American Grade: How a Kentucky Custom Builder is Pioneering Made in America Homes
Vince Kimbel, president of Kimbel Construction in Louisville, Ky., is on a mission to develop a new building certification: American Grade Homes. The program will, ideally, both recognize and reward builders constructing homes made from primarily American-made products.
But Kimbel knows firsthand the difficulties of finding American-made building products, so he’s developed an American Grade database of products and businesses. The initial idea for an American-made home came to Kimbel in 2011 when a Montana builder did the same.
On Kimbel’s journey, it took hundreds of extra hours to specify and research. He had to make it easier for builders. He officially opened the American Grade database in the fall of 2023, and it features more than 400 products and 50 businesses.
Today, Kimbel’s pushing forward with developing and pitching a certification while further developing the database. In this interview, the custom builder shares the benefits of building American, his goal, and the potential impact.
Custom Builder: You opened Kimbel Construction in 1998 and became the first Energy Star builder in Kentucky—Talk to me about that beginning.
Vince Kimbel: As I was starting my business in ‘98, I really wanted to differentiate my company from the competition. There was a new program out and it was the Energy Star program. I was introduced to that and I said, “You know what, this is a way for me to really be different and create my own niche.” We joined as Kentucky's first custom home builder in 1998 as an Energy Star builder. And that became my niche for my entire career, even though we don't necessarily build Energy Star homes, we still build energy-efficient designs.
CB: And what was that environment like for energy-efficient homes in the late ‘90s?
VK: I was very proud of it. I became the expert, and slogan that we use around here is I'm Louisville's original energy Energy Star builder. At the time, I was a pioneer.
I pioneered the Energy Star program here in Kentucky for many, many builders. So later in 2011—when I was inspired by a builder in Bozeman, Mt. who had built an American-made home—it gave me this vision to be able to say, “You know what? I can do that here in Louisville. I can be another pioneer.”
CB: Can you share more about the Made in America home you completed in 2013?
VK: I was inspired and had to find the right client who was interested in in building this American home. And I found someone who was passionate and already used American products in their business. We worked diligently with that couple to create this custom home.
We converted about $300,000 worth of imports to American-made, and I felt like at the end of that process we had we had made a home that was about 90% American-made.
And when you consider that most homes are 50% American without really doing anything out of the norm, we made a tremendous impact. You can imagine $300,000 worth of change to American products, if you multiply that by the amount of homes we build in this country, oh my gosh. I mean, we'd solve the national debt.
CB: Was achieving that 90% a challenge?
VK: That was that was the toughest thing to do. We calculated over 700 hours looking for the products.
We tried to order light bulbs, and we called a particular company and they said they were American light bulbs, but when we took the light bulbs out of the boxes, it said “Made in China” and it was crossed out in a black marker.
Or we found an American door at the International Door Company, but we couldn't find an American fastener at the American Fastener Company.
It was so confusing and hard to find these products, so that's really what led us to create American Grade.
CB: Tell me more about what American Grade is.
VK: When I completed the house, I had two issues. The first issue was if we were going to help builders across the country do something similar, we had to make it easier. And that's where the idea for a search engine came up that was basically all American building materials.
The second thing was that we had to figure out how to quantify an American home. It’s never been done before—there's not a main USA label on a home, right?
The first thing we did is we set out to create the search engine, and American Grade was born . Secondly, I went back on my expertise in the Energy Star program and said, “You know what? For many, many years, we built Energy Star homes that included energy-efficient products. Why can't we just build homes using American products? And we'll call these American Grade homes.”
That's my goal right now is to work with congressional leaders, federal officials, the National Association of Home Builders, and whoever I can work with to create a program that's modeled after the Energy Star program that would create tax credits for builders that include American products in their homes, just like Energy Star did with including energy-efficient products in their homes.
CB: Did you see demand for American-made homes or predict one in the future?
VK: we've always been taught to buy American, right? But it wasn't something I ever envisioned in in homes before. It was never really looked at that way or no one considered that, and it really educated me that you know what we should be doing this in, in, in the home building industry.
I look at it like recycling, for example. When recycling started, we had to be educated and taught. We used to have everything made in USA, and then the whole world became global and we buy things from everywhere now. We have gotten away from looking at the label and buying American and supporting neighbors, family, and friends. We have to be taught again.