Learn It.
Prove It.
Use It!
GOT SKILLS?
Institute For Renovation Contractors
Welcome to the Institute For Renovation Contractors, LLC (IFRC) in Houston, Texas. The IFRC was formed to provide a not-for-profit framework that supports its mission to educate and assess future residential renovation and remodeling contractors. Read more about the IFRC goals and objectives here.
Our Mission
LEARN IT. Advocacy programs teach valuable job skills that contribute to rewarding careers in residential renovation, remodeling, and recovery. An industry that is overflowing with excellent jobs that are outsource-proof. We’d like to see shop class make a comeback!
Certification
IFRC is about helping to create more qualified people who can learn skills to fill millions of available jobs. One of the primary roles is to certify.
Supporters Welcome!
Whether you are a single person wanting to donate or a humongous corporation with some resources that will help, you are most welcome!
Have Skills To Share?
IFRC is ultimately about trade skills. Helping to promote credible organizations teaching trade skills. Please move forward and let us know if you have any background that can help.
Why IFRC?
How exactly did we get here? Why is this even needed? The simple answer is that our primary schools went full steam into STEAM education, and life and vocational training disappeared from middle and high school curricula. Now that the number of skilled tradesmen is aging and retiring, there is an extreme shortage of skilled craftsmen in the USA. We went too far, and now we’re paying the price as we try to figure out how to rebuild our skilled labor in many trades.
Education
At our core, we are interested in educating more people about the rich and rewarding opportunities that await remodeling, renovation, and replacement contractors. It is a skilled trade that will not be outsourced overseas and that supports a fantastic alternative to one that involves student loans and heavy debt, which may or may not end up being a gamble. Contracting is no gamble! There are more than 1.3 million job openings for skilled contractors right now.
Safety
Safety on the job seems like common sense to most people. But there’s a lot more to the topic as it pertains to skilled trades. We’re interested in helping to promote a safe workplace and long, productive careers for all skilled craft workers.
Certification
PROVE IT. Whether you are a seasoned tradesman or a new vocational graduate, the IFRC provides the means to validate your skills beyond all doubt. The certification encompasses theory, experience, and hands-on practical application judged against well-established best practices. There are no doubts about your skills.
Ethics
IFRC sees ethics as an essential core component for a successful career in skilled trades such as replacement remodeling and contracting. Trust and confidence in people with a reputation for high integrity almost guarantee success.
Career Skills
USE IT. Use your proven trade skills by filling one of the millions of available positions – progress in your career towards many opportunities to expand both trade and valuable organizational and business skills. Certification gives customers and employers alike a high confidence level and a strong preference to support it.
Business
A career as a skilled craftsman generally means more opportunities and responsibilities over time. IFRC is intent on setting its members on numerous paths to success, including people skills, technology, management, and entrepreneurship. EXPLORE WHAT WE DO
Help Wanted
Does this sound like something you could get behind and help with? Do you have skills in the contracting business that you’d like to share to help others get into the trades the right way and be successful? If so, we sure want to talk with you about joining forces. There are so many aspects to a successful career in remodeling and contracting, we’re always looking for help.
You can be a part of the solution too!
IFRC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization conceived by volunteers, run by volunteers, and supported by volunteers. Please consider joining or supporting IFRC in some capacity toward fulfilling its mission. We need you!
VOLUNTEER NOW
our projects
ADVANCED SIDING SKILLS TESTING STATIONS
A realistic means for testing and proving a contractor’s overall skills and expertise was created. IFRC developed and refined a proprietary prototype of a universal testing station. Reusable & highly flexible design provides many exterior and interior challenges in a small space. With only an assistant, the candidate has two days to complete all the challenges this test station presents. It’s an actual test of experience.
Coordinating a two-day professional siding and windows replacement skills assessment had many moving parts that needed to come together among the challenges: erecting multiple identical test stations. After the tests had been completed, critiqued, and judged, the final part of the test came, the demolition phase. This is an all-important initial step for replacement contractors once a residential project begins.
Projects include many man-hours and resources donated by generous companies and individuals. There are many moving parts to setting up and conducting an actual test of a contractor’s skills that not only simulate the unique reality that every project is different but also present the candidate with unusual but realistic challenges to test their abilities to the fullest. In the real world of contracting, projects rarely go exactly as expected!
Skills Assessment Site Coordination
Teams arrived bright and early for Day 1. After briefing and some ground rules, four teams of two professionals were assigned stations and went to work. They were shown where all materials were located and assigned their own area; each area was indoors. Each of the four workstation areas was assigned randomly, picking a number from a hat. Special dust-free saws were provided along with safety gear due to the silica dust from the fiber cement siding.
Siding Skills Assessment Day 1 of 2
All on-site support staff and the contractor test teams were set to complete day two bright and early. We estimated correctly, and all teams completed the assessment. Within their allotted time.
Siding Skills Assessment Day 2 of 2
One of four completed test stations
The siding master skills test poses many challenges for a pro siding contractor. Successful completion of this grueling exam is proof of an accomplished pro. The interesting benefit of this test is that the candidate makes all decisions about order, process, and methods to accomplish the tasks. After every 2 hours, candidates took breaks while certified and licensed inspectors judged for code compliance and manufacturer best practices. The destinations were all the same, but each contractor’s path to getting there was unique.
IT TAKES TEAMWORK!
Because of our partners, we are doing more good for more people!
Special Thanks To Our Journeyman Professionals
Paul
“This is definitely a good test of fiber cement siding skills. If you can do this in the allotted time and do it well, you definitely know what you are doing”.
Doug
“I’ve been thinking that we need something like this for years. It’s just what we need”.
Jorge
“Yes, if a person can come in and do this, they absolutely know what they are doing”.
Cody
“This has been an experience. It’s not easy, and you really need to have some experience to get through it ok”.