Diamond Certified Video Reports

All Seasons Construction in 5 Useful Answers

• Play from Beginning
• How did you get into this industry?
• What’s the favorite thing you enjoy about the work that you do?
• Tell me a short story about an interesting job or customer.
• What are the handful of questions shoppers should be asking companies in your industry before they b
• What makes your company different from the other companies in your industry?

All Seasons Construction - Diamond Certified 5 Useful Answers - video transcript

. Uh, I've got an unusual career background. I used to be a trial lawyer in Washington DC. Uh, got burned out on that and was looking for a business opportunity, and I found this business. It was for sale back in 2006, and I spoke to the owner, and I saw what he was doing, and I thought, you know what, I think I can do that. I wanted to own a company with real employees, and so I decided I'm gonna buy it. So, I bought this company, came with the foreman, came with the crew, came with the expertise, and I took it from. I tripled the business since 2006 in terms of volume without tripling the workforce. It's the same workforce as I inherited back in 2006. Well, foundation work is expensive, and it's a painful check for homeowners to write. But we regularly get feedback from homeowners after we have finished that they feel so much better about their house and the security of their house in earthquake country, which is where we live, and I've never had anybody contact me afterwards and said oh man, that was a big waste of money. It is a hard check to write, but every 100 or so years, you've got to address the structural elements of your house, and most people are very glad that they did. There's been an uptick in people who want to create new living space on a lower level, for example, you've got a five or six-foot tall crawl space and you need a new foundation. Well, a new foundation is an expensive investment, but this would be a good opportunity to dig out that crawl space a couple of feet. Instead of regular thirty-foot footings around the perimeter, put a retaining wall footing and create a new eight-foot living space on the lower level instead of a crawl space. It's more expensive but the return on investment is significant. We've had a couple of couples, young couples who wanted me. I came over and they said we want to do like half of our basement that way and the other half leave it as crawl space, and I've told them, you know what, every single time a homeowner changes their mind and goes from a half to a full dig out, they do not regret it. Nobody ever regrets having more living space. So we've had a couple of customers who were very happy that I sort of steered them in that direction. The work that we do is not commonplace. There really are only a few highly qualified structural concrete contractors in the area, and you need to be sure you are dealing with one of them because issues do come up during the course of the job, and there needs to be a certain level of expertise at the ownership level and at the foreman level to handle those problems. We have W-2 employees under your house, we don't use day laborers picked up at Home Depot, and a lot of my competitors do. They keep their labor costs down by hiring the foreman but using day laborers for the crew. All of my employees are W-2. Next thing, are they lead paint certified? It's a very difficult process to achieve certification, and it's a pain in the butt to follow all the rules, but we're the only foundation contractor that follows safe lead paint practices, and almost every house in Oakland and Berkeley has lead paint on it, so this is an important thing to ask any potential contractor you're considering. We are genuinely nice people. Um, Jeremy and I are nice guys. We're easy to deal with. All of my foremen get rave reviews from their uh, homeowner customers that wow, John, Sergio, Miguel, they were so great to work with. So we are nice and pleasant to deal with. We also know what we're doing. When I look at a job, I know all the aspects that need to be factored into the price, so you're not going to be hit with change orders because I missed something, because I don't miss things. The only change orders happen is when the homeowner says I want more of this or less of this. I think of things in advance, they're all factored into the price. We may not be the least expensive, but we're the most thorough, and we're the most easy to work with.