Drywall has owned the garage for decades. Joel Koops says Trusscore installs three to four times faster, and the installed cost lands close to finished, painted drywall.

In this episode of the Grit Blueprint Podcast, I'm on the Do it Best Fall Market floor with Joel Koops, Executive Vice President and Co-Founder of Trusscore, talking about how garage wall panels made from PVC went from barns and car washes into garages, basements, and mudrooms. We get into why contractor add-on services like a garage makeover fit on jobs you're already running, and why lumberyards can earn better margin on a drywall alternative that isn't a commodity.

Ben and I put Trusscore SlatWall in our own studio, so I've got opinions on garage slatwall storage too. Check out our recent episode of Building Grit to see how it went: https://youtu.be/xGf369DE0hU

What's inside:

✅ How Joel and co-founder Steve Bosman started Trusscore after watching wood and steel rot inside agricultural buildings

✅ Why food processing plants, breweries, and car washes need PVC wall panels that survive daily washdowns

✅ How residential became Trusscore's fastest growing market after CEO Dave Caputo came in in 2019

✅ Trusscore Wall&CeilingBoard and Trusscore SlatWall explained: PVC extrusion, white and gray, and mixing the two

✅ Why garage slatwall storage beat pegboard and plywood for hanging camera gear in our Grit Studios

✅ How farmers put the first panels in their garages and neighbors spread the word

✅ Why lower skilled crews can install it, and how the Trusscore Trusted Installer Program brings in work

✅ Installed cost versus finished, painted drywall, and why install speed changes the math

✅ Why lumberyards and hardware stores can earn better margin on a product that isn't a commodity

✅ Cutting with a battery saw or snips, with no vinyl brake required

✅ Who to pitch: homeowners, contractors, commercial jobs, and custom home builders

✅ How Do it Best members can order through Boise Cascade and Palmer-Donavin, with product available in two to three days anywhere in the U.S.

Featuring:
Joel Koops, Executive Vice President, Trusscore

This episode is sponsored by Trusscore. Find a dealer, get an estimate, or find a Trusted Installer at trusscore.com.

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🚀 About Stefanie Couch

Stefanie Couch is the founder of Grit Blueprint and a third-generation building industry professional.

Grit Blueprint helps manufacturers, distributors, dealers, service providers, and industry leaders build authority, grow visibility, and become unmistakable in their market.

🔗Learn more: https://gritblueprint.com
Instagram: @StefanieCouchOfficial
LinkedIn: Stefanie Couch

I found Trusscore on the show floor at IBS 2026. Now it's on the walls of Ben's office.

This episode of Building Grit starts at the Trusscore booth at IBS 2026 with Joel Koops, Executive Vice President and Co-Founder of Trusscore. Joel says Trusscore goes on three or four times faster than drywall. It's waterproof, chemical-resistant, and you can wash down your garage after it's installed.

Ben, Heidi Pearl, and I framed up an 11 by 20 office for Ben, watched some install videos, and did our first Trusscore project ourselves. Trusscore gave us the panels for this build, and the finished 'Grit Garage' is exactly what I had in my mind.

What's inside:

✅ Joel Koops at on why Trusscore is a more durable drywall replacement

✅ Why it goes on three or four times faster than drywall and lasts as long as your house does

✅ Trusscore SlatWall and Wall&CeilingBoard, in white and gray

✅ The plan for Ben's 11 by 20 office: SlatWall in the middle, gray board at the top and bottom, and a 38-inch counter for gear

✅ How the panels click together, screw in, and go all the way up the wall

✅ The finished Grit Garage with Trusscore SlatWalls: tripods, selfie sticks, GoPros, lenses, and the gear we take to job sites

Featuring:
Stefanie Couch, Founder and CEO, Grit Blueprint
Ben Couch, Co-Founder and COO, Grit Blueprint
Joel Koops, Executive Vice President and Co-Founder, Trusscore
Heidi Pearl, Golden Retriever, Grit Blueprint

Companies and products featured:
Trusscore
Trusscore SlatWall
Trusscore Wall&CeilingBoard
Do it Best
Boise Cascade
Reeves Building Supply

Chapter markers:
00:00 Finding a Drywall Alternative at IBS 2026
01:12 Trusscore Install Day at Grit Studios
03:28 Grit Garage Tour: SlatWall Storage for Camera Gear
04:31 How Trusscore Panels Click Together and Install

Explore Trusscore at https://www.trusscore.com/

This project was provided in part by Trusscore in partnership with Do it Best. We got the material from Boise Cascade, and Reeves Building Supply, right across the street from us in Clayton, brought it over to us.

Build Authority. Gain Visibility. Drive Growth.

You do great work. The right people should know it.

Grit Blueprint helps building industry companies and leaders build authority, increase visibility, earn trust, and turn that trust into revenue.

📅 Book a Strategy Call

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Subscribe for honest conversations and growth strategies for the building industry.

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🚀 About Stefanie Couch

Stefanie Couch is the founder of Grit Blueprint and a third-generation building industry professional.

Grit Blueprint helps manufacturers, distributors, dealers, service providers, and industry leaders build authority, grow visibility, and become unmistakable in their market.

🔗Learn more: https://gritblueprint.com
Instagram: @StefanieCouchOfficial
LinkedIn: Stefanie Couch

Your sales team just made a promise.

Now operations needs to deliver.

In this episode of the Grit Blueprint Podcast, I’m in Clayton, Georgia, with Ron Herrin, VP of Sales, and Lee Allen, VP of Manufacturing & Procurement at Tucker Door & Trim, talking about the relationship between sales and operations, what happens when things go wrong, and how communication and experience help teams keep the promises they make.

We talk about the challenges of selling highly customized products, the questions sales needs to ask before saying yes, why problems are an opportunity to build trust, and how Tucker Door & Trim has used technology to give customers more control over quoting, inventory, and delivery timelines.

What’s inside:

✅ The relationship between sales and operations, and why getting both sides aligned matters

✅ Why Tucker’s sales team is known for saying yes to complex and unusual projects—and why operations has to ask the right questions before making them happen

✅ The questions that should be asked before ordering a door or window, including where the product is going and how it will be used

✅ Why using the wrong product in the wrong application can create problems, claims, and unhappy customers

✅ Why communication may be the most important part of keeping a customer relationship on track

✅ The importance of saying, “I don’t know, but I will get you the answer,” instead of giving a customer the wrong answer

✅ Why Ron believes you should “run to the fire” when something goes wrong rather than avoid the problem

✅ How Tucker developed its design portal to let customers quote directly, see live inventory, track orders, and receive real-time delivery estimates

✅ How technology and configurators are helping educate customers, reduce mistakes, and change the way the millwork industry does business

✅ The role AI could play in manufacturing, production, and the skilled trades

✅ Why experience still matters in an increasingly technology-driven industry

✅ How Tucker develops its people from entry-level positions into long-term careers and leadership opportunities

✅ The challenges of industry consolidation and what can happen when companies become disconnected from their customers and talent

Featuring:
Ron Herrin, VP of Sales, Tucker Door & Trim
Lee Allen, VP of Manufacturing & Procurement, Tucker Door & Trim
Hosted by Stefanie Couch, Grit Blueprint

Build Authority. Gain Visibility. Drive Growth.

You do great work. The right people should know it.

Grit Blueprint helps building industry companies and leaders build authority, increase visibility, earn trust, and turn that trust into revenue.

📅 Book a Strategy Call

Ready to become more visible, more trusted, and easier to choose?

https://meetings-na2.hubspot.com/stefanie-couch

📧 Join the Newsletter

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Subscribe for honest conversations and growth strategies for the building industry.

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🚀 About Stefanie Couch

Stefanie Couch is the founder of Grit Blueprint and a third-generation building industry professional.

Grit Blueprint helps manufacturers, distributors, dealers, service providers, and industry leaders build authority, grow visibility, and become unmistakable in their market.

🔗Learn more: https://gritblueprint.com
Instagram: @StefanieCouchOfficial
LinkedIn: Stefanie Couch

Do it Best and True Value members: Use code 'Pink Hat' for a one time 5% discount on your order from Service Partners, through October 31, 2026!

Call or visit Service Partners website: https://www.service-partners.com/

Today I'm joined by Chuck Lencheck of Service Partners, live on the shhow floor at the Do it Best Fall Market, to talk about the insulation products, service, and additional revenue opportunities dealers should be thinking about.

From choosing the right insulation for DIYers and pros to expanding into gutters, Chuck explains how dealers can evaluate their product mix, respond to changing building codes, and use Service Partners as a local extension of their own warehouse and sales operation.

What’s inside:

✅ How dealers can evaluate whether they are stocking the right insulation products for their customers

✅ The differences between serving DIY customers and professional contractors

✅ How Service Partners’ 80 distribution centers and 150 salespeople help dealers access product locally

✅ Insulation options including fiberglass, cellulose, mineral wool, rigid board, and foam

Featuring:
Chuck Lencheck, Senior Vice President, Channel Development, Service Partners
Hosted by Stefanie Couch, Grit Blueprint

Build Authority. Gain Visibility. Drive Growth.

You do great work. The right people should know it.

Grit Blueprint helps building industry companies and leaders build authority, increase visibility, earn trust, and turn that trust into revenue.

📅 Book a Strategy Call

Ready to become more visible, more trusted, and easier to choose?

https://meetings-na2.hubspot.com/stefanie-couch

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Subscribe for honest conversations and growth strategies for the building industry.

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🚀 About Stefanie Couch

Stefanie Couch is the founder of Grit Blueprint and a third-generation building industry professional.

Grit Blueprint helps manufacturers, distributors, dealers, service providers, and industry leaders build authority, grow visibility, and become unmistakable in their market.

🔗Learn more: https://gritblueprint.com
Instagram: @StefanieCouchOfficial
LinkedIn: Stefanie Couch

My dad’s lumber yard spent two years supplying a 30,000 square foot custom home in Alpharetta. I have one photo to show for it.

I joined Megan Kacvinsky of Point to Point and Vardhan Mehta of ACELAB as a guest on Inside The Spec to talk about what that missing proof costs. We get into building materials marketing that shows the work, brand strategy for manufacturers who are tired of competing on price, and why personal branding for executives is the quickest win leadership teams keep skipping. I also share what to post on LinkedIn when your first post feels weird, and why the middle is where good companies go to die.

What’s inside:

✅ The 30,000 square foot Alpharetta home I have one photo of, and why proof is the job media has to do

✅ How Behind the Build started as product training: direct set vs. sash set transoms explained on video

✅ Pulling the thread up and down the channel, from the tree in the forest to the window in the wall

✅ My definition of brand, starting with cattle and John Dutton’s mark

✅ A $29 coffee maker, a $5,000 Miele, and why the middle of the price range is a death by a thousand paper cuts

✅ Why indifference is the enemy, and why showing up 15th out of 30 in ChatGPT means you’re invisible

✅ Megan on the sea of sameness and Gair Maxwell’s five-word website test

✅ Why executives should build their own brands first, and the Forbes profitability stat behind it

✅ Kodak, Blockbuster, and what hiding in the middle really costs

✅ Rage days, Bowser, and the #warpath bracelet that keeps me going

Featuring:
Stefanie Couch, Founder, Grit Blueprint
Megan Kacvinsky, Co-host of Inside the Spec, CEO of Point to Point
Vardhan Mehta, Co-host of Inside the Spec, CEO of ACELAB

Learn more about Inside The Spec: https://www.insidethespec.com/

Build Authority. Gain Visibility. Drive Growth.

You do great work. The right people should know it.

Grit Blueprint helps building industry companies and leaders build authority, increase visibility, earn trust, and turn that trust into revenue.

📅 Book a Strategy Call

Ready to become more visible, more trusted, and easier to choose?

https://meetings-na2.hubspot.com/stefanie-couch

📧 Join the Newsletter

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🎥 Watch More Grit Blueprint

Subscribe for honest conversations and growth strategies for the building industry.

https://www.youtube.com/@stefaniecouch

🚀 About Stefanie Couch

Stefanie Couch is the founder of Grit Blueprint and a third-generation building industry professional.

Grit Blueprint helps manufacturers, distributors, dealers, service providers, and industry leaders build authority, grow visibility, and become unmistakable in their market.

🔗Learn more: https://gritblueprint.com
Instagram: @StefanieCouchOfficial
LinkedIn: Stefanie Couch

Most contractors lose market share slowly enough that they don't notice.

Greg Rowland noticed.

When the suppliers in his market started installing siding themselves, the scope he had built a company around started shrinking. He didn't fight it on price. Instead, he added the services his customers needed. Roofing, then windows and doors, and turned GR Exteriors into a turnkey business that covers the full exterior. Along the way, he also started a manufacturing company because he got tired of waiting on gable vents.

Greg is the owner of three companies in the Atlanta market: GR Exteriors, SAM LLC (Synergistic Architectural Manufacturing), and co-owner of HarLand Windows & Doors along with Jonathan Harvey.

We talk about the five minute conversation he had in 2005 that carried his company through the Great Recession, why diversification between multifamily and single family work is a survival strategy and not a growth strategy, the one rule he uses across all three businesses to build trust, and the moment he realized that spending $345 a year on marketing was the same as complaining you never win a lottery you never entered.

What's inside:

✅ Why turnkey is where construction is going

✅ The Warren Buffett rule Greg leans on in a downturn: be fearful when everyone else is brave, and brave when everyone else is fearful

✅ How waiting on gable vents, brackets, and columns turned into SAM LLC and a customer list that includes Builders FirstSource

✅ What ACRE is: a stainable synthetic wood product made from rice hulls, and why builders want the benefit of PVC with the option to stain

✅ Why Atlanta moved away from vinyl siding to fiber cement even though vinyl still leads nationally

✅ Why Greg treats service as a quality issue instead of a department

✅ Why this industry still hires personality and job site judgment over degrees

✅ Marketing for contractors: why a man who never chased business and never turned it away finally decided to buy the ticket

✅ How reputation building has changed, and what old school service plus digital visibility looks like together

Featuring:

Greg Rowland, Owner and General Manager, GR Exteriors, SAM LLC and Co-owner of HarLand Windows & Doors

Build Authority. Gain Visibility. Drive Growth.

You do great work. The right people should know it.

Grit Blueprint helps building industry companies and leaders build authority, increase visibility, earn trust, and turn that trust into revenue.

📅 Book a Strategy Call

Ready to become more visible, more trusted, and easier to choose?

https://meetings-na2.hubspot.com/stefanie-couch

📧 Join the Newsletter

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🎥 Watch More Grit Blueprint

Subscribe for honest conversations and growth strategies for the building industry.

https://www.youtube.com/@stefaniecouch

🚀 About Stefanie Couch

Stefanie Couch is the founder of Grit Blueprint and a third-generation building industry professional.

Grit Blueprint helps manufacturers, distributors, dealers, service providers, and industry leaders build authority, grow visibility, and become unmistakable in their market.

🔗Learn more: https://gritblueprint.com
Instagram: @StefanieCouchOfficial
LinkedIn: Stefanie Couch

A window that is off by a quarter of an inch does not tell you on install day.

It tells you three winters later when water is leaking in.

In this episode of Behind The Build, I'm in Monroe, Georgia with Tucker Door & Trim, a two-step distributor that manufactures windows and doors inside a 290,000 square foot facility.

Chris Kotlowski walks us through the entire process of how windows are made at Tucker, from cutting the glass to staging for delivery. Chris shows us the differences in manufacturing processes between their vinyl, PVC, and wood windows. You’ll also see the Billco, GED, and Greller machines that automate tedious tasks and speed up window production.

We start by following one custom trapezoid window from the Tucker facility to Reeves Building Supply in Clayton, and on to a job site in Cleveland, Georgia, where Wilkinson Construction Management installs it.

What's inside:

✅ Why there is no standard size to pull off a shelf, and why every Tucker window is built custom per order

✅ Inside the green room: glass washed through three tanks, dried with an air knife, and sealed with Duraseal

✅ How the Billco Glass Cutter yields the most pieces out of a single sheet of glass

✅ Why curved radius glass will not always be run through the machine and still gets cut freehand by a person

✅ Argon versus air between two panes, and what a heavier gas actually buys the homeowner

✅ Wood sash assembly by hand: the rubber boot seal, pre-drilling, tilt pins, and weather stripping

✅ PVC parts getting milled on the shapers and getting assembled into a sash before the glass ever drops in

✅ The automatic glazer that meters silicone so there is no squeeze out

✅ Vinyl sash welding and the corner cleaner that takes the slag off the weld with GED and Greller machines

✅ LeeAnn Gilbert on running the Tucker 3300 line and seeing a product go start to finish

✅ Barry Williams on designing every window Tucker builds: "it's kinda like my kids out there"

✅ Why a mistake on a one-of-a-kind order is a remake, not a swap out, and remakes take weeks

Featuring:
Chris Kotlowski, Window Production Manager, Tucker Door & Trim
Barry Williams, Window Division Manager, Tucker Door & Trim
LeeAnn Gilbert, Team Lead, 3300 Line, Tucker Door & Trim
Reeves Building Supply, Clayton, Georgia
Wilkinson Construction Management, Cleveland, Georgia

Build Authority. Gain Visibility. Drive Growth.

You do great work. The right people should know it.

Grit Blueprint helps building industry companies and leaders build authority, increase visibility, earn trust, and turn that trust into revenue.

📅 Book a Strategy Call

Ready to become more visible, more trusted, and easier to choose?

https://meetings-na2.hubspot.com/stefanie-couch

📧 Join the Newsletter

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🎥 Watch More Grit Blueprint

Subscribe for honest conversations and growth strategies for the building industry.

https://www.youtube.com/@stefaniecouch

🚀 About Stefanie Couch

Stefanie Couch is the founder of Grit Blueprint and a third-generation building industry professional.

Grit Blueprint helps manufacturers, distributors, dealers, service providers, and industry leaders build authority, grow visibility, and become unmistakable in their market.

🔗Learn more: https://gritblueprint.com
Instagram: @StefanieCouchOfficial
LinkedIn: Stefanie Couch

Building industry companies don’t lose customers because their people stopped caring.

They lose them because growth added more approvals between the person taking the order and the one installing it, and their people don’t feel empowered to fix the problem if a job goes sideways.

In this episode of the Grit Blueprint Podcast, I sit down with Jonathan Harvey, co-owner of HarLand Windows & Doors in Atlanta, who I first met back in 2012 when he was one of my first accounts and I was the one writing up his door POs. He grew up in a three-generation family moving business, came up through inside sales at a one-step distributor, and now runs a turnkey company built so that the product side and the install side sit under one name. We get into the jobs that went sideways, what it costs a business when nobody owns the outcome, and how you keep a growing team close to the customer.

What’s inside:

✅ The $2 million custom home where fifty-some windows landed on site with every opening wrong, and what happened next

✅ Why nearly every expensive mistake Jonathan saw in his career traced back to bad communication, not bad product

✅ What good communication actually means to a contractor

✅ Where the phrase "opening possibilities" came from, and how Jonathan uses it to push decisions down to whoever is talking to the customer

✅ Why layers of checks and approvals are the bane of a large corporation, and what decentralized command looks like inside a growing company

✅ What homeowners are asking for when a window and door package runs two to three hundred thousand dollars, and why HarLand built a design studio for that conversation

✅ Where AI is already helping building industry businesses with product knowledge, design, proposals, and presentations

✅ A surprise vocal performance!

Featuring:
Jonathan Harvey, Co-Owner, HarLand Windows & Doors, Atlanta, Georgia

Build Authority. Gain Visibility. Drive Growth.

You do great work. The right people should know it.

Grit Blueprint helps building industry companies and leaders build authority, increase visibility, earn trust, and turn that trust into revenue.

📅 Book a Strategy Call

Ready to become more visible, more trusted, and easier to choose?

https://meetings-na2.hubspot.com/stefanie-couch

📧 Join the Newsletter

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https://421r60.share-na2.hsforms.com/2RMwQMXe2QLyk3sl9dv2gXQ

🎥 Watch More Grit Blueprint

Subscribe for honest conversations and growth strategies for the building industry.

https://www.youtube.com/@stefaniecouch

🚀 About Stefanie Couch

Stefanie Couch is the founder of Grit Blueprint and a third-generation building industry professional.

Grit Blueprint helps manufacturers, distributors, dealers, service providers, and industry leaders build authority, grow visibility, and become unmistakable in their market.

🔗Learn more: https://gritblueprint.com
Instagram: @StefanieCouchOfficial
LinkedIn: Stefanie Couch