On this episode of “Simplifying Life Through Technology,” Mark, Michelle, and Andrew sit down to discuss the Trim Phase of a project at SoundVision.
Learn about the second phase of our projects, the trim, where every detail matters . We discuss what it takes for us to transition seamlessly from pre-wiring to the meticulous trim stage in smart home integration into construction. We promise you'll gain insider knowledge on securing wires, customizing control, and how we adjust to layout changes. Our goal is to make technology installations a natural extension of your home's décor.
Join us as we emphasize the importance of a lead technician and a consistent crew for maintaining project accountability and efficiency, and why it's not just about installing equipment, but creating an experience for homeowners. Matching wall plates with décor isn't just about aesthetics; it's about the homeowner's taste and interaction with their living space. We cover installation practicalities—ensuring internet connectivity with service providers is a critical step to prevent any final phase fumbles.
Plus, we'll sprinkle in some relatable banter on modern dating woes—ever been ghosted?—to keep things lively and entertaining.
On this episode, we discuss:
What is a Trim Phase
What SoundVision technicians do at a Trim
The importance of labeling wires
Team consistency on a project
The importance of documentation
Proper licensing and permits
Low voltage and security wiring
Customer customization
Engage with us using our hashtag #SoundVisionPod and be a part of a community that's passionate about transforming spaces into your dream designs with an automation touch.
This episode will provide you with the knowledge and understanding of the importance of choosing the right integrator. Tune in to discover how SoundVision navigates the trim phase of projects, ensuring an efficient integration.
On this episode of “Simplifying Life Through Technology,” Mark, Michelle, and Andrew sit down to discuss the Trim Phase of a project at SoundVision.
Learn about the second phase of our projects, the trim, where every detail matters . We discuss what it takes for us to transition seamlessly from pre-wiring to the meticulous trim stage in smart home integration into construction. We promise you'll gain insider knowledge on securing wires, customizing control, and how we adjust to layout changes. Our goal is to make technology installations a natural extension of your home's décor.
Join us as we emphasize the importance of a lead technician and a consistent crew for maintaining project accountability and efficiency, and why it's not just about installing equipment, but creating an experience for homeowners. Matching wall plates with décor isn't just about aesthetics; it's about the homeowner's taste and interaction with their living space. We cover installation practicalities—ensuring internet connectivity with service providers is a critical step to prevent any final phase fumbles.
Plus, we'll sprinkle in some relatable banter on modern dating woes—ever been ghosted?—to keep things lively and entertaining.
On this episode, we discuss:
What is a Trim Phase
What SoundVision technicians do at a Trim
The importance of labeling wires
Team consistency on a project
The importance of documentation
Proper licensing and permits
Low voltage and security wiring
Customer customization
Engage with us using our hashtag #SoundVisionPod and be a part of a community that's passionate about transforming spaces into your dream designs with an automation touch.
This episode will provide you with the knowledge and understanding of the importance of choosing the right integrator. Tune in to discover how SoundVision navigates the trim phase of projects, ensuring an efficient integration.
Hey, it's Andrew. Welcome to Simplifying Life Through Technology. Joining me in the podcast room today we have our CEO, Mark hey Andrew, hey Mark. And our COO, Michelle, Hello Andrew.
Speaker 1:
Hello, here with me today to discuss the trim phase of our projects. On a previous episode, we discussed the first stage of our projects, the pre-wire phase. Today, we'll explain the intricacies of the trim phase in technology projects during home construction, to ensure your smart home is running properly. We'll discuss the importance of proper contract licensing for electrical and security work, explain what our technicians are doing during the trim phase and highlight the critical need for permits and proper inspections. Be sure to listen to hear how SoundVision brings precision and care to the trim phase, ensuring every project achieves the perfect balance of for permits and proper inspections. Be sure to listen to hear how SoundVision brings precision and care to the trim phase, ensuring every project achieves the perfect balance of technical excellence and aesthetic appeal. So how are we doing today, guys? Man, I'm hungry. I am so hungry right now I don't know if we should get into that. It's a little bit of a touchy subject.
Speaker 2:
It is a bit of a touchy subject Talk about that off air, but Michelle, how are you doing this morning? How was your weekend?
Speaker 3:
My weekend was great. I'm a little bit nervous about recording with Mark when he has low blood sugar, though we're going to muscle through it. We are going to muscle through it.
Speaker 2:
Right before we started this, we were talking about people and how they eat, whether they are conservative or aggressive eaters. I tend to be on the aggressive side of eating.
Speaker 1:
And how. On dates, sometimes you change your eating habits. Yeah, which was very eye-opening actually Surprise for you. Yes, me and Michelle have a lot of experience with that.
Speaker 2:
And we talked about ghosting whether it was just if someone doesn't call you back at all, or if one person calls back and then the other person doesn't call back after that, whether those were the same thing or not. So if you can chime in and let us know what you think, that would be great.
Speaker 3:
We think they are the same thing. Yes, and either way it hurts.
Speaker 2:
I agree that it hurts. I do not think they're the same thing. I think they should have independent words. But anyways, back to the trim, Andrew.
Speaker 1:
All right. So on a previous podcast we discussed the pre-wire phase of our projects, so we figured we'd get into the next step, which is the trim. So why don't we get into what is a trim phase on our projects?
Speaker 2:
So typically at the trim phase that is the time most commonly like when the electricians come in they'll put in light fixtures, they'll put in receptacles, they'll put in wall switches. If we're not doing a lighting system, the heating and air guys will come in and put in the vents, plumbers will come in and put in faucets and fixtures. That's the trim phase. So in our world what that typically means is we'll come and put in things like access points for networks. We may or may not put in security devices. We will cover our wall plates, if we have any, and that's required to get proper inspection too after the trim. But it's essentially closing up the openings in the wall speakers, in the ceiling, that kind of thing, or in the walls or wherever we're putting them. So it makes it kind of look finished Right.
Speaker 1:
Like a home.
Speaker 2:
Like a home. It's all coming together. So the cabinets are in the trim, literally the baseboards and the crown, mold or the cornice or whatever. That's all in and everything is usually just about painted, if not completely painted, but it's typically before the flooring goes in. You wouldn't necessarily have hardwood floor or carpet or luxury vinyl or whatever you've got in there that comes after, so it'd be prior to that. That's what we call a trim phase.
Speaker 1:
Okay, why don't we get into what our technicians are doing at the trim phase?
Speaker 3:
Sure. So what do our technicians do at the trim phase? So we're closing up open holes. If you have speaker holes or pre-wire holes, we're going to put a speaker in and we're going to put a grill up and put future use on the wires. We are going to install the face plates and the connectors. There will be no hanging wires. They're supposed to be accounted for. Sometimes we do coil them up and write future use on them, specifically if they're outside for cameras, and then we're prepping the space for the final phase, any last minute adjustments. A lot of times during the construction process things will get moved and you may have had an outlet in one place and the TV was supposed to go there, and then over time it is now moved, and so we make any adjustments that we've noticed from the original design during the trim phase.
Speaker 2:
That's a great point. It happens with speakers a lot too, where the lighting in the ceiling. Maybe there's some can lights in the ceiling, and between the time that we wire the house and we're going to cut in the speakers, the lights may have moved. There may have been a design change, and so when we go in we strategically put speaker rings in there that are symmetrical to something, depending on what's in the ceiling, and so if the design has changed, we may have to move that. So this is a good time, before you've actually moved in and you have all your furniture and everything and it gets messy. This is a good time that, if there needs to be some adjustments, we can make some tweaks.
Speaker 3:
The electrician and the painters are still handy to do any repairs when we come in and find that as well, and that's our technicians and our project management team are looking for any changes along the way.
Speaker 2:
By the way, you brought up labeling wires. I know we're going to touch on that a little more here in a sec but especially wires outside. This is really for inspectors. So if there's something that we can't finish which is very common, could be speakers, could be cameras, could be a lot of different things the inspectors have no idea what that wire is. Why is it there? We do go the extra mile in labeling that so that when a proper inspection is done they know oh, you guys are going to put a camera up there later and the soffit's not finished and so you can't do that yet, or it's not painted or whatever. But if you don't, a lot of times you can fail inspections. So that's very important.
Speaker 3:
I would recommend to a homeowner check your contractor's failure rate with the county that you are doing business in. It tells a story. So if your contractor's failure rate is upwards of 80% and better, great. But if your contractor's failure rate is upwards of 80% and better, great. But if your contractor's failure rate is below that, you just might want to ask them questions or look a little bit deeper.
Speaker 2:
That's a really good point. So Michelle's talking about the inspection, the passing of inspection grade and how often that you as a contractor get failed for inspections. Go a little deeper. We have to be licensed. In the state of North Carolina Now it's by county, so it's not every county requires a low voltage electrical license, but in our two major ones, iredell and Mecklenburg, both do so we have to have that.
Speaker 2:
And then the other thing that's really important is if you want security or cameras either one then your contractor not only has to have a low voltage license, they also have to have a security license with the North Carolina alarm board. And if they do not have those, then they by law are not allowed to even pull wire for security or cameras in the state of North Carolina. By the way, just having the license is not enough. Every single person in their company has to be registered underneath that license, so literally everybody. Here is just another thing to check, because you could have a problem with inspections at that point or getting permits signed off and getting a certificate of occupancy if something's run by somebody that is not licensed.
Speaker 1:
So would you say that is one of our complications we run into at this phase is making sure the permits are obtained and that everything passes inspections. We're pros.
Speaker 3:
We have already done our rough. We're just walking through to see if anything's changed. You know, some of the bigger complications would be lost wire in the walls during the drywall process that's pretty typical.
Speaker 2:
Anything that happens or could happen to a wire you know get cut, wasn't run, you know missed a rough walkthrough because we do a post rough walk to make sure all our wires are there and labeled. And a mislabeled wire, a wire that was labeled and painted over. That happens from time to time and so you aren't exactly sure what it is and that's tedious. I mean, it's not the worst thing in the world, but it's tedious, so that's probably the worst thing. As Michelle said, with regards to permits and whatnot, we have a whole process for that. So unless something's really weird or maybe the permit department's backed up, like that happens occasionally.
Speaker 1:
you know that could be a complication, but we've got that kind of ironed out so when you say sometimes we'll go out there and the design change so we have to make adjustments, are we being informed of those changes before we go out there or yeah, no so we walk in blind and kind of re-e where everything is and then we go and double check to make sure we're accounting for what we have in there and then see if we have to make adjustments.
Speaker 3:
Right.
Speaker 1:
Well, yes.
Speaker 2:
However, again, as Michelle said before, we're pros and proactive. So one of the things that we do as a matter of process is, between the time the home is actually roughed and then trimmed, our production team is out there. That depends on the project how big, how long, that kind of thing but at the worst case, every month, if not every couple of weeks, looking to see how far along it is, looking for things like were there changes that no one identified us about? We take pictures. We go over all that stuff internally in meetings so that we minimize that as much as possible. We're pictures. We go over all that stuff internally in meetings so that we minimize that as much as possible. We're proactive.
Speaker 3:
We're proactive we are. That is some of the things that we do from the pre-wire process on to ensure a smooth trim is a lot of documentation. Where there's photos on the regular, we save them. Sometimes we'll send Freddie out to get drone footage, which is also helpful them. Sometimes we'll send Freddie out to get drone footage, which is also helpful. But having that visual when there is a missing wire or if the homeowner just wants to add something kind of after the fact, we've got it documented and we can work off of that.
Speaker 1:
True that, Michelle. Take a moment to engage with us. Use the hashtag SoundVisionPod on social media. Drop a comment, share your thoughts or just let us know you're out there. Fire up those social media accounts and hit us up with hashtag SoundVisionPod. That's SoundVision P-O-D, and let's make this a podcast community. We can't wait to hear from you. Is there anything during the pre-wire that is crucial for setting up the trim?
Speaker 3:
for success. The most critical thing during the pre-wire process is to make sure that you've pulled a permit and gotten an inspection and that your inspection has passed.
Speaker 2:
But we also from the minutia of each wire. We label every single wire, and that's really important. All the wires are typically not always, but typically pulled back to what we call a head unit or just one location, a closet, a basement, unfinished space, something where we're going to terminate all that stuff, a panel. And so you've got a lot of wires that are coming in and you need to know what is what. And not only is it an access point wire, but is it the one on the second floor? Is it the one in the pantry? Is it the one in the bedroom? Like where is it? And so we do that and then document all that as well so that, like you said, when we get to the trim, it can be a little bit quicker, more efficient process.
Speaker 1:
Right, and then say if another technician who may not have been there in the pre-wire, they know where to go because we have the documentation Exactly.
Speaker 2:
Yes, but I also even extend that we are very conscious and vigilant about keeping the same crew on projects. Does it happen where someone else goes? Sure, it happens from time to time, but it's not without some discussion. It's the same lead technician from the beginning of the project to the end, no matter what. So one person is accountable and responsible for what happens, and then even the folks that are working on it throughout. We try to keep them consistent for that reason, so that the project goes smoother.
Speaker 1:
Right. I'm sure it gives peace of mind to the homeowners or the interior designers to have that same face to work with.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I don't even know. If they know we do it, maybe we should tell more, because that probably would give them some peace of mind.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, Well, is there anything else important to note about the trim phase of our projects?
Speaker 3:
So the trim phases really are, say, pre-final. So the trim phase you're going to get your certificate of occupancy once we pass our inspection and all the other trades pass their inspections, and then, after that happens that's generally when the house closes or the homeowner moves in and then from that point we would consider the next phase, the final phase.
Speaker 2:
I would throw out two things also that are important at the trim that we haven't touched on yet. One is color. So, whether it's wall plates, we might have somebody's office and it's a mahogany wall and you need brown black. So we're real mindful about making sure that everything matches the decor. Is it white? Is it light almond? You know that's a big thing. The other thing that we do at the trim phase is if we're doing a lighting control system where we have keypads, we got a new process of actually having those keypads engraved, as opposed to having the little white paper that's sitting on your keypad. You know, when you move into your beautiful home and you've got these all over the house and you're like, oh, I'm going to caveat that with when possible.
Speaker 2:
Pareto 80-20 rule, and so we do our best to actually have not only the engraving done so it looks better when you move in, but it also allows whether it's an inspector or the builder or someone else, to come in and utilize the system or test the system ahead of time. We go that extra mile. There too. That's done at the trim.
Speaker 3:
There's also one other aspect of that. During the trim portion, it is important that we make sure that internet has been run to the house, to the street by the providers, because we've had more than one project that their final has been derailed because the service provider never came out and ran internet to the street, and so it turned into a disaster. We couldn't put everything in you know what it's so funny.
Speaker 2:
Many years ago we used to have an email that we would send out about your phone system and cable Actually, many years ago we probably didn't even have internet in that email and it would give you the local providers and who to call, and if you're going to get satellite or whatever, we'd send it like a month ahead of time. So it gave you time to kind of do this Nowadays. Michelle's exactly right. Like if the internet isn't up, there's a lot of things that just won't work. Like it requires that Now lighting will work, but there's certain things that just won't work and we certainly can't test them. Streaming services, like how are you going to test if the streaming works if there's no internet? So that's really, really important.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and there's nothing we can do about that particular issue. That's right.
Speaker 2:
We can just kind of guide you. But that does require some customer interaction. So doing it at the trim as opposed to waiting to the final just makes that more comfortable. At the end You're not as stressed. You get so much going on when you're moving into a home, so that just takes one thing off the plate.
Speaker 1:
Anything else we want to add?
Speaker 2:
Crickets. Where's the crickets? Yeah right, literally no, I think that's about it. It is kind of the easiest shortest, most succinct part of the project.
Speaker 1:
All right. Well, thank you, Mark and Michelle, for joining me today to discuss with our listeners the trim phase of our projects. Be on the lookout for our next episode on the final phase of our projects. Until next time, Thanks for joining us for Simplifying Life Through Technology. To learn more about SoundVision, visit our website at soundvisionlakenormancom. You can follow us on X at Sound Vision LKN. Find us on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube at Sound Vision LLC.
