EP296 From Competitors to Colleagues: Growing Building Science Locally with Travis Brungardt (September 2026)

Help Bill support the next generation of skilled trades professionals! – SEE BELOW

Quotes from the episode:

"It's no longer a sales mission. It's an educational mission."

"There's so much existing housing stock. We'll never be able to fix it all. So on the renovation side, there's no reason to feel at all competitive."

"There's so many wonderful, joyful things about fixing things and making them better or building new, that when you share that, it's a real gift."

What happens when building-science-minded contractors stop treating one another as competitors and start learning together?

In this episode, Bill talks with builder and educator Travis Brungardt about the grassroots growth of BS + Beer, the Building Science Symposium, and the value of creating local communities where people can openly share what works, what fails, and what they are still trying to figure out.

Travis traces BS + Beer back to informal gatherings started in Maine by Michael Maines, Dan Kolbert, and Steve Konstantinou. Inspired by that model, Travis and business partner Joe Cook launched a Kansas City group, creating a recurring space where builders, tradespeople, designers, suppliers, and other curious professionals could learn enough about a topic to join the conversation. The goal was never to create a tightly controlled chapter organization. It was to make building science accessible, social, and local.

That community-building philosophy carries into Travis's work with the Building Science Symposium. What began as a Kansas City event grew into a multi-city series combining technical education with fundraising for skilled-trades education. Travis says the events have generated more than $200,000 for programs supporting the next generation of tradespeople.

Bill and Travis also explore an important business lesson: educating your market, and even your competitors, can help make better practices feel normal. When more contractors understand air sealing, moisture control, HVAC sizing, and enclosure performance, customers hear consistent messages instead of viewing high-performance construction as one contractor's sales pitch.

The conversation closes with practical advice for anyone considering a local group, including using existing industry networks, involving suppliers, and keeping meetings on a predictable schedule. Bill also shares his interest in helping spark a BS + Beer community in Western Pennsylvania.

Most of all, Travis makes the case that sharing what you know is one of the simplest ways to strengthen the trades.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/travis-brungardt-143a6513/
Website: https://www.thebsandbeershow.com/

This episode was recorded in September 2026.

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