Forks In The Road Of Life

Sometimes It’s A Chance Meeting Of Someone That Changes The Course Of Our Lives.

Sometimes it’s a “failure” that happens that starts something big and wonderful. Sometimes it’s a spark of an idea that we turn toward that alters everything.

You don’t want to be stressed out trying and have no time to relax or be spontaneous.
Life is like that. Each day is filled with new and unpredictable encounters. Most are nothing, and a few are mighty seeds of your future. Which are what we have a lot of control over.

College was never talked about in my family. No one in my family had ever gone to college and there was no money anyway. I went to a technical high school and was in the carpentry class. When I graduated high school I put an ad in the newspaper – “Carpentry, call Larry. No job too small.” I got calls, showed up, and did lots of repairs and installations; porches railings, decks, windows, roofing, small additions, tile work…

One year in, at age 18 I got a call. “Can you build a house for me?” It was 1983 and there was a building boom going on.

Here is the big fork – this moment.

So, me at 18 years old, my friend at 17 years old, and my little brother Rick who was on summer vacation at just 14 years old built that house – a 3,000-square-foot contemporary.

We showed up every day and worked until dark for 6 weeks. We framed it, and put in the windows and doors, siding, roofing, and decks.

My diligence was noticed and the neighbors who owed the lots on the left and on the right wanted me to build their homes too – and I did. Over the course of 5 years I built 23 homes, and I learned a lot. But alas, the building boom turned to a bust, and banks were not lending anymore in 1987. The last home I built has a shrinkage crack in the foundation wall that was leaking. I had to figure out how to repair it.

Another big fork in the road. Here we go. It wasn’t easy to figure things out back then as it is today. There was no Google, no YouTube…but I did it. I had to figure out what I’d do next. I couldn’t build any more houses because they were not selling. Hmmm, maybe other people have problems with leaks in their basements….and boom. I’m in the basement waterproofing business!

That was 1987. A long time ago. And when you do something for so long, you figure a lot of things out and get pretty good at it. The business was quite primitive back then. Today I have 32 patents on products I have developed to make things better for our customers. I have a great team of people who have stayed with me for many years. It’s one of my greatest joys.

I have seen other companies and characters come and go from our industry. And we are still here, getting better and better all the time.

We have long since expanded to bring our way of thinking and brand of business to other services – crawl spaces, foundation repair, air purification, insulation, basement finishing, roofing, gutters, and more.

I’m 60 years old now. I love my work and leading my people.

I am the steward of my teams and my customers. It’s a great honor. If we can be of assistance to you in any way, just call us. It’s what we are here for and it would be our pleasure. 

-Larry