The Fine Homebuilding Podcast

I’ve been renovating a 1908 house in the SF Bay Area for the last several months while learning to apply the latest best practices in building science to make the house healthier, more efficient, and more resilient. I wish I’d found this pod earlier, in part because it led me to get a subscription to Fine Homebuilding, which unlocks decades of excellent online how-to (and why-to) articles with detailed diagrams of building assemblies— many of these I’ve used, and shared with contractors I’ve hired. Having this resource takes the (at times agonizing) guesswork of what to do, how to do it, and wondering if the contractors you hire will do it “right.” The pod itself is a great blend of valuable information, fun conversations and good humor, the hosts and most guests are extremely knowledgeable yet humble, always ready to learn something new, passionate about their fields. I frequently find myself laughing out loud along with them, what a treat! PS, I do miss the members-only aftershow, hope you guys bring it back.

I’ve picked up so many great pieces of information over the years of listening. Fine homebuilding is an absolute invaluable resource in the homebuilding and renovating industry.

This podcast has been one of the foundational places of learning for me on my commute and during projects. It’s a diverse group of people with diverse backgrounds, sharing a high level of expertise with the world. They are quite responsive to reader questions and her provided help for thousands of people over the years. I cannot recommend it enough!

I binged the episodes about two years ago and it completely changed my construction career. It helped me realize how technical and diverse this industry is and how there is no ceiling to personal growth if you choose to seek knowledge. Justin and the guys were a hoot and fun to listen to when the show started, and Patrick has done a tremendous job morphing the podcast into a loosely, but well-structured format that does an excellent job of including the listeners questions and stories. The podcast takes criticism well when they dabble into areas that they are less knowledgeable about, but are unafraid to explain a wide variety of construction topics. I miss the Pro-Talk podcast, and hope they might bring it back, even just once a month because I do like the business talk, the honest struggles and technical knowledge shared by guests. I also miss Jeff, and hope he is doing well wherever he has gone since the acquisition. I like Andres’ input too though, and sounds like he’s doing an excellent job. The FHB podcast is a very useful source of information for me, and a powerful pairing with the print and digital content from FHB. This podcast often reminds me to go seek out info from a recent issue, or from the website. I mention this to make sure that the podcast stays funded so that it remains a resource to the industry. I have two critiques. One, it would be great to have a podcast link for this show and the after show for members (like radiolab does) so that when they tease the after show in the regular show, it flows right into the after show discussion (for the paid members). Two, it would be awesome to have a tagged and searchable catalogue like the “This American Life” app has where you can sort episodes by content, date, listened/not listened. Sorta like how they organized the project guides on the website, but for the podcast. I know these are heavy lifts and probably more involved than I realize, but it would be very helpful when looking for older shows with great content. Best, Joe