Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Creating a design concept for a kitchen or remodeling an outdated bathroom requires an understanding of the products and services available to those looking to undertake such a project. The ProSource Podcast breaks down the home remodeling industry and highlights the merchandise and experience that it requires to achieve your vision. Join ProSource Director of Digital Marketing Content Kevin Devine, as he speaks with those who facilitate the ideal project and offer valuable information for how to choose the ideal products and services that transform your ideas into reality.
Welcome back to The ProSource Podcast.
I am sitting here with Jeff Roesner.
He is a trade pro member
at ProSource of Huntsville, Alabama.
He's also the owner and founder
of Artisan Wood, Tile and Stone.
Artisan Wood Tile & Stone
is a wood and tile contracting company
that works with both homeowners
and contractors to design and build
amazing spaces, from full kitchen
for bathroom remodels to small repairs.
They do it all.
Jeff,
thank you so much for joining me today.
Thanks for having me today.
I just want to spend some time,
like talking with you,
getting to know your business
and what you do.
So first I want to just, like, know
a little bit about your story of Artisan
Wood Tile and Stone.
I know you've been in the construction
industry for over 25 years.
And you have many certifications
and classes within that experience.
If you don't mind just sharing,
like how you got started
and how the business has grown
or changed over time. Sure.
It really started at,
shop class in school.
So once I found out that something like
that you could get paid for.
So it was fun and everything.
And other guys in my classes
were branching off
from building trades and actually
going to work doing that kind of a thing.
That was very exciting for me.
So my very first job was working
as a house painter on a summer in 1990.
And so after graduating,
I end up working for another crew
that did a little bit of everything.
It wasn't just house painting, it was
probably work in the flooring side of it
and seeing the specialization
that was needed
for some of the trades, instead of
just being a jack of all trades.
I end up starting my own business in the
late 90s, and then here we are in sort of
just a culmination of trying to specialize
and be the correct person for that job.
I'm not the right person for every job,
but I am that one
that has the years behind the talent
and see the problems before they happen,
and also be able to solve them
after they have.
I know you talked about
when you first started being at a position
where you wanted to branch out and get
certified and a lot of different areas.
When would you say it was like
that turning point
for your business where you ended up,
like growing exponentially?
It is really during specialization
because much like my all the career
I was working for,
I learned a lot of this.
Originally,
I tried to market myself as that guy
who does everything, but when it comes
down, you're not going to hire a roofer.
That also plasters
you want a plaster or you want a roofer.
And so the year I started
just saying I did one thing
and at the time was flooring
I my business tripled.
So. Oh, cool.
And it's one of those things too
that I also started.
That's about the time
I started going to class
and just taking those accreditations
so that I was learning
the right way of doing things,
not someone else's bad habits.
Yes, absolutely.
And throughout having the business,
just curious,
when did you get in contact with ProSource
or where did that?
When did that partnership start?
I was actually contacted the ProSource,
a local company,
had bought the flooring store
we were working out of years ago,
and I didn't have a great
I didn't work with them very well.
And I moved to Huntsville years ago,
and I had a bunch of different contractors
say I need to come over
and say hi to Prosource.
And finally, one contractor just told
me, like, what do you got to lose?
So I went and then it turns out someone
I knew worked there from another store.
And so I'd been with Prosource for 3
or 4 years now and it's been fantastic.
Oh that's awesome. That's good to hear.
Have you used any strategies
that has helped bring in new clients
or keep the business growing?
Has there been anything with your business
that you've seen work for it?
Yeah, so I've been doing this
work on my own for just almost 20 years.
Well, yes, almost five years.
And I've seen things come and go.
You don't know if advertising works.
You never really know.
How can you really prove that?
I end up having a contractor that I went
to high school with recommended
the man named Tom River with contractor
flight that does contractor counseling,
spoke with him.
And there's another, guy down in Florida,
Luke Miller, with tile money
that tries to help you
manage the business side of everything.
And with their help,
like getting a getting a website,
getting it, you know, be on social media,
have a website presence
that can actually drive people
to your even your social media.
You can have all your photos,
you can upload your photos all the time.
But it's good to have
in this day of mobile, phones, being able
to find someone at the drop of a hat,
especially during a Google search
and then dumb things like lettering
your truck.
I never wanted to have my truck cluttered,
and then Tom told me he's like,
what are you doing?
You're wasting your time.
What if the neighbor wants something done
and they see that
they're getting it done there?
I've gotten a lot of projects
just from hanging from clients.
So yeah, absolutely.
It's, like a mobile advertising,
you know, wherever you go,
you're advertising yourself.
That's a good point.
I can see why.
Maybe you didn't want to do that at first,
though.
Was there, like, a specific reason
why you didn't
want to have your truck with you?
What if you cut somebody off
and also, like, I don't look,
I mean, my clients know where I live,
even though I know where they live.
And just having that
set outside all the time.
But once I got over that, it's huge.
I mean, I I've gotten jobs specifically,
they said that they have this neighbor,
that everything's well put together
and impressive, and they saw that
I was working in there and that's
how they got my number is off my truck.
Yeah. That's interesting. It works.
Have you ever.
Just out of curiosity, I know, like,
my parents just had their roofing done
and the roofing company that they worked
with offered them a discount
if they put their sign, like, their yard
sign, in front of their house.
Have you ever tried anything like that?
We put the yard signs out.
I haven't got a big response from that.
Usually it's the doors on a project.
I'm usually there
for as much as long as a month.
And so my truck is out there,
people see it,
so then they end up
it's kind of the same thing.
They know what's going on. Yeah. Yeah,
absolutely.
A lot of times
I there's a project right now,
we had a yard sign on
and we just finished in March,
and I need to go pick that up,
but who knows?
It's good for brand awareness.
No, absolutely.
I really didn't realize
that businesses did that until
that happened to my parents.
And I'm like, wow,
that's actually really smart.
And my parents were so quick to say, yes,
because you're giving me $500 off
to keep it out here for, I don't know,
however many months, like, totally.
I'll do it. Yep, yep.
And also going off of your website,
your website does look good.
This is where I found
a lot of information.
Going into this podcast, I was
I know sometimes with contractors it's
hit or miss because obviously like it's
not at the forefront of
maybe what you're thinking about
from your business.
It's kind of like an afterthought,
but your website looks really good.
Well, thanks.
That is because it's built
by a floor installer.
So someone that actually came from
that industry knows what we need.
So I had a website in the 2000s
that got no traction.
And so even when this came up again to
have another one, like I just don't know.
And so within a month of having it
sold my first job that was able to pay
for that website website.
So I get a lot of interaction with that.
So it's totally worth it. Yeah,
absolutely.
And like you said, having someone that's
also not just, savvy with the design
of the website and coding it,
but also someone that knows the industry.
I think that's a huge help to.
And he does another one.
There's another guy in town
that has a similar website
and he keeps our separate.
It makes it look separate
so that he's don't have it,
you know, a cookie, a cookie cutter
situation of we do the same thing.
Here's what I do.
We have both have one office for our.
So it's not like you're going through and
having something that someone else has.
No. Absolutely.
So your name says it all.
Wood, tile and stone.
I'm curious. Out of those three.
Do you have a favorite
that you like to work with, or maybe one
that challenges you in the best way?
I'd rather work with wood.
I love woodworking,
but challenging wise is definitely art
and stone because that's just there are no
the rules are constantly changing
with that, especially in the building.
Requirements today, wood
has not really changed much outside
of to talking about the refinishing
and things that chemicals with that.
But actually building with wood
has not changed for very long time.
Whereas tile ed is constantly changing
where they have shower systems
or stonework outside, the masonry side of
everything is constantly changing.
The mortars that we're allowed to use
and stay to code or different.
And a lot of guys that are doing this
all the time don't even realize
the codes have changed
in the last couple of years.
We've talked about this already.
You do a lot of everything.
Is there anything that you don't do
or anything you've had to say
no to recently that you can share about?
We don't do plumbing.
We don't do anything
that's not in our, you know, Hvac,
those things we don't do that.
Mostly because it's not
we can't sign our business license
and also have that professional
that does that for a living.
Do that.
And that way if there is a leak,
you have someone that's
going to show up at 3:00 in the morning
and fix it.
It's not really me
because I don't know what the problem is.
And so knowing your place,
but being that I started out a house
painter and drywall or I
do, I do do a little bit of everything,
but I don't advertise, I do everything.
Gotcha. Yeah.
I think it could be difficult to
if you are someone that does everything,
being well-versed
and all of those different areas,
I feel like
that could be very overwhelming and
and maybe having to correct credits
for all that. Yes.
And it could even discredit
maybe some of the services you provide
because they are so specialized.
I feel like homeowners are like,
are you sure
you know everything about everything?
But having some specialized
niches can probably help your credibility
in that sense.
Yep. What are clients
asking for the most these days?
Are you saying?
Well, here.
Shower building and up,
snowballing into a whole bathroom
and shower repairs.
We are, plagued with improper shower
building here.
Even with brand
new homes, the housing market has boomed
here, and houses are going up so fast.
And there are guys that shouldn't
be installing showers, basically,
or trusting your tile installer
to build a plumbing fixture
that's water tight
and their failings in the beginning.
And so we are coming in and signal showers
and they're in a brand new house.
And so yeah, I would say 30% or more of
my business is doing
repairs on already built showers,
especially with houses coming up so quick.
I always see
all these like cookie cutter homes
and they all look the same in the suburbs.
But it's crazy how fast they pop up.
Like I think all the time
the quality can't be.
Obviously it's not the same as it was 30
years ago when you were building a home.
That's interesting.
Yeah,
I could definitely see that happening.
You actually just mentioned it.
Bathroom remodels are huge.
What kind of challenges you typically see
in those outside of the showers?
And how do you help homeowners
work through them?
Are you seeing anything else
that's kind of a struggle for them?
Well, something that homeowners don't
even think about.
Every major system
is all inside that room.
So you've got your you've got plumbing,
you have electrical,
and then you're going to all of that
and usually a small space.
And then you're trying to keep all of that
under control, and then trying
to keep all that warm air out of that room
as fast as you can,
get it out as fast as possible,
and then try to make it pretty.
Depending on the needs of the client,
we can do zero entry
if they're trying to do
a, stay at or, age at home situation,
or they just don't want a more luxurious
walk in for their, their shower.
We can redo
layouts, we can move walls and things.
It just kind of depends on
every project has its own challenges.
It kind of depends on
how bad the house is.
We did one a couple years ago.
I was talking to my plumber
and I was talking to him.
I just fell straight through the floor.
And so that was a challenge.
And so every now and there are,
there are issues with every house,
but usually we can.
And a newer house, it's more of a
we're doing a facelift.
We're not doing a gut and rebuild
situation.
Yeah. Wow.
Yeah.
That's immediately a challenge
when you fall to the floor.
We were talking about your website.
I also saw on your website
that you offer radiant,
heat systems, which I was intrigued with.
I don't really know anything about that.
But I know I've seen them online.
They're increasingly popular.
Can you break down, like,
how those systems work?
Just maybe surface level and then whether
homeowners usually ask for that upfront?
Or is that something that
after working
with you, they learn more about them
and they're eventually asking them
throughout the project?
Well, there's two there's two types.
There's
the one that has a water and a boiler,
and then there's the other
that it's it's wired so it's electrical.
We don't offer the work with the water.
We do the electrical.
So you got two different types.
You've got 240 and 120.
So depending on how the amperage is with
that, you can tie into the electrical box.
And then you essentially have
a glorified toaster
under your wood or underneath
your tile floor.
Some customers are love them
and they're looking for them.
And so I get that call.
But also we'll bring them up
in the middle of, of a remodel,
because while everything's tore up
this is the time to add it.
And we had a client that was a
great client and we just added to it.
We were already doing everything,
and they have come back
several times saying
we didn't think we wanted this,
and now is our favorite part of the house
is having that warm tile floor.
So that is really cool.
They're fantastic
and it's one of those things
even if you don't use it,
it's a selling point
when you sell the house
that you got heated floors.
Yes, absolutely.
It's definitely
it seems like a luxury item,
but I feel like as technology improves
and how popular they're getting, it's
becoming a little bit would you say it's
becoming more normal or.
Yeah. Yeah.
You're seeing a lot. Yeah, yeah.
And we've we've been installing them
for over 20 years
and we're doing a lot more of them
now than we did 20 years ago.
It seemed like it seemed like
an extravagance 20 years ago.
And now.
Yeah,
you know, like everything with larger TVs,
everything just gets a little cheaper
and a little easier to access.
And so, yeah, everybody can have it.
That's cool.
So when I'm thinking about trends in home
design, how do you keep up
with the changes in the industry
and how quickly those pivot?
Have you seen any trends or innovations
that have changed
how you work with your business?
Continue education.
Taking classes is huge.
Going to expose that.
When I was early in my career, I wasn't
going to go to the national hardware show
and just seem like a fish out of water,
like there's just so many vendors
and so like, the vendors
didn't want to talk to me, but now, like,
I just attended coverings
a couple weeks ago, which is the biggest
tile expo in America.
Get to network with all those guys.
It's nice to see people and know
you're not an island,
what you're doing,
and then had all that contact.
But seeing the trends homemade or the
handmade tiles are getting huge right now.
So you've got that variance
of like a craftsman old,
old world look, but things and also like
I work with Scotty at Prosource
and we work hand in hand.
So she is on top of that way
more than I am.
I'm aware of it.
But that's her job all day.
So she's
she keeps me in line with some of that.
And so
it's difficult some of the new trends
trying to keep tile look looking correct.
Yeah.
Trying to make it look less manufactured
but still not having issues
where the tiles are sticking out
with slippage
and everything,
and or two bigger grout lines.
And so it can be a challenge sometimes
even with new trends, come and go.
Yeah, I could definitely see that
when you're working with a client
on the design side of things,
what's that collaboration look like?
Do you help them with picking out
materials and laying out the space?
Do you, bring them into prosource?
Do you send them into Prosource
without you, or how does that look?
It depends on the customer.
Some customer wants me to do everything
and then they'll go like,
I saw you do this one bathroom,
I love that. Let's do that.
And so we can mimic that.
Otherwise
I'll send a customer to Prosource
and tell them to talk to my client
or my to my contact, Scotty.
And she sets up everything
and walks them through everything.
And it's very seamless that way.
Sometimes they want me there
to hold their hand.
I can do that as well.
It's not a big deal
because I always want to know,
especially even when Scotty goes through
and picks things out with them.
I want to be able to give final approval
because I can foresee issues
like for, say,
if someone really likes Penny around tile,
they may not know how big of a pain
it is to keep that tile clean,
because that's a lot of grout.
So it's just things that, as awesome
as it sounds,
think about five years after that decision
with the maintenance and everything.
Yeah.
So kind of just gauging how the client is
and if they can be
we can be as hands on as they want.
Yeah. That's cool.
You're a trade pro member
at Prosource of Huntsville.
Can you share a bit about, like,
what that relationship has been like?
I know you have a good contact. Now.
When you first started with Prosource,
was it with,
Scotty right away or did that relationship
kind of evolve?
Have you, as
you got more comfortable with Pro Source?
So actually my contact there,
the first person I met
at our store was Chris,
that was the former manager.
And so he was my go to guy.
And then he had to move away
due to family issues.
And so he hand me off to Scotty.
And then we got talking and realized
we've known each other from a decade ago.
And so everything went very well
with that.
So, it helps when you're so comfortable
with someone that your work.
Yes, makes it even much easier.
The shorthand of everything is great.
And she knows what I need to know.
Like she's fantastic.
It helps to have
someone who's been doing it
this long
because having done this for 30 years,
dealing with a salesperson
that could have been selling
cars or copiers last week
and then will not be doing
will not be in the flooring industry
a year from now, is really annoying.
And then knowing that the
who I'm talking to old is in this industry
is not going anywhere is fantastic.
What is one project that you've done
recently that stands out to you?
One that maybe was like rewarding for you
or just fun to do?
The craziest one we've done lately?
We did a 1930s private detective office
for a local author,
and so we turned his his writing room
into a detective's office.
And so we had to make everything
because you just can't buy all of the trim
we needed off the shelf.
We had to make the parquet floor.
We had to make the inserts for everything.
We actually had to trim.
I had to mill in our shop, and then,
he sourced all of the hardware,
like the uranium glass and everything
and the light fixtures and things.
But that was
a labor of love.
It is insane.
And then he found this antique door
from a college.
We went and got it.
We had to modify it to fit the space
and everything.
And then we had it lettered just like
a private detectives office for him.
So that was really fun.
That is very unique.
I'm sure that really was fun to do,
especially as you're
just working with,
some of the more cookie cutter designs.
And, and that's a totally different
ballgame, looking at your website
and just searching you on Google,
I noticed you have amazing online reviews.
How do you continue
with being in this business for so long?
How do you continue
to keep that level of satisfaction across
all the different types
of projects and clients that you have?
I know that can be a struggle to,
but the biggest thing,
someone told me this a few years ago
and it didn't really resonate until
I never really thought about it this way.
Managing expectation,
letting people know what's going
on, knowing what
they're what they're expecting,
and just trying to sign that space
so we're trying to meet
or exceed their expectations.
And so the idea is that
if you're going to tell them
you're going to be there at 9:00 today
and I'll text you a half hour before do
that, like just your worries, you're bond.
And so you hire me.
I was at your house.
I'm the one doing the work at the house.
There's not a lot not a lot of
miscommunications outside of other trades.
We have to hire.
And usually we all show up on the job
to make sure that, they're
not there alone so that there's that
that level of, I don't know, these people.
And so a lot of it
is and also being available
when people hire me, a lot of times
I'm six months out.
And so we've had conversations for months
before the job even starts.
And so we all used to have a rapport.
And so that helps a lot.
But the managing expectation thing is that
the littlest thing no one talks at all.
But that is the secret sauce
to keeping a happy customer.
No. And I think that's even across
all industries and services.
I mean, I remember when I was a server
at a restaurant,
nine number one thing I always did
was with the person sitting at my table.
I would walk them through like, hey,
your appetizer is on the way by,
you know,
just keeping that constant communication.
Because if you're at a restaurant
and you don't talk to your server
and you're wondering where you're food
that you're going
to, you're going to get like anxious,
you're going to get mad,
you're going to get impatient.
And I imagine it's kind of the same thing
with, what you do is just keeping
that communication. Communication is key.
Absolutely. I couldn't agree more.
So if
any homeowners that are listening to this,
if they're thinking about starting a tile
or stone project,
what is your best piece of advice
to make sure things go smoothly for them?
Get a lot of pictures.
Especially the nice thing
with being online,
you can find all sorts of examples.
We have a lot of success with people
finding those on our own Instagram
or something like that.
But if they bring photos, bring
bring in contradicting photos like
tell me you like this and also like this,
because once we show up to take a look
at everything, something may not work,
or we can still echo those design cues.
That helps.
Also be patient construction.
The mantra with construction
is hurry up and wait.
Things will get behind schedule.
Getting on someone's schedule takes time.
And then once the job starts,
especially with remodeling,
once everything gets open,
you're going to find something.
And then the best case,
you don't find anything
and everything goes very, very smooth.
But just being,
knowing you'd be patient and,
if you hire the right guy,
they'll be very, committed.
They'll use good communication skills
and keep everything clean.
That's the other thing, keeping things
clean. So,
yeah, I think, like word of mouth
to finding other people
that have worked with certain contractors.
Absolutely.
They recommend because I know,
like we talked about Google reviews, but
I know in recent years
it's it's like maybe it's with AI,
but sometimes it's hard to trust
what you see online now. Like
just because someone has a good review,
you're like, is this a real review?
Is this a bot that made this review?
Is this the contractor,
whoever that made this review themselves?
So I think going back to word of mouth
or going to a local pro source
and saying who they really meant is
a good is a good starting point too.
Last question I have for you,
Jeff, is looking ahead
at the rest of this year
and at your business.
Do you have any like big goals
or exciting projects that you
maybe not have started on yet that you're
looking forward to starting on?
Well, we've got more continuing education
this year.
I have to do more, classwork
for my inspections side of my business.
But also I've joined
the Artisan Revolution and Tile Movement,
which is a bunch of tile installers
that are trying to bring art back
into tile setting.
And so we recently passed
a class last year on mosaics.
And so I hope to take another
mosaic class this year and start
getting more into that with
we've got a repair job
in the city of Huntsville
that wants to have something fixed,
and we're trying to figure that out
right now,
and they're planning on using me,
so I'm hoping to do that with them.
But just moving forward
with the super specialty
niche of that, I'm looking to do that
this year.
Yeah.
Mosaics are are huge right now
and a lot of people are trying
to be bold and different while
also still being functional, not being.
Some people don't want to be too bold,
but they still want to dip their toes.
And the trend of being bold,
which I think mosaics are perfect for.
That's very exciting.
Thank you so much for joining me today.
It was great having you on
and just learning about your business
and everything you do.
If anyone wants to work with you
and if they're in the Huntsville area,
how can they find you?
Go to our website, artisanwts.com.
There's a contact page
because then
I can get all of your information
in the event
that you call the office
and then just leave a message.
Otherwise our phone numbers
(256) 697-0001.
Thank you so much.
You have a great rest of your day.
Thank you for carving out time for this.
Of course.
Thanks for having me. Thank you.
Thank you for joining us today
on The ProSource Podcast.
Please like and subscribe to us
wherever you get your podcast.
Also, follow us on social media.
Check out our website
at prosourcewholesale.com and visit
your local ProSource Wholesale showroom
for all of your home remodeling needs.