Making Sure She Does Everything Right

from BIA Online Magazine - April 2023

NextGen Update:

Southern California Builder: You have quite an interesting story. Tell us about yourself and Julie Laughton Design Build, which has completed over 1,000 remodels and custom homes in coastal Orange and Los Angeles counties.

Julie Laughton: I’m a female licensed general contractor, which makes me unusual and unique, but what sets me apart from everyone else is I do the architecture, I manage the five engineers, I am the interior designer, I am the space planner, I am the custom kitchen designer – certified and licensed in all this except architecture – and then I’m the project manager making all the submittals to the city, and when that’s done, I pull the permit as the contractor and run the job personally. There’s nobody under me making decisions; it’s just me. I have a lot of great helpers, but I’m running the job every day.

Most of our work is in coastal Orange County with some ground-up custom homes, but mostly remodels. I’m comfortable with the remodels because it’s harder, more complicated and that makes it more fun for me because it takes more creativity to get it done.

SCB: Your company is very successful and you are very busy, so why did you decide to join the Building Industry Association?

JL: The company is at an important point because I plan on growing it from $10 million to who knows? Maybe $100 million! I’ve spent the time and money to build the foundation, so now I’m ready to expand my existing business, and it’s very important to me that I make sure I’m not missing anything. Part of joining BIA is that I want people to know who I am, and membership will make it possible for me to tell my story to more people. But also, I’m a girl from Iowa who likes to follow the rules and BIA membership then is also about me wanting to make sure I do everything right. As I grow Julie Laughton Design Build,

I might have questions and I think that at BIA I will be able to find other people in the business I can talk to who know what I know and have their own perspective – so I’m excited about joining and want to learn more about everything BIA has to offer.

SCB: Well, a good way to start is to read this issue of Southern California Builder.

JL: Oh, good, then I’ll read it and learn everything I need to know.

SCB: Before we go, let’s talk a bit about what it was like to be a woman in your field when you first started.

JL: When I got out of college where I studied architecture, landscape architecture, mechanical engineering and interior design, my first job was in New York City with an architecture firm when I was 21. I was the only woman in the firm, so I had to do all the scut work – they sent me out to measure all these buildings and offices with all these contractors and trades on site. This was in the 80s so of course I was in heels and a skirt, and of course there was constant whistling, whooping and hollering, but it didn’t bother me because it was just the times, and because the men I worked with – and it was all men – were professional and I was learning the ropes of a business I loved.

In time, I started having to go to meetings with the big five developers in New York City with their architects and their contractors, and it was my job to do things like tell them they had to move walls around to get things to fit. It was weird because I was just 24 years old and I was dealing with 50-year-old serious men. They were crusty and tough, but for me it was fun because it was professional, I was learning so much, and I was earning their respect. 

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