Aging in Place Remodeling: How One Contractor Turned a Niche Into a Mission | Chris Moore

Most contractors chase any project that comes through the door. Chris Moore took a different path — and built a thriving specialty remodeling company that serves one of the fastest-growing and most underserved markets in North America: homeowners who want to age safely and comfortably in their own homes.

In this episode of the Digital Remodeler podcast, host Carl Willis sits down with Chris Moore from Senior Remodeling Experts — a 40-year industry veteran, certified aging in place specialist, and CAPS-certified instructor — to talk about how specialization, mission-driven business, and a completely restructured sales process transformed his company and his life.

What's covered in this episode:
✅ How Chris got his start in construction 40 years ago — and the master builder who shaped his standards
✅ The personal experience that led him to specialize in aging in place and accessibility remodeling
✅ Why aging in place isn't really about age — it's about the disconnect between the built environment and a person's abilities
✅ The psychological resistance homeowners have to accessibility modifications — and how to reframe the conversation
✅ What actually triggers a homeowner to finally take action (and why waiting until a crisis makes everything harder)
✅ Where most contractors miss the mark when working with older homeowners
✅ The critical technical skills required for aging in place work — curbless showers, grab bar anchoring, and waterproofing
✅ Why Chris stopped doing free estimates after watching a client build his exact deck design with someone else
✅ His structured consultation and project development process — including a paid estimate model that weeds out tire kickers
✅ How to position your company as the premium choice during times of economic uncertainty
✅ The CAPS certification and how contractors can become true specialists — not just add it as a service
✅ Why collaboration with occupational therapists and other professionals is the key to doing this work right

If you're a remodeling contractor looking to differentiate, command better margins, and serve a growing market with real purpose — this episode is for you.

🔹 Connect with Chris Moore — Senior Remodeling Experts:
🌐 ageinplacespecialists.com / seniorremodelingexperts.com

🔹 Ready to build a marketing system that positions your remodeling company as the go-to specialist in your market?

Schedule a free strategy session with Remodeling Marketing Team 👉 https://www.remodelingmarketingteam.com/get-started
📞 888-350-7859

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Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Digital Remodeler Podcast. So glad you've chosen to join us today. And with me is Chris Moore from Senior Remodeling Experts. Chris, so glad you've chosen to join us today. And we're going to dive into your story and talk a little bit about uh your experiences and specialization. And thank you for joining us today.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Well, thank you for having me. It's an honor.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

And so, Chris, take us back a little bit. How did you get started, first of all, in the remodeling industry? And then we're going to talk about really what led you into specialization from there.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Okay. So 40 years ago, I was sitting in the employment office in Palm Springs, California, and needed a few dollars in my pocket. And a call came in for a carpenter helper. And I grew up on a farm and knew which end of a hammer to hold. So I thought that, you know, I might qualify as a helper. And the the contractor was a Czechoslovakian trained master builder by the name of Karl Hosek. And he was building an addition on a house in Palm Springs. And he needed a helper. And so I worked for him for four months and learned more from that man in four months than most people learn in a lifetime. It was a priceless introduction to the uh the world of construction because he believed in doing things one way, and that was the right way. And we

Learning Craft From A Master

SPEAKER_01 1:39

did everything on that edition except for the electrical. He did the framing, the siding, the roofing, the plumbing. Didn't do it, didn't do drywall or or or beyond that, but we, you know, we did all of that. And so I learned the the basics of how to how to build. And it was it was really a great experience. I I still remember the story he told me when he was in school in Czechoslovakia to learn construction. They were given a project, which was two blocks of wood and a plane. And the job was to get the two blocks so smooth that you could pick up one with the other one like two sheets of glass. And if, you know, the the that was the assignment. And when you have accomplished this, come back. And if you don't accomplish it, don't bother coming back. And that was the that was the level of precision to which he had been trained. And you know, when you look around today in our construction world, that's a very rare commodity. And he he not only had that level of training, he had a level of ingenuity that I have rarely seen. Part of it was a garage. And one day a truck backed up and delivered a glue lamb beam. And the glue lamb beam was 18 feet long and six inches wide and 22 inches tall. And I don't know what it weighed, but the walls were 10 feet tall, and the beam was laying there on the on the garage floor, and it had to go on top of the walls. And there were just the two of us, and we didn't have any equipment. And I was wondering how in the world we were going to get this beam up on top of that wall. Didn't seem to bother him. And right next door lived a young lady who had a number of suitors that would call on her periodically. And a lot of them were muscle beach types. And he just waited until there were two or three of them walking up her sidewalk. And he yelled out, I bet you guys can't lift this beam and set it on top of this wall. Oh, yes, we can. And they came over and set it up there. And he said, Well, I apologize. I I'm wrong. You guys are way stronger than I thought you were. And they said, Well, you want us to put it back down on the floor? He said, No, just leave it up there. And so that was my that was my foundation into construction. And that was his last project. He was going to retire and build himself a fishing boat and become a commercial fisherman in Alaska. And so after that, I went to work for a layout contractor in the in the tracks of Southern California, very much outdoor assembly line. Everybody got paid by the foot. It was a three, four, five hundred home subdivision, maybe three floor plans. Each one had a couple of elevations just to mix it up a little bit. But you're basically building the same three houses over and over. And everybody kind of memorized their part and it just down the line it went. And so not too long after that, I moved back to Virginia where I grew up and took a took an estimating class at the local community college. And the instructor of the class hired me as a carpenter and worked for a couple other people. And eventually went back to school, got a degree, and got a job as a trust salesman at a trust plant, selling roof trusses, floor trusses, wall panels, house packages, and did that for seven years. And then started my own company and went into went into building. And that was in 01. And for the first seven years, mostly did mostly did new construction, build new houses, did some framing, did a couple of additions, but mostly framing, you know, big cut-up houses, round turrets, curved staircases, movie theaters in the basement, you know, big, big stuff back when everybody knew that the housing market was just going to continue going up and up and up forever. And so you could build any size house you wanted and make money on it. And of course, you know, 08 came along and all that came to a screeching halt. And it was really at that time that my mom and dad, they had been living in Arizona for 15 years or so. My mom had a stroke, and they moved back to Virginia to be closer to family and get some help. And not too long after they got

From New Builds To The Crash

SPEAKER_01 6:58

here, my mom fell and broke her pelvis, and she went in the hospital and then went to rehab. And in the meantime, my dad found a home and bought it. And so she came home to her new home in a wheelchair. And like most of the homes in this area, there are five or six steps going in the front door and five or six steps going in the back door. And so I built my first wheelchair ramp and did some swing clear hinges and some grab bars and a few other things, you know, for my mom. And so that's when I got to thinking there's probably a lot of people that are in this same situation that are having, you know, mobility challenges and trouble getting around their homes

The First Ramp For Mom

SPEAKER_01 7:40

and live in what we call Peter Pan housing, housing built for people that never grow old. And so I began to educate myself about aging in place and universal design. And that was kind of how I got started doing the accessibility work. And that was 08, so 18 years ago. And since then, that has become a larger and larger part of my business. And we do a lot of grant work for disabled veterans, and we do a lot of accessible bathrooms and accessible entryways and widening doorways and non-slip flooring and all things that make homes really more user-friendly. And we call it aging in place, but it's really not about age. It's about a home being a good fit for the abilities of the person who's living there. Currently doing a job where the client is a 12-year-old girl who had a sledding accident and ran headfirst into a tree and broke her neck. And she's been at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta since January and is coming home beginning of June. And we're making some accommodations to make that make that possible. So just creating homes that work for people is very rewarding. And I've an illustration I've used recently is that a disability is not so much an inability to do something, it's a disconnect between the in the built environment and your abilities. So if you or I walk up to a home and the steps on this home, rather than being seven inches tall like normal steps, are seven feet tall, then you and I are disabled in relation to that home because I can't climb seven foot-tall steps. And I assume you would have a hard time as well. Unless maybe there was a bear chasing us, we we might pull it off. So, you know, that's that's kind of how I got into the to the accessibility market. And, you know, it's been it's been very rewarding. And at the same time, it's it's very challenging because people have a resistance to the idea of making changes to their home because they associate that with aging, which they associate with getting weaker and sicker. People have a very negative perception of what it means to get older. We we spend a lot of time and effort in our society to maintain the appearance of youth. And we we really worship the idea of youthfulness. And we discount the idea of the wisdom of the ages, the wisdom and the understanding and the knowledge that we gain from having lived a long life. And so in some of my adjacent activities, I'm I'm working on changing the mindset and the perception people have towards getting older.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

That's good. So so somewhere in here, you you had to make that shift to where this really was more about not just being construction and remodeling, but it really became a mission for you. And you know, let's talk about that that shift. And and when it became more of a mission than just I'm gonna call it a an industry, right? You know, how did that really change the way you approached your business?

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Well, you know, you hear a lot if you go to if you go to business seminars, if you read business books, if you, you know, follow, you know, business coaches, you hear a lot about what's your why? You know, what's your what's your reason? What is your what is your motivation for why you do what you do? And I think that's so important because in in whatever we do in life, if if our if our why is nothing more than bringing home a paycheck,

Turning Remodeling Into A Mission

SPEAKER_01 11:46

then you know, we're not going to be real passionate about it. But if our why is making a difference in people's lives, then we I can get excited about that. And really, that's what the mission is, is to change the face of aging, to change the perception that people have about getting older and about what a blessing it is to be older. People say, you know, never get old, never, you know, and old, there's all kinds of connotations around that word, but just for the for the sake of discussion right now, we're talking about chronological age. We're talking about having lived a certain number of years on this planet. And I had somebody say that to me today, earlier, you know, never, never get old. And I says, well, you know, compared to the alternative, and people take life for granted so often. You know, we here in the United States of America, we have so much. We have, you know, such abundance. We have, you know, material abundance, we have, you know, food and water at at Wim, we're where all of all of our basic needs and beyond are met. And compared to many places in the world, and you know this better than I do, we're we live like kings. And even the poorest people in America live like kings compared to what what a bunch of the rest of the world is. And so people who are who are sitting and complaining about that, you know, I'm old and I've got aches and pains, and I've got this and I've got that, and oh, you know, my life is is is over and all my grand adventures are behind me, and you know, what do I have to live for? It just it just boggles my mind. And a few years ago, I had the experience of losing my wife Barbara to lung cancer at the age of 55. And I mean, that just rocked my world and it just shook me to the core. And I knew in intellectually that none of us are promised tomorrow. Right? I mean, I if if somebody said that, yeah, you know, I can I can assent to that intellectually, but to feel it in the way that I felt it when I watched her take her last breath made me realize that life is short in a way that never had I experienced prior to that. And it made me recognize that all of the things that maybe I plan to do someday were never going to happen unless I made someday become today. And that was cemented in my mind a few months later when I'm walking by the river, and I suddenly had a memory. I remembered that 33 years earlier, just months after we got married, she was diagnosed with encephalitis and she was rushed to the hospital. She lost her speech, she lost her eyesight, she had seizures, she didn't know who I was. She told me later, I knew I liked you, but I couldn't figure out who you were. Who's this guy that keeps coming to see me in my hospital room? And she was laying in her hospital bed, and the only thing she knew, she knew Jesus was, and she knew who her three boys were. And she said, Jesus, if you will let me live, I will tell my teach my boys about you. And she felt the Holy Spirit come down like a quilt over her bed at that moment. And not suddenly, not instantaneously, but over the next several months, she got better. She was healed. And so much to the point that when she came home from the hospital because of the encephalitis, her brain was at a three-year-old level. And 11 months later, she went and took her GED test and passed it. But what occurred to me that day on the river was that I had a choice. I could be distraught and broken and dismayed and bitter that she died at 55, or I could be ecstatically grateful that she didn't die at 22, and that we had 33 good years together. And that choice of choosing my perspective on the events that I had experienced set me free. And it's what gives us power over hardship, because we can reframe how we perceive whatever event that we're going through.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Whatever was yeah, and I I think that's powerful, Chris. You know, as you as you talk about, you know, that change from trade to mission, and now this perspective of your own life experience, and now how you you push that into the way you approach things, I think that's critical um to now how you approach you know the things you're doing today. So so that brings uh up this question, you know, where where do you see most contractors completely missing the mark, especially when they're dealing with older homeowners?

SPEAKER_01 18:16

I think that builders, contractors, trades people in general have a natural tendency to cling pretty tightly to the status quo. Right? We have we have a certain methodology for building a deck, for installing a door, for framing a roof, for every aspect of what we do. For those of us that have been in the in the industry for a while, we know we know a way we've been taught to do. We know that it works. Some other way it might work, it might not work. And there's been any number

Why Contractors Miss Older Needs

SPEAKER_01 19:03

of new products that have come to market that did not turn out to be what they said they were. The the fire-treated plywood in the in the 70s is a prime example. This new fire-treated plywood came out and it was used in apartment buildings all over the Northeast. And 20 years later, they discovered that this particular treatment process, when exposed to a hot attic for 20 years, turns into dust. And millions and millions and millions of dollars was spent in going back and replacing, you know, all this plywood that had disintegrated. And so if something doesn't move the needle to get us to try something new, I personally had a project years ago. We we put in a fence, a wooden privacy fence. And as I was buying the materials for this fence, I passed this display in Lowe's, and it said, alternative to concrete for setting fence posts. And it's a little bag, epoxy bag, and you sh and you break the seal and you mix it together and you pour it in the hole, and it's foam and expands. And instead of an 80-pound bag of concrete, you got this little two-pound bag of epoxy. And I'm like, sign me up. So I bought this stuff and I built this fence. And about two months later, I get a very sheepish sounding phone call from the client. And she said, Chris, all my fence posts are leaning over. You you wouldn't by any chance come and fix that, would you? And, you know, she was really thinking that, you know, I wasn't going to take responsibility for my actions. And I told her, yes, of course, we're going to fix it. And so I went back out there and I scraped all this foam out of the holes and I mixed concrete and and poured it back in the holes. And that was gotta be 15 years ago. And I'm still getting phone calls to do work for this client.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

Because we showed ourselves to be someone who stood behind their product and you know would stand behind their work. But that's that's kind of a long way around of saying that, you know, contractors tend to do things the way they've always the way they've always done them. And that and the fact that the resistance that I spoke of earlier, you have to, you have to, you know, you have to do some digging and some persuasion and some family counseling and some and some just a whole a whole plethora of different. Activities to get people to sign up for, you know, what I found was the more people need modifications, the less they want them. Because in their mind, it represents that they're admitting that they think they think it's admitting them they're frail and they're decrepit and their their best days are behind them. And so you have to reframe that into, well, no, this is this is smart planning. If we if we make a home that's user-friendly and will work for people throughout the course of their life, it's kind of like car insurance. You hope you never have to use it, but if you need it, you're awful glad you have it. And nobody I've ever heard at the end of their policy year says about their car insurance, darn it, I didn't have an accident this year. I wasted my car insurance.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

That's good. You know, so so that brings up a question. You know, in your experience, what does generally trigger someone to finally take action? You know, what what's where when do they finally decide I gotta make the call?

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Unfortunately, it's often, you know, after a traumatic event. It's after they've fallen and broken their hip, or after they've, you know, had a stroke or or had you know some kind of incident, at which point their options are severely limited. Yeah. You know, you have to do something very quickly at that point. And then just the the medical necessity and the training and everything that goes with that makes it far more difficult than it is if it had been a more proactive approach. And interestingly, almost a hundred percent of the people that come to me, what's

What Finally Makes People Act

SPEAKER_01 23:57

what's called in the aging in place specialist training, the segment without urgent need. So the proactive people, the people that, you know, don't have any any major health problems right now. But, you know, they're maybe they're building a new house and they say, I want this to be my forever home, or they're doing a remodel and you know, we want it to be there if we need it. Those people are almost exclusively people who have been caregivers, people who have cared for someone else with physical or cognitive or mobility sensory challenges. And they know what it's like to try to manhandle somebody in and out of a tub, or you know, help somebody that's can barely walk up and down stairs, or get get no get in a walker through a two-foot-wide door. And so they say, you know, I don't want to put someone else through that. And so I'm going to make my home accessible now. And, you know, I've really been thinking lately about, you know, beyond just accessibility, how do we design homes that have kitchens that encourage, you know, healthful cooking? How do we have homes that encourage visits, encourage social interaction, homes that maybe have a workout room that encourage exercise, that encourage people to live a healthy, vital life that will help them to avoid that that decline in the first place. One of the things that that I find fascinating is this model we have of retirement. And, you know, people, the the conventional wisdom, if you want to call it that, is that you know, you work till you're 65 and then you stop doing everything and you just sit down and you just put your feet up, rest the rest of your life. And many people don't live very long when they do that because they don't have a purpose, they don't have a reason to get up in the morning, and they have at the height of their earning years, all their knowledge and wisdom over a lifetime, they just put it on the shelf. And there are, and I think we suffer as a society when the old people live in one section of town and the young families live in another section of town, and the college students live in a third section, and there's very little interaction between generations. I had a I had a very interesting experience at the International Builder Show in Orlando, February. Sitting there eating lunch, and I happened to be eating teriyaki chicken with chopsticks. And a young Japanese man came and sat across the table from me and started eating pizza with his fingers. And he was in his 20s, I'm in my 60s, and we struck up a conversation and we talked about the differences between Japanese culture and American culture, and how older people are traditionally revered and held in high esteem in Japan more than they are in the United States, and culturally how that plays out and how it affects, you know, young people's perception as they're growing up and so on and so forth. And, you know, learned a lot about the difference in our cultures. But then at the end of the conversation, he said, this conversation would never have happened in Japan. And I said, What do you mean? He said, Well, you just don't walk up to somebody that you don't know and strike up a conversation. It's just not done. And so it made me think that while I appreciate the reverence for seniors and the reverence for elders in that society, I appreciate our openness to, you know, strike up a conversation with a stranger. Because I've learned lots from lots of people by by doing that and meeting people and and intentionally forging relationships with people who are different than I am, who hold different opinions than I do, who are from a different generation, who are from a different ethnic background. And it I think it opens our it opens our mind to realize how much of what we consider to be a given is a cultural bias. It's the way we were raised. It's just the way that people in the particular corner of the world that we grew up in behave. But it's not at all the way everybody in the world behaves. That's right. And then then you begin to say, okay, well, what what assumptions am I carrying around that should be examined and decide intentionally whether those are valid or not. And I I I it's a it's a fascinating, it's it's a fascinating way to live. And I think so many people are trapped in there in the in the world that they have created for themselves. That's true. And not even knowing, not even knowing that it's based on assumptions that may or may not be true.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

Let's let's talk about you know, along those lines, because I want to I want to shift people's paradigm a little bit who are listening as well. Uh one of the things you've done that's that's kind of unique is and there's always a debate about this in in the industry. When someone reaches out to you and and they start that conversation, what does that conversation look like? You know, there's a lot of discussions about do you do free estimates, do you do paid estimates? So what does that consultation look like? And I know you've got a very structured approach to how you work with somebody who's reaching out, asking for help, asking you to take a look at their home and you know what type of work you're going to be doing. I want you to talk through what that process looks like because it's very comprehensive, it's very holistic. It's one of the things I appreciate about your approach because it's very thorough and you're very upfront about what it entails. And I kind of want to put that that framework

The Paid Consultation Framework

SPEAKER_00 30:57

into the minds of those who are listening because I think sometimes contractors and are very quick to oh, there's a live one, and if I if I don't just give the farm away and and give that free estimate, I may not get the business. And and you really have taken a very counterintuitive approach to your business. So I'd like you to talk through that.

SPEAKER_01 31:21

Yeah. Well, before I answer that, I'm going to tell you how I got cured of free estimates. And and it didn't, it didn't happen overnight, but this was the incident that made me realize that that probably was not a wise model. So I got a I got a phone call, and somebody wanted to build a deck around their above-ground pool. They wanted some steps. And they described, I went out and met with them and measured their pool and got a description of what they were looking for. And I came home and I took a graph paper and a pencil, and I spent, I don't know, probably, I don't know how many hours I spent. I spent a good bit of time doing a very detailed drawing of the deck that I was proposing to build for them. And it included the details on the railings and the stairs and all the dimensions and where the footings would go and what the support posts were and all the framing and everything. And then I worked up a price and I went back out there and I handed them my drawing and I handed them my proposal with my price on it, and they said that they'd have to think about it, and they would they'd call me back and let me know. And I never heard back from them, but I happened to be driving down that street some months later, and I looked over, and there surrounding their pool was a deck exactly the way I had designed it. And I felt kind of like I'd just gotten punched in the gut. And I said, I'll never do that again. And I didn't know what to do, but I didn't know how to get around it because you know, as far as I knew, all contractors gave free estimates. And that was kind of, you know, you if you didn't, nobody's gonna pay you for an estimate. But, you know, over the years I've I found out that people in fact will pay you for an estimate. And so what our what our process looks like now, when someone first calls in, they normally talk to Sarah, my office manager, on the phone, and she gets from them, you know, where they're located, what type of projects they're interested in, some uh questions about what's motivating the project, and and so on and so forth. And if it passes that initial gateway, she will then schedule a phone call with me and I will dig in a little bit more about what they're looking for. Try to get a feel for what their budget is. And I know there's controversy about this too, about at what point do you ask the budget question. But to me, I've had way too many people that you know we go far into the process only to find out that you know the $50,000 project they thought was going to be $3,000. And, you know, there's no way in the world they're they have the the resources or the inclination to spend $50,000 on anything. So I I try to get a feel for their budget, I try to get a feel for their time frame. And if it it looks like it's gonna be a fit, then I'll schedule a site visit. And then I'll go out of the site visit and we'll get measurements. And then if I at that point have a good feel for what I think the budget's going to be, I will give them a budget range on this on the spot. And I've gotten a little gun shy about this in the last four, five, six years because prices have changed so rapidly that I've gotten myself in trouble given a budget range too early. So normally what I'll do is I'll get measurements, I'll I'll get the scope of work, and I say, let me let me go back and do a little research on this, and I will sit down with our estimating software and work up a range. And then I will go back to them and say, you know, I think your project's going to be between 100,000 and 125, not to exceed 130. Here's what, here's the assumptions I've made in that in coming up with that range. And then at that point, I will present a project development agreement and get a 5% deposit of the median of that range. And so that does two things. Number one, it weeds out the tire kickers, and so at that point, if people are really serious about moving forward, they have to make a commitment. And then that shows me that they're serious. And number two, it it gives me the the cash flow to take my time in really putting together a an actual firm price proposal rather than an estimate. We say free estimate. Well, when I gave them that range, that was the free estimate. You know, the definition of the word estimate is, you know, we think it's somewhere in here. But the word free estimate has come to mean in the construction industry not an estimate, but a proposal. People expect a free proposal. They want to call three people and have three people do a whole bunch of work and then give them a number, which especially in remodeling, is not apples to apples, because the specifications are not spelled out. Oftentimes there's not any plans. Maybe there's a sketch on a napkin. And so contractor A is assuming hardwood floors, and contractor B is assuming sheep vinyl, and you know, the level of care, the level of craftsmanship, the level of surface protection that contractor A and contractor B use are completely different. So creating that value up front, having references, having pictures, having, you know, Google reviews of other people who have have used our work and having people who said, Yeah, I'm more than happy to have them come look at my job. And then getting that deposit. And then at that point, we go back to the drawing board and we get the blueprints drawn and we have them make all the selections. We have an interior designer that we work with that that walks the clients through all of their color selections and tile and cabinet and all the selections that go into a project. And so that when we go back to them with a construction proposal, we say, here's the profits. And we do define, you know, a few defined instances where that could change. But generally speaking, we give people a firm price that they can take to the bank. And that has value in that many of the contractors in my area do cost plus pricing. And they, you know, the the project could cost way more and take way longer than it was originally agreed upon. And I was I was listening to another podcast recently, and it talked about during times of economic uncertainty, people are looking for certainty. And it said that even in the Great Depression, when the unemployment rate was 25%, 75% of the people still had a job. But 100% of the people were anxious about losing their job because the the economic environment was such that people didn't know. And so when we have times of economic uncertainty, people want certainty. And the company that has been well established and has a presence and they they see them and they've talked to people who have used them and they're they're well established and are a known commodity in the marketplace, are much more certain than the chuck in the truck, who's likely to have a price that's way lower. But in the interest of certainty, people are more inclined during times of economic uncertainty to choose the more expensive contractor. And I never thought about it in those terms, but it makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And so portraying ourselves as the the premium alternative, you know, and I and I tell people if you're looking for the lowest price, I'm not your guy. You know, we do a five-year warranty on everything we do. We take a lot of extra care in your home, we run HEPA air filters to keep dust from getting all throughout your house. And we are very much aware that if you entrust us to come into your home and make changes, we take that trust very seriously. And we would, I mean, I would rather I would rather take a beating than you know, come in and lose some of that trust that I have built up over 25 years.

SPEAKER_00 41:42

That's good. That being said, you know, what are some things you see other contractors doing in this space in particular that concern you?

SPEAKER_01 41:57

Well, in the in the aging and place space, the you know, the the whole idea of a curbless shower is is something that is is a great benefit to anybody with accessibility issues. Climbing over the tub wall or even you know, a shower curb can be a place where a lot of falls occur. But knowing how to properly waterproof a curbless shower is a skill set that a lot of contractors don't have. We had a job a number of years ago where it was a worker's comp case. The man had fallen and broken his back, and some workers' comp had paid somebody to put a curbless shower in this man's bathroom, and they had no idea how to do it. It leaked when we were

Costly Mistakes In Accessibility Work

SPEAKER_01 42:45

called in. The water had gotten down into the crawl space, into the substrate, into the framing. There was mold everywhere. It was a it was a very hazardous situation from uh just a breathing standpoint, respiratory, and much less the the mobility concern. So we go in there and tear it all out and do it, do it properly. So that's an issue. Anchoring of grab bars properly is is an issue. I always say an improperly installed grab bar is worse than none at all because people think that they can rely on it, and then when they need it, it it comes out of the wall. Seen a lot of of homeowner installed bars that were like that. So in in regards to the the aging of placework, that's a that's a common thing that I see. One of the questions that I get asked all the time is you're not gonna tear a house apart and then we're not gonna see you for three weeks, are are you? So that must happen a lot. And it's it's real easy when you start out as a contractor and you to think that you can take on more work than you actually have the capacity for. And I think that's one of the things that drives that is you've sold a bunch of jobs and you've got to get them started so you can get a draw, but you don't have enough manpower to really finish it. And so you've got projects going on half done all over the place. And you know it's not necessarily that people are fraudulent or deceptive. It just got in over their head. But the end result is the same. And it it leaves people with a bad taste in their mouth and it creates a negative perception of the of the industry as a whole. And you know we've all heard stories. We've all you know had people that you know had a bad experience with with a contractor. And one of the one of the things I heard is there's no industry where you have as much potential liability as a remodeling contract. You're going into somebody's house you're opening up walls the potential to you know nick a electrical wire. We did an addition where we we had the underground electric located and we were digging very carefully by hand in that area but still nicked the sheathing on the on the cable. And you know I I sealed it up with silicone and I thought I had it taken care of. But a few months later I got a phone call from the from the client on the 4th of July of course and half of their electricity in their house was gone. So one of the main power cables had gotten wet and corroded and so one leg of their service was no longer functioning. So I had to go over there with my electrical contractor on the 4th of July and move all of the essential circuits to one side of the of the panel box until we could get a new line put in but yeah you know there there's a lot of there's a lot of liability there's a lot of potential and people often say well why is it so expensive? Well that's that's one of the reasons is that you have to you know you have to account that if something like that happens as a result of your work you got to take care of it. That's right. Yeah yeah so let's talk uh you know along this lines what separates a a true specialist you know as is the population you know you get this aging population what separates a a true specialist in this field from someone that's just adding it as a service you you just mentioned that you know somebody comes along oh yeah we can do that for you but there's a difference I know you you one of the things that that sets you apart is you've got some some certifications so how does a contractor who wants to to really focus in on this aging in place this this growing market how do they become a specialist and not just somebody who's adding that as a service what are some of the things they can be doing well a great place to start the National Association of Home Builders has a designation called CAPS it's certified aging in place specialist there's a three-day training involved in earning that designation

Training And Teamwork To Specialize

SPEAKER_01 47:44

I happen to be an approved instructor for that training and teach it several times a year got four sessions coming up the rest of the year people can access that at ageinplace specialists dot com. And that's a great place to start I would say that I partner with an occupational therapist in my area and when we go to see new clients he brings the medical aspect of looking at their situation I bring the construction aspect my podcast is called Aging in Place is a team sport. And I think that collaboration is is vital. So I would say get the training find other people in your local market that do other aspects occupational therapy physical therapy transportation is often an issue and people reach the point that it's not safe for them to drive anymore having services where people are able to get to their appointments and run their errands and so on and so forth. And just you know do do some research do some do some reading there are a number of Facebook groups there are a number of LinkedIn groups there's a lot of dialogue relating to how do we help people have the quality of life in their later years that they deserve after you know contributing to raising family and running a business or or working in the marketplace for all the years that they have I think that it's it's the least that we can do to provide a decent and comfortable life for them and to recognize the the importance of their wisdom and their years of experience to the rest of us. I've learned a lot of what I know in the School of Hard Knox. And if I can you know lessen someone else's tenure in the school of hard knocks by you know helping them understand some of the lessons that I've learned I described to you know Carl Hosick who I learned a lot from and there's there's many people over the years that I have been privileged to to learn from and I've had a philosophy really all my life that I try to learn something from everybody that I encounter and because I think that everybody's got something to teach me. Everybody's got some gift some understanding some knowledge that I don't have and if I can find out what that is and glean a little bit of it then that has made my life richer.

SPEAKER_00 50:36

That's good.

SPEAKER_01 50:38

And as we kind of close out here you know for anybody who's listening today what's that one piece of wisdom you'd like to leave for them I would say take the time to recognize the gift of the person in front of you that you're talking to take the time to if you're a contractor take the time to really listen to that prospect that you're talking to about a project find out what their needs are find out what their what their pain points are. Why are they why are they considering making this change? What is it about the the way their home currently is situated that that doesn't work for them that doesn't meet their needs and and really discover that why and if you are and and carry that not just in business but in everything you do in in your family in your in your

Listening First And Serving Well

SPEAKER_01 51:38

neighbors in your acquaintances look for opportunities to be of service to people look for opportunities to make a difference in somebody's life because Zig Ziggler said years ago he said you can have everything you want in life as long as you help enough other people get whatever they want in life. And I think so often when we're in business we it's easy to get consumed by what we need for the business. But I would suggest that you spend more time thinking how you can serve your clients how you can how you can serve your employees your vendors your subcontractors and you know your clients in a way that adds value to their life because if you're adding value to their life then they are going to be more than willing to add value back to your life it's the law of reciprocity but if we're only thinking about what we can get we miss that opportunity to be to bring value to somebody else well said well said and I think that's just a critical critical nugget to leave we get so caught up sometimes in just the the project that we forget the person and the the real purpose behind that.

SPEAKER_00 53:14

And it's easy to do because there's a hundred million you know details you got to keep up with and and you know things are things have to happen in a certain order and and you know it can get frantic and overwhelming a hundred percent but if you lose sight of the objective then it it really gets over yeah absolutely well Chris thanks for taking time out today to share your experiences and a little bit about your business with the audience today and we appreciate you joining us on the digital remodeler. And to our audience thanks for tuning in today we look forward to having you on the next episode.

SPEAKER_01 53:54

Thanks Carl