Behind the scenes: Home building 101 with Neal Communities

Neal Communities recently hosted a special day for its employees’ children – Bring Your Child to Work Day. On Nov. 11, 30 children started the day at the company’s corporate headquarters in Lakewood Ranch. The protégés learned how their parent, uncle, aunt and others contribute to the homebuilding company. From accounting, marketing, building and administration, they witnessed that every employee provides a valuable service to the homebuilding process.

On Friday morning, the children – between ages 4 and 15 – arrived at the office to observe what transpires at work each day. Several of the kids assisted by making copies or helping with spreadsheets. Others decided to get a feel for the entire company and met with employees in different departments or sat at the receptionist desk.

If you ask William Villarreal, the nephew of Jennifer Villarreal, what he learned that day, William will tell you that he “learned how to build a house”. Not only did the children see the corporate headquarters but also learned about construction with several tours and celebrated Veteran’s Day.

Everyone boarded buses and headed to Indigo, a gated community in Lakewood Ranch built by Neal Communities. The children donned hard hats and headed to a construction site to see all the heavy machinery that it takes to build a community like Indigo.

The group toured a home with only the foundation laid and another that was almost at the end of the structural phase. The children learned it takes about five months to build a home. Other questions were encouraged and answered by Neal Communities’ building department.

“How many nails does it take to build a house,” asked one of the superintendents?

After receiving answers like 300, 70,000, a billion and more, everyone learned it took about 50,000 nails to build a home. Concrete, dry walling, pressure-treated lumber and roofs were also topics of conversation.

The final stop was a beautifully finished model home inside Indigo. Everyone toured the Wind Star, a one-story home that features four bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms and a three-car garage.

After working up an appetite on the tour, the buses headed back to corporate headquarters for lunch. Children and employees feasted on a Chik-Fil-A lunch in Neal Communities’ corporate training room.

All in all, the day proved to be a success and beneficial for both the children and the staff.