Building Barns, Homes & Culture: How Milmar Grew from Local Crews to a Regional Powerhouse

Quinton Comino: Today I'll be interviewing Marvin Miller with Milmar Buildings. They do pole barns, garages, barndominiums, as well as residential and commercial projects. They work in a handful of states—Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and even a little bit of Wisconsin. So tune in and let's see what Marvin has to say.

Quinton Comino (00:00): So you're with Milmar Buildings, right? You're in La Porte, Indiana. Can you give me an idea what it is you provide? I see you do barndominiums, pole barns, commercial buildings—just give us a rundown of the basics you do.

Marvin Miller (00:05): Yes. We primarily build barns—that's how we started back in 2006, 2007, 2008. That's what I know. I had no idea at the time that barn homes would become a thing. Around 2015, 2016, I told my wife this was becoming cool. We didn’t advertise it until early 2020s. Then we started going after these barn homes. Our primary focus is still post-frame structures. Even in a barndominium, the barn crew erects it, and our turnkey crew finishes the interior. We're also getting into light commercial, offering more bang for your buck.

Quinton Comino (01:33): Mm-hmm.

Marvin Miller (01:41): Especially in the light commercial space with post-frame style construction.

Quinton Comino (01:44): Yeah. Okay. For those listening who aren't familiar, can you explain post-frame construction?

Marvin Miller (01:54): Sure. I tell people to imagine a fence with a roof on it. Posts in the ground every eight feet—that's how we do it. There are methods to protect posts from rot. It's not an inferior method. Posts sit on concrete. We run horizontal purlins or girts around them. Metal siding attaches to those, sometimes over subsiding. At the top of the wall, heavy beams run around the load-bearing sides, then you set your roof trusses on that. This works best with a rectangle or square. If you get too fancy with corners, you defeat the purpose and might as well do conventional framing.

Quinton Comino (03:07): Yeah. Mm-hmm. So you said if you go outside of a rectangle you defeat the purpose. What's the unique advantage over conventional framing?

Marvin Miller (03:39): It's all in the foundation. Conventional framing requires excavation, which is expensive. It's hard to get a basement under a barn home. We can do it, but it's self-defeating. In the Midwest where it's flat, you just clear the lot, elevate it a foot or two above floodplain, then put posts in the ground every eight feet. That’s your foundation—it costs just a couple of thousand dollars. No excavation cost beyond clearing the lot.

Quinton Comino (04:34): Yeah.

Marvin Miller (04:34): Beyond that, there isn't much more cost savings. The big savings is in the foundation and simplicity. The exterior goes up quickly in weeks. Metal siding is faster to install. But if you start adding fancy siding or roofing, you lose the savings. If you just want the barn look, we can do that too.

Quinton Comino (05:28): Yeah. People live in these barndominiums, right? Not just for weekends or a basketball court—they’re actual homes?

Marvin Miller (05:47): Yes, absolutely.

Quinton Comino (05:48): And do you finish out MEPs—mechanical, electrical, plumbing?

Marvin Miller (05:55): Yes.

Quinton Comino (05:57): For example, 1,500 sq ft—do you build it as a three-bedroom/one-bath? Or is it just an open space?

Marvin Miller (06:08): It’s whatever the client wants. But people often get carried away. We just quoted a 9,600 sq ft barn home. Some don't realize heating and cooling a space that big is expensive. We built one with a 22-foot ceiling and a 40x40 living room—it felt massive. You have to consider cost and practicality. But yes, you can divide it however you want—bedrooms, baths—it depends on the family.

Quinton Comino (07:01): Yeah. I saw on your website you have an "Idea Room" design tool. Is that proprietary software or something general others use?

Marvin Miller (07:19): It's not proprietary—I wish it were. It's attached to our website but provided by another company. It's called Idea Room on our site.

Quinton Comino (07:49): Really? Customers can use it on your site to design and customize. Does it show the running total cost?

Marvin Miller (08:09): No, it just does the design. They submit it to us for a quote. We quote based on distance, local jurisdiction requirements, and permits. Parts of Indiana don’t even have a building department. All that affects the cost, so no, customers can’t generate their own quote automatically. But our quoting team is pretty fast—24 to 48 hours.

Quinton Comino (08:54): Awesome. Do you quote foundation and excavation right away?

Marvin Miller (09:21): That’s very location specific. We cover all of Ohio, but near Pennsylvania we think hard about quoting excavation. We're a full-service GC, but if someone has a friend who does excavation, that's fine. We don't force everything through us. But yes, we can do everything in construction.

Quinton Comino (09:36): Do you use your own guys locally or sub out? How does that change with distance?

Marvin Miller (10:12): We do both. We like to keep everyone honest. We have hourly guys and subs. Healthy competition keeps costs in line for our clients.

Quinton Comino (10:23): That's really good. I see you cover Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and even southern Wisconsin?

Marvin Miller (10:45): Southern Wisconsin, yes. We're adding eastern Iowa shortly.

Quinton Comino (10:50): Wow, that's awesome. How many employees?

Marvin Miller (10:54): 22 in the office, low 30s in the field. It fluctuates a bit, but that's about right.

Quinton Comino (11:10): Fantastic. And you use subs too?

Marvin Miller (11:13): Yes, and I love that. Some of our subs used to be hourly employees. They wanted to go out on their own, and I helped them get set up. They still work for me on contract. It’s unique but it works well.

Quinton Comino (11:25): That’s great. There's always risk with new subs, especially further away. How do you manage those jobs?

Marvin Miller (12:09): We use project superintendents. Each oversees two to three jobs. They go out for layout approval with the client, set floor height (huge for floodplain), location, design, colors. Then they hand off to the job foreman who runs the site daily and communicates with the client. Under them is a crew lead, and then the installers.

Quinton Comino (13:20): Run that again—superintendent at the top?

Marvin Miller (13:44): Superintendent runs two to three jobs. Job foreman runs one. Under foreman is the crew lead. Under them, three to six installers depending on scope. In the office, we have production managers for commercial, homes, and barns, plus an overall production manager.

Quinton Comino (14:44): You have a lot of support in the office.

Marvin Miller (14:55): We’re a bit top heavy now, gearing up for expansion. The profit margins aren't what they were because we're investing in growth.

Quinton Comino (15:01): How do you plan for that expansion? Hire more supers? More support staff?

Marvin Miller (15:34): We asked ourselves what had to be true to go deeper in our markets or expand. We found we're healthy with installers and supers but need more job foremen. That's our bottleneck. We're actively interviewing. It's tough to find people with both the soft skills to handle clients and the blue-collar pride to do the work well.

Quinton Comino (17:16): Yeah. Training them must take a lot of effort.

Marvin Miller (17:38): It's expensive. I even wrote a small book on how our buildings go together. I have a subcontractor who's worked with me for 14 years and I pay him thousands to train new foremen. We invest over $100K in tools and training per person. We don’t see a return on that right away, but it’s the direction we want to go.

Quinton Comino (18:50): Do they understand that commitment?

Marvin Miller (19:08): By the end of the interview they do. It's a partnership. We're building a ten-year wall in our office to honor anyone with over ten years here. It's not perfect, but it matters—they spend a huge chunk of life here.

Quinton Comino (19:36): Yeah, strong company culture for sure.

Marvin Miller (19:57): We're a Christian company. We want to be held to that standard. We also don't let bad ideas hang around—if it doesn't work, we kill it and move on. It keeps egos in check and everyone rowing in the same direction. But yes, we fight sometimes, that's normal.

Quinton Comino (20:42): How do you keep culture consistent as you grow past 30+ employees?

Marvin Miller (23:24): About a year or 18 months ago, I realized I was saying "that's not my job" when I disagreed with division leaders. That was a mistake. We learned everyone needs to be on the same page or it causes chaos and turnover. Now, we make sure there's one way of doing things consistently across the company.

Quinton Comino (25:07): Yeah. You have to balance autonomy with consistency. But sometimes you just have to say: we paid for this lead, we are quoting it.

Marvin Miller (25:34): 100%. It's tough with long relationships too. But as CEO, I have to systemize and set the standard. It's not about ego—if I'm asking for something immoral or illegal, they should leave. But otherwise, it's my responsibility to decide how we do things.

Quinton Comino (26:23): Yeah. When did you start the company again?

Marvin Miller (26:53): Fall of 2006. I've done it all—houses, barns, log homes, roofing hotels. We didn't have the customer base to specialize early on. But after 2009–2010, we started getting enough post-frame work to focus on that. Only a few years ago did we finally drop all other work completely and go 100% post-frame.

Quinton Comino (28:22): Yeah. Simplifying your offering really helps.

Marvin Miller (28:36): Yes. You can systemize and standardize without teaching new things every month. It’s "boring" but it works—we build barns.

Quinton Comino (28:48): And that's what customers want: straightforward pricing and clear scope. Your website is great—easy to use, very intentional. Do most customers come through the website? Ads? Word of mouth?

Marvin Miller (29:44): A lot is organic. I didn't do any advertising until spring 2022. We're on a busy highway and get walk-ins, plus lots of word-of-mouth. We just started a barn yesterday for someone we built for 10 years ago. I love that kind of repeat trust.

Quinton Comino (31:52): How many jobs do you do in a year?

Marvin Miller (32:11): Last year we did 76 projects.

Quinton Comino (32:17): Split between how many superintendents?

Marvin Miller (32:25): Three. But it depends on individual capacity. I have a guy who's 70 and outworks 28-year-olds. Everyone's capacity is different and paid accordingly.

Quinton Comino (33:36): That's awesome. Well, thank you, Marvin. As CEO of Milmar, let everyone know where you are and how they can learn more or get a quote.

Marvin Miller (34:17): We're in northwest Indiana on Highway 2 in La Porte. We provide barns, barndominiums, and light commercial buildings across Ohio, Indiana, southern Michigan, eastern Iowa, and southern Wisconsin. Visit us at milmarbuildings.com.

Quinton Comino (35:05): Fantastic. Thanks Marvin, appreciate it.

Marvin Miller (35:08): Yep. Have a good day. Bye.