Baton Rouge-based JBC construction and its local subcontractors are working on a seemingly impossible task today. They’re in the middle of a three-day challenge to completely gut and renovate a three-bedroom Prairieville home—a project that JBC co-owner Jonathan Stewart estimates would normally take two to four weeks at minimum—and they’re hoping to look good while they hustle to get it done.
That’s because an A&E crew is filming the entire endeavor for an episode of Sell This House: Extreme.
“We’ll be out here until at least midnight tonight,” Stewart said while on a quick lunch break during the crew’s first full day of work, Monday. “It’s not going to be fun, by any means.”
The fun part should come on June 1, when the episode airs on A&E. JBC, which Stewart founded about six years ago with Cameron Hernandez, isn’t the only local firm participating in the project. Regular JBC subcontractors Wood’s Plumbing, Assured Flooring & Countertops and Nicotri Electric are all lending every hand they have, too. As of Monday afternoon, they had the home gutted and were starting in on the bulk of the renovation.
“We’re fighting it,” Stewart says of both the short deadline and the steady rain. “So far, it’s been absolutely crazy in this house. Everybody is working on top of one another, and the cameras are everywhere, getting in the way sometimes and making us do some of the work more than once so they can get the shot.”
But with the promise of national exposure knocking, Stewart hopes the long days his crew is putting in now will pay big dividends come this summer when the show airs.
“I’m hoping to be able to hire all kinds of people and take it to the next level,” says Stewart, adding that he aims to increase the company’s revenue from around $700,000 in 2012 to over the $1 million mark this year.
David Day of The Day Group, which has been helping JBC with its marketing efforts, says the value of the exposure from the show can’t be calculated.
“The key is credibility,” he says. “There’s still no formula that can tell you what this kind of exposure equates to in sales, but anytime you have an opportunity to get in front of people like this—that’s worth its weight in gold. That’s worth a ton of credibility, a ton of advertising.”
