July 30, 2025 • 37 mins
In this episode, Janet Mobley and Meredith Medlin chat with Ross Gaskin, VP of Sales at Health at Home, about the fast-growing “aging in place” market and how contractors can seize this opportunity. Ross shares insights into home accessibility trends, common contractor mistakes in barrier-free bathroom installs, and why selling grab bars could be your ticket into larger remodel projects. If you're a contractor looking to diversify your services or add meaningful value to your bath remodels, this episode is packed with practical advice, product knowledge, and business-building tips.
Want to find out how we can create a custom digital marketing game plan for your contractor business? Schedule a call with us at fatcatstrategies.com.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to Digital Marketing for Contractors, a
podcast for home improvementcontractors to help you crush
your lead goals and take yourbusiness to the next level.
Join us each episode as we giveyou powerful insights and
(00:22):
practical tips on the bestdigital marketing strategies to
help you grow your homeimprovement business.
Let's get started.
SPEAKER_01 (00:32):
As America ages, more homeowners are choosing to
stay in their homes longer, butthat takes more than just good
intentions.
It takes smart, safe renovationsthat help people live
independently.
In this episode, we are joinedby Ross Gaskin, the VP of Sales
at Health at Home, to talk abouthow contractors can get
educated, certified, andinvolved in the booming home
(00:53):
access market.
So today, I'm so happy to haveRoss join us, and I'd like to
welcome everybody back toanother episode of Digital
Marketing for contractors.
My name is Janet.
I'm one of the owners here atFat Cat.
I'm joined by Meredith, aco-owner and the lovely and
talented operations manager,website manager.
(01:14):
Meredith does a little bit ofeverything here at Fat Cat.
So Meredith, say hello to ouraudience.
SPEAKER_02 (01:18):
Hello, happy to be back.
I'm super excited today.
We get to talk about aging inplace and the whole market
around that.
And we're super excited to haveRoss with us.
So, you know, We're going to letyou guys know a little bit about
him, Health at Home, and theaging in place market as a
whole.
SPEAKER_01 (01:37):
Yeah, so Meredith, as you said, we are joined by
Ross Gaskin, the Vice Presidentof Sales at Health at Home,
which is a company that helpshomeowners live safely and
independently for longer bymaking smart, accessible
modifications to their home.
SPEAKER_02 (01:54):
Exactly.
And, you know, it isn't justabout safety.
It's about dignity, comfort.
And for our listeners, it's alsoabout a growing business market.
So, yeah,
SPEAKER_01 (02:04):
there's a what do they call it?
A silver tsunami of seriously, Ithink calling it a silver
tsunami of boomers.
that want to age and place intheir home.
And in order to do that safely,they're gonna have to make
modifications, which is a greatsegue to welcoming Ross.
So Ross, welcome to the show andtell us who you are, what you
(02:26):
do, what is Health at Home?
What do contractors need to knowabout Health at Home and the
products that you can offerthem?
SPEAKER_04 (02:34):
First of all, thank you guys for having me.
I really appreciate the invite.
Uh, yeah.
And so for health at home, wesell aging in place, uh,
products for people that aretrying to stay their homes for
longer.
Um, we focus primarily on thebathroom, but we do have, um,
some products that go outside ofthat.
Um, you know, this is a reallybig category that, um, that I
(02:56):
don't think is really gettingthe focus it deserves,
especially with the number ofpeople, like you said, the white
tsunami coming through,
SPEAKER_01 (03:03):
um, silver tsunamis, whatever it's called.
SPEAKER_04 (03:06):
Yeah.
Silver tsunami, excuse me.
Um, Yeah, that's becoming, it'sjust a much bigger part of the
market than people realize.
And for Health at Home, wereally help with the shower
specifically, making sure thatpeople have a low threshold or
barrier-free showers, as well asgrab bars and shower seats.
And we work with showrooms, butwe also work with contractors
(03:31):
directly.
You're
SPEAKER_01 (03:33):
not working directly with homeowners, right?
SPEAKER_04 (03:35):
No, we're not.
We're only
SPEAKER_01 (03:37):
business to business.
You're servicing the business.
It's a business to businessrelationship.
SPEAKER_04 (03:40):
Correct.
And so we've been in this spacesince about 2008.
And the original owner has sincepassed, but we've really grown
what it is that we offer.
And the way I look at it is wehave kind of two different areas
that we focus on is we have morepeople that are going to be
(04:02):
showroom.
And we see a lot of people thatare downsizing that had the big
house.
They're tired of it.
Just a heat and cool the thingfor, you know, using rooms over
to use any room anymore.
And Hey, I want to haveeverything be accessible for
when that time comes, but I justwant to make sure it doesn't
look like a hospital.
Um, so we have nicer finisheslike matte black and gold.
Um, but then we also have acategory that's more, um, going
(04:27):
to be a lot more governmentwork, going to be the VA.
There's a lot of state programs.
Just about every state has someform of program they work with.
And then there's also insuranceprograms.
And so we really cover thatgambit between kind of wants and
needs and anything in between.
SPEAKER_01 (04:42):
So when you say you're supporting showrooms,
these are open to the publicshowrooms for people to come in
and look at fixtures and grabbars.
And are those showrooms alsodoing the installation?
SPEAKER_04 (04:56):
No, so most of the showrooms we deal with are going
to be plumbing supply showrooms,and it's for someone to come in
and select things that theywant.
So, hey, you know, I wantsomething from Delta, but I have
a– I want this gold finish, and,hey, I also want a nicer grab
bar or a shower seat, and thenthat would be something they
would talk with the showroomconsultant about, and they would
(05:16):
purchase through us.
They would order through theshowroom or the distributor, but
they would ultimately get itfrom us.
Got it.
That's just a little nicercategory that we deal with with
Matt Black and things like that.
And we do a lot of that acrossthe country.
SPEAKER_01 (05:32):
Are you ever selling to individual contracting
companies that are doing thebath remodels where they buy
their product through you?
SPEAKER_04 (05:43):
Yes and no.
We do work with a few differentfranchises across the country
that we have a nationalcontract.
we have national deals with, um,that is a growing market that
we're seeing that we're actuallygetting more and more involved
in.
Um, we deal more with justaccessories on that side.
A lot of them are going to havetheir own things that they
supply.
That's going to be one of theirvery big main generator, uh, um,
(06:06):
revenue generators.
Um, but a lot of the accessoriesand things like that, we can
help provide for that for themfor specifically for the aging
in place category.
SPEAKER_01 (06:15):
Cool.
So, um, Speaking of aging inplace, what have you seen in
this marketplace with folkswanting to stay in their home
and make it more accessible?
What are some insights thatyou've seen working in this
industry about the size and theshape of the market and the
trends that you've seen?
SPEAKER_04 (06:35):
Well, first off, in terms of the actual population
shift, it's really interestingto see.
between 2024 and 2027, 4.1million people are going to be
retiring or turning 65 or olderat that point.
It's about 11,000 people perday.
So it's a very big growingmarket.
(06:58):
And the problem that we dealwith is that we see a lot of
contractors that are takingthings that they know and trying
to just, they assume it worksfor everything for
accessibility.
And there's a lot of, especiallynowadays with the internet,
there's a lot of really cheapproducts out there.
And so, you know, to have, tohave, so what we do is we
(07:23):
actually can help um,contractors and say, Hey, here
are the products that you need.
And are you asking thesequestions of your customer?
Because a lot of people aregoing and saying, Hey, you know,
having a, um, a low thresholdshower, that's not a big deal.
They can get, you know, threeinches is nothing.
Well, if that person is going tobe in a wheelchair
SPEAKER_03 (07:40):
and
SPEAKER_04 (07:42):
right.
And making sure you're askingthose questions of your, uh, of
your customers to make sure thatyou're giving the best, um,
possible results to not onlyhelp them now, but also
long-term is something that wehelp contractors with in terms
of kind of changing their shift,changing their thinking and
shifting to not just finishingthe job, but also how we can
provide assistance down the linefor them as well.
SPEAKER_01 (08:04):
So not only are you able to provide them with
products, but you're able tohelp them on a consulting front,
help the contractors positionthemselves and their services to
best serve that aging in placemarket.
SPEAKER_04 (08:19):
Yeah.
I mean, that's, that's a lot ofwhat we do.
Um, we've had quite a fewcontractors that, um, maybe they
want to bid somewhere andthey're like, Hey, you know,
this is my first time doingthat.
And there's a lot of thingsthat, um, can be very, very
easily overlooked.
Um, just about.
So one thing is when you'resetting a barrier free pan for a
(08:40):
shower, a lot of contractors,um, they're used to setting a
multi-piece shower unit that hasa much bigger, um, threshold to
get in.
Now, what's nice about that is,so if I'm doing tile, in order
to get the proper pitch, itneeds to be a quarter foot,
quarter inch per square foot toget that pitch to the drain.
With a barrier-free pan,actually, that actual tolerance
(09:02):
is a lot less, and so if thatpan is not leveled correctly,
then you can do an entire job,and at the very end, the
shower's leaking and it'snothing to do with the product,
it's the fact that yourcontractor didn't take the time
to level the pan.
And whenever we start, I alwaysjoke myself, I'm like, I'm gonna
sound like a broken record, butplease, please, please level,
(09:26):
level, level.
If you just get that right, wecan fix walls, we can fix the
other things, but if the pan'swrong and you put all your valve
grab bars and everything in andyou get your trim all set in,
And you put the water in and itstarts going out of the shower.
That's no good.
Right.
And that's not a manufacturerdefect.
Not to say it can't happen.
It's
SPEAKER_01 (09:47):
an installation problem.
SPEAKER_04 (09:49):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (09:49):
Not a product problem.
SPEAKER_04 (09:50):
Yeah.
And from there, you're going tohave to take everything out.
And the question becomes, hey,can I take that out and still
reuse it?
Or am I having to buy everythingagain?
And then that's going to affectyour margins and other things
for you and can really hurt youfinancially.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (10:06):
And do you guys have any sort of program that, you
know, your health at homeemployees go through your team
members to help when you'retalking to contractors?
Or do you just know these thingsoff the top of your head?
Like, what does that look like?
SPEAKER_04 (10:21):
So a lot of these things we know off the top of
our head.
We actually developed a newshower system that we're
currently working with a fewstate programs across the
country.
And we actually are requiringthat they sit down with us.
We had an installation videothat we send them, but we
actually require them to sitdown with us to watch it.
(10:44):
Cause we've gotten some calls onthings where some, somebody
goes, Oh, I'm having a problemwith this.
And like, you, didn't watch thevideo so now we make them sit
down and we go through and it'snot only to help them it helps
us not to be fully transparentoh yeah yeah we just want to
make sure that they have a goodexperience um for their first
time and um you know and this istrue of anything but when
(11:06):
something's new like this takinga little time up front to
understand the process ofprocess of installation and
materials that you're workingwith um Everyone wants to rush
through it so quickly, but ifyou slow down and take that
time, it can save you so muchtime in the back end.
It can make your customerhappier and make your life
(11:26):
easier, make my life easier.
But that is something that weare requiring.
And if we need to, if they'relocal, we have some people out
to actually help with installsin the past, but that's not
something we normally do.
SPEAKER_01 (11:40):
And local is where?
Remind everybody.
Oh,
SPEAKER_04 (11:42):
sorry.
We're in Charlotte, NorthCarolina, but we do cover the
whole country.
But obviously, we're going to domore on the East Coast than West
Coast.
SPEAKER_01 (11:53):
So run through the list of products that a
contractor could purchasethrough Health at Home.
I've heard hands, grab bars.
What kind of stuff can we getfrom you?
SPEAKER_04 (12:03):
Yeah, so we do grab bars, grab bars, valves, shower
seats, handheld slide bars,shower heads, barrier-free pans,
barrier-free multi-pieceshowers.
We have different types of wallpaneling.
Then we have different showersystems like you see behind us.
And the things that we use areall tried and true.
(12:27):
There's always something cheaperout there that you can get
that's gonna be, We've reallyfound in this category, and we
do walk-in tubs, we have found alot of when something seems too
good to be true, it normally is,and that's why we have a really
high retention rate with ourcustomers.
Once we have somebody, and aslong as they continue to do
(12:49):
aging in place, rarely do theyleave us for other vendors just
because of the services weprovide, and all the materials
we use are tried and true, andwe're not We're not going to
give you some super cheap wallpaneling from China or somewhere
that you're going to have issueswith.
And especially when you'redealing with some of the people
(13:10):
and some situations that we'rein, having good materials when
you see some of these homes thatare getting these bids for the
VA and state programs, theydon't always have a lot of
money, but we really want tomake sure that we're providing
that good product because It'sso important that It's installed
(13:33):
correctly with good productbecause if there's any issue
with water leaking out anywhereor anything like that, it can
cause mold and mildew and reallydamage their health even more.
And so that's a really bigconcern for us is making sure
that we have quality and that wehelp our contractors through the
whole process.
SPEAKER_01 (13:50):
I'm not familiar with any of the state programs
or any VA programs.
So most of our clients, youknow, all of our clients are
home improvement contractors.
It's about half and half.
Half of our clients are likeroofing site exterior windows
the other half are interior andmost of those are doing one day
bathroom remodels
SPEAKER_03 (14:10):
yeah
SPEAKER_01 (14:10):
now they're installing our clients are
installing you know a systemfrom like a big household name
yeah um you know it's a it's aluxury bath or it's a jacuzzi
system um and they're not tryingto um to have that funded
through any sort of stateprogram or VA program.
(14:31):
It's just homeowners who arepaying for it, either financing
or paying for it out of cash.
I think what you're describingis some program that offers
assistance to people that wantto modify their home, and you're
trying to maintain compliancewith that.
Is that correct?
SPEAKER_04 (14:47):
Yeah, just more on the state program side.
It's just they don't have Theamount of money the state's
giving them from a VAperspective, or there's other
grants and things that they cangive them, they just don't get
that much money.
And so we're helping stretchthat as far as possible.
But one thing you touched on,just to shift gears with you, is
(15:10):
we actually work a lot withthose different programs.
Or excuse me, not thoseprograms, but we work a lot with
different franchisee models.
One thing we do a lot of is ourshower seats and our grab bars.
And we actually started kind ofon a weird path to that because
when we started, we were doingteak seats.
And a lot of these guys, Iactually had somebody call me
(15:32):
today from one of the ones youmentioned.
And it's really funny because westarted with teak seats and
that's what everyone knows andthey use in their showers.
And teak's great.
We sell it and I don't have anybig problem with it.
But we actually developed newshower seats using an HDPE
material.
It's a high-density polyethylenematerial.
(15:53):
It comes in 16 different colors,and then we also have more
finishes.
We have matte black, gold,brushed, stainless.
And what's nice is our showerseats are– the ACP material is
similar to, like, a Trex deckingmaterial.
SPEAKER_03 (16:08):
Right.
SPEAKER_04 (16:09):
So you can put bleach on it.
You can put any abrasivecleaners on it.
And the reason I started is wewere selling shower seats, and
every once in a while we had acall and someone would say, hey,
you know, this teak seat is, youknow, defective.
We say, okay, so let's go aheadand return it.
We get it back.
And then we'd look at the, oneof the panels and you'd see a
(16:29):
big spot on it clearly wherethey just poured bleach or
something
SPEAKER_03 (16:32):
on it.
And,
SPEAKER_04 (16:35):
and so we'd replace it.
And so we actually startedlooking for different material.
Um, and that's where we came upwith this new material and it's,
um, it's actually made fromrecycled milk cartons.
So it's a green material.
Um, but we use it quite a bit.
And, um, some franchise modelsthat I think you're referring to
across the country.
And it's been really nice.
(16:55):
It has a 500-pound weightcapacity because it's made of
stainless steel.
And having the nicer finishesthat match Kohler and Delta and
Moen is really nice.
And Matt Black has beensomething really nice that I
think some of your customersmight be interested in or some
of your clients might beinterested in.
SPEAKER_01 (17:13):
Yeah, so for listeners out there, if you're
already doing bathroomremodeling, if you're already
doing some aging in place andyou don't have the kind of
variety for accessories or seatsthat you might be getting from
your primary dealer or if you'rein a franchise network, it
sounds like Health at Home canprovide you with different
(17:33):
colors, different materials,different accessories, different
SPEAKER_03 (17:37):
Maybe
SPEAKER_01 (17:38):
even some alternate shower pans, some alternate wall
systems to provide yourcustomers a wider variety and
can help you, the listener,diversify where you get your
products from.
SPEAKER_04 (17:51):
Yeah.
We've been doing this a longtime and And I'm sorry for
jumping around you
SPEAKER_01 (17:59):
a little bit.
No, this is what a podcast is.
SPEAKER_04 (18:01):
Rabbit
SPEAKER_01 (18:02):
holes, trains of thought.
SPEAKER_04 (18:05):
But, you know, another thing that I noticed a
lot that we deal with a lot thatwe've either someone's had to do
multiple times or we've had toreplace is if someone is doing a
tile shower and they're doing amud bed or something to do a
true barrier-free shower.
One thing that I teach a lot ofour contractors is is about
(18:27):
education, not only from us tothem, but from them to the
customer.
And one of the big things we seeis our contractors do very well
because they take the time toexplain to their customers what
they're using and why they'reusing it.
And I think that's a really bigpart because I've seen
contractors that are really goodcontractors, but maybe not as
(18:48):
good as talking with theircustomers.
And I've seen the reverse ofthat where maybe not the best,
but they're very good, verypersonal and friendly.
And that's such a very big part.
And for us, with material thatwe use, we see guys that are
cutting floor joists and they'retaking things that, Mud beds are
great.
If they're done properly, youdon't really have issues with
(19:08):
them, but Schluter is a reallybig one that's a great company
that a lot of people are goingto be familiar with.
We have a system that's calledVIM, V-I-M, a system where you
don't have to cut or notch yourfloor joists.
You get a 10-year parts andlabor warranty, and it was
actually designed by a tilecontractor and a plumbing
contractor that were using a lotof things out there and didn't
(19:30):
like that they had to cut afloor joist and didn't like that
warranties didn't include labor.
So if they got, you know, ifthey did everything right and
something messed up, they'relike, okay, here's a bucket of
waterproofing.
They're like, okay, well that'snot helping the contractor.
And so once you educate yourcustomer on things like that and
saying, Hey, I'm going to gothrough and I had a guy, He
(19:51):
goes, hey, here's what I'm goingto use.
I'm going to be a little bitmore, but 10-year warranty,
things are going to drainbetter.
Here's everything that you'regoing to get with it.
And that education was soimportant because the next
person that came in was going todo the job for less.
But then when the homeownergoes, well, hey, are you going
to cut my floor joists?
And the contractor went back.
SPEAKER_01 (20:10):
They educated the homeowner about what to ask.
SPEAKER_04 (20:12):
Right.
And just having that level ofeducation where the homeowner's
like, well, you're going to tellme about that?
And they're like, well, no.
Well, technically, you need anengineer to come in and look at
the floor joists and make sureit's braced up properly.
But the contractors, a lot oftimes, aren't going to tell the
homeowner they did that.
And so that case, theyimmediately went back to the
person that was like, here'swhat I'm going to do and why I'm
going to do it.
(20:33):
And I think that's a reallyimportant part that a lot of
contractors don't always do.
And that's something we like tohelp our contractors with.
SPEAKER_01 (20:40):
So if I was going to translate that into layman's
terms, me being the layman here.
Sure.
It sounds like you have productsthat you can sell to contractors
that allow them to offerbarrier-free showers to their
customers that don't do anythingto negatively impact the
(21:04):
structure of the home.
It's easier to install betterproduct with a better warranty.
Is that a fair summary?
SPEAKER_04 (21:11):
Yeah.
And there are some greatproducts out there.
Schluter has come out withsomething that's fairly...
Schluter?
Schluter, which is a...
Schluter, yeah.
They have some great products.
But, you know, get in the weedsof that a little bit.
But, you know, just examples of,you know, things that we use and
then taking the time to alsoeducate our contractors has been
(21:32):
really important.
And it's been really helpful.
And also to hear back from them.
You know, we developed a newshower system that we use with
state programs, but we actuallygot with our contractors and
like, hey, what is it that youguys want?
And what is it that you're notgetting?
And that was a big, that was abig process of getting
(21:54):
everything done for them.
And it's been really helpful.
And, you know, something elsethat we've also done is we'll
take on products.
If we have somebody that goes,look, I'm doing, a bunch of jobs
with you guys, but every timeI'm having to go somewhere else
to buy this, well, we can goahead and we can put it in our
warehouse for you to make iteasier to do one-stop shop where
(22:14):
we can have everything for you.
So you're not sending your guyto three different locations
where you're paying them, youknow, half a day labor just to
go to different stores.
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (22:24):
So tell me a little bit about your distribution
network and warehousing.
If you're in Charlotte andsomebody's in Oklahoma and wants
to buy from you, how does that
SPEAKER_04 (22:33):
work?
We just ship it.
So we palletize everything we gothrough and it just depends on
what they want because we haveso many different things that we
offer.
It just depends on what theyfocus on and how we can help
them.
Yeah, we just ship it.
SPEAKER_01 (22:51):
What you're saying is that same story holds true
that if they start to buy fromyou and you can provide more
items on your line card, thenthey're not paying guys half a
day to run around to threedifferent plumbing suppliers to
pick up.
SPEAKER_04 (23:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (23:07):
So perfect example and something else there.
SPEAKER_04 (23:09):
Yeah.
With our new shower system thatwe provided, um, what's nice is
we actually put, um, we put thenails, we put everything in
there.
So when they get it, um, thatwas one thing that our
contractors told us is that,Hey, if I have somebody subbed
out for this job and he gets thejob and goes, Oh, I'm missing a
bucket of screws or nails orwhatever.
And then if I'm in the middle ofnowhere, I'm going to Home Depot
(23:30):
or somewhere to pick up a thingof screws.
And then that way we can goahead and just make it a little
bit easier for you.
And then we can put everythingin one order.
We didn't reinvent the wheelwith that, but
SPEAKER_03 (23:42):
it's
SPEAKER_04 (23:42):
an example of listening to our contractors
with trying to fix things thatare problems for them.
SPEAKER_01 (23:47):
This kind of reminds me of an Ikea.
Everything's in box.
When you're done, you're goingto have a desk.
SPEAKER_04 (23:54):
You don't sell everything, but for the shower,
we got you.
SPEAKER_01 (23:57):
Yeah, for a shower.
SPEAKER_04 (23:58):
Yeah.
But no, this type of work isgetting more and more important.
And The thing that we get, Itouched on it earlier, but we
get so much of is, hey, I reallywant to have everything be
accessible, but I don't want tolook at it like a hospital.
And there's so many products outthere that can do that.
(24:20):
And it's interesting.
We've seen a fairly decent shiftin some of our products, like
our shower seats.
We sell more of those that havenothing to do with
accessibility.
That's now it's more of, Hey, Idon't want to have something
that's going to be cold.
If it's tile, it's going to becold.
It can leak.
There's more grout.
I just want to, I want a benchfor me to sit down.
(24:42):
A lot of times I didn't thinkabout this until we started
selling it.
Yeah.
A lot of that.
I always joke.
If you want to have a showerbeer, it's a good time to sit in
there in the shower.
SPEAKER_01 (24:55):
Some days you're just too tired to stand up.
SPEAKER_04 (24:58):
Yeah.
Just got done with a workout orsomething, but it's been very
interesting to kind of see.
The other thing that'sinteresting to me too is also
that you don't realize how fastsome of these things can happen.
Unfortunately, you know, we dodeal with some younger people
where they've had issues andlet's say it's not too serious
that somebody was playingfootball and they hurt their
(25:19):
leg.
And man, for me to get overthat, to get over the bath, just
to have a grab bar on the otherside was so important.
It can happen a lot faster thanyou think.
And there's other things that wetalk to our customers about that
even if you're doing a shower,hey, you don't have to put
vacuum for the full shower, butcharge a little bit more and do
(25:40):
the full shower That way you'remaking a little bit more money.
And if somebody ever needs it,they can put a grab bar wherever
they like, even if it'ssomething they don't want right
now.
And just little things like thatcan go a long way for
SPEAKER_01 (25:51):
helping.
A bathroom remodel.
SPEAKER_04 (25:53):
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (25:56):
So I don't know if this is something that you do,
but it's worth asking thequestion.
If there are contractors outthere right now that they're
doing remodeling jobs, but theyhaven't really gotten into this
aging in place market yet.
SPEAKER_03 (26:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (26:09):
What advice would you give them?
How do they get started?
SPEAKER_04 (26:14):
That's a good question.
Yeah, we'll reach out to us.
We'll help you.
We're a great starting place.
We deal with it all the time.
Use good materials.
Talk to your customers.
I find most people will tell youwhat they want.
You just need to make sureyou're taking the time to listen
(26:36):
and ask questions.
I know a lot of us just want totake time hey, this works over
here, so I'm just going to dothis for every job and take a
little time to find out aboutany conditions or things they
have can go a long way.
Health conditions.
Yeah, and I will say I did havea very specific example.
A customer of ours, which we'reseeing more of this, is that
(26:59):
there's people out there thatgo, hey, I just want to have a
grab bar installed.
Well, he's made an entirebusiness out of that, and what I
mean by that is He goes in andit's almost like a loss leader.
If he's going in to install onegrab bar, okay, but now I've
gotten you into the house.
This is what I specialize in.
And a lot of times people thatare doing this can't find a
(27:22):
contractor they need to gothrough and make sure that
everything's installedcorrectly.
And so he uses that one grab barto get in and he's done almost
whole home remodels and done aramp, a shower, everything just
because that one person needed agrab bar and then once he got in
there and started talking to himum he did all this other stuff
(27:42):
and then there's also littlethings like hey i keep other
grab bars on my truck so whilei'm here i can add another one
by your toilet i can add one byyour stairs and that one grab
bar had turned into what hisentire business is today it's
very interesting
SPEAKER_01 (27:56):
wow so it sounds like if there's a contractor out
there that's not currently doingany modifications to help people
age in place They might juststart by offering grab bars.
SPEAKER_04 (28:07):
Yeah.
Well, it's really interestingbecause I understand, look, if I
was a contractor, I don't knowif I want to go out to do one
grab bar.
So there's a shortage of that.
But if you look at it from adifferent perspective of, hey,
this is getting me a qualifiedcustomer that I know needs this,
rather than me going out for aquote, I'm actually going to get
paid on this grab bar.
(28:29):
And then look at it from thechance of an opportunity more
than anything to say, There's somuch more here that I can do.
SPEAKER_01 (28:37):
Right.
Look at it like if somebody wasmotivated to have a grab bar
installed, they most likely haveother needs that you can
satisfy.
SPEAKER_04 (28:46):
Yeah.
And a lot of times they justcan't find somebody.
And, you know, I get everybodywants to do the bigger job and
that's great.
But do the one grab bar, get inthere, talk to the customer, see
what their issues are.
And you'd be surprised justbecause they just need to find
somebody, and they're, hey, Idon't want to do a whole sales
(29:07):
program, but hey, now thatyou're here, and do you do
anything else?
Oh, what are you looking for?
Oh, I need a ramp.
Oh, I need a full showerremodel.
There's a lot of differentopportunities there, but I don't
think people realize that, butit's been really interesting to
see this guy's business growover time.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_01 (29:25):
that's fascinating.
He's
SPEAKER_04 (29:27):
doing very well.
SPEAKER_01 (29:28):
What about, you mentioned ramps.
I mean, what about thingsoutside of the bathroom?
SPEAKER_04 (29:34):
So we don't get into Rams.
That's a whole, that's a wholenother
SPEAKER_01 (29:37):
ballgame.
Okay.
SPEAKER_04 (29:39):
Yeah.
But the, um, but there's a lotof times they're not too
complicated.
There's, there's a lot of goodcompanies out there.
Um, there's a lot of people thatwe work with that actually have
specialized and focused on Ramsand, um, Kind of the same thing
with the grab bar.
They're there doing the ramp.
And then while they're doing theramp, they're saying, hey, can
you guys help me with anythingelse?
And they've started doingbathrooms using the same kind of
(30:01):
idea.
Like now that we're doing theramp and you guys do other stuff
and there just isn't enoughpeople out here that are doing
this.
And so when they find somebodythat's doing one thing, they
don't know where else to go.
And so if they feel comfortablewith you, it's a great business
opportunity for someone to openup, but they just need to let
their customers know that theycan do those things.
SPEAKER_01 (30:22):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
So if someone was going toexpand into modifications to
help somebody age in place, isthere any kind of training or
certification that you wouldrecommend contractors look into?
SPEAKER_04 (30:40):
Yeah, there are some different ones.
Yeah.
That's
SPEAKER_03 (30:47):
what
SPEAKER_02 (30:48):
I
SPEAKER_04 (30:49):
was thinking of.
We actually just had our head ofoperations.
She just got her CAPScertification.
They're great.
They actually do a very in-depthlook about aging in place.
I think it's a great experience.
To me, I think it's more aboutfinding the right materials and
(31:12):
using good materials and to kindof Pivot from that, walk-in
tubs.
There's some really cheap onesout there.
We actually, as a company,didn't sell them for a while
because we couldn't findsomething with the quality that
we wanted.
And I think there's moreopportunity out there.
I mean, you've seen a lot ofother really big companies like
(31:33):
Safety Step got bought for, Ithink, over$200 million.
And they're kind of driving itin the market for walk-in tubs.
And there's great opportunitiesout there.
outside of those franchisemodels.
But same thing, if you're therefor that, if you talk to
somebody else and say, hey,while we're here, we can do some
grab bars, there's easy thingsyou can add on.
SPEAKER_02 (31:54):
Yeah.
Well, Ross, what to kind ofbring it all together.
What is one thing that you wishevery contractor understood
about accessibility work?
SPEAKER_04 (32:09):
It takes...
It's very quick to learn, but itis different.
And so take the time, use goodmaterials.
You know, it's upsetting.
We've seen jobs that we've gonein and we've had our contractors
replace because, you know, hey,I'm a contractor, I know what
I'm doing.
(32:29):
And so they, again, they justtook something that they knew
and they just, they took it andthey put a, you know, a square
peg around hole.
And if you just take a littlebit of time to kind of look
through what you're doing,there's a lot of people out
there that do supply this stuff.
Even a lot of, I get a call froma lot of showrooms and supply
(32:51):
houses that they don't focus onthis all the time.
And so we can be, we're aresource for them.
And, you know, no one wantscallbacks and I want to move on
to the next job too, which iswhy we also only sell good
products too.
But take the time to do that.
And if you are doing it for thefirst time, take a little more
(33:13):
time to make sure you're doingit right.
I can tell you, DePan's a verygood example of something that I
just absolutely hammer with mycontractors that I'm telling
you, if you take a little moretime and get this right, you
make everything else so mucheasier in the back end.
And just please take thoseminutes to do that.
You won't regret it.
SPEAKER_01 (33:33):
Right.
Fantastic.
Well, for anybody listening whois looking for a new supplier
and some resources about agingin place, tell our listeners the
best way to get in touch withyou.
How can they find out more aboutHealth at Home and how can they
get in touch with you?
SPEAKER_04 (33:51):
So they can go to healthathomeinc.com.
We, I'll apologize in advance,we're updating our website.
It was supposed to be updated,but that got pushed back.
But yeah, And then also you canlook me up at Ross Gaskin on
LinkedIn and then give us acall.
This is what we do.
We'd be happy to go through.
(34:13):
If you have a whole team ofpeople, we can do a video
conference.
We do them all across thecountry with all the different
materials that we have.
Give us a try.
Again, we have a really highretention rate.
I think because of that, we'renot trying to just sell as much
cheap crap as we can, excuse me,as we can out there.
(34:33):
And so we do have a really goodretention rate with our
customers and they're veryhappy.
And we'd always love to meetsome new people and bring on
some new customers.
SPEAKER_01 (34:43):
Fantastic.
So that's Ross Gaskin,G-A-S-K-I-N.
SPEAKER_04 (34:47):
G-A-S-K-I-N, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (34:48):
And we'll put these links in the show notes as well.
You can look up Ross on LinkedInor you can go to
healthathomeinc.com.
to see the products that theycarry.
Or
SPEAKER_04 (35:02):
you can email me and you'll see our price book on
there and just know that's listpricing.
So that's not what contractorsget charged.
And on top of that, the otherthing we've done is as long as
you're borrowing our products,we're not too worried about it.
We can actually change our pricebook and digitally make it so it
has your company's names andlogos on it so that it looks
(35:23):
like everything's coming fromyou directly.
And
SPEAKER_01 (35:25):
you do that for your contractors?
SPEAKER_04 (35:27):
We'll do it for them.
We're not going to print it.
If they want a physical copy,we'll provide ours.
But if they want it with theirname and logo on it, we can make
it so everything looks like itcomes from them.
But yeah, that's another servicethat we provide for them.
SPEAKER_01 (35:41):
Yeah, that's awesome.
So if you are doing somebathroom remodeling, that means
you could go in and send acustomer an email with a PDF of
a price list of all the productsand you didn't even have to make
that brochure.
You
SPEAKER_04 (35:53):
guys make it.
Yes.
We'll just take all our stuffoff it and put yours on.
Yeah.
It's been really successful witha lot of our customers.
SPEAKER_01 (36:01):
So Ross, it sounds like you're making it easy for
contractors to look like heroesin the home.
SPEAKER_04 (36:06):
Trying to, um, I'm big on I want to make things
easier for people.
Generally, people, if they havean issue with something, they're
always going to revert back towhat's easier and what they
know.
And so, you know, anything wecan do to kind of help that
process.
And, you know, we are a midsizecompany, so we do have the
ability to to kind of adjust onthe fly, which has been really
(36:29):
helpful.
It's something we can helpprovide our customers.
SPEAKER_02 (36:32):
Awesome.
Awesome.
Well, Ross, thank you so muchfor your time, for talking to
our audience.
And, you know, we reallyappreciate everything, all your
insights.
And we're super excited for ouraudience to connect with you.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (36:48):
And to our listeners, if you've enjoyed
this episode, don't forget tohit subscribe, leave us a review
and share this episode with acontractor or friend who needs
to hear it.
Ross, thanks again.
And we'll catch you later.
SPEAKER_00 (37:01):
Digital marketing for contractors is created by
Fat Cat Strategies.
For more information, visitfatcatstrategies.com.
Welcome to Digital Marketing for Contractors, a
podcast for home improvementcontractors to help you crush
your lead goals and take yourbusiness to the next level.
Join us each episode as we giveyou powerful insights and
(00:22):
practical tips on the bestdigital marketing strategies to
help you grow your homeimprovement business.
Let's get started.
SPEAKER_01 (00:32):
As America ages, more homeowners are choosing to
stay in their homes longer, butthat takes more than just good
intentions.
It takes smart, safe renovationsthat help people live
independently.
In this episode, we are joinedby Ross Gaskin, the VP of Sales
at Health at Home, to talk abouthow contractors can get
educated, certified, andinvolved in the booming home
(00:53):
access market.
So today, I'm so happy to haveRoss join us, and I'd like to
welcome everybody back toanother episode of Digital
Marketing for contractors.
My name is Janet.
I'm one of the owners here atFat Cat.
I'm joined by Meredith, aco-owner and the lovely and
talented operations manager,website manager.
(01:14):
Meredith does a little bit ofeverything here at Fat Cat.
So Meredith, say hello to ouraudience.
SPEAKER_02 (01:18):
Hello, happy to be back.
I'm super excited today.
We get to talk about aging inplace and the whole market
around that.
And we're super excited to haveRoss with us.
So, you know, We're going to letyou guys know a little bit about
him, Health at Home, and theaging in place market as a
whole.
SPEAKER_01 (01:37):
Yeah, so Meredith, as you said, we are joined by
Ross Gaskin, the Vice Presidentof Sales at Health at Home,
which is a company that helpshomeowners live safely and
independently for longer bymaking smart, accessible
modifications to their home.
SPEAKER_02 (01:54):
Exactly.
And, you know, it isn't justabout safety.
It's about dignity, comfort.
And for our listeners, it's alsoabout a growing business market.
So, yeah,
SPEAKER_01 (02:04):
there's a what do they call it?
A silver tsunami of seriously, Ithink calling it a silver
tsunami of boomers.
that want to age and place intheir home.
And in order to do that safely,they're gonna have to make
modifications, which is a greatsegue to welcoming Ross.
So Ross, welcome to the show andtell us who you are, what you
(02:26):
do, what is Health at Home?
What do contractors need to knowabout Health at Home and the
products that you can offerthem?
SPEAKER_04 (02:34):
First of all, thank you guys for having me.
I really appreciate the invite.
Uh, yeah.
And so for health at home, wesell aging in place, uh,
products for people that aretrying to stay their homes for
longer.
Um, we focus primarily on thebathroom, but we do have, um,
some products that go outside ofthat.
Um, you know, this is a reallybig category that, um, that I
(02:56):
don't think is really gettingthe focus it deserves,
especially with the number ofpeople, like you said, the white
tsunami coming through,
SPEAKER_01 (03:03):
um, silver tsunamis, whatever it's called.
SPEAKER_04 (03:06):
Yeah.
Silver tsunami, excuse me.
Um, Yeah, that's becoming, it'sjust a much bigger part of the
market than people realize.
And for Health at Home, wereally help with the shower
specifically, making sure thatpeople have a low threshold or
barrier-free showers, as well asgrab bars and shower seats.
And we work with showrooms, butwe also work with contractors
(03:31):
directly.
You're
SPEAKER_01 (03:33):
not working directly with homeowners, right?
SPEAKER_04 (03:35):
No, we're not.
We're only
SPEAKER_01 (03:37):
business to business.
You're servicing the business.
It's a business to businessrelationship.
SPEAKER_04 (03:40):
Correct.
And so we've been in this spacesince about 2008.
And the original owner has sincepassed, but we've really grown
what it is that we offer.
And the way I look at it is wehave kind of two different areas
that we focus on is we have morepeople that are going to be
(04:02):
showroom.
And we see a lot of people thatare downsizing that had the big
house.
They're tired of it.
Just a heat and cool the thingfor, you know, using rooms over
to use any room anymore.
And Hey, I want to haveeverything be accessible for
when that time comes, but I justwant to make sure it doesn't
look like a hospital.
Um, so we have nicer finisheslike matte black and gold.
Um, but then we also have acategory that's more, um, going
(04:27):
to be a lot more governmentwork, going to be the VA.
There's a lot of state programs.
Just about every state has someform of program they work with.
And then there's also insuranceprograms.
And so we really cover thatgambit between kind of wants and
needs and anything in between.
SPEAKER_01 (04:42):
So when you say you're supporting showrooms,
these are open to the publicshowrooms for people to come in
and look at fixtures and grabbars.
And are those showrooms alsodoing the installation?
SPEAKER_04 (04:56):
No, so most of the showrooms we deal with are going
to be plumbing supply showrooms,and it's for someone to come in
and select things that theywant.
So, hey, you know, I wantsomething from Delta, but I have
a– I want this gold finish, and,hey, I also want a nicer grab
bar or a shower seat, and thenthat would be something they
would talk with the showroomconsultant about, and they would
(05:16):
purchase through us.
They would order through theshowroom or the distributor, but
they would ultimately get itfrom us.
Got it.
That's just a little nicercategory that we deal with with
Matt Black and things like that.
And we do a lot of that acrossthe country.
SPEAKER_01 (05:32):
Are you ever selling to individual contracting
companies that are doing thebath remodels where they buy
their product through you?
SPEAKER_04 (05:43):
Yes and no.
We do work with a few differentfranchises across the country
that we have a nationalcontract.
we have national deals with, um,that is a growing market that
we're seeing that we're actuallygetting more and more involved
in.
Um, we deal more with justaccessories on that side.
A lot of them are going to havetheir own things that they
supply.
That's going to be one of theirvery big main generator, uh, um,
(06:06):
revenue generators.
Um, but a lot of the accessoriesand things like that, we can
help provide for that for themfor specifically for the aging
in place category.
SPEAKER_01 (06:15):
Cool.
So, um, Speaking of aging inplace, what have you seen in
this marketplace with folkswanting to stay in their home
and make it more accessible?
What are some insights thatyou've seen working in this
industry about the size and theshape of the market and the
trends that you've seen?
SPEAKER_04 (06:35):
Well, first off, in terms of the actual population
shift, it's really interestingto see.
between 2024 and 2027, 4.1million people are going to be
retiring or turning 65 or olderat that point.
It's about 11,000 people perday.
So it's a very big growingmarket.
(06:58):
And the problem that we dealwith is that we see a lot of
contractors that are takingthings that they know and trying
to just, they assume it worksfor everything for
accessibility.
And there's a lot of, especiallynowadays with the internet,
there's a lot of really cheapproducts out there.
And so, you know, to have, tohave, so what we do is we
(07:23):
actually can help um,contractors and say, Hey, here
are the products that you need.
And are you asking thesequestions of your customer?
Because a lot of people aregoing and saying, Hey, you know,
having a, um, a low thresholdshower, that's not a big deal.
They can get, you know, threeinches is nothing.
Well, if that person is going tobe in a wheelchair
SPEAKER_03 (07:40):
and
SPEAKER_04 (07:42):
right.
And making sure you're askingthose questions of your, uh, of
your customers to make sure thatyou're giving the best, um,
possible results to not onlyhelp them now, but also
long-term is something that wehelp contractors with in terms
of kind of changing their shift,changing their thinking and
shifting to not just finishingthe job, but also how we can
provide assistance down the linefor them as well.
SPEAKER_01 (08:04):
So not only are you able to provide them with
products, but you're able tohelp them on a consulting front,
help the contractors positionthemselves and their services to
best serve that aging in placemarket.
SPEAKER_04 (08:19):
Yeah.
I mean, that's, that's a lot ofwhat we do.
Um, we've had quite a fewcontractors that, um, maybe they
want to bid somewhere andthey're like, Hey, you know,
this is my first time doingthat.
And there's a lot of thingsthat, um, can be very, very
easily overlooked.
Um, just about.
So one thing is when you'resetting a barrier free pan for a
(08:40):
shower, a lot of contractors,um, they're used to setting a
multi-piece shower unit that hasa much bigger, um, threshold to
get in.
Now, what's nice about that is,so if I'm doing tile, in order
to get the proper pitch, itneeds to be a quarter foot,
quarter inch per square foot toget that pitch to the drain.
With a barrier-free pan,actually, that actual tolerance
(09:02):
is a lot less, and so if thatpan is not leveled correctly,
then you can do an entire job,and at the very end, the
shower's leaking and it'snothing to do with the product,
it's the fact that yourcontractor didn't take the time
to level the pan.
And whenever we start, I alwaysjoke myself, I'm like, I'm gonna
sound like a broken record, butplease, please, please level,
(09:26):
level, level.
If you just get that right, wecan fix walls, we can fix the
other things, but if the pan'swrong and you put all your valve
grab bars and everything in andyou get your trim all set in,
And you put the water in and itstarts going out of the shower.
That's no good.
Right.
And that's not a manufacturerdefect.
Not to say it can't happen.
It's
SPEAKER_01 (09:47):
an installation problem.
SPEAKER_04 (09:49):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (09:49):
Not a product problem.
SPEAKER_04 (09:50):
Yeah.
And from there, you're going tohave to take everything out.
And the question becomes, hey,can I take that out and still
reuse it?
Or am I having to buy everythingagain?
And then that's going to affectyour margins and other things
for you and can really hurt youfinancially.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (10:06):
And do you guys have any sort of program that, you
know, your health at homeemployees go through your team
members to help when you'retalking to contractors?
Or do you just know these thingsoff the top of your head?
Like, what does that look like?
SPEAKER_04 (10:21):
So a lot of these things we know off the top of
our head.
We actually developed a newshower system that we're
currently working with a fewstate programs across the
country.
And we actually are requiringthat they sit down with us.
We had an installation videothat we send them, but we
actually require them to sitdown with us to watch it.
(10:44):
Cause we've gotten some calls onthings where some, somebody
goes, Oh, I'm having a problemwith this.
And like, you, didn't watch thevideo so now we make them sit
down and we go through and it'snot only to help them it helps
us not to be fully transparentoh yeah yeah we just want to
make sure that they have a goodexperience um for their first
time and um you know and this istrue of anything but when
(11:06):
something's new like this takinga little time up front to
understand the process ofprocess of installation and
materials that you're workingwith um Everyone wants to rush
through it so quickly, but ifyou slow down and take that
time, it can save you so muchtime in the back end.
It can make your customerhappier and make your life
(11:26):
easier, make my life easier.
But that is something that weare requiring.
And if we need to, if they'relocal, we have some people out
to actually help with installsin the past, but that's not
something we normally do.
SPEAKER_01 (11:40):
And local is where?
Remind everybody.
Oh,
SPEAKER_04 (11:42):
sorry.
We're in Charlotte, NorthCarolina, but we do cover the
whole country.
But obviously, we're going to domore on the East Coast than West
Coast.
SPEAKER_01 (11:53):
So run through the list of products that a
contractor could purchasethrough Health at Home.
I've heard hands, grab bars.
What kind of stuff can we getfrom you?
SPEAKER_04 (12:03):
Yeah, so we do grab bars, grab bars, valves, shower
seats, handheld slide bars,shower heads, barrier-free pans,
barrier-free multi-pieceshowers.
We have different types of wallpaneling.
Then we have different showersystems like you see behind us.
And the things that we use areall tried and true.
(12:27):
There's always something cheaperout there that you can get
that's gonna be, We've reallyfound in this category, and we
do walk-in tubs, we have found alot of when something seems too
good to be true, it normally is,and that's why we have a really
high retention rate with ourcustomers.
Once we have somebody, and aslong as they continue to do
(12:49):
aging in place, rarely do theyleave us for other vendors just
because of the services weprovide, and all the materials
we use are tried and true, andwe're not We're not going to
give you some super cheap wallpaneling from China or somewhere
that you're going to have issueswith.
And especially when you'redealing with some of the people
(13:10):
and some situations that we'rein, having good materials when
you see some of these homes thatare getting these bids for the
VA and state programs, theydon't always have a lot of
money, but we really want tomake sure that we're providing
that good product because It'sso important that It's installed
(13:33):
correctly with good productbecause if there's any issue
with water leaking out anywhereor anything like that, it can
cause mold and mildew and reallydamage their health even more.
And so that's a really bigconcern for us is making sure
that we have quality and that wehelp our contractors through the
whole process.
SPEAKER_01 (13:50):
I'm not familiar with any of the state programs
or any VA programs.
So most of our clients, youknow, all of our clients are
home improvement contractors.
It's about half and half.
Half of our clients are likeroofing site exterior windows
the other half are interior andmost of those are doing one day
bathroom remodels
SPEAKER_03 (14:10):
yeah
SPEAKER_01 (14:10):
now they're installing our clients are
installing you know a systemfrom like a big household name
yeah um you know it's a it's aluxury bath or it's a jacuzzi
system um and they're not tryingto um to have that funded
through any sort of stateprogram or VA program.
(14:31):
It's just homeowners who arepaying for it, either financing
or paying for it out of cash.
I think what you're describingis some program that offers
assistance to people that wantto modify their home, and you're
trying to maintain compliancewith that.
Is that correct?
SPEAKER_04 (14:47):
Yeah, just more on the state program side.
It's just they don't have Theamount of money the state's
giving them from a VAperspective, or there's other
grants and things that they cangive them, they just don't get
that much money.
And so we're helping stretchthat as far as possible.
But one thing you touched on,just to shift gears with you, is
(15:10):
we actually work a lot withthose different programs.
Or excuse me, not thoseprograms, but we work a lot with
different franchisee models.
One thing we do a lot of is ourshower seats and our grab bars.
And we actually started kind ofon a weird path to that because
when we started, we were doingteak seats.
And a lot of these guys, Iactually had somebody call me
(15:32):
today from one of the ones youmentioned.
And it's really funny because westarted with teak seats and
that's what everyone knows andthey use in their showers.
And teak's great.
We sell it and I don't have anybig problem with it.
But we actually developed newshower seats using an HDPE
material.
It's a high-density polyethylenematerial.
(15:53):
It comes in 16 different colors,and then we also have more
finishes.
We have matte black, gold,brushed, stainless.
And what's nice is our showerseats are– the ACP material is
similar to, like, a Trex deckingmaterial.
SPEAKER_03 (16:08):
Right.
SPEAKER_04 (16:09):
So you can put bleach on it.
You can put any abrasivecleaners on it.
And the reason I started is wewere selling shower seats, and
every once in a while we had acall and someone would say, hey,
you know, this teak seat is, youknow, defective.
We say, okay, so let's go aheadand return it.
We get it back.
And then we'd look at the, oneof the panels and you'd see a
(16:29):
big spot on it clearly wherethey just poured bleach or
something
SPEAKER_03 (16:32):
on it.
And,
SPEAKER_04 (16:35):
and so we'd replace it.
And so we actually startedlooking for different material.
Um, and that's where we came upwith this new material and it's,
um, it's actually made fromrecycled milk cartons.
So it's a green material.
Um, but we use it quite a bit.
And, um, some franchise modelsthat I think you're referring to
across the country.
And it's been really nice.
(16:55):
It has a 500-pound weightcapacity because it's made of
stainless steel.
And having the nicer finishesthat match Kohler and Delta and
Moen is really nice.
And Matt Black has beensomething really nice that I
think some of your customersmight be interested in or some
of your clients might beinterested in.
SPEAKER_01 (17:13):
Yeah, so for listeners out there, if you're
already doing bathroomremodeling, if you're already
doing some aging in place andyou don't have the kind of
variety for accessories or seatsthat you might be getting from
your primary dealer or if you'rein a franchise network, it
sounds like Health at Home canprovide you with different
(17:33):
colors, different materials,different accessories, different
SPEAKER_03 (17:37):
Maybe
SPEAKER_01 (17:38):
even some alternate shower pans, some alternate wall
systems to provide yourcustomers a wider variety and
can help you, the listener,diversify where you get your
products from.
SPEAKER_04 (17:51):
Yeah.
We've been doing this a longtime and And I'm sorry for
jumping around you
SPEAKER_01 (17:59):
a little bit.
No, this is what a podcast is.
SPEAKER_04 (18:01):
Rabbit
SPEAKER_01 (18:02):
holes, trains of thought.
SPEAKER_04 (18:05):
But, you know, another thing that I noticed a
lot that we deal with a lot thatwe've either someone's had to do
multiple times or we've had toreplace is if someone is doing a
tile shower and they're doing amud bed or something to do a
true barrier-free shower.
One thing that I teach a lot ofour contractors is is about
(18:27):
education, not only from us tothem, but from them to the
customer.
And one of the big things we seeis our contractors do very well
because they take the time toexplain to their customers what
they're using and why they'reusing it.
And I think that's a really bigpart because I've seen
contractors that are really goodcontractors, but maybe not as
(18:48):
good as talking with theircustomers.
And I've seen the reverse ofthat where maybe not the best,
but they're very good, verypersonal and friendly.
And that's such a very big part.
And for us, with material thatwe use, we see guys that are
cutting floor joists and they'retaking things that, Mud beds are
great.
If they're done properly, youdon't really have issues with
(19:08):
them, but Schluter is a reallybig one that's a great company
that a lot of people are goingto be familiar with.
We have a system that's calledVIM, V-I-M, a system where you
don't have to cut or notch yourfloor joists.
You get a 10-year parts andlabor warranty, and it was
actually designed by a tilecontractor and a plumbing
contractor that were using a lotof things out there and didn't
(19:30):
like that they had to cut afloor joist and didn't like that
warranties didn't include labor.
So if they got, you know, ifthey did everything right and
something messed up, they'relike, okay, here's a bucket of
waterproofing.
They're like, okay, well that'snot helping the contractor.
And so once you educate yourcustomer on things like that and
saying, Hey, I'm going to gothrough and I had a guy, He
(19:51):
goes, hey, here's what I'm goingto use.
I'm going to be a little bitmore, but 10-year warranty,
things are going to drainbetter.
Here's everything that you'regoing to get with it.
And that education was soimportant because the next
person that came in was going todo the job for less.
But then when the homeownergoes, well, hey, are you going
to cut my floor joists?
And the contractor went back.
SPEAKER_01 (20:10):
They educated the homeowner about what to ask.
SPEAKER_04 (20:12):
Right.
And just having that level ofeducation where the homeowner's
like, well, you're going to tellme about that?
And they're like, well, no.
Well, technically, you need anengineer to come in and look at
the floor joists and make sureit's braced up properly.
But the contractors, a lot oftimes, aren't going to tell the
homeowner they did that.
And so that case, theyimmediately went back to the
person that was like, here'swhat I'm going to do and why I'm
going to do it.
(20:33):
And I think that's a reallyimportant part that a lot of
contractors don't always do.
And that's something we like tohelp our contractors with.
SPEAKER_01 (20:40):
So if I was going to translate that into layman's
terms, me being the layman here.
Sure.
It sounds like you have productsthat you can sell to contractors
that allow them to offerbarrier-free showers to their
customers that don't do anythingto negatively impact the
(21:04):
structure of the home.
It's easier to install betterproduct with a better warranty.
Is that a fair summary?
SPEAKER_04 (21:11):
Yeah.
And there are some greatproducts out there.
Schluter has come out withsomething that's fairly...
Schluter?
Schluter, which is a...
Schluter, yeah.
They have some great products.
But, you know, get in the weedsof that a little bit.
But, you know, just examples of,you know, things that we use and
then taking the time to alsoeducate our contractors has been
(21:32):
really important.
And it's been really helpful.
And also to hear back from them.
You know, we developed a newshower system that we use with
state programs, but we actuallygot with our contractors and
like, hey, what is it that youguys want?
And what is it that you're notgetting?
And that was a big, that was abig process of getting
(21:54):
everything done for them.
And it's been really helpful.
And, you know, something elsethat we've also done is we'll
take on products.
If we have somebody that goes,look, I'm doing, a bunch of jobs
with you guys, but every timeI'm having to go somewhere else
to buy this, well, we can goahead and we can put it in our
warehouse for you to make iteasier to do one-stop shop where
(22:14):
we can have everything for you.
So you're not sending your guyto three different locations
where you're paying them, youknow, half a day labor just to
go to different stores.
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (22:24):
So tell me a little bit about your distribution
network and warehousing.
If you're in Charlotte andsomebody's in Oklahoma and wants
to buy from you, how does that
SPEAKER_04 (22:33):
work?
We just ship it.
So we palletize everything we gothrough and it just depends on
what they want because we haveso many different things that we
offer.
It just depends on what theyfocus on and how we can help
them.
Yeah, we just ship it.
SPEAKER_01 (22:51):
What you're saying is that same story holds true
that if they start to buy fromyou and you can provide more
items on your line card, thenthey're not paying guys half a
day to run around to threedifferent plumbing suppliers to
pick up.
SPEAKER_04 (23:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (23:07):
So perfect example and something else there.
SPEAKER_04 (23:09):
Yeah.
With our new shower system thatwe provided, um, what's nice is
we actually put, um, we put thenails, we put everything in
there.
So when they get it, um, thatwas one thing that our
contractors told us is that,Hey, if I have somebody subbed
out for this job and he gets thejob and goes, Oh, I'm missing a
bucket of screws or nails orwhatever.
And then if I'm in the middle ofnowhere, I'm going to Home Depot
(23:30):
or somewhere to pick up a thingof screws.
And then that way we can goahead and just make it a little
bit easier for you.
And then we can put everythingin one order.
We didn't reinvent the wheelwith that, but
SPEAKER_03 (23:42):
it's
SPEAKER_04 (23:42):
an example of listening to our contractors
with trying to fix things thatare problems for them.
SPEAKER_01 (23:47):
This kind of reminds me of an Ikea.
Everything's in box.
When you're done, you're goingto have a desk.
SPEAKER_04 (23:54):
You don't sell everything, but for the shower,
we got you.
SPEAKER_01 (23:57):
Yeah, for a shower.
SPEAKER_04 (23:58):
Yeah.
But no, this type of work isgetting more and more important.
And The thing that we get, Itouched on it earlier, but we
get so much of is, hey, I reallywant to have everything be
accessible, but I don't want tolook at it like a hospital.
And there's so many products outthere that can do that.
(24:20):
And it's interesting.
We've seen a fairly decent shiftin some of our products, like
our shower seats.
We sell more of those that havenothing to do with
accessibility.
That's now it's more of, Hey, Idon't want to have something
that's going to be cold.
If it's tile, it's going to becold.
It can leak.
There's more grout.
I just want to, I want a benchfor me to sit down.
(24:42):
A lot of times I didn't thinkabout this until we started
selling it.
Yeah.
A lot of that.
I always joke.
If you want to have a showerbeer, it's a good time to sit in
there in the shower.
SPEAKER_01 (24:55):
Some days you're just too tired to stand up.
SPEAKER_04 (24:58):
Yeah.
Just got done with a workout orsomething, but it's been very
interesting to kind of see.
The other thing that'sinteresting to me too is also
that you don't realize how fastsome of these things can happen.
Unfortunately, you know, we dodeal with some younger people
where they've had issues andlet's say it's not too serious
that somebody was playingfootball and they hurt their
(25:19):
leg.
And man, for me to get overthat, to get over the bath, just
to have a grab bar on the otherside was so important.
It can happen a lot faster thanyou think.
And there's other things that wetalk to our customers about that
even if you're doing a shower,hey, you don't have to put
vacuum for the full shower, butcharge a little bit more and do
(25:40):
the full shower That way you'remaking a little bit more money.
And if somebody ever needs it,they can put a grab bar wherever
they like, even if it'ssomething they don't want right
now.
And just little things like thatcan go a long way for
SPEAKER_01 (25:51):
helping.
A bathroom remodel.
SPEAKER_04 (25:53):
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (25:56):
So I don't know if this is something that you do,
but it's worth asking thequestion.
If there are contractors outthere right now that they're
doing remodeling jobs, but theyhaven't really gotten into this
aging in place market yet.
SPEAKER_03 (26:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (26:09):
What advice would you give them?
How do they get started?
SPEAKER_04 (26:14):
That's a good question.
Yeah, we'll reach out to us.
We'll help you.
We're a great starting place.
We deal with it all the time.
Use good materials.
Talk to your customers.
I find most people will tell youwhat they want.
You just need to make sureyou're taking the time to listen
(26:36):
and ask questions.
I know a lot of us just want totake time hey, this works over
here, so I'm just going to dothis for every job and take a
little time to find out aboutany conditions or things they
have can go a long way.
Health conditions.
Yeah, and I will say I did havea very specific example.
A customer of ours, which we'reseeing more of this, is that
(26:59):
there's people out there thatgo, hey, I just want to have a
grab bar installed.
Well, he's made an entirebusiness out of that, and what I
mean by that is He goes in andit's almost like a loss leader.
If he's going in to install onegrab bar, okay, but now I've
gotten you into the house.
This is what I specialize in.
And a lot of times people thatare doing this can't find a
(27:22):
contractor they need to gothrough and make sure that
everything's installedcorrectly.
And so he uses that one grab barto get in and he's done almost
whole home remodels and done aramp, a shower, everything just
because that one person needed agrab bar and then once he got in
there and started talking to himum he did all this other stuff
(27:42):
and then there's also littlethings like hey i keep other
grab bars on my truck so whilei'm here i can add another one
by your toilet i can add one byyour stairs and that one grab
bar had turned into what hisentire business is today it's
very interesting
SPEAKER_01 (27:56):
wow so it sounds like if there's a contractor out
there that's not currently doingany modifications to help people
age in place They might juststart by offering grab bars.
SPEAKER_04 (28:07):
Yeah.
Well, it's really interestingbecause I understand, look, if I
was a contractor, I don't knowif I want to go out to do one
grab bar.
So there's a shortage of that.
But if you look at it from adifferent perspective of, hey,
this is getting me a qualifiedcustomer that I know needs this,
rather than me going out for aquote, I'm actually going to get
paid on this grab bar.
(28:29):
And then look at it from thechance of an opportunity more
than anything to say, There's somuch more here that I can do.
SPEAKER_01 (28:37):
Right.
Look at it like if somebody wasmotivated to have a grab bar
installed, they most likely haveother needs that you can
satisfy.
SPEAKER_04 (28:46):
Yeah.
And a lot of times they justcan't find somebody.
And, you know, I get everybodywants to do the bigger job and
that's great.
But do the one grab bar, get inthere, talk to the customer, see
what their issues are.
And you'd be surprised justbecause they just need to find
somebody, and they're, hey, Idon't want to do a whole sales
(29:07):
program, but hey, now thatyou're here, and do you do
anything else?
Oh, what are you looking for?
Oh, I need a ramp.
Oh, I need a full showerremodel.
There's a lot of differentopportunities there, but I don't
think people realize that, butit's been really interesting to
see this guy's business growover time.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_01 (29:25):
that's fascinating.
He's
SPEAKER_04 (29:27):
doing very well.
SPEAKER_01 (29:28):
What about, you mentioned ramps.
I mean, what about thingsoutside of the bathroom?
SPEAKER_04 (29:34):
So we don't get into Rams.
That's a whole, that's a wholenother
SPEAKER_01 (29:37):
ballgame.
Okay.
SPEAKER_04 (29:39):
Yeah.
But the, um, but there's a lotof times they're not too
complicated.
There's, there's a lot of goodcompanies out there.
Um, there's a lot of people thatwe work with that actually have
specialized and focused on Ramsand, um, Kind of the same thing
with the grab bar.
They're there doing the ramp.
And then while they're doing theramp, they're saying, hey, can
you guys help me with anythingelse?
And they've started doingbathrooms using the same kind of
(30:01):
idea.
Like now that we're doing theramp and you guys do other stuff
and there just isn't enoughpeople out here that are doing
this.
And so when they find somebodythat's doing one thing, they
don't know where else to go.
And so if they feel comfortablewith you, it's a great business
opportunity for someone to openup, but they just need to let
their customers know that theycan do those things.
SPEAKER_01 (30:22):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
So if someone was going toexpand into modifications to
help somebody age in place, isthere any kind of training or
certification that you wouldrecommend contractors look into?
SPEAKER_04 (30:40):
Yeah, there are some different ones.
Yeah.
That's
SPEAKER_03 (30:47):
what
SPEAKER_02 (30:48):
I
SPEAKER_04 (30:49):
was thinking of.
We actually just had our head ofoperations.
She just got her CAPScertification.
They're great.
They actually do a very in-depthlook about aging in place.
I think it's a great experience.
To me, I think it's more aboutfinding the right materials and
(31:12):
using good materials and to kindof Pivot from that, walk-in
tubs.
There's some really cheap onesout there.
We actually, as a company,didn't sell them for a while
because we couldn't findsomething with the quality that
we wanted.
And I think there's moreopportunity out there.
I mean, you've seen a lot ofother really big companies like
(31:33):
Safety Step got bought for, Ithink, over$200 million.
And they're kind of driving itin the market for walk-in tubs.
And there's great opportunitiesout there.
outside of those franchisemodels.
But same thing, if you're therefor that, if you talk to
somebody else and say, hey,while we're here, we can do some
grab bars, there's easy thingsyou can add on.
SPEAKER_02 (31:54):
Yeah.
Well, Ross, what to kind ofbring it all together.
What is one thing that you wishevery contractor understood
about accessibility work?
SPEAKER_04 (32:09):
It takes...
It's very quick to learn, but itis different.
And so take the time, use goodmaterials.
You know, it's upsetting.
We've seen jobs that we've gonein and we've had our contractors
replace because, you know, hey,I'm a contractor, I know what
I'm doing.
(32:29):
And so they, again, they justtook something that they knew
and they just, they took it andthey put a, you know, a square
peg around hole.
And if you just take a littlebit of time to kind of look
through what you're doing,there's a lot of people out
there that do supply this stuff.
Even a lot of, I get a call froma lot of showrooms and supply
(32:51):
houses that they don't focus onthis all the time.
And so we can be, we're aresource for them.
And, you know, no one wantscallbacks and I want to move on
to the next job too, which iswhy we also only sell good
products too.
But take the time to do that.
And if you are doing it for thefirst time, take a little more
(33:13):
time to make sure you're doingit right.
I can tell you, DePan's a verygood example of something that I
just absolutely hammer with mycontractors that I'm telling
you, if you take a little moretime and get this right, you
make everything else so mucheasier in the back end.
And just please take thoseminutes to do that.
You won't regret it.
SPEAKER_01 (33:33):
Right.
Fantastic.
Well, for anybody listening whois looking for a new supplier
and some resources about agingin place, tell our listeners the
best way to get in touch withyou.
How can they find out more aboutHealth at Home and how can they
get in touch with you?
SPEAKER_04 (33:51):
So they can go to healthathomeinc.com.
We, I'll apologize in advance,we're updating our website.
It was supposed to be updated,but that got pushed back.
But yeah, And then also you canlook me up at Ross Gaskin on
LinkedIn and then give us acall.
This is what we do.
We'd be happy to go through.
(34:13):
If you have a whole team ofpeople, we can do a video
conference.
We do them all across thecountry with all the different
materials that we have.
Give us a try.
Again, we have a really highretention rate.
I think because of that, we'renot trying to just sell as much
cheap crap as we can, excuse me,as we can out there.
(34:33):
And so we do have a really goodretention rate with our
customers and they're veryhappy.
And we'd always love to meetsome new people and bring on
some new customers.
SPEAKER_01 (34:43):
Fantastic.
So that's Ross Gaskin,G-A-S-K-I-N.
SPEAKER_04 (34:47):
G-A-S-K-I-N, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (34:48):
And we'll put these links in the show notes as well.
You can look up Ross on LinkedInor you can go to
healthathomeinc.com.
to see the products that theycarry.
Or
SPEAKER_04 (35:02):
you can email me and you'll see our price book on
there and just know that's listpricing.
So that's not what contractorsget charged.
And on top of that, the otherthing we've done is as long as
you're borrowing our products,we're not too worried about it.
We can actually change our pricebook and digitally make it so it
has your company's names andlogos on it so that it looks
(35:23):
like everything's coming fromyou directly.
And
SPEAKER_01 (35:25):
you do that for your contractors?
SPEAKER_04 (35:27):
We'll do it for them.
We're not going to print it.
If they want a physical copy,we'll provide ours.
But if they want it with theirname and logo on it, we can make
it so everything looks like itcomes from them.
But yeah, that's another servicethat we provide for them.
SPEAKER_01 (35:41):
Yeah, that's awesome.
So if you are doing somebathroom remodeling, that means
you could go in and send acustomer an email with a PDF of
a price list of all the productsand you didn't even have to make
that brochure.
You
SPEAKER_04 (35:53):
guys make it.
Yes.
We'll just take all our stuffoff it and put yours on.
Yeah.
It's been really successful witha lot of our customers.
SPEAKER_01 (36:01):
So Ross, it sounds like you're making it easy for
contractors to look like heroesin the home.
SPEAKER_04 (36:06):
Trying to, um, I'm big on I want to make things
easier for people.
Generally, people, if they havean issue with something, they're
always going to revert back towhat's easier and what they
know.
And so, you know, anything wecan do to kind of help that
process.
And, you know, we are a midsizecompany, so we do have the
ability to to kind of adjust onthe fly, which has been really
(36:29):
helpful.
It's something we can helpprovide our customers.
SPEAKER_02 (36:32):
Awesome.
Awesome.
Well, Ross, thank you so muchfor your time, for talking to
our audience.
And, you know, we reallyappreciate everything, all your
insights.
And we're super excited for ouraudience to connect with you.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (36:48):
And to our listeners, if you've enjoyed
this episode, don't forget tohit subscribe, leave us a review
and share this episode with acontractor or friend who needs
to hear it.
Ross, thanks again.
And we'll catch you later.
SPEAKER_00 (37:01):
Digital marketing for contractors is created by
Fat Cat Strategies.
For more information, visitfatcatstrategies.com.
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