Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Russ Weich. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Russ, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, let’s start with trends – what are some of the largest or more impactful trends you are seeing in the industry?

Being a General Contractor, we rely heavily on our Trade Partners (aka subcontractors). I call them Trade Partners because they are my partners, not just a subcontracted company. I have taken pride in building relationships with Tampa-based, family owned & operated companies because I believe in building up the community.

With that being said, it is very hard to some companies because although the owner or boss of that company knows what they’re doing/how to get the job done properly, they send out someone who hasn’t been to the job & maybe isn’t as confident as the initial team member who you sold the job to. What that creates is a much more difficult environment, for the GC as well as the employee(s) of the Trade Partner expected to do good work.

Long story short: it is very difficult to find good, experienced labor to help with top quality work for clients who expect top notch craftsmanship, in every aspect of their project.

The next biggest trend, which is directly related to my first point, is there isn’t enough time or experienced tradesmen/women that can help teach the next generation of blue collar workers. I love what I do & part of the reason why I got my GC licensee & started my own company was to help with that leadership & growing the next generation. I just hired my first employee, Anthony, who is a recent graduate from a local trade school, Erwin Technical College, here in Tampa. I am honored to be able to share my knowledge with him and help grow my company as well!

The last trend I am noticing is more people are renovating or adding “livable space” to their existing homes. In the past year I have had three conversions for new interior living space in the Tampa area & I am assuming there will be much more to come as home owners are not selling or looking to buy in Tampa, due to the high real estate prices currently in our market.

All we can do, as Honest Hammer, is to continue to evolve & grow our company to adapt with the changes happening daily in our industry!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Russ Weich & I am a Tampa native, born & raised. I am a proud USF Alumni, with a Civil & Environmental Engineering degree. After graduating from USF I wanted to pursue my initial dream of being a professional umpire, because I umpired a lot of competitive travel high school baseball to help pay my way through college. I made it to the Minor Leagues as 1/220 umpires in the game & spent five seasons living my dream. But it didn’t pay the bills & I had a loving girlfriend (wife now) & family in Tampa I wanted to spend more time with so I decided to use my Engineering degree to pursue construction.

My first project was the Surya Kiran Patel Estates, one of the largest houses in the country for Dr. Kiran Patel & his family here in Tampa. I was the Project Manager/Superintendent for the structural portion of the two daughters houses (both 30,000 sq.ft. each).

After the Patel estates I was hired as an assistant PM to help coordinate the Tampa Hard Rock hotel construction for Suffolk construction. I helped build that hotel & casino expansion from the ground to the VIP suites & gaming lounge on the 17th floor of the new hotel tower. This is also where I received the nickname “Hammer”. I went on to build some apartments at The Boulevard at West River, in the beginning phases of the West Tampa rejuvenation project, with Suffolk as well.

After Suffolk I went to work on some cool projects at USF, UT & Busch Gardens for a company Friedrich Watkins of Tampa. Great company & people but I wanted more & I wanted to work for myself.

I knew being an honest & hard working guy, that I could build a company from the ground up. The end goal is always to help teach the construction process & standards to the next generation. The biggest thing I took away from my college career to to problem solve. I do that on a daily basis by making smart, educated decisions, by using input from team members or trade partners. The end result will always be good for the client when you prepare for the project ahead of starting.

Honest Hammer was a vision I had for a long time & I am very proud to be able to chose who we work with & for, as well as empowering the company & family-owned companies who are local. Honest Hammer takes pride in helping design & build anything your heart can desire! Having a structural engineering background we love to take a new project from start to finish! We have a team of engineers who help us with permitted drawings & design ideas & we have great trade partners we work with, who care about the client as much as we do!

Honesty is in my blood & honestly I love what I do & I want to share it with the Tampa Bay Area & surrounding communities!

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Our best source of new clients has been strictly word of mouth, referrals, as well as some social media, like Instagram & TikTok.

That’s why great craftsmanship is a must as a General Contractor is because the journey towards the final product is just as important as the finished product. Respect to our clients goes a long way, as well as beautifully done work because that’s what the clients will tell their friends & family. It’s everything!

Especially because I’m not very good with social media! It takes me almost 30-45 minutes to make a post sometimes. Word of mouth is something I hold very close to my heart & I believe is the best way to advertise!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

The most resilience I have had to overcome through Honest Hammer’s journey so far is the city permitting fees, process & inspectors.

Believe me, I understand why the processes are in place & I believe they should help protect the tax payers from unlicensed workers for important projects. However, it seems like every step we take on a project we have to take two steps back. The reviewing process isn’t terrible & Tampa has actually made their systems a bit quicker. But once the project is underway you have no control over the inspection process or inspectors.

These inspectors are scheduled 100 inspections per day & I understand it’s impossible to make every inspection everyday, but you could communicate with the contact on the inspection request. And rarely do we, the GC or Trade Partner, receiver any notice from the inspector on when they plan to arrive, of if they can at all. These errors in inspection processes cause a lot of down time in projects & that ultimately delays the client from moving in or getting a job completed in four months versus the seven months it took due to inspection-caused delays.

With all that said, Honest Hammer is working with every city & county to learn the permitting processes & we have also teamed up with a great permitting & project coordinating third party who will be helping us with these issues to move them along quicker, which will speed up or projects instead of delaying them. Problem solving: it’s what we do!

Contact Info:

• Website: Thehonesthammer.com
• Instagram: @honesthammer813
• Facebook: Honest Hammer Custom Builders
• Tik Tok: @thehonesthammer