Ben Ludman sees a glaring problem with the home renovation TV shows that many people love: They make the whole renovation process look way too easy.
Renovations aren’t picture-perfect 30-minute or one-hour episodes where everything goes as planned and finishes on time. They are “messy adventures,” as Ludman, the VP of engineering at Block Renovation, explained, filled with complexities, delays, uncertainties and plenty of room for error.
“Many homeowners see easy renovations on TV and assume that is the experience they will get regardless of who they work with,” Ludman said. “And most contractors don't know that there are tools and platforms out there to help them streamline their business so they can spend their time and effort on the things they are most skilled at.”
That’s where Block Renovation comes in. The Brooklyn company provides a renovation platform that allows contractors to automate the more “mundane” tasks of the renovation process, combining design, construction and materials into a streamlined experience. It also provides homeowners certainty on outcomes, quality, price and time.
The product is a different medium for the $450-billion renovation industry that’s historically been analog. That’s why Built In NYC caught up with Ludman to learn more about what Block does, and how it’s looking to transform the industry.
Describe your role and responsibilities at Block Renovation?
My main goals are making sure that we have the right team to solve the problems of our clients and contractor partners, and that the team has what they need to do that well. Though I don’t have the bandwidth to be hands-on in the code these days, I try to stay “heads-on” and at a minimum, have a high-level understanding of the systems we’re building and contribute to architectural and design discussions when I can. As a growing company, I also spend a lot of time talking to people who could be a good fit for our expanding team.
Distributed Workforce
How is Block Renovation trying to transform the renovation industry?
Right now, the renovation industry is full of people doing too many things and taking on work that isn’t their core competency. The typical home renovation experience in New York City has both the homeowner and the contractor taking on dozens of tasks resulting in no one using their time wisely. Homeowners are often stuck with navigating the approval process with their co-op or condo board, figuring out how to file permits with the department of buildings or figuring out from which vendors they can source materials. Contractors often spend tens of hours a month traveling to potential job sites to meet homeowners and discuss potential projects so they can put together an estimate only to lose the job at the bidding phase.
The typical home renovation experience in New York City has both the homeowner and the contractor taking on dozens of tasks resulting in no one using their time wisely.’’
Block is building a platform that helps everyone involved in a renovation spend their time on the fun and interesting parts of the project by simplifying and automating the mundane tasks. Block internalizes the complexity of a renovation and builds tools and automated systems to give homeowners clarity on decisions and progress, give designers material combinations and the digital equivalent of a team of assistants, and provides contractors with access to logistics, financial services and construction expertise that rival the major firms.
What are the advantages of innovating in an industry that is traditionally analog?
Renovations are full of complexity and unexpected challenges, so there needs to be an attention to detail and clear communication among multiple parties. Together, these challenges create an environment where technology can really shine. When a measurement of five inches gets copied as six inches between drawings, that can mean the difference between a bathtub fitting or not. We can avoid human error and detect suspicious data by focusing on a single digital source of information. We can avoid games of broken telephone and deliver contextual information to everyone involved in the renovation exactly when they need it.
We’ve spent thousands of hours researching and creating our design system. Designers on our platform leverage that directly within our technology to explore and generate designs and layouts at a scale that they wouldn’t be able to do manually, so they can spend more time focusing on unique client needs. And we can encode decades of construction knowledge into an app that helps contractors troubleshoot whatever surprises await them behind the wall of their jobsite and deliver money directly to their bank accounts so they never have to shuttle checks from homeowners to the bank again.
The thousands of data points generated during a Block project allow us to constantly refine our pricing algorithm, improve the accuracy of our timeline estimates and generally serve both our clients and contractors better.
What’s a project you’re working on or overseeing right now?
The team is currently working on a new version of our client dashboard. It’s the main hub that our clients interact with while planning their renovation and during construction. From there they can explore designs, make decisions, take action to push their project forward and see their new space unfold as construction happens.
We focus on making the planning process fun and exciting for the homeowner and use our technology to simplify things behind the scenes.’’
Our new dashboard experience makes it clear to clients what tasks and decisions remain for them in order to keep their project on track. It shines a light on the work that Block handles for them behind the scenes in just enough detail so that clients can sleep soundly at night knowing that all details are covered, but without overwhelming them with minutiae. We focus on making the planning process fun and exciting for the homeowner and use our technology to simplify things behind the scenes.
