of things.
Speaker:Uh, but at the time I found the practicality of the it side of
Speaker:things a lot more appealing.
Speaker:Um, and so I kind of sunk my teeth into that.
Speaker:Um, anyway, finished that again, had no idea what I wanted to do and I actually
Speaker:left Australia and went to the uk, lived in London for 12 months and a large part
Speaker:of that was breaking free of the shackles of the ethnic, very tight family unit.
Speaker:Um, I can
Speaker:see that you guys are pretty tight
Speaker:family still.
Speaker:Yeah, look, we, we are, we are, we are a very, very tight family and, and you know,
Speaker:when particular myself and my brothers, you know, if we are in a room together.
Speaker:You know, it is like a fish market.
Speaker:I mean, there are, there, you know, there, there's, there, there'd be four
Speaker:of us and there'd be six conversations.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And, and, and it, and it, and it's just on.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:You know, we, we, we just, we're taking the piss out of each other.
Speaker:We, and we are, but we are just, we are usually just laughing at stupid shit.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Um, and we just, we we love it.
Speaker:That's, and you know, we we're all type A personalities too, you know.
Speaker:We're, are are your, are your parents like that?
Speaker:Uh, yeah, they are actually.
Speaker:They, um, uh.
Speaker:My mom and dad, my dad especially, massive party animal.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:That's where Joel gets it from.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:So I wanna clarify that Joel gets the party animal aside from dad.
Speaker:He gets, uh, his, he doesn't really get that, the charisma necessarily from dad.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:He gets that, that from you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Clearly learned behavior from you?
Speaker:No, a actually it's the, the, uh, the dark horse is my mom.
Speaker:Right, right.
Speaker:In a very typical ethnic sort of a setting, it's dad and he's the top of the
Speaker:top of the queue and all the rest of it.
Speaker:And moms just in the background, Slan, is
Speaker:that
Speaker:correct?
Speaker:Uh, yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I, and I, and I don't want this episode to be like hijacked by Joel.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, he's a funny dude.
Speaker:He's got a really amusing social media account.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And yes, he's a big personality.
Speaker:But there's obviously like a level of intelligence that runs through all of
Speaker:you, because even though Joel might come across as this kind of Larry and Tradey
Speaker:guy, he's a pretty deep thinker, even though it's kind of laid with a comedy
Speaker:'cause there is some like, in like important topics that he's touching on.
Speaker:Uh, and I do want to then swing it back to you too 'cause uh, I, I do wanna know,
Speaker:does that kind of run through that family, like the kind of level of intelligence?
Speaker:I mean, he says, you know, you are the smart one, right?
Speaker:But he's.
Speaker:Yeah, there's levels of intelligence, different smart intelligence.
Speaker:Oh, levels of intelligence.
Speaker:Um, are all you four,
Speaker:four boys there?
Speaker:There's actually five boys in the family.
Speaker:Five boys.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Do you ever, because going ahead to go back, because you had a lot of
Speaker:Instagram followers, but your, your account got hacked in, you lost them all.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:Do you have a reminding that you still had more?
Speaker:Actually, I actually forgot.
Speaker:That that was the case.
Speaker:But thank you for reminding me.
Speaker:Uh, 'cause the next time I see him, I'll, uh, definitely have a little jab.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:I do remember that.
Speaker:That was in COVID.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, I actually, I can't remember exactly what that was.
Speaker:I'll take your word for it.
Speaker:But it, it was horrible, you know, and it, it just got completely shut down.
Speaker:We just lost everything.
Speaker:Like all the, all that hard work.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, we, we, we, we got it back without too much.
Speaker:Too much of time, um, because I guess that that sort of underlying
Speaker:momentum was still there.
Speaker:So we, we were able to get it back.
Speaker:We'd have to work hard for it.
Speaker:But yeah,
Speaker:and like, and the hard thing is like, you don't know that, like, just that, I
Speaker:forget how many safe followers you had, but just one of those people who don't
Speaker:follow you now could have been a job.
Speaker:Like that's the part that you can't ever Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Understand.
Speaker:And I kind of, I remember, yeah.
Speaker:I couldn't, I remember when it happened and I was like, whoa, that sucks.
Speaker:I think there's almost a different brand of followers now, though.
Speaker:You know, like if you think about, um.
Speaker:It is probably easier to get followers back then.
Speaker:Uh, yeah.
Speaker:I think, I think in a lot of ways it, uh, it, it was, um, you're
Speaker:getting quality now, I think.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's, yeah.
Speaker:It's, look, it's, it's a, it's, it's just a different, it's, it's
Speaker:a completely different, different flavor of, of what we're getting now.
Speaker:I mean, back then, you know, the passive house, high performance, you know, it
Speaker:w it, it was a much harder sell Yeah.
Speaker:Than what it is now.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:You know, it, it's still not easy because there's, there's still.
Speaker:There's a larger portion of the market I think, that has no aware, no idea
Speaker:about it, and just isn't aware of it.
Speaker:Why would this, is that being our theme of the day?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So I'm just totally off track.
Speaker:Why do you think they don't know?
Speaker:Um, I, I, I think, I think there, there are, there, there's a few reasons.
Speaker:Um, I think as an industry we haven't necessarily been all that strategic.
Speaker:Um, and, and all that deliberate in, in what we do and how we go about it.
Speaker:Um, I think it's a little bit, a little bit cultural.
Speaker:Um, the, the cultural influences are, um, from a work culture.
Speaker:I mean, you know, it's, it's a, you know, should be right.
Speaker:Um, we've always done it that way.
Speaker:Why do, why do I wanna change?
Speaker:We're in Ireland.
Speaker:We're so far from everyone else.
Speaker:There's no competition, so.
Speaker:Anything that ever happened happened only in Australia.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So the, the international influences just kind of weren't,
Speaker:weren't really there historically.
Speaker:Whereas if you take Europe for example, like if you are one country in
Speaker:Europe and if you are lagging behind, you'll get found out real quick.
Speaker:So you just can't, right.
Speaker:Whereas in Australia you don't get found out so quickly.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:Ooh.
Speaker:Which is kind of like, oh, I don't know whether to jump so far forward because.
Speaker:This is my, my question I have for you is like, what is the major
Speaker:issues with Windows in Australia?
Speaker:So I reckon before we get to that, I know, but like, it's kind of link in because I
Speaker:was, I was about to jump to some Windows specific ones too, but I actually wanna
Speaker:know a bit more about how Bink started
Speaker:the real story.
Speaker:The real story.
Speaker:So we've got like the mockumentary,
Speaker:uh, look, he, he, he, his, his version of it, uh, was, was, was pretty close.
Speaker:You know, obviously I have a bit, bit of a bit of a laugh about it, but.
Speaker:Uh, and I, and I won't give you the full version 'cause of the, all the detail
Speaker:'cause he's, he's already broken that.
Speaker:But, but yeah, it, it pretty much was my brother Arnie
Speaker:was, uh, renovating his house.
Speaker:One, a set of buy four doors, you know, eight, nine, $10,000 for a set of buy.
Speaker:Four doors for four panels.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And he's just looking at like, being the typical immigrant, it is like how much
Speaker:that there's just, there's, there are four glass door panels and some hinges.
Speaker:Where's like, why am I paying eight, nine, $10,000 for this?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Uh, and he was always been the real sort of Wheeler dealer.
Speaker:He'll have a crack at anything.
Speaker:Yeah, right.
Speaker:He'll, he'll get into things real quick.
Speaker:And no background in Windows.
Speaker:Carpentry trade, no business.
Speaker:Is
Speaker:he the singer?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:That's
Speaker:correct.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, and what a singer too, by the way.
Speaker:But, uh, but, but yes, he's the singer.
Speaker:Um, does he,
Speaker:does, is he the one with the looks?
Speaker:Are we stopping this?
Speaker:I don't think so.
Speaker:Okay, cool.
Speaker:'cause I, 'cause it's not you or Joel.
Speaker:I was, I was gonna, I was gonna nominate myself,
Speaker:but
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So how come
Speaker:you haven't got to like sing a tune about Bink?
Speaker:Like a little jingle.
Speaker:Oh, the Bink jingle.
Speaker:Yeah, the Bink jingle mate.
Speaker:Have you ever tried herding cats?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Oh, do you know what, knowing both you and Joel now and maybe a little bit.
Speaker:About your other brothers?
Speaker:Fuck, for starters, I think it's a dear.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, to Joel.
Speaker:Feel sorry for your parents.
Speaker:Like that would've been a freaking nightmare.
Speaker:But, so, so this the, the, the story that, um, Joel told about, um, uh, Arnie.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Arnie was renovating and I think, did Joel come and make the doors or
Speaker:was it Arnie that made the doors?
Speaker:No, look, the originally Joel and one of his mates, sorry,
Speaker:Arnie and one of his mates.
Speaker:Sat down with like, with what?
Speaker:Effectively like almost engineering drawings.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And they, they basically kind of pieced it all together and, um, it
Speaker:was a, it was a bifold door, but it was really cr uh, it was just a crude
Speaker:version of one, um, didn't have a jam around it, none of that sort of stuff.
Speaker:Just at the top, top section, bottom track.
Speaker:And um, and then he decided to put it on, on, on eBay.
Speaker:'cause he immediately being the opportunistic sort of filler that
Speaker:he is, he's going, hang on, this has cost me like two grand in parts.
Speaker:If this got charged 8, 9, 10 grand for it, I reckon I can make some money outta this.
Speaker:So, hang
Speaker:on.
Speaker:So he built it with the viewer, put it in his own home?
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:But it never ended up in his own home?
Speaker:Well, well, he hung it, but it didn't, it wasn't there for long
Speaker:because he took some photos of it, stuck it on eBay and auctioned it.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:And, and he and, and just made a tidy profit on it.
Speaker:And people that missed out on the auction were like, Hey, do you have any more?
Speaker:Can you make me another one for the same price?
Speaker:And he just kept getting all these inquiries and next thing he knows,
Speaker:he's making them in his backyard.
Speaker:But that's, he then asked Joel for help as well, and, and Joel came around
Speaker:and said, yeah, look, sure, but it's gotta be, look, you need a jam like
Speaker:young, you can't just sell this right.
Speaker:So Joel helped him out and Joel designed the, designed that,
Speaker:and then started to set up a few jigs and few basic, basic things.
Speaker:Proper back out stuff.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And the two of them aren't in the business anymore, which is kind of ironic.
Speaker:Is that right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Correct, correct.
Speaker:Look, uh, ar Arnie always said he only ever wanted five, maybe 10 years.
Speaker:Uh, he's always been a rolling stone, right?
Speaker:So, um, okay.
Speaker:Uh, he said he, he wanted five to 10 years and five years he was done.
Speaker:He, he wanted to do something else.
Speaker:What's ha doing now?
Speaker:Uh, uh, he, so he's always been a singer, professional singer.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So he makes a tidy living outta that.
Speaker:Um, he has a, uh, a talent, uh, business.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, and when he's not busy doing that, he actually drives buses.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So it keeps himself pretty busy.
Speaker:Yeah, very busy.
Speaker:Does he have a family?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:wow.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So
Speaker:recently you, I saw Joel making windows at his house.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And you guys all went over and given him shit about it.
Speaker:Well, yeah.
Speaker:What, for a little bit.
Speaker:But Brendan, Brendan and I went over and we, we gave him a chop out.
Speaker:Um, and, uh, you know, 'cause he, he was, he was, he was basically setting
Speaker:up to do, uh, uh, slot attendant joins.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:For the sash.
Speaker:But on, on the, uh, the, the DeWalt, um, site, uh, yeah, assault.
Speaker:And, uh, so he set up a jig and all the rest of it.
Speaker:And, and he, he did, he did all, he did all of it.
Speaker:And we were just sort of standing there watching and, you know, giving him a
Speaker:bit of, bit of advice here and there.
Speaker:And it was just, it was just more just a cool thing to do.
Speaker:Just go hang, hang out with the brothers for a little bit.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And
Speaker:you know, do you, do you look at like what he was doing there and it's like, it's
Speaker:almost going back to where you started, but do you take something away from that
Speaker:and then go back to Bink and be like.
Speaker:We're missing a, there's something that he's done that we've missed
Speaker:or forgotten about and brought
Speaker:that back.
Speaker:Lemme, lemme tell you in no uncertain terms if that happened.
Speaker:Yeah, I reckon I'm done.
Speaker:A big mate.
Speaker:No, but like, no, but like, no, but no, no, but like, but you, I, I, I
Speaker:know, I know what you are saying.
Speaker:You are saying you've lost like the human, not the human element,
Speaker:but you are in the office.
Speaker:Like you are not sitting there in a factory every day.
Speaker:But you watch him and you be like, oh, have we now not doing that?
Speaker:Or is that like,
Speaker:that's actually, you know, I think you're on a really good train of thought here
Speaker:because every, a lot of stuff that you guys do now is all robot operated, right?
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Which, which, which you have to do to have a scalable business.
Speaker:Like I get that.
Speaker:But you know, there is something beautiful in that sort of handcrafted
Speaker:approach, and I think maybe what Matt's getting at is that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Is there something that you don't see or don't pick up If you're trying
Speaker:to automate everything that you would see if you're actually Yeah.
Speaker:Touching, feeling and going through that process.
Speaker:Well, that
Speaker:cut, that cut doesn't work.
Speaker:Like, oh, we cut like that.
Speaker:Can we maybe now increase in efficiency if we do it that way?
Speaker:I, I. Or, or, or, or, or
Speaker:does it validate the reason why you do automate and get Rob robots involved?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:What it, look, what it, what it did was f first of all, when we were there,
Speaker:all of us were looking at that and we were just, we were reminiscing.
Speaker:We're like, yeah, I remember when we used to do this.
Speaker:I remember when, when we were trying to work these things out
Speaker:and all the rest of it, it was
Speaker:nostalgia in that.
Speaker:Oh, it was, it was fantastic.
Speaker:Honestly, it was, it really was just a really nice experience.
Speaker:Just one for the bank.
Speaker:Do you wish it was still like that?
Speaker:Uh, yes and no.
Speaker:I like, I, I, I, I miss.
Speaker:I missed, I missed the, uh, the, the stage when it was just my
Speaker:brothers and me and just simple.
Speaker:Just, we just do a window and that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mi I miss that.
Speaker:I, I don't miss, uh, not having the, uh, the knowledge Yeah.
Speaker:And not having the expertise, uh, and not having the setup and all the rest of
Speaker:it, and all the things that we have now.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I definitely don't, don't miss that.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I think what we've got now is 100% the way it's gotta be done in Australia.
Speaker:In fact, I don't think the way it's gotta be done anywhere in the world really.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:If you wanna make, if you wanna manufacture a product of this nature to
Speaker:this level of, to a level of quality, that's the setup that, that you have to
Speaker:have that, it just doesn't work anywhere.
Speaker:So you are
Speaker:playing a European supplier in an Australian market.
Speaker:So if you're in Europe, like as you said before, you'd have, you just,
Speaker:it's the next thing you've gotta do.
Speaker:It's the next thing where here you come here and it's like, whoa, look
Speaker:at their equipment, kind of thing.
Speaker:But that's stock standard almost.
Speaker:If we went overseas, like you're still getting the best, the best products, but
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So the, the thing, the thing that, that I think you don't realize like
Speaker:in this country is that it's not just, it's not just the hardware, right?
Speaker:It's not just like the equipment that isn't commonplace here, right?
Speaker:So you can't just buy secondhand gear.
Speaker:You've gotta get, even if you want secondhand gear, you've
Speaker:gotta buy from overseas, right?
Speaker:It's not just that, it's the actual knowledge that isn't here.
Speaker:Mm,
Speaker:right there, there isn't anyone that I, that, that we can go to and they
Speaker:say, Hey, listen, I'm having trouble with this bloody tilt and turn window.
Speaker:What, what are we doing wrong?
Speaker:Because we followed all the instructions.
Speaker:What's wrong?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You, you, you, there's not, maybe that's what I
Speaker:was getting out the question that Joel, like, you, you, the
Speaker:instructions are making it by hand.
Speaker:There are no instructions, but then the robot there are.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that's, that's probably where I was more getting at.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, um, you know, it, I think that happened for us.
Speaker:Organically over the course of, you know, 10 years.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:When, when, when we were very, very hands-on and we, and, and you're right.
Speaker:You know, every time, you know, you'd go out on the floor and, and
Speaker:you'd, you'd, you'd do something or you'd be involved in, in something.
Speaker:You, you just start picking up a whole, it's just an, it's sometimes
Speaker:it's a slow accumulation Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Of, of all this stuff.
Speaker:And so I suppose for me, I, I didn't get that out of that day.
Speaker:But I just got so much more idea.
Speaker:It is just, yeah.
Speaker:It's like, yeah, I remember that.
Speaker:You know, it was a, it was, it
Speaker:was a cup filling moment, you know?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:'cause you know, you can look at the success that Binks going through at
Speaker:the moment, and you are looking at all the innovation that's happening
Speaker:and you know, that's great and you, you know, but, but you're probably not
Speaker:sitting in the moment and thinking, holy shit, look at where we're coming from.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But in that moment, in Joel's garage, you're probably like, maybe, and again,
Speaker:maybe I'm just putting words in your mouth, maybe it was a realization
Speaker:of actually how far you'd come.
Speaker:Uh, it, it, it was, there was definitely a moment like that and, and I actually
Speaker:said to, said to Joel as well, um, while he, while he was trying to fine
Speaker:tune, uh, his, his, his jig and putting the, um, uh, uh, the actual joints
Speaker:together, the, the, uh, the test piece.
Speaker:You know, I actually looked at Brendan and Joel and said, you
Speaker:remember when, when we had no idea any, any, about any of this stuff.
Speaker:We had actually, we had absolutely no idea.
Speaker:It was just all of us.
Speaker:With some opinion, a lot of it was just completely unfounded.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And it was just trial and error.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:But that wasn't trial and error.
Speaker:That was, that was four to five years of joint experience in one moment.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Going, no, no, you gotta do this, you need to do that.
Speaker:If you don't do that, that's gonna happen.
Speaker:And we all, we all knew it.
Speaker:And that, that was a, it was definitely one of those realization moments.
Speaker:Um, so why do Australian windows suck?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Let me, let me rephrase this.
Speaker:Why do 99% of Australian windows suck?
Speaker:Do, do you know what, maybe rephrase that question to ask a little bit more.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Why do fucking most Europe, Australian windows suck?
Speaker:Okay, great.
Speaker:That's, that's better.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Righto.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Um, and, and, and what then sets apart with what you are doing?
Speaker:So, I think in Australia, well, no, let me be more specific, um, in Victoria.
Speaker:Um, there, there's a, there's a misconception I think, fundamentally,
Speaker:that we, we aren't cold enough to be uncomfortable in our homes.
Speaker:Like, the weather's not cold enough, so stupid, uh, you
Speaker:know, it doesn't get hot enough.
Speaker:Um, like all the, all of these reasons, right?
Speaker:But if you look at our temperature variance, right?
Speaker:You know, we, we will go in, in, this is Victoria, we'll go from minus.
Speaker:To, uh, degrees to 40 degrees, right?
Speaker:Mm. It's a, it's a massive temperature range,
Speaker:50 degree swing,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:And there's this misconception, right?
Speaker:And, and, and, um, and I think a lot of it starts there.
Speaker:So the buyer values aren't, aren't pushing it.
Speaker:The second part of this is that the regulations aren't pushing it either, so
Speaker:it's gotta be one or the other, right?
Speaker:And preferably both.
Speaker:Um, you've gotta have, I think the, the, the market pushing it and
Speaker:saying, Hey, we, we want this stuff.
Speaker:But you've also gotta have the policy makers saying, well, you know what,
Speaker:this is actually good policy, right?
Speaker:Because there's all this talk about, um, uh, climate change.
Speaker:There's always talk about, uh, cost of energy and, you know, spiraling
Speaker:out of control and, and, and they make a big deal out of it, right?
Speaker:And everyone focuses on, um, the burning of, of coal and the energy creation.
Speaker:They're focused on cars.
Speaker:Or, you know, you are using, uh, uh, internal combustion engines and fossil
Speaker:fuels and blah blah, yet you've got this house that's leaking like an
Speaker:absolute sieve and it's sucking energy.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And no one's talking about that.
Speaker:And that part I don't get, I just, I, I don't understand that.
Speaker:Like, it, it's such a hole.
Speaker:It's literally, literally a massive hole in millions of
Speaker:houses around Australia, right?
Speaker:And we are dumping energy to, to maintain a level of comfort.
Speaker:And by the way.
Speaker:We're not doing that all that well either.
Speaker:Because if you, if you were to graph, I mean, you guys know if you were to graph
Speaker:the temperature variance in, in a house while, while you are, while you are awake
Speaker:and you've got the heater on, you know, it's, it's like a high frequency graph.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:You know, so rollercoaster stuff, Luna Park.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it, and it's, and it's just uncomfortable.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Whereas, you know, if that were not the case, if it were well insulated
Speaker:and, and, and, and tight, you'd have a much more of a flat line.
Speaker:You'd be comfortable, you'd be using less energy, but.
Speaker:There's just no, there's not a lot of discussion about that.
Speaker:You know, that, that's why I think the things that you
Speaker:guys are doing is fantastic.
Speaker:I think leaky windows is one thing, but there are so many other, um, parts of
Speaker:a window that make it a, a good window.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So air tightness is one thing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:How about just keeping water out?
Speaker:Keep well, keeping water out something, which is like, so what?
Speaker:Not
Speaker:a given for some window companies.
Speaker:So, so, so,
Speaker:so I know that I can go and buy much cheaper windows than
Speaker:the windows that you are.
Speaker:That you're providing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, so what is the major differences or some of the differences that,
Speaker:um, your windows are ticking?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:From box point of view than others aren't, and, you know, go into u
Speaker:values, go into thermal bridging, like all of that kind of stuff.
Speaker:The way we've set up our designs in our manufacturing, I guess
Speaker:we saw that the trends had to be heading in a certain direction.
Speaker:They had to be heading towards, uh, high performance.
Speaker:And so from the very, from the very start.
Speaker:We set up our designs to be suitable for double glazing.
Speaker:So the transition for us from single to double was like a non-event.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:We, we changed from single, when we started we was single glazing.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And, and at that point we're talking strictly timber.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Strictly timber.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Um, and we went from single to double glazing in a very short time because
Speaker:our designs, we designed them already to suit double glazing, whereas a lot of the
Speaker:other guys have been doing it for longer.
Speaker:It was a big change for 'em.
Speaker:All, all their tooling had
Speaker:to change,
Speaker:perceived as a big change.
Speaker:There's not a lot of tooling
Speaker:as they
Speaker:just couldn't get their head around it.
Speaker:And I'm, I'm being, I'm being honest.
Speaker:It's just a wider Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:It's just a deeper I can, I
Speaker:can understand, I can understand the jump if say, uh, an uh, UPSC or aluminum
Speaker:on extrusion wouldn't fit space.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The whole molding tool, which we're talking about timber
Speaker:correct.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:So the, the alley, the alley guys for sure, um, you know, they,
Speaker:they had a lot more work to do.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Um, and I'm assuming they write or on the standard code boards for a lot of these
Speaker:window issues to protect Yeah, of course.
Speaker:The aluminum brand one, the largest.
Speaker:Proportion of windows in Australia.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:As a high percentage.
Speaker:If you look at everywhere else in the world, I think, is it UBC's
Speaker:referred to as white gold in Europe?
Speaker:Uh, it was referred to white gold in the uk.
Speaker:UK Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, you're right.
Speaker:It's
Speaker:like, so like everywhere else in the world uses UPVC.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We're just in a aluminum here for some reason.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Look, the, the, the, the aluminum guys did, I think, did a fantastic
Speaker:job of, of really cementing their position in the market.
Speaker:Um, and again, I think they were quite strategic about it.
Speaker:So you, you've gotta.
Speaker:Give 'em credit with Chris too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They ran the business very well.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:It just wasn't a very good product for the consumers.
Speaker:Uh, but also, you know, the in, again, I'll say in Victoria, there's
Speaker:just this push to have, you know, the, a big house two story, this,
Speaker:that double garage, triple garage, fancy car, all the rest of it.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:But it's, it's just like, it's all, it's all it's quantity.
Speaker:There's, there's, there's such a shift, I think, away from
Speaker:quality into, into quantity.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And the worst part is I think Australians, I mean, we are generally, we we're a
Speaker:wealthy country, you know, mean the, the middle class is super, super strong.
Speaker:We've got disposable income.
Speaker:And most Australians, I think if you present the options to them,
Speaker:they're actually happy to spend the money on something better.
Speaker:They're just not being presented.
Speaker:The option, the, the actual options very, very well.
Speaker:And I think that's for us as an industry, that's what we need to do.
Speaker:We need to re regain our position.
Speaker:In terms of PVC and timber windows, for example, or high,
Speaker:high performance windows.
Speaker:We need to regain that position and we need to take some of that stuff back.
Speaker:That was ours to start with, that we allowed the aluminum guys to take over.
Speaker:Are they, norm are, so I'm gonna semi pick apart your Marky message from, in a
Speaker:good way, like high performance windows.
Speaker:Aren't they Just the window that everyone should have?
Speaker:Yes,
Speaker:that's, and I feel like you've.
Speaker:There's a messaging there that like each scene, and I think that word high
Speaker:performance sometimes seen, and we've been talking about this actually common
Speaker:theme of today is it's a bit of scary.
Speaker:It's like how do you market high performance?
Speaker:Like, oh, I just want the normal window.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But the reality is with the UPVC window, that is the normal
Speaker:window that everyone should have.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Look it, uh, yes it is.
Speaker:But when you're catering to the market that we cater to, right?
Speaker:The, the general market.
Speaker:If, if we said, Hey, this is just a. Standard window, they would
Speaker:expect it to have a standard price.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:But the cost components are different.
Speaker:Like, you know, you can't make a window to, to work as well as, as
Speaker:what ours does without using better hardware, without using better.
Speaker:But your UPC is the
Speaker:same price as aluminum, though.
Speaker:We,
Speaker:we need to recalibrate our mind of what a standard window should it should be.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then move on from there.
Speaker:But U PPP C is
Speaker:like, is this like, I literally did an experiment on it on our we, the
Speaker:rife arranged project that we did.
Speaker:And for shits and gigs, I thought I'd send it off to aluminum suppliers
Speaker:and some very well known ones.
Speaker:Um, some I just not so well.
Speaker:'cause I wanted to see the, the price differential in it.
Speaker:Firstly, two of them come back with single glazed Yep.
Speaker:Ignoring the whole double glaze with the low eco.
Speaker:So firstly, you actually listen to the brief, which was.
Speaker:Or even, or even read the energy report.
Speaker:No, no, I didn't send an energy report.
Speaker:I just told what the brief was.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So being quoted as per the brief, I had two come back just
Speaker:saying Single glaze is okay.
Speaker:And I'm like, it's not one, just come back with double glaze.
Speaker:I'm like, no, you need the low E coding.
Speaker:And their excuse was, oh no, that adds a huge amount of cost.
Speaker:And then I was like, and okay guys, you've all missed the, uh,
Speaker:the thermal bridge free design.
Speaker:And they're like, oh, that will just make it too expensive.
Speaker:When you actually start to factor in the, like for like the
Speaker:UPVC was substantially cheaper.
Speaker:And I, and, and, and the thing, I think the issue is like, you guys are so honest
Speaker:with your, your messaging and the high performance, and this is what we're gonna
Speaker:give you, where the opposite side is.
Speaker:Like, we are just gonna give you the, the bare minimum.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And we'll hit you later once the energy report comes through.
Speaker:All once, once they've got a. Tidy that up later.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I, and that, that's a huge issue I think within the
Speaker:aluminum market personally.
Speaker:Like it was really eyeopening and maybe, again, I'm in a bubble and I just
Speaker:thought that was a horrible experience.
Speaker:Can I, can I just, um, just sit in the elephant in the room for
Speaker:a second, but you PC's plastic.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So is our membranes are sitting right behind.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:exactly.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:But, but, but this, this is, this is a common, this is a common, uh, I don't
Speaker:know, point of contention that we need to have a conversation with clients about.
Speaker:And
Speaker:so is their joinery.
Speaker:So like,
Speaker:yeah, I, I, I get all, I get it all.
Speaker:I get it all.
Speaker:So, so how can we, 'cause clients are like, oh, well aluminum's, uh, you know,
Speaker:it's, it's complete, it's recyclable.
Speaker:We can, we can pull the glass out and we can recycle it.
Speaker:And you can do it a hundred times.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:A thousand times.
Speaker:You can keep going.
Speaker:'cause aluminum is, you can just keep mounting it down and, and redoing it.
Speaker:Why would I, from a sustainability point of view, choose UPVC over aluminum?
Speaker:Well, there's,
Speaker:there's some very, very good reasons.
Speaker:Um, the first of all, first of all, the, the embodied carbon in PVC extrusion
Speaker:is significantly less than aluminum.
Speaker:I don't know if you've ever seen an aluminum ex, uh, an aluminum smelter.
Speaker:Yep, yep.
Speaker:It's basically massive, massive, uh, uh, cauldrons with.
Speaker:Uh, uh, probes going into it, massive amounts of electricity
Speaker:going into the plant, right?
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:And then to
Speaker:melt it and make it again, it's a high carbon content, correct?
Speaker:It
Speaker:is a, it's a massive, massive amount of amount of energy to actually produce
Speaker:aluminum in the first place when you're using aluminum for doors and windows
Speaker:in, in this instance, because they're conduct energy, so well, they're not
Speaker:doing EU any favors in terms of reducing the energy, uh, of, of the house, right?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:You can recycle it for sure.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:If you take PVC, the embodied carbon to produce PVC in the first
Speaker:instance is significantly less.
Speaker:Um, when you use it in a door or window, you are getting a product
Speaker:that actually insulates extremely well, like poles apart from aluminum.
Speaker:Uh, and the third thing, uh, is the, the lifespan of PVC windows is actually
Speaker:so great that the PVC uh, extruders.
Speaker:I actually, they actually find it difficult to get recycled content
Speaker:because they've gotta wait so long for end, end of life, uh, windows, right?
Speaker:So in Europe, the the extruders are, are, are mandated.
Speaker:They have to use a certain amount of recycled content.
Speaker:So the, so the, the, the PVC extrusions that we use here to make windows
Speaker:from Alloplast, from Alloplast.
Speaker:They already have recycled contract,
Speaker:which, which, uh, at your stores I've seen it shows like you can
Speaker:play with the little balls like the, you've got the little Yeah.
Speaker:Box that has the recycle component, correct.
Speaker:That goes into it.
Speaker:And, and allali Plus actually, and again, this is a shout out to Alloplast, and
Speaker:this is, you know, there was a couple of reasons why we paired up with Alloplast.
Speaker:Um, one of the reasons is they, they, they recognize our values.
Speaker:They, they, they know what we're about.
Speaker:They know what's important.
Speaker:They've already got a recycling, um, program.
Speaker:Course European will take,
Speaker:they, they will take all of our off cuts so all of our off
Speaker:cuts don't go into the bin.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They go into an L plus bin, goes in the L plus truck on the return
Speaker:trip from delivering goods to us.
Speaker:So they're not using carbon to, to bring it back to, to their factory either.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And then they're recycled there and then it goes across Well they, or
Speaker:they're, they're spreading the carbon.
Speaker:They're spreading the carbon.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:And, and, um, it then goes across the bay and there's a company that, that
Speaker:then repurposes it, and I believe they make furniture out of it.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:that's cool.
Speaker:So that, that program is already happening.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And, and, and that's just in Australia, but as said in Europe,
Speaker:you know, they've, they've, they've, they've got much higher mandates.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So, you know, again, like the, the stuff we're using has already got recycled
Speaker:content and it can get recycled again.
Speaker:We just gotta wait 20 ideas before the windows are done.
Speaker:I
Speaker:think the issue with plastic, yeah.
Speaker:Huge issue microplastics in society.
Speaker:Totally agree.
Speaker:But it's also so useful.
Speaker:We're not gonna go to, like if you're in surgery, hell, how many tools in
Speaker:a surgery unit would use plastic?
Speaker:Are they gonna say or you can't use them?
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:I mean we're certainly not, I know, but like the thing
Speaker:is, plastic's such an easy thing to jump on and it's like we spoke about
Speaker:at the start, um, about the, the whole emission thing and the amount,
Speaker:the energy, the coal, and people jump on the plastic straws and for a good
Speaker:reason, but there's bigger fish to fry.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So just, uh, to probably just to indicate how good a conductor aluminum is.
Speaker:And I'm, I'm only, and I'm hoping I'll get this right Cameron, 'cause
Speaker:I was reading over a presentation Cameron's doing tomorrow Yep.
Speaker:To get the equivalent of R two insulation.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:With aluminum, I think it's over 400 meters.
Speaker:Uh, I've, I've heard, I've heard the, some of the numbers as well.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Over 400 meters.
Speaker:So that, that's a, to get an R two value in, that's the whole
Speaker:athletic track.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Around.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All the way around to, to, it's gonna be that deep to,
Speaker:to meet equivalent of artery.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So that's how good of a thermal conductor.
Speaker:It's,
Speaker:if you imagine it's only what?
Speaker:Well, there's a reason we use metal in our pan.
Speaker:Yeah, like that.
Speaker:Like, isn't that the whole reason?
Speaker:Like we have metal pots, we don't use plastic pots because they
Speaker:don't, you know, I guess the
Speaker:reason I'm bringing that up is that, like, that, that's just to try and
Speaker:really sort of get in people's minds how good a, like what's actually
Speaker:happening if that's not thermally broken.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But you'll touch it in summer or it'll be hot in winter, it'll be cold.
Speaker:And people wonder why shit can, is still framing industry.
Speaker:I don't, certainly don't wonder.
Speaker:But
Speaker:look, the, the other thing, um, that, that hasn't really hit, hit our
Speaker:shores just yet, but it's on its way.
Speaker:When, when we, when, when the mandates come in and they start forcing the average
Speaker:build to get sealed up just a little bit better, you're gonna have con quite
Speaker:potentially condensation issues too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And again, it's, it already be happening.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, so, so this and, and these, these are all things
Speaker:that happen in Europe as well.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So, you know, they've, they've, they've, they learned that they worked it out.
Speaker:That's why they've got HRVs and all the rest of it.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:It's so frustrating that you have.
Speaker:Europe who worked it out.
Speaker:And then you have America who have gone, Hey, we'll copy it.
Speaker:Who Then Canada copied it and then New Zealand copied it, and then
Speaker:we're gonna copy it in Australia.
Speaker:And we're the dumbest of all, we've already seen the six examples of it not
Speaker:working, but we go, let's, let's maybe be the seventh that it might work here.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There, there, there really, there really is.
Speaker:Uh, there's, there's just such a. Resistance.
Speaker:Yeah, that's the perfect word to, to change, right?
Speaker:Some, some of these fundamental things.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:Look, I, I dunno, I, I guess maybe the policy makers don't wanna make too
Speaker:drastic a policy change too quickly.
Speaker:And, and I, and I get that, but there's gotta be a roadmap, right?
Speaker:I mean, there's, there's gotta be.
Speaker:You know, I think that that's my,
Speaker:that's my
Speaker:biggest
Speaker:problem.
Speaker:That's my biggest issue at the moment.
Speaker:There's no, there's like, oh no, it's too expensive.
Speaker:Let's freeze the code.
Speaker:But, okay, well, show me how we're getting there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that's not happening at the moment.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I wanna circle back to the windows.
Speaker:So, how are your windows solving this condensation problem, this
Speaker:comfort problem, this health problem?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So again, full disclosure, we, we actually for a little while.
Speaker:We tinkered with aluminum window, like as an importer product.
Speaker:We thought, okay, and the reason we did, it's because we were only
Speaker:manufacturing timber and we felt like we were alienating some of our,
Speaker:particularly our builder clients, because builders were often using aluminum.
Speaker:They'd only come to us maybe once a year, once every 18
Speaker:months for that timber project.
Speaker:We thought, okay, well this might be a way for us to, you know, to strengthen
Speaker:that, that, uh, that relationship.
Speaker:And we tried it.
Speaker:We, we, we build on it pretty quickly.
Speaker:Um, for lots of reasons.
Speaker:The import thing just didn't, didn't work for us.
Speaker:We're a manufacturing business.
Speaker:Um, but the second thing is it's just, it's not what we're about.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:you, you, you knowing what we know, like we, we can't, you can't unlearn it.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:I, I know how badly this aluminum windows are gonna perform.
Speaker:Um, and I just, I can't bring myself to convince a client to buy them.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Even though it's an easier sell because it's a, it's a cheaper product.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I, I just, I just couldn't do it.
Speaker:When is cheaper?
Speaker:Ever better?
Speaker:Uh, look up.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I'm sure if I thought long and hard enough.
Speaker:There, there, there is an example, but, but often it's not, you know, I mean,
Speaker:often market forces prevail, right?
Speaker:You know, you, you, you, I think that's the un that's the underlying, um,
Speaker:uh, concept behind everything, right?
Speaker:I mean, I mean, if, if it's, if it's really, really cheap, you gotta
Speaker:think, well, how is it that cheap?
Speaker:There's, there's gotta be a reason.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Um, so yeah, but I mean, there, there are, there are some outliers, some
Speaker:exceptions, but yeah, generally speaking, I, I think, I think you're right.
Speaker:You know, you've, you, you just need to be, I think, open-minded about it
Speaker:and, and make an informed decision.
Speaker:And in fact, that is one of the things that I really promote with my clients.
Speaker:I'll always, to my clients, I said, I'm not here to sell you anything, right?
Speaker:It's in my interest that you buy from me, but I'm not here to sell you something.
Speaker:What I'm here to do is I'm here to give you information.
Speaker:You make an informed decision because you are spending a fair chunk of your money
Speaker:on doors and windows, and I want you to be comfortable and confident that the
Speaker:decision you made is the right decision with everything in front of you, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that I, I think that doesn't happen often.
Speaker:So I wanna go back to something I was asking about before, like,
Speaker:I guess what separates a good window versus a bad window?
Speaker:So what are some of the things that, um.
Speaker:People should be looking for when, when they're comparing windows, because we
Speaker:shouldn't just be looking at price.
Speaker:We should be looking at, okay, what are, what are some of the, the, some
Speaker:of the, the three or four things that people need to be looking at?
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:When they're trying to make a selection about Windows.
Speaker:Three key, three key things to start, start you off with.
Speaker:The first is, uh, U value.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:The second is your SHGC, and the third is air infiltration.
Speaker:Can you add a third water ingress?
Speaker:Fourth.
Speaker:A fourth?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I can't count.
Speaker:Well, I'm sure there's a pressure of like water ingress.
Speaker:The, the
Speaker:rea the reason that I, I, I didn't specifically mention that, is because
Speaker:that, that's, that, that's, yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:You get water base level requirement.
Speaker:I mean, you can't have a window that that leaks water.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I don't, quote me, I'm pretty sure the n CCC says a window has
Speaker:to have the ability to be sealed,
Speaker:the ability.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There, there, there are, there are lots of those types of statements.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, in, in the code.
Speaker:And what kind of u values are we looking?
Speaker:Are we, we wanna be looking at
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:You, you really want a u value that's, that's, that's around the 1.5 or lower.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So at 1.5 or lower, you are getting a window that is inching very well.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Um, the SH GC is a little bit trickier because in the colder
Speaker:climates you wanna hire SHGC 'cause you want that, that winter warmth to
Speaker:reduce your, uh, your heating load.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But as you get further north, and when we do projects in Sydney,
Speaker:north of Sydney, Queensland, it's very much about the cooling load.
Speaker:And so we have to use different, different glass to keep the insular value low.
Speaker:Uh, but also keep the solar heat gain low as well.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So SHGC is solar heat gang coefficient for those playing along at home.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And, and then all of that I think is all but useless if the window leaks air, like,
Speaker:yep.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:It doesn't matter how, it's like having, having a wall with the
Speaker:highest installation you can get in the wall, but having a great big hole
Speaker:in the middle of it, you're gonna be
Speaker:cold.
Speaker:And, and just further to that, you can have the best window in the world.
Speaker:And if it's not properly installed.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:Then you may as well just go and buy an aluminum window from down the road.
Speaker:Correct?
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:So, you know, for the longest time, you know, we, we were, we really were
Speaker:very, very focused on the manufacturing and the delivery of a product.
Speaker:But over the, over the last two or three years, um, we've, we've shifted
Speaker:focus a little bit, um, only because we are confident and comfortable that
Speaker:the product we're manufacturing now we've got, we've got that worked out.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There's not a lot of effort that we need to put into that.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:What we do need to do is we need to think about the, the full, uh, the full picture.
Speaker:It's not just, uh, specing up a window properly and making it, delivering
Speaker:it, but what happens after that?
Speaker:It's that total ownership to the client is, is what we, and, and, and
Speaker:as part of that we do, we, we run these workshops, online workshops
Speaker:as part of the confirmation process.
Speaker:We, we get the wall type drawings.
Speaker:Uh, we'll put our windows into the wall drawings, and then we start to
Speaker:talk to guys like yourselves about, Hey, where do you want in the wall?
Speaker:Where do you want this window to sit?
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Um, how are you gonna wrap this up?
Speaker:How are you gonna fix it?
Speaker:How are you gonna get it airtight?
Speaker:All all of those things, all that detail we capture and improve on, and
Speaker:we doing a project, a project basis and
Speaker:improve on it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, uh, opening in a wall is the worst part of any house.
Speaker:Like, we're cutting.
Speaker:Uh, a square in most instances out of our membrane, which means
Speaker:water can get in, but it also means we have a thermal barrier.
Speaker:And that's why we talk about the U value.
Speaker:And what I was just double checking then.
Speaker:So your values are down about, you say U value of two, which is one and a half.
Speaker:One.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So 0.5 and a half.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Which is, which is nearly the equivalent of like, uh, R 0.75 roughly.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So we wouldn't sit there and put 0.75 R insulation in our walls.
Speaker:If that makes sense.
Speaker:We, we we're putting R four at minimum.
Speaker:At minimum.
Speaker:You think most people putting an R two, 2.5, that's a one of the
Speaker:highest performing windows in the Australian market is sitting at 0.75.
Speaker:You are, you are down the point ones.
Speaker:If you're looking at something crap, like substantially worse, and I don't
Speaker:think we, people understand how.
Speaker:Quickly that value can really drop.
Speaker:And how that increase in the window performance can
Speaker:actually have huge effects.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, and
Speaker:the reality is that the, on the performance, the, the easiest
Speaker:way to combat that is not to put, is to live in a dark box.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But we're not gonna live in a dark box.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker:'cause the views over there and we wanna see that and we want.
Speaker:We wanna live.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We wanna have connection with, we wanna get as
Speaker:insulated as possible too, in that
Speaker:glazing
Speaker:value.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But, but people, you do need to understand the impact that a really
Speaker:poorly performing windows is gonna have on your thermal comfort.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And look, the other thing too that I think is really worth noting right,
Speaker:is that this isn't my opinion.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:If you, if you, without too much effort, you can find, um, you
Speaker:can find information that, that.
Speaker:That supports what I'm seeing at energy, uh, dot gov. Sustainability of Victoria.
Speaker:There's, there's like a whole bunch of these places that
Speaker:actually will tell you outright.
Speaker:Yeah, you probably don't, don't wanna use an aluminum window.
Speaker:You want to use double glaz, you wanna use better performing glass, you want
Speaker:to use, uh, low conducting materials.
Speaker:And they, and they're too, all this stuff, right?
Speaker:All this thing, new thing called cha ETP, you could type it in and it'll give you
Speaker:a pretty clear answer across the world.
Speaker:Uh, yeah.
Speaker:Look, and, and it, and, and again, like, you know, you can, you can,
Speaker:you can validate that stuff, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it's not, and again, it's not just chat GPT coming up with.
Speaker:Someone that's written up a little blog on their own.
Speaker:It's, it's not, it's not b written, it's credible.
Speaker:It's credible references.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:It's not
Speaker:bko have flooded the market with false
Speaker:information.
Speaker:Maybe they have, I dunno.
Speaker:Maybe they've got a really good essay.
Speaker:Well, you know, I, I'll walk in the principle that, you know, if
Speaker:you, if you provide, you know, 90% of, uh, of, of, uh, fact.
Speaker:Uh, 10% fluff, uh, probably goes, uh, unnoticed.
Speaker:Oh yeah, that's right.
Speaker:So just for everyone that our battery went dead in the, uh, in the camera
Speaker:before, so we're trying to figure out where the fuck we're up to.
Speaker:So
Speaker:No, no, no.
Speaker:Keep it in.
Speaker:Keep it in.
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:Yeah, keep in.
Speaker:I think we fixed it up.
Speaker:Keep it in.
Speaker:We fixed it up.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, so I think we're talking about, um, we're not living in a big dark box.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And, and it's not just you pushing an agenda around, well you should
Speaker:use my windows 'cause LOU values and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker:Like, we want to have that connection with nature, but we need to understand.
Speaker:Why we don't understand why we need to have good performing windows.
Speaker:And, and you are
Speaker:not making it up?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:This, this is, this is information that's widely available.
Speaker:In fact, we started down this path because we were looking for the information
Speaker:and this is what we came across.
Speaker:And it, it just made sense.
Speaker:You know, we, we, we traveled overseas and did a lot of research and, and
Speaker:then everything just pointing it points all in the same direction.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:You know
Speaker:how long's Bink been in operation for 16 years?
Speaker:16 years.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:I'm curious to understand maybe what the last five years looks like.
Speaker:'cause I reckon up to that point, trying to get across the line, these high
Speaker:performance windows, you know, trying to sell like high performance probably wasn't
Speaker:even something that we'd talked about.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Five or six years ago.
Speaker:Have you seen the market change now and have you seen like that in sales and
Speaker:growth in Bink over the last few years of, of that kind of knowledge growing?
Speaker:Uh, yes.
Speaker:The market has changed significantly.
Speaker:Um, I'm always watching it.
Speaker:Um, are you aware of the diffusion of innovation?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:It's a bell curve.
Speaker:So you know what a bell curve is?
Speaker:Obviously you draw a bell curve and it's, it's separated into segments.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Of the bell curve.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And at the very, very start of, of the left hand side of the bell curve, it's
Speaker:like bleeding edge, like people that are just looking for whatever's brand new.
Speaker:I want it just because it's new Then, then you get like sort of the early
Speaker:adopters, which is like the mean Yeah.
Speaker:That's like the.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Is
Speaker:that like the, is that, is that going back to
Speaker:old?
Speaker:No,
Speaker:he's talking about outliers in on.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:And so, so then, so then next to that is like your early adopters.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So people that are quite progressive and they're, they're watching what's
Speaker:going on and, and they jump onto the, the trends quite, quite early on.
Speaker:Then you've got this next section, right, which, when you get
Speaker:into that, it's called a chasm.
Speaker:When you, when you switch from, uh, switch over from early adopters into
Speaker:this kind of mainstream, once you get that, it has its own momentum.
Speaker:And then the rest of the market just kind of follow suit.
Speaker:And at the very, very end of it, you get the laggards who just
Speaker:go down kicking and screaming.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:But they, but they're like an equally small portion on the
Speaker:other end of the bell curve.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And so what But they're usually the loudest they can be.
Speaker:The loudest, I would say
Speaker:they're both.
Speaker:So what, what, where I reckon we are is we're at the, we're at
Speaker:the tail end of early adopters.
Speaker:And I reckon we're about to get into a really exciting stage where
Speaker:we start to get that, that critical mass that, you know, the, where the
Speaker:majority of people have a tilt and turn window or, or just, just generally
Speaker:a window that actually works well.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:That's such a weird concept that's airtight that, you know, when you
Speaker:close it, the sound really dies down.
Speaker:You know, look, you are in control of the environment, not it's
Speaker:leaking just because it's leaking.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Um, and once that happens.
Speaker:All of a sudden it, it just becomes, that's like, that's the normal.
Speaker:Then all of a sudden you look at this other stuff and you
Speaker:go, oh, is that what I've got?
Speaker:I don't really want that anymore.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Let's, let's ask some questions.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I reckon that's an, it's a really exciting time for us.
Speaker:So what's the next innovation of Windows that you see being the game changer?
Speaker:Uh, I, I think as a, as a broad, as a broad, um, category, I think
Speaker:it's gotta be the composite windows.
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:So Ali clad, so yeah.
Speaker:Uh, timber window with aluminum.
Speaker:So look, it, it's not gonna be for every, everyone and every project, right?
Speaker:Um, but we also recognize that, which is why we've got PVC windows, we've
Speaker:got timber windows, and at some stage we will have Ali clad as well, right?
Speaker:Ideally.
Speaker:The vast majority of clients would have an ACL window because they,
Speaker:it's the warmth and the beauty.
Speaker:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker:On the inside
Speaker:it's, it's usually, it's usually the, uh, the doesn't mean on the,
Speaker:on the
Speaker:want of the Yeah.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:High on the wants list.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Um, so I think that's the, that's the next thing, but watch the space
Speaker:because we've got, as part of that, that release, when we are ready to
Speaker:release, it will be a suite of windows that I think is actually gonna get some
Speaker:really good traction in the market.
Speaker:And I think it might disrupt a few things.
Speaker:Where, where do you go in a very positive way?
Speaker:Where do you
Speaker:go?
Speaker:Do you just go see what's happening in Europe?
Speaker:Is that there?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You probably just go observe.
Speaker:Um, yeah, there's,
Speaker:there's a, so every two years there's a, uh, there's a window exhibition,
Speaker:uh, called Feal in, uh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Nuremberg in, in Germany.
Speaker:Uh, Joel and I first went to that.
Speaker:That's, that's the biggest building conference in the world, isn't it?
Speaker:Or no,
Speaker:you, I'm thinking Bau.
Speaker:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:That's bow.
Speaker:So different.
Speaker:Okay, different.
Speaker:This, this is specifically for doors and windows.
Speaker:So
Speaker:fence, fence.
Speaker:There is
Speaker:windows, isn't it?
Speaker:Fence door is windows.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Fencer windows.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And BAU is construction, so that's
Speaker:like crazy when you'd go to like a full window was seminar, whatever conference.
Speaker:And everyone's trying to showcase their little bit of technology.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:I like, and, but they're all competing, but they're all like
Speaker:probably spying on each other too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Look.
Speaker:A hundred percent.
Speaker:Look, it's a, it's, it's, it's, it's a, it's a way of.
Speaker:Rapidly expediting your knowledge of what the industry's doing.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:You go there once every two easy and go, yep, that's new.
Speaker:Seen that before.
Speaker:Okay, that's getting traction.
Speaker:That's not, I saw this last time, but don't see it here anymore.
Speaker:So one of the things that's happening is the Europeans are getting
Speaker:really big about, uh, fly screens.
Speaker:They never used to be.
Speaker:Yeah, I saw way more fly screen manufacturers and supplies than I've
Speaker:ever done at that, at that show.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:And it's climate change.
Speaker:Ah, lots more mosquitoes.
Speaker:And I was just about to say,
Speaker:is so climate just because there's more?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And so Italy has a massive problem because of all the imports from China.
Speaker:And this is not a slur on China in any way, shape or form.
Speaker:It's just factors what happened.
Speaker:There's a particular type of a, of an insect and they call it a stinkbug, right?
Speaker:We have stinkbug alerts here in Australia.
Speaker:Every now and then we get the alerts from, from, from port.
Speaker:Um, and, and the stuff gets quarantined, right?
Speaker:But they don't have the same level of controls there.
Speaker:They've got an infestation of stink bug.
Speaker:Apparently these things, they, they smell like sewer.
Speaker:So the Italians are going ballistic, putting screens on, on all their windows
Speaker:to try and keep these things out, right?
Speaker:So there, there's all of these sorts of things that are happening, right?
Speaker:So, but, you know, you find these things out when you go to these, these places.
Speaker:But you have to do the work.
Speaker:You've gotta, you've gotta get outta your comfort zone.
Speaker:You've gotta get in the plane, you've gotta go over there, you know, the
Speaker:cop, the 24 hour flight there and, and all the rest of it that comes with it.
Speaker:So all I'm hearing is that you are saying that Australia was ahead of the curve
Speaker:with us having fly screens on our windows.
Speaker:That's probably given us a little bit more credit than you.
Speaker:We, we didn't have a choice.
Speaker:We just had, we've just got shit loads of fly screen flies around.
Speaker:Alright, we're gonna wrap this up and jump into our mindful moments.
Speaker:Sponsored by MEGT, Australia's leading apprenticeship experts.
Speaker:You've just brought up a word, uh, comfort zone.
Speaker:Um, and it kind of treated a really good idea in my brain,
Speaker:is doing an apprenticeship is getting out of your comfort zone.
Speaker:Um, I had a bit of beef in my own head recently around the whole, uh, I see
Speaker:a lot of social media stuff trying to build up the whole university thing and
Speaker:try build up, Hey, go to uni, do this.
Speaker:But we don't see enough on trades and I feel there's still the stigma
Speaker:attached with trades and, um.
Speaker:The, it's not seen as cool, and we have a huge shortage of trades
Speaker:at the moment in Australia.
Speaker:Um, and the reason I say comfort zone is I feel there's still this,
Speaker:um, stigma that it's a dirty work.
Speaker:It's not fun.
Speaker:Um, I, I know you loved your apprenticeship ham, but at the
Speaker:moment, just for clarity, I
Speaker:never did my apprenticeship, but I, but, but, but I definitely did my time.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So doing apprenticeship is getting out of your comfort zone.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Majorly like you are in the trenches sometimes it sucks.
Speaker:You're working out in the rain, you're working out in the heat.
Speaker:But, um, I think, and I'll ask both of you, I don't think there's ever been a ti
Speaker:better time to get into an apprenticeship with the huge shortage we have.
Speaker:If someone, if you care in this industry, you will go far
Speaker:just from the fact of caring.
Speaker:I think.
Speaker:Well, I, I
Speaker:think, I think the jobs are safe as well.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So God, from a, from a, from a technology and AI point of view,
Speaker:like I feel like hands-on practical.
Speaker:Um, trades or, or jobs are probably one of the safest around.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I know the government at the moment, the Australian government have
Speaker:given is I think $10,000 to anyone looking to get into a residential
Speaker:trade as a bonus over three years.
Speaker:So there's a government Australian subsidy that if you've signed up from
Speaker:the 1st of July, 2025, there's Yeah.
Speaker:There's a, there's a turn ground bonus that you will get across the
Speaker:years to, to jump into the residential side, not the commercial side.
Speaker:And that's things like carpenters, brick layers, uh, plasterers, glas,
Speaker:like it's the, the trades that we need way, way more of tilers.
Speaker:It's not your electrical on a data center.
Speaker:It's not your plumbing in a commercial sector or a carpenter
Speaker:in a commercial sector.
Speaker:It's hitting the residential market, which is where we need to Yep.
Speaker:Get more people in.
Speaker:So that's my mindful moment of this week.
Speaker:But anyway, um,
Speaker:can I just add something there very quickly?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I've just got a little story if that's okay.
Speaker:You, you mentioned before, you know, that the, the, the stigma attached to, you
Speaker:know, being a taken on a trade vocation.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Make reference back to the flog.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, when he finished school, went to uni.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And he just really wasn't enjoying it.
Speaker:And he, and he's told you a story and I know that I've heard the
Speaker:heard, heard the, uh, the podcast.
Speaker:Um, he, he had the conversation with me about, he said, look,
Speaker:I don't really wanna do this.
Speaker:I actually think I wanna be a carpenter.
Speaker:And my immediate reaction was, Hmm.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I, I always thought you had to go to university.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:That's, that's the way to do it.
Speaker:And I had a chat with a few, uh, a couple of people in my family and some other
Speaker:friends as well, and gotta put a, put a bit of perspective on it and, you know,
Speaker:then I came back to him and, and I gave him my counsel and I said, you know what?
Speaker:If that's what you wanna do, do it.
Speaker:You know, I, I think, I think it's a, it's a really good path.
Speaker:I, I think, um, if you love it, you'll do well at it.
Speaker:Um, and in any case, you're a smart guy.
Speaker:I think you'll do well.
Speaker:Well at anything.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And imagine if he didn't overcome, or if the situation didn't overcome the
Speaker:stigma or attachment being a trade.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And if he didn't become a, a, a carpenter and then didn't become a builder.
Speaker:We, we wouldn't have another quality.
Speaker:You wouldn't have bink Well, we, we, well, we wouldn't have bink,
Speaker:we wouldn't have another quality person in the, in the industry.
Speaker:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker:Doing all this sort of stuff.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And so a hundred percent, you know, they, that, that, that stigma that
Speaker:that's gotta go a hundred percent.
Speaker:I totally, it's, it's, it's gotta, it's gotta go.
Speaker:We, we need more people going into trades and, and doing, doing all this stuff.
Speaker:It's, and, and there there's, there's, there's plenty of money to be made in it.
Speaker:Yeah, totally agree.
Speaker:If anyone wants to get their windows.
Speaker:Now, are you Australia wide?
Speaker:Uh, we are Eastern Seaboard.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Um, Adelaide and WA gets a little bit, logistically a little bit complicated.
Speaker:Makes sense.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Um, but if anyone wants to get onto you, what's the best way how they contact you?
Speaker:Uh, website, Instagram.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Jump onto www.bink.com au And that's probably B-I-N-Q-B-I-N-Q.
Speaker:BINQ.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Um, and that's for brothers Incorporated.
Speaker:Sorry, Jo Joel, stop your thumb.
Speaker:You worry more about that.
Speaker:So he's such a, if want, he's such a flog.
Speaker:You want, he knew what
Speaker:he was doing.
Speaker:He did it deliberately.
Speaker:Miserable prick that he is.
Speaker:We did, we did.
Speaker:We, we probably did bait him a little bit.
Speaker:We probably did set him up on,
Speaker:probably
Speaker:gonna
Speaker:have
Speaker:to
Speaker:take some responsibility for that.
Speaker:Look in, in all fairness, I don't reckon he wouldn't taken a lot of bait.
Speaker:He, he was ready to bite anyway, so.
Speaker:Look, both Hamish and I have worked with your windows multiple times.
Speaker:I've used your timber and your UPVC.
Speaker:We've got your UPVC in multiple certified passive US projects.
Speaker:So they do work from a performance perspective, um, when we
Speaker:get down to the nerdy stuff.
Speaker:But thank you for everything you've done for both of us.
Speaker:We're super excited to what you guys have in the future.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:and also thank you for your support for SBA as well.
Speaker:We really appreciate that.
Speaker:Pleasure, mate.
Speaker:Any, anything that we can do to keep promoting, give us more money.
Speaker:Yeah, that's what you just, that's what you can do anything you want.
Speaker:Alright, thanks.
Speaker:Thank you.