Wichita’s Rock Construction helped ‘Queer Eye’ with ‘a little managed chaos’

If you’ve been watching the third season of “Queer Eye,” you’ve been watching some Wichitans at work likely without knowing it.

Wichita-based Rock Construction worked on the third and fourth seasons of the show — a new Netflix version of the former “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” — as it filmed in the Kansas City area.

“I have a little bit of history with television and doing a few renovation shows,” says Rock co-owner Amber Dobosz.

That started with the “Extreme Home Makeover” build for former Shocker Carl Hall, and it led to work on “Bar Rescue” and other shows.

That’s also what led to Rock Construction’s work on “Queer Eye.”

“TV is a really interesting cookie,” Dobosz says. “Everybody knows each other.”

The show stars a “Fab Five” who generally help one individual per show with food and wine, grooming, fashion, culture and design.

“That’s where we come in,” Dobosz says of design.

Her team executed designer Bobby Berk’s renovation plans for people’s homes.

Dobosz says “Queer Eye” isn’t a renovation show, but she says, “Netflix was actually more intrigued with some of the renovations.”

What was originally supposed to be one bedroom renovation per show turned into also a living room, dining room, kitchen and sometimes a bathroom, too.

“Basically, you go in on a Tuesday night and give it back to them by Thursday afternoon,” Dobosz says.

“Our guys put in some crazy hours,” she says. “Everyone kind of enjoyed the thrill of being able to pull something like that off.”

She says they came to get a feel for doing a renovation around the clock for 36 hours.

“We have great guys that work for us,” says Rock Construction co-owner Jason Layman. “They’re absolute warriors.”

Dobosz says the guys were simultaneously excited and nervous.

“We had a few who loved to ham it up.”

She was not one of them.

“Personally, I’m pretty camera shy.”

Rock business development director April Winn-Patrick says it was Dobosz who was the calm force when things got crazy with the renovations.

“I love a little bit of managed chaos,” Dobosz says. “It’s very exciting to get in and watch something turn around like that.”

She says the scope of the work would change without warning, and there were high tempers and high stress.

At the end, though, she says it was great to “high five and shake hands and realize what everybody just did together.”

The crew didn’t spend a lot of time around the stars of the show, but Dobosz says Berk was great to work with.

“He’s very down to earth and easy to work for,” she says. “He’s pretty much what you see on TV. He really is fantastic.”

Dobosz says there’s not a lot of money to be made by doing TV shows like the ones Rock has participated in.

“Why are we doing this?” Layman asked many times.

Dobosz says she was “completely fascinated” by doing “Extreme Home Makeover,” and she says she’s enjoyed getting out from behind her computer for all the shows.

Despite what Layman says, Dobosz says she isn’t willing to give up the TV jobs. She says she’ll say yes if “Queer Eye” calls again, and she says so will Layman.

“He’s already on board, and he just doesn’t know it yet.”

This story was originally published April 4, 2019 at 5:00 AM.