Rising demand and shrinking supply led Ben Decker, owner of BH Decker Construction in Delhi, to start brainstorming.
In November 2022, Decker started StructureWorx, a sister company to his general contracting firm, to provide, according to a media statement, “handyman and maintenance services.”
Office manager Sarah Hetterich came on in July and handles “all the sales and scheduling and anything in the office.”
“Ben Decker is the owner, and has BH Decker Construction, and they do larger jobs, from new builds to framework to anything like that,” she said. “He found it was hard even to find the time to call people back for jobs. So, when we were turning away calls for smaller jobs, we saw there was an industry there for those smaller jobs and a large need right now, because there’s very few people doing it. I’m here in the office 8 to 5, but I have (calls) forwarded to my cell, so the phones are almost always answered.”
Hetterich said focusing on smaller jobs facilitates quick project times.
“We will go anywhere, for (jobs such as) replacing a sink faucet to, one of more recent jobs, completely pulling the walls, ceiling and carpet out of a room and replacing it with drywall,” she said. “So, it’s from simple fixtures to an entire room being renovated, and we will do full bathroom renovations because, if that’s the only thing you’re working on, it can take just two to three weeks. There can be back-and-forth trying to figure out the expense of a project and getting a quote, to see if it works for the customer and us as well, but we have a good turnaround time. Usually, from the time we get a phone call to the time we’re out on the job, it’s a week or two.
“We are fully insured and … the owner and operations supervisor both have over 20 years’ experience,” Hetterich continued. “For plumbing and electrical, we do smaller-scale jobs, so if it is a new build, we wouldn’t do an entire installation, but we can change light fixtures and if an outlet needs to be changed or added, we can (do that).”
And, because of the scope of projects and prioritizing local partnerships, Hetterich said, Structureworx hasn’t been plagued by supply chain issues.
“We have had pretty good luck in the last few months,” she said. “Especially with plumbing fixtures, there has been a delay with galvanized pieces, but we use all local and buy from all local places, and they’ve been really great about finding us stuff, or they’ll refer us out. It’s been really nice with all the local businesses, because we’re all working together.
“We have Wadler’s and Dubben’s (in Fleischmanns and Delhi) that we can buy from, and they’re all over the place,” Hetterich continued. “We have three technicians and one fully equipped van, and we have the BH Decker fleet if we do need that.”
Clients, Hetterich said, represent a mix.
“We service residential and commercial customers, and it’s been pretty 50/50 between the two; we have a steady amount of both,” she said. “People have been really excited. We’ve had so many real estate people ask for marketing materials, because they’re constantly being asked, ‘Who can help me?’ and they don’t have anyone to refer people to who answers.
“Even in the five months since it’s been up and running, it’s been pretty broad,” Hetterich continued. “It’s second homeowners, the little old lady who can’t put in a new faucet and we’ve had young, new homeowners, as well. We go all the way from Chenango, Delaware, Ulster and Otsego counties, because our technicians are pretty spread out, so it’s easy to cover a wide area.”
Hetterich said she hopes to see StructureWorx expanding soon.
“We are looking at hopefully, in the first 18 months of business, having three vans, with two technicians in each,” she said. “That’s the goal. And, for right now, the kind of short-term goal is a lot of indoor projects. There’s not a lot we can do outdoors, but with spring coming, we’re getting ready to do a lot of power washing and gutter cleaning — any outdoor maintenance services you would need, and we’ll do small paint jobs and window replacements and window frame replacements; especially on these old houses, we’ve been replacing a lot of those.”
For more information, call 607-746-7560 or visit structure-worx.com.