To-The-Trade Episode Summary
Chris Laumer-Giddens joined Laurie Laizure on To-The-Trade to talk about building science, the study of why homes fail and how to build them so they last for generations instead of twenty years.
Chris works alongside his wife, Jody, who has owned LG Squared since 2006. He joined the firm in 2012 after building a specialty in indoor air quality, rot, mold, and thermal failures, and LG Squared now handles architecture, interiors, and full mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and structural design under one roof.
His clearest rule: foam is a four-letter word. LG Squared avoids spray foam and other toxic, plastic-based materials entirely, building instead with natural materials and traditional joinery. Chris has watched a client collapse on a job site from spray foam fumes and has replaced mechanical systems ruined by off-gassing. His real point is not that any one material is automatically bad. Improper installation of anything is what causes most building failures.
Much of the problem, he says, is not malicious. Builders and architects who send Chris their building sections are usually working from misinformation that circulates as accepted wisdom in the trades. They do not know what they do not know. He encourages designers and architects to ask the basic question anyway, the same way licensing exams teach you to find an answer rather than memorize one.
That gap led Chris to get his own GC license. He has since built about half a dozen homes, including a five-million-dollar off-grid homestead, and now often works as an owner’s agent, helping clients vet builders and catch costly mistakes before they buy or build. The role has settled somewhere between architect of record and de facto foreman, billed accordingly.
Pricing gets concrete. LG Squared’s billable rate runs $350 to $500 an hour across architecture, interiors, and HVAC design, padded roughly 30 percent for the lead-up and follow-up time clients rarely see. Wealthier clients tend to prefer a fixed lump sum over hourly billing, even at a higher number. The firm has also stopped offering free initial site visits. A two-hour visit from two architects now costs $2,500 because, Chris argues, the ideas given away in that first conversation are the most valuable thing the firm offers.
Chris also shares a sobering legal story. A contract once capped LG Squared’s liability at $7,000 on an HVAC design job. When the project ended in a lawsuit naming everyone involved, the builder did not defend the firm as promised, and LG Squared ended up roughly $200,000 out of pocket despite having done nothing wrong. He and Jody have weathered two lawsuits, and both came away with real, lasting effects from the experience.
Running a firm with a spouse is its own thread in the episode. Jody owns the business, and Chris joined her existing practice in 2012, working through early friction over control before settling into a partnership built on trust. He now handles LG Squared’s content, including YouTube, which has become the firm’s biggest source of new design-build clients, people who hire the firm for both design and construction without ever interviewing another builder.
Find LG Squared at lgsquaredinc.com, and follow Chris on Instagram at @claumergiddens for building science breakdowns and behind-the-scenes looks at current projects.
Timestamp Guide
00:38 – Welcome, and how Chris and Laurie connected through IDC
02:07 – What building science means and why homes fail
06:52 – “Foam is a four-letter word”: going toxin-free with natural materials
08:17 – A client collapsed on-site, and the dangers of bad installation
14:53 – Becoming a licensed GC and building a five million dollar off-grid homestead
21:43 – Consulting rates: $350 to $500 an hour, and why estimates get padded 30 percent
28:14 – When a $7,000 contract cap turned into a $200,000 legal bill
38:39 – Charging $2,500 for what used to be a free first site visit
43:08 – How Chris’s YouTube channel became LG Squared’s biggest client source
58:17 – A video tour of Chris and Jody’s new apartment in a French chateau