#154 - What Poland Gets Right About Building: Drutex, 20-Inch Walls and Steel Tariffs

Fresh off six days in Poland with Drutex Windows and a group of Boston developers, Marc and Dan break down what American builders can learn from how the Poles build. Marc toured townhouse communities 30 minutes outside Warsaw going up for about $100 a square foot and selling around $280,000, delivered as vanilla boxes: the missing middle the U.S. doesn't have. They get into 20-inch exterior insulation, hollow-core block for exterior and interior walls, how 800,000-plus Ukrainian workers reshaped the Polish labor market, and why their buildings are so quiet. Plus why 49% steel tariffs led American mills to raise prices 48% instead of adding capacity, blower-door results with European windows, and the food.