Joe Bohm and George Fritz have been in the custom building business together for more than 25 years. But don’t take that at face value, Bohm advises. “You can have one year of experience 25 times over.” True enough,and that skepticism helps Bohm (bottom photo) and Fritz(top photo) squeeze a truly prodigious amount of experience-and practical knowledge-out of every year.Their relentlessness in seeking new products, verifying manufacturers’ claims, and analyzing and improving building systems has made them a unique resource for their clients, the architects they work with, and the manufacturers whose products they use.
“The construction community is extremely conservativ ewhen it comes to new products and materials,” Bohm says. “People say ‘My Granddaddy did it this way.'”He and Fritz take the opposite approach. “We want to challenge stuff.” An architect’s specification of a product type is often only the beginning of an in-depth process. “What’s the best one?” Fritz asks. “What should they accept, and what shouldn’t they accept? If we don’t have the information, we’re going to go out and get it.” Bohm and Fritz maintain relationships with building science experts, whom they have hired to conduct seminars for their employees. But they are also comfortable wading through ASTM standardson their own, as well as scrutinizing the manufacturers themselves. “Are they here today, gone tomorrow?” Fritz asks, “or do they have a research department with a lot of Ph.D.s?” In the absence of independent product performance data, “We have commissioned certain tests to be done,” says Fritz, who also conducts his own product trials in the company’s garage/testing facility.
“It’s not about getting out of the year or two warranty,” Fritz says.”It’s about getting a callback 15 or 20 years later.” Each custom home is a unique and complexproduct. “We really spend a lot of time understanding it before we put our name on it.”Horizon Builders Crofton, Md.; Type of business: custom builder; Years in business: 26; Employees: 99; 2007 volume: $35 million; 2007 starts: 7
