April 17, 2025 • 54 mins
Matthew Van Eyk's journey from a teenage worker fixing driveways to founding Oakscapes reveals how passion and technical knowledge can transform an industry. Starting at just 15, Matthew learned the craft by seeing what went wrong in poorly installed hardscapes – knowledge that would later become the foundation of his business philosophy.
After college and experience with large construction companies, Matthew launched Oakscapes with a simple yet powerful mission: to create outdoor spaces that homeowners fall in love with, built on uncompromising quality standards. His approach combines technical precision with aesthetic vision, addressing the unique challenges of Florida's landscape.
The conversation dives deep into the critical aspects of hardscape installation that most homeowners never consider. Matthew explains how proper drainage – a significant challenge in Florida's flat terrain – can make or break an outdoor project. His use of lime rock base instead of recycled concrete allows water percolation, preventing the pooling issues that plague many installations. This technical knowledge, combined with an understanding of material strengths and applications, sets Oakscapes apart in a crowded market.
We explore the evolution of outdoor materials, from traditional pavers to the growing popularity of porcelain with its impressive 30,000 PSF strength rating compared to traditional pavers' 6,000-9,000 PSF. Matthew guides us through when to use which materials – recommending pavers for driveways due to their interlocking strength while explaining why porcelain has become the premium choice for patios and pool decks.
What truly shines through is Matthew's vision of creating a comprehensive exterior design company, a "one-stop shop" that eliminates the finger-pointing and disconnected results that come from using multiple contractors. This holistic approach ensures cohesive, beautiful outdoor spaces that actually function as intended – spaces that become the selling point of homes throughout South Florida.
Whether you're planning your own outdoor project or simply appreciate the craftsmanship behind beautiful spaces, this conversation offers valuable insights into what makes truly exceptional outdoor design. Ready to transform your outdoor living area? The expertise shared here might just be your first step toward creating the backyard of your dreams.
Learn more at:
https://twinteriors.com/podcast/
https://scottwoolley.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Voice Over (00:00):
This is iDesign Lab, a podcast where creativity and
curiosity meet style and design.
Curator of interiors,furnishings and lifestyles.
Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, aninterior designer and a style
enthusiast, along with herserial entrepreneur husband
Scott, idesign Lab is yourultimate design podcast where we
explore the rich and vibrantworld of design and its constant
(00:23):
evolution in style and trends.
Idesign Lab provides industryinsight, discussing the latest
trends, styles and everything inbetween to better help you
style your life, through advicefrom trendsetters, designers,
influencers, innovators,fabricators and manufacturers,
as well as personal stories thatinspire, motivate and excite.
(00:43):
And join us on this elevated,informative and lively journey
into the world of all thingsdesign.
Today, we're excited to haveMatthew Van Eyck, the owner of
Oakscapes, as our guest.
Oakscapes is a premier paverand landscape design company
that specializes in high-endresidential design solutions,
from crafting beautifuldriveways and installing lush
(01:04):
turf for your backyard garden tobuilding the perfect paver
patio.
Matthew and his team atOakscapes are passionate about
helping clients fall in lovewith their homes by offering a
comprehensive range of landscapeand design services.
Matthew prides himself onOakscapes' reputation for
excellence, always puttingclient satisfaction at the
forefront.
Join us as we dive into theworld of high-end outdoor design
(01:27):
the art of transforming outdoorspaces and the secrets behind
building lasting clientrelationships.
Welcome, matthew.
Tiffany Woolley (01:35):
Welcome to the iDesign Lab podcast.
Today we have Matthew Van Eyckwith us and we spend a lot of
time talking about design andmostly about interior detailing.
So today I'm excited to diveinto exterior with you, but we
want to start and tell us aboutwho you are and your amazing
(01:57):
company, oakscapes.
Matthew Van Eyk (01:59):
Thank you very much.
Yeah, matthew Van Eyck, withOakscapes.
I started the company about twoyears ago now.
I started doing pavers when Iwas 15.
15?
Scott Woolley (02:12):
Yeah.
Matthew Van Eyk (02:13):
Was your father doing it?
No, no, my parents bought acoulter home.
Okay, what's a coulter home?
It's like a big company, like aGL yeah, it's like a gl home or
like a morrison or somethinglike that, right, um, and so
they bought, like a brand newculture, home in a community and
um, you have your one yearwarranty.
You know, with most of thesebuilders right, and the driveway
(02:37):
was done terribly, uh, so whichwe see quite a bit yeah, no
kidding, no kidding.
And so I started.
My parents, like you know, wentthrough the whole spiel of
trying to get the warranty tofix it and whatnot.
So they had their paper guycome out and fix it and so he
was working and you know wealways like working outside my
(03:00):
brothers and I and my dad.
So he's like, hey, do you needany workers outside?
My brothers and I and my dad.
So he's like, hey, do you guys,do you need any workers?
And this guy was like I don'tknow 50 or something, and you
know, kind of like one of thosegood old boys like yeah, a
little bit, a little bit kind oflike a hippie, kind of kind of
funny.
Um, he's like sure.
So I was.
(03:21):
I was 15 or 16, and mybrother's 14.
And so we started working forthis guy.
Scott Woolley (03:27):
Oh, you started working for the guy yeah.
Matthew Van Eyk (03:29):
Really yeah.
So we were both in high schooland we'd work whenever we had
times off.
We were homeschooled.
Tiffany Woolley (03:36):
You were.
Yeah, I didn't know that.
I want to dive back into that.
Matthew Van Eyk (03:38):
Okay, yeah, so we could kind of like work when
he needed us to work.
Scott Woolley (03:43):
you know he wasn't he didn't like that, Not
just on your house, but on thehouse.
Matthew Van Eyk (03:46):
No, no, no yeah yeah, so we started working all
over for Coulter Homes andCoulter was building a lot up in
Stewart at that time so he hadlike four communities for
Coulter he would do repairs on.
And then we, you know, was itdriveways, driveways, patios,
walkways?
Yeah, mostly.
You know, especially pool decks.
(04:07):
The pavers around pools alwayssink because they're not back
graded correctly.
So we did a lot of pool decks.
And we were like we were youngso we, just like when we were
hot and tired, we'd jump in theswimming pool and stuff.
Scott Woolley (04:21):
At someone's house.
Matthew Van Eyk (04:23):
Yeah, it wasn't the most reputable in the world
.
Scott Woolley (04:27):
So that's how you got started.
That's like a funny story.
That was hysterical, I mean somany people that we sit here and
talk to.
They went to college, theyplanned this, but you kind of
just maybe fell into it yeah,literally, literally, literally
so you learned the craft fromthis guy who was kind of a
hippie.
Matthew Van Eyk (04:46):
Yeah, he was a little bit of a hippie.
He was Brazilian, so he would.
Scott Woolley (04:49):
But I have to ask a question because we know your
work, and your work isimpeccable.
It's really really well done,Thank you.
Was this guy the same kind ofhigh quality that you?
Matthew Van Eyk (04:59):
were Not quite so much.
Tiffany Woolley (05:01):
But you learned about probably what not to do.
Matthew Van Eyk (05:04):
Yeah, we learned not what to do, and then
we learned you know, when youdo so many repairs, you know
what.
Tiffany Woolley (05:09):
Is the problem?
Matthew Van Eyk (05:10):
Yeah, causes problems, so that helped us out
a lot, so my brother and I didthat for three or four years.
Tiffany Woolley (05:18):
That's a long time at that age.
Matthew Van Eyk (05:20):
Yeah, a long time yeah, and we were making
$10 an hour, right, which wethought was gold, right, right,
you know everyone else was doing, you know, hourly at Publix or
whatever, making $6 or $7.
Scott Woolley (05:35):
But it's hard work.
You carry bricks, oh yeah, sodo you.
Tiffany Woolley (05:37):
You carry papers For sure.
Matthew Van Eyk (05:45):
But this guy, I mean, we didn't know, but he
was making a lot of money off ofus.
Oh, that's so, but yeah, so Idid that.
Then I went to college.
I worked for a couple big gcs.
I worked for rangerconstruction, which is like a
big commercial um civilconstruction company.
Then I worked for a gc and boca.
We did a lot of commercialrenovations, which was a lot of
fun.
(06:06):
But we work for nationalcompanies so what was all this
work?
Scott Woolley (06:10):
exterior, outdoor , no hardscapes, so interior,
too, no.
Matthew Van Eyk (06:14):
So for ranger it was civil construction, so
you know you're doing.
You know, we built bridges,roads to 95.
Tiffany Woolley (06:22):
Wow.
Matthew Van Eyk (06:23):
So, like big construction, that was a lot of
fun.
Tiffany Woolley (06:30):
But it was I don't know.
I don't like big corporateenvironments.
I know you spent so much timeright going through all the red
tape.
Yeah, so much time, I agree, somuch waste.
Matthew Van Eyk (06:35):
I mean it was really cool, like the Hood Road
Bridge in Palm Beach Gardens uphere, like I was on that
construction project and it was.
It was a blast, but it's just,yeah, a lot of big, big
corporations not a big fan of it.
So then I went to the gc in bocamds builders, which I loved a
(06:58):
lot um, and they're excellent,the owner's excellent, my boss
was excellent, so we had a lotof.
I enjoyed it a lot there.
But we work for nationalclients, so we work for Verizon
and T-Mobile and those kind ofcompanies Contracts.
Yeah, great contracts, but weworked in the southeast, so I
(07:19):
was the estimator and projectmanager for some and you just
don't get to see your projects.
Scott Woolley (07:26):
Finished.
Matthew Van Eyk (07:27):
Yeah, you know, they're in the middle of
nowhere, Alabama or Mississippi,or you know, up north Florida.
So you like, you know you getto see pictures in your building
.
Yeah, you don't get to see, youdon't get to make a
relationship with yourcontractors and whatnot.
So I decided to quit there andthen start Oakscapes.
Tiffany Woolley (07:46):
But I love that you knew that at a young age
that you wanted to have a nicheand you wanted to build
something more.
Matthew Van Eyk (07:52):
Oh yeah, I always wanted to start a company
.
You definitely have theentrepreneurial spirit.
Scott Woolley (07:56):
Yeah thank you.
So you jump out of sort ofcorporate world into your own
business.
So now you're designing andcreating your own business.
Tiffany Woolley (08:06):
Yeah, your own brand.
What?
Scott Woolley (08:07):
made your pick doing outside, or, or you know,
hardscapes as I call it, yeah,compared to doing something else
in construction, or um, I knewit well, uh-huh, and I was good
at it.
Matthew Van Eyk (08:21):
I am good at it , right, um Right, and you're in
Florida, you want to gooutdoors?
You know that's why people cometo Florida.
Tiffany Woolley (08:28):
Isn't that the truth?
Matthew Van Eyk (08:29):
You spend so much time on your pool deck and
your patio and you know you canbuild and create designs that
people love and they spend a lotof time at, and then,
especially with the outdoors andespecially with primarily
residential construction, youget to have a relationship with
these people and you know theyjust appreciate you and love
(08:50):
your work and you know, word ofmouth, yeah, word of mouth.
But I just like love workingwith people.
So that's, that's the, uh, themain reason.
Yeah, I love that.
Yeah, my brother, actually heended up.
He.
He owns a paper company up inStewart as well.
Scott Woolley (09:05):
Really.
So you're both kind of doingthe same thing, is it like?
Tiffany Woolley (09:09):
a sister or like a sister, I would call it a
sister company.
No, we're a brother company.
Matthew Van Eyk (09:14):
We consider doing that, but it was just
better, I think, just to do ourseparate.
We might merge eventually, verycool.
Voice Over (09:21):
But, he's been doing it for like six years now.
Matthew Van Eyk (09:24):
So yeah, so it was eventually um, but he's been
doing it for like six years now.
So yeah, so it is.
Scott Woolley (09:26):
I mean all from yeah, a guy that's in your
driveway yeah yeah that is sofunny.
Tiffany Woolley (09:34):
Do you know where that guy is today?
Matthew Van Eyk (09:36):
oh yeah, he's still up in stewart.
He's still doing the same oldthing.
Tiffany Woolley (09:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah so what made you choose
south florida?
Matthew Van Eyk (09:45):
obviously stewart's kind of not south
florida, but yeah, so, to focus,my dad's a pastor, and so he's
he.
I was born in canada, then hewent to school in california and
then he was called to be apastor up in vero and then he
transferred to stewart, um.
(10:05):
So that's what brought us toero, and then he transferred to
Stewart, so that's what broughtus to Florida, and then I went
to school at.
Fvu for engineering.
Oh wow, and so that's how Icame down here.
Tiffany Woolley (10:12):
Yep.
Matthew Van Eyk (10:13):
And I've lived here for eight years or
something like that and met mywife, got married here and her
family's close by.
Tiffany Woolley (10:22):
Right here, yeah, aw.
Scott Woolley (10:24):
So it's literally the american dream yeah exactly
, I love that so you jump intoand create oakscapes.
How did the name come about?
Well, because designing,creating a name can.
Matthew Van Eyk (10:35):
Yeah, that's, it's challenging, so van eyck
means from the oaks in dutchokay and so I didn't want to
like last name correct.
I didn't want to use my lastname, just in case you know,
someone ever sells it, orsomething yeah, um, but I still
wanted to incorporate that.
So, and we want to do.
You know, landscaping andhardscapes and whatnot?
(10:57):
So I thought it was a nicemerging of the two it really is
that's.
Tiffany Woolley (11:02):
I love that.
Matthew Van Eyk (11:03):
Yeah, it's kind of fun.
Tiffany Woolley (11:04):
It took a while yeah.
Scott Woolley (11:08):
So how difficult is it to go into a business like
this and find your first client?
Yeah, it's.
Matthew Van Eyk (11:16):
I mean, it was a challenge, you know, I
expected, anticipated, you knowbeing, you know, rather slow for
the first six months a year orwhatnot.
Scott Woolley (11:29):
um, but I mean, did you have a client?
Tiffany Woolley (11:34):
or pound the pavement, literally knock on
door.
Yeah.
Scott Woolley (11:38):
I did.
Did you have a client to startwith, going, okay, I've got a
client, now I'm going to startthis business because I've got
some income coming in?
So you basically decide you'regoing to start this company.
You have no new business.
You create a name and nowyou've got to go find a client.
Matthew Van Eyk (11:55):
Yeah, yeah, that's challenging.
Yeah, it's very challenging.
Scott Woolley (12:00):
How did?
Matthew Van Eyk (12:00):
you overcome that.
It was.
You know, I tried a lot ofthings and as you do it, you
learn and modify and figure outwhat works.
Scott Woolley (12:11):
But what were some of the first things that
you did?
Was it putting a websitetogether, putting an ad?
Matthew Van Eyk (12:16):
Yeah, so I did a lot of that background work
before I quit my other company.
Scott Woolley (12:21):
Okay.
Matthew Van Eyk (12:21):
So I just did it at nights, you know, and on
Fridays, and I take a Friday offhere and there just to prepare
for this right um.
So I had, you know, my websiteup, I had, you know, all my
estimating templates andeverything you know in check,
you know, um, and then I had amarketing company ready to go.
Scott Woolley (12:42):
Okay, so as soon as I so you, hired a company to
help you in the market, correct?
So all of this is what weconsider designing your life?
Yeah, so you're designing andputting together a plan to
launch a new business?
Yes, sir, and it's.
There's a story behind everyone of these, and how people do
it.
Yeah.
Tiffany Woolley (13:00):
So how did your values and, obviously, being
homeschooled and what youlearned shape the value and the
principles to what Oakscapes isnow and will grow into?
Matthew Van Eyk (13:12):
Yeah, that's a good question.
Tiffany Woolley (13:13):
I mean the name says a lot about the value.
Matthew Van Eyk (13:16):
Thank you, you know, I worked in construction
in Florida a long time andthere's a lot of poor
contractors or subparcontractors.
As you know we've yeah, we'vedealt with them Right and we
still deal with them.
And so you know I always wantedto and you know my principles
(13:38):
is to stand above everyone anddo the best work you can, and so
in our projects we try to standby all the premier installation
guidelines, the ICPI, which isthe International Interlocking
Paver Association, so there'snational regulations for these
(14:03):
things that aren't necessarilyimplemented but, they're
suggested by guys who've beendoing favors for years, so we
try to do the best.
Tiffany Woolley (14:12):
I didn't even realize that.
Matthew Van Eyk (14:14):
Yeah, so we try to adhere to that.
Tiffany Woolley (14:18):
Is that changing constantly, or is that
something that's kind of triedand true?
Matthew Van Eyk (14:22):
I mean it is changing a little bit in regards
to like trivertine and marbleand porcelain and how you
install all those things.
You know pavers have beenaround for like 150 years, so
it's that really hasn't changedtoo, much.
You know.
There's, like you know, newdesigns for your edge restraints
and whatnot, but it's prettyminimal designs for your edge
(14:48):
restraints and whatnot, but it'spretty minimal.
Um and so, and so you know,just to you know, do good work,
be a step ahead of everyone and,you know, communicate well.
You know, I don't want to comeback in a year or five years and
someone be like, oh, thisdriveway looks terrible right um
, you know, I want to be therefor someone who could live in a
house for 20 years and thedriveway still looks great or
the patio looks beautiful.
Tiffany Woolley (15:06):
Right right.
Scott Woolley (15:08):
So the projects that you're approaching in a new
client are most new clientshave a plan and you're kind of
following what they want to do,or are you kind of leading them
on the design process?
Matthew Van Eyk (15:24):
Yeah, it's probably about 50-50.
Scott Woolley (15:29):
Half of them have an idea of what they want to do
, but do they have the stuffpicked out?
Matthew Van Eyk (15:35):
No, very few have what they have picked out.
Scott Woolley (15:40):
So you're helping them in picking it out.
Correct If you're not workingwith an a?
Matthew Van Eyk (15:45):
interior designer, correct, correct, yeah
.
So you know, most people havelike an idea of what they want
you know, maybe not the exactshape and whatnot, or you know
the the material necessarily.
So you know then we go throughwhat their budget is.
Tiffany Woolley (16:01):
I was gonna going to say that would depict a
lot right what thefunctionality is for it.
Matthew Van Eyk (16:06):
You know if it's.
You know if they have littlekids there.
If they have, you know theirgrandparents walking around
what's the safest thing for themto use, and then, obviously,
their price point.
Scott Woolley (16:17):
So you brought up budget.
Do you try to get out of peoplewhat their budget is?
Matthew Van Eyk (16:22):
Because most people don't want to express a
budget, yeah, so I pretty muchalways try to get it out.
Most people don't want to.
Scott Woolley (16:32):
Right, which is a hindrance that people don't
realize.
We talk about that a lot.
Matthew Van Eyk (16:36):
Yeah, that's a big thing and you know,
especially with materialselection, your budget plays
heavily into that.
Scott Woolley (16:43):
Right construction.
Matthew Van Eyk (16:48):
Um, your budget plays heavily into that right.
Um.
So you know, and budget's hard,especially if you're just doing
a patio just by itself withoutdoing a whole redesign.
You know people don't reallyknow what the pricing is, or you
know what to expect and sincecovid everything shot up, so you
know they think it's still fivedollars a square foot when the
standard now is eight dollars asquare foot or what have you?
um, so, yeah, budget it's.
(17:10):
It's difficult to get people todo that and, yeah, people
aren't really anticipating likehow much it's a big cost?
Tiffany Woolley (17:19):
yeah, and it will, because it covers a lot of
area it covers a whole lot.
So what is a standard Like?
Do you base like budget on theprice point of the house, of the
real estate value?
Matthew Van Eyk (17:33):
No, not really Just for like consistency, it's
mostly just based off ofmaterials and then the project
at hand the project at hand, ifit's, you know, depends on where
the home is you offer slightlydifferent materials and whatnot
Based on the value of the homeor the area.
But you know I still try to notjust make standard assumptions
(17:59):
and, just you know, giveeveryone all the options and
then say you know, papers aregoing to be your cheapest,
travertine and marbles a littlebit higher than your porcelain
is the most expensive I know.
Tiffany Woolley (18:09):
and people automatically think now
porcelain's, like you know, oh,it should be less expensive.
Yeah, yeah, oh yeah.
Matthew Van Eyk (18:14):
They think it's like cheap.
Tiffany Woolley (18:17):
Right and it's the opposite.
Matthew Van Eyk (18:20):
Yeah, the material manufacturing for
outdoor porcelain is quiteexpensive.
Tiffany Woolley (18:24):
It is.
Scott Woolley (18:28):
So kind of what we're talking about.
When I say hardscapes, it'sreally you handle everything
that's exterior of the house,from driveways, patios, walkways
, planters Correct, yeahretaining walls.
Matthew Van Eyk (18:39):
Retaining walls .
All those steps, whatever hasto be.
Scott Woolley (18:43):
Grass, artificial grass, correct yeah, pool
design.
Matthew Van Eyk (18:47):
Yeah, usually pool design.
We, you know we work with youguys on some things.
Tiffany Woolley (18:52):
Right.
Matthew Van Eyk (18:53):
And then there's a good pool contractor I
work with.
So you know, usually I just letthem handle the pool design for
that, and then we construct thehardscape design based off of
the pool design.
Tiffany Woolley (19:06):
Pool design.
Matthew Van Eyk (19:07):
Yeah, because, like a pool, is usually the
focus point, you know, of apatio.
Tiffany Woolley (19:13):
Right.
Matthew Van Eyk (19:14):
So it's good to hem out their design and what
they want, and then you knowwork around that.
Scott Woolley (19:21):
Right know, work, work around that, right, yeah,
so I see there's a lot morethat's put into backyards than a
lot of other places around thecountry because, people are
spending so much more time ohyeah in their backyard.
Oh yeah, you know, hanging outentertaining, jumping in the
pool yeah so it's from anaesthetic point and a value
(19:42):
standpoint of a home.
Matthew Van Eyk (19:43):
Yeah, for sure.
And even if you're planning onselling your house in five years
or three years or whatnot,you're not going to lose that
money if you put in a pool deckor a patio or whatnot.
Tiffany Woolley (19:56):
It comes back.
Matthew Van Eyk (19:57):
Yeah, it definitely comes back there's no
doubt there's value yeah.
I mean a lot of patios are theselling points for houses.
These days you know, especiallyhere in Florida.
You know they could be like ohyou know, the house needs some
work, but it has a beautifulbackyard.
Exactly, you're right, andthat's what catches people's
attention.
Right, that's so true.
Tiffany Woolley (20:16):
That's so true.
So how do you balance thetechnical aspects of the outdoor
, like drainage, in line withmaterials?
And one thing I think about indesign a lot is the undercover
patio being seamless with a pooldeck Like those are not
necessarily seamless, but partof all the design.
(20:37):
And meanwhile sometimesundercover patio you're using
slab versus paver.
It could be sand set like.
How do we, how do you go aboutall those variables?
Matthew Van Eyk (20:51):
that's a hard question.
Yeah, it's.
It's a little bit challenging,especially in florida, because
usually if you have like anundercover patio, especially if
it's enclosed, it's already done.
Tiffany Woolley (21:08):
Yes, Often, you know and people.
Matthew Van Eyk (21:10):
you know people typically start with the inside
of their house and then do theoutside of their house and they
don't usually like what do yousay Coordinate the two?
Yeah, yeah, have a cohesivedesign.
Tiffany Woolley (21:21):
My favorite word yeah, have a cohesive
design which you like.
Matthew Van Eyk (21:22):
Saying yeah, my favorite word, yeah, and so
that's always challenging,because you know people don't
want to pay for the materialstwice, right, and then say, you
know this matches the inside.
But whatever you put, you know,if you like white stone and you
put you know a beige or youknow a tan in here, it doesn't
match.
So that's always a little bitchallenging, it doesn't match.
(21:44):
So that's always a little bitchallenging and so it would be
helpful to, you know, havepeople think a little bit of
what the whole design is theinterior and exterior.
Scott Woolley (21:59):
I think one of the things that Tiffany was also
kind of alluding to was is thatit's not just putting in a
patio, you're for sure.
You're taking into accountdrainage?
Yeah, Like she mentioned.
Matthew Van Eyk (22:05):
Yeah that's always very difficult.
You know, I worked in NorthCarolina for a year, where you
have a lot of hills.
Hills, yeah, so it's easy toget rid of water, Right, you
know very easy, and you know theproperties are larger.
Voice Over (22:21):
They just slope down .
Matthew Van Eyk (22:22):
Yeah, it just slopes down into the creek there
and you don't got to worryabout it.
In Florida we don't have thatand by law all the water, that,
all the rainwater on yourproperty has to be retained on
your property.
Scott Woolley (22:38):
Correct Can't roll off to someone else's.
Matthew Van Eyk (22:39):
Correct.
So that's one of the teachingaspects in in when you're
dealing with homeowners we justslip it right to the edge and
it's not my property and you gotto, you know, say no, that's
not the proper way to do things.
You know.
You can't just put pavers rightto your fence line.
If you don't, you know, put adrain in there and put the water
(23:00):
somewhere else.
Scott Woolley (23:01):
Right.
Matthew Van Eyk (23:03):
So that's always a struggle.
Tiffany Woolley (23:05):
Well and drainage can hinder your
installation as well, can't it,I mean.
Matthew Van Eyk (23:14):
Yeah Well, and drainage can hinder your
installation as well, can't it?
Yeah, so drainage in Florida isvery challenging to work with,
and so we're very mindful of it.
We try to make sure that allthe water drains either to the
front of your property or put aFrench drain in.
Those are additional costs thatpeople don't appreciate, so
it's hard to sell people on thatbecause oh, this other guy.
Scott Woolley (23:33):
People don't think about that when they're
redoing the backyard, becausewe've run into projects where
we're going and we're redoingthe interior of a house.
The back of the house looksbeautiful.
It was recently done, but thepeople are saying we've got this
problem that when it pours thewater is collecting on this one
side of our poolright near our back door and it
(23:54):
sits there for like it will takea day for it to go away.
What do we do about that?
And then we look and who didyour backyard?
They didn't properly pitch.
They pitched it the wrong way,where the water's rolling
towards the house and puddling.
Matthew Van Eyk (24:09):
So there's two big issues with that in Florida.
Either they didn't pitch it theright way or they didn't
consider where the water wouldpool and install the correct
drainage.
And then the other big issue isin Florida is that everyone or
not everyone many contractorsuse recycled concrete as their
(24:30):
base material.
Voice Over (24:32):
And what's the?
Matthew Van Eyk (24:33):
difference.
So you're supposed to use likea lime rock base or something
similar to that that lets waterpercolate through.
So when we do our installs, wedo three to four.
For a patio, we do three tofour inches of lime rock, Then
you have your DOT bedding sandand then you have your pavers on
(24:53):
top.
All those materials let waterpercolate through.
And so you don't have sittingwater.
You know you still install yourdrains.
You know if you have excessiverain or whatnot, but you know
just simple rain.
This lets water percolatethrough Recycled concrete.
Tiffany Woolley (25:10):
Does rain this lets water percolate through
recycled concrete does not letany water is it less expensive
recycled car less and is it like, like I was thinking of it this
way too is it like not anatural, is it kind of a
synthetic, correct, correctcorrect.
Matthew Van Eyk (25:24):
So you know there's.
You know, on some jobs it'sit's okay to work with to some
degree, but for the largemajority of jobs it's not the
best.
So that's a struggle withbidding projects.
You've got to educate thepeople and say we use the
(25:45):
correct materials that arehelpful for you, helpful for
water, med know, helpful forwater mediation, you know
helpful for what the staterequires.
Um, not just.
You know what's cheapest andwhat we can do the fastest.
Um, so those are.
Yeah, so you know like.
So the the best way to explainit is um, if you put recycled
(26:10):
concrete in recycled concrete ina bottle of water and shake the
bottle of water there's so muchmicro powder in there that the
whole water bottle is discoloredfor like an hour or two.
The material that we use whenyou shake it.
It sits there in five minutes.
(26:31):
Material that we use when youshake it, it sits there in five
minutes it all sinks down and itdoesn't have the micro plastics
or not like the micro concretein it that inhibits the water to
percolate through.
Scott Woolley (26:38):
Yeah, interesting yeah, so are you seeing, or is
there currently, any kind oftrends in your industry that
seem to be like the hot thingthat people are doing now, or
yeah, people are reallyinterested in porcelain,
porcelain, very, very interestedin porcelain.
Matthew Van Eyk (26:57):
Um, and then there was shell shocked or price
shocked correct.
Tiffany Woolley (27:01):
Well, in most of the porcelain, the, the, I
feel like the drive of thedesign is because they're big
pieces.
Matthew Van Eyk (27:07):
Correct, exactly, you're exactly right.
The large format is attractiveto people and if you do marble
or travertine, the biggest youcan really go is like 24 by 16
inch, and porcelain you can gomuch, much larger.
Scott Woolley (27:23):
Why is that?
Matthew Van Eyk (27:25):
Just because.
Scott Woolley (27:26):
Is it the strength of the material?
Matthew Van Eyk (27:27):
Yeah, so like marble and travertine is a
natural stone, so you're kind ofstuck with the strength of the
material, correct?
Yeah, so like marble andtravertine is a natural stone,
so you're kind of stuck with thestrength of material.
Porcelain is a pressed andcooked concrete.
I mean clay.
So it's a lot.
It's far stronger, like aconcrete.
Paver is about 6,000 to 9,000pounds per square foot.
(27:51):
Your travertine is like 5,000and your porcelain is like
30,000.
Oh geez so it's much, much,much stronger.
Tiffany Woolley (27:59):
And you still have to.
Matthew Van Eyk (28:00):
It's still recommended to install it on
like a slab first, versusDepends on the size the larger
sizes they always recommendputting on a slab.
If you're doing it on adriveway, you can do it on the
largest we suggest doing forsand set is, uh, two feet by
(28:21):
three feet.
Um, if you get bigger than that, the, the piece is just so big
it almost tends to want to rockRight, which would, yeah, which
doesn't look good and it'dprobably crack easier.
Yeah, correct the long term.
So you can do like 24 by 36pretty well.
(28:44):
On sand we do a method calleddry packing, and so when you put
your base rock down, you haveyour bedding layer of sand and
we mix a concrete aggregate withour sand and so it almost makes
it like a thin layer ofconcrete that really locks all
the material together and helpsany tilting or anything or
(29:08):
unlevelness.
So that helps a lot, especiallyon the larger format ones.
Scott Woolley (29:12):
So there's a technical aspect to doing what
you do.
Oh yeah, significantly.
Tiffany Woolley (29:16):
Well, there's your engineering background.
Yeah, exactly Do you and yourbrother share like stories or
like hey, I found this product.
Matthew Van Eyk (29:25):
Oh, all the time, all the time, and yeah,
and then you know, like allconstruction, you always have
struggles on your job, so wealways go through that.
Scott Woolley (29:35):
So, jobs, is there a particular or is there
one job that comes to mind thatwas like your favorite, or the
job that you really loved or aremost proud of?
Yeah, anything special that youcan tell us about that?
You, yeah, I mean, I did myneighbor's job.
Matthew Van Eyk (29:53):
Um, I love doing that.
My next door neighbor, they uh,they moved in about three or
four years ago and they had us,you know, someone flipped the
house and did like a poor patiojob right so you know, we became
friends, and so they're tellingme what they wanted to do, and
they didn't really know I didthis, yet I was like, oh, I'd be
happy to do it for you.
Tiffany Woolley (30:13):
Right, right, I'm heading that way.
Matthew Van Eyk (30:15):
Yeah, so we redid their whole back patio, we
put in an outdoor kitchen, weput like an accent wall in with
their TVs, because they lovewatching football on Sundays,
and we put a whole bar in thekitchen.
And so I love that because itlooks beautiful, but I also get
to use it all the time I wasgoing to say you get to visit it
, your handiwork, yeah.
(30:37):
So that was a lot of fun, youknow, and they, you know they
love it and appreciate it and itturned out beautiful.
So that's probably the favoritejob I've done so far.
Tiffany Woolley (30:47):
So back a little bit to the
entrepreneurial spirit would,when you were getting your feet
wet and starting, was it mainlyword-of-mouth?
Or I mean when you hear of thatlike special job they're your
best.
Matthew Van Eyk (31:01):
Yeah, I mean that's for any like good
qualified lead word-of-mouth isthe best you know.
Working in construction for anumber of years, you know I had
some contacts already, um in theresidential market, uh, so I
had a few contacts and then, umyour marketing when you're
(31:22):
starting out is I?
I didn't know, I've never donemarketing before.
Scott Woolley (31:25):
So so is it internet marketing?
Is it yeah?
Matthew Van Eyk (31:28):
so google ads right primarily, uh, so trying
to figure out that.
So the google ads leadsinitially, as we're learning,
like weren't great, other thanwe do a lot of repair work,
paper repair work, for you know,trees up lifting roots in your
driveway patio, a lot of paverssunk around your pool edge, so
(31:51):
the Google ads were great forthat, and we still get a lot of
work out of that.
And so I did a lot of that workbecause I could do it myself
and it was, you know, lowoverhead and you know most of
it's a day or less work, so itgave me time to do other things.
(32:13):
You know larger projects.
Just, you know most of it's aday or less work um, so it was
it gave me time to do otherthings.
You know, larger projects, just,you know, take time and energy,
um, but I yeah and planning,but I had the time to uh go
around and do all these jobs, so, uh, that that that was very,
very beneficial and helped me.
You know, kind of get off theground and and as you do these
repairs, people appreciate a lotand you know, save your card
and you know they have a friendwho's doing a pool deck or patio
(32:35):
, like hey, I know a guy who dida great job yeah, so that was
that was a good way of justgetting my name out to quite a
few people.
Tiffany Woolley (32:44):
So what does your team look like today?
Team look like today.
Matthew Van Eyk (32:47):
So right now it's myself and my crew.
It's primarily a three-man crew.
We pick up one or two guys, youknow, for larger scale projects
.
My crew leader is far better atpavers than me.
Tiffany Woolley (33:05):
Really yeah, wow.
Matthew Van Eyk (33:07):
Yeah, yeah, he's the best.
Yeah, I love him a lot.
We work great together.
Scott Woolley (33:12):
How did you find him?
Matthew Van Eyk (33:14):
I drove around a lot looking at paper jobs
Really yeah and looking at crews, so I found him doing a job,
and you know he's doing anexcellent, excellent job.
And he showed me some otherjobs and when you're doing this
long enough, you can quickly seewhat is good and what is good
(33:37):
and what is bad.
So then you know he's.
He started out just doing a jobfor me here and there, and I
mean I love his work a lot.
It's it's better than what Iwould do or what I could do you
know, not for repairs, but youknow driveway installs and pool
installs and whatnot.
(33:59):
So yeah, so he's great.
I love him a lot.
Tiffany Woolley (34:01):
And then that gives you more time to pursue
the entrepreneurial side ofbuilding a bigger brand, which I
know you're in the process ofevolving right now, which I
think is very exciting and muchneeded which is, you know more,
incorporating the whole outdoorexperience.
Matthew Van Eyk (34:19):
Exactly.
Tiffany Woolley (34:20):
So tell us your philosophy on where that's
going.
Matthew Van Eyk (34:24):
Yeah, so we, we are starting to.
I wanted to just begin doingpavers because I knew the
business aspect of it, theinstall aspect of it, but I
didn't.
You know, I've never owned acompany or run a company, so I
wanted just to start, you know,somewhat on a smaller scale and
(34:47):
learn how to do it well put inyour yeah, and put in your
processes you know of how toschedule, how to budget a job
and whatnot, and you know figureout how to do that all well,
and then the goal, the finalgoal which we're building into
right now is is being a completeexterior modification to the
(35:09):
house.
Tiffany Woolley (35:10):
Yeah, thank you very so you know from your.
Matthew Van Eyk (35:12):
You know your hardscapes to your landscaping,
to your lighting, yourirrigation.
Uh, the goal is to really justbe a one-stop shop so homeowners
and clients don't have to callthree or four contractors and
you know, deal with all of themI agree, you can just call one
contractor and get everythingdone.
Tiffany Woolley (35:30):
And that really back to my favorite cohesive
word.
But not only does the designlook cohesive in that regard,
but also you eliminate your risk, I feel like oh yeah,
tremendously For clients,otherwise you just end up with a
blame game.
And he didn't.
Or he's late, or she's late.
Matthew Van Eyk (35:46):
Yeah, without a doubt.
Yeah, I mean later she's.
Yeah, without a doubt.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean there's the aggravationand a lot of pointing fingers
and then you know, on anyproject you're gonna, you know
there's little things you'reyou're bound to miss yeah you
know, obviously you, youminimize those to extent that
you can.
But when you work with just onecompany to do all the work,
then you, they're responsiblefor it and it's not like, oh, I
(36:11):
didn't know that was in, or itwasn't budget mining correct and
it or it wasn't you know, youknow, you know.
I didn't know we had to removethis tree.
I thought this demo guy wasgoing to remove this tree like
little things, like that it's soI mean and you.
So you just it's easier toprice it, it's easier for the
homeowner just to work with onecontractor instead of four and
(36:32):
scheduling, so it just makeseverything a lot smoother.
Scott Woolley (36:36):
So in all these facets of what you're doing.
How do you stay on top ofwhat's new or what's coming out,
or is there shows that you goto conventions?
Matthew Van Eyk (36:46):
There's a couple.
I've been quite busy so Ihaven't done a ton of them yet.
Um, I'm working on, you know,hiring someone to do a lot of
the running around for me, togive me more time to do that.
But you know, working with youguys, um, you know you guys stay
on top of everything.
So you know you.
You know you tell me what's newoftentimes.
(37:09):
And then you know all mymaterial suppliers.
They always stay, you know ontop of what's new, yeah for sure
, and what's selling a lot, andyou know what's working, what's
not working.
So they, you know, just beingin construction, everyone
communicates a lot, so thathelps.
And in construction, everyonecommunicates a lot, so that
(37:30):
helps.
Tiffany Woolley (37:30):
Is there certain vendors that you choose
to purchase the materials fromlike as a regular go-to?
Matthew Van Eyk (37:38):
Yeah, definitely so.
For porcelain, which is mostpopular, I only supply from one
company called Hardscapescom.
Scott Woolley (37:46):
So porcelain is most popular now.
Correct, compared to yourtypical thick paver, that most
driveways or backyards For adriveway.
Matthew Van Eyk (37:57):
Just to step back, for a driveway we always
suggest pavers, because they'recalled interlocking pavers,
because the strength of thepaver is in the the surface area
of the one paver touchinganother, and so when you have
cars driving and pushing on them, especially like when you turn
(38:17):
quickly into a driveway, that'sa lot of force on those pavers,
um, and so porcelain and evenmarble or travertine, you know
they, they're larger pieces, soyou have less surface area
between the pavers, um, andthey're usually a lot thinner,
so they tend to fail on adriveway.
On a patio, you don't have thatissue.
(38:38):
So on a driveway, unless you'reputting concrete down, and then
you know mud setting umporcelain or marble or something
on top of it, we try to alwayssuggest doing a paver driveway,
not on patios because you'rejust walking on it.
But for porcelain, yeah, we onlysupply from hardscapescom.
(39:00):
They got an office in Boca andthen one in Jupiter or showroom.
The reason we only use them isbecause they have the friction
go factor on the top of theirpavers.
So it's a rough surface like apaver would be, but it has the
(39:22):
beauty and elegance of like aporcelain tile.
And so why I like that?
First, like a marble ortravertine is especially on pool
decks where you have water ittends to get a little slick, but
the porcelain is, since theyhave this rough surface, it's a
lot, it's a lot safer and it'sbeautiful.
(39:46):
I think it's.
You know, I like the moremodern look, so it's very
beautiful, and so that's why wesupply from them exclusively For
your marble and travertine.
There's, you know it's allimported from Italy, right?
Not Italy, turkey, excuse me.
(40:07):
And so you know it's more ofthe quality control on your
suppliers, you know, notnecessarily the material itself
but a lot.
Yeah, color variation correctyeah, so I primarily use sinai
marble and tile down in pompano,um.
They're excellent to work with.
(40:28):
If you ever have to do anaddition or an extension, they
make sure you're pulling fromthe same lot that you already
used and they're, in my opinion,their material is more
consistent than some of thebigger contractors or
distributors that go for volume.
I mean, they still move a lotof material, but you know I
(40:50):
prefer them and they're they'remuch easier to work with.
Tiffany Woolley (40:54):
Is there any sort of warranty that goes hand
in hand with the work or theproduct at all, or?
Matthew Van Eyk (41:01):
For the material, yeah, yeah.
So for marble and travertinenot really, because it's a
natural stone, so it's notreally the, since they're not
manufacturing it.
There's not a lot of warrantyon that On any job.
(41:27):
It's good to see if yourcontractor can give you 20 or 30
extra square feet, if you havethe space to keep it, just for
you know any issues or ifsomething gets discolored,
especially like your, yourmarbles, your lighter materials
tend to always, you know they'reporous.
Yeah, they're very porous yeahthey're very porous.
your porcelain and your paversdefinitely have have a warranty
on them.
Yep, huh, yep.
(41:47):
And then we, most contractorsonly do a one year warranty on
their work.
We include a five year warrantyon our work just because we
believe we're installing itcorrectly.
Tiffany Woolley (42:01):
So yeah, so obviously your company Oakscapes
has an impeccable reputationand how do you, like you
mentioned before, like there issometimes design changes that
come up mid-process ormid-installation, or how do you
kind of mitigate any of yourrisks or communications with the
(42:23):
client when those things withthe client when those things,
yeah, it's good to just be openup front instead of.
Matthew Van Eyk (42:32):
You know you can always get caught doing the
work and not getting paid forthe work.
So it's always good just tocommunicate.
Well, if someone wantssomething different and it's,
you know, minimal, you know youkind of just eat the cost.
Just, you know you don't want tobe a hassle to your clients but
, like on a larger change orders, it's always good to make sure
(42:56):
they know what they want andknow that it wasn't initially
included and just communicatelike if you're going to do this,
you know it's going to costthis much more because it's
different material or morematerial or you know many
variations.
But, that's in my opinion.
It's just better to you knowpresent what the cost difference
(43:19):
, if there is a cost differenceup front, and then you know move
forward from there, instead ofyou know saying, oh, we did this
work because you said we'regoing to do it, instead of you
know verifying so, and then youknow your, your, your clients,
not caught off off guard and say, oh, I didn't know what that
was going to cost more.
You know that happens, canhappen.
So yeah, that makes life a lotsmoother for for both, both
(43:43):
parties.
Tiffany Woolley (43:44):
And like within this, like ecological.
Is there any of that that youcome across like?
Oh we people.
Scott Woolley (43:51):
Do you have any clients or customers or people
that are you know?
Is this all echo friendly?
Tiffany Woolley (43:56):
or like is this , you know, not coming?
Matthew Van Eyk (43:59):
in the environment.
Yeah, surprisingly not a ton ofthat um shocker yeah, there's
not a, not a ton of that everynow and then, um, primarily with
artificial turf.
Um, people are kind of getshifty about that just because
it's it heats up a lot correctum, it's hot, it gets very hot
(44:24):
and um and so people are worriedabout, like plastic, you know,
getting in their soil, orplastic getting in their dog or
their kids or whatnot.
That's like that aspect.
Tiffany Woolley (44:39):
Oh yeah, and does that happen?
I'm sure we're all microplasticto death.
Matthew Van Eyk (44:45):
Yeah, I mean I don't think any more than
drinking a water bottle, Right?
Yeah, I mean that's not reallyan issue Like for pets and stuff
.
I mean, you know there'spet-friendly turf.
Tiffany Woolley (44:58):
Yeah.
Matthew Van Eyk (45:00):
That only means it's more porous, right?
That lets you know the urine orstuff flow through better it's
not like it's really safer thanthan the other ones right um, so
yeah, the only, the onlyeco-friendly is really only an
artificial turf.
Um, you know, if people aredoing it, we, you know, try to
(45:21):
suggest.
You know, do it under a pergola.
Or you know, do it under a treewhere there's more shade.
You know if you're going tohave your kids playing on it and
whatnot.
If not, it doesn't reallymatter.
You know, most of the time youdon't go out when it's 90
degrees outside.
Scott Woolley (45:34):
You go out in the evening.
We love artificial turf.
Oh, me too.
I love it.
It's the best.
Tiffany Woolley (45:43):
Well, it's so clean.
Yeah it.
With so many trees, it just thegrass doesn't grow.
Matthew Van Eyk (45:48):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, yeah, no, I love
artificial turf a lot.
You know, I love mixing andmatching it with pavers.
I do too.
I think it looks beautiful, Ido too, yeah.
Tiffany Woolley (45:58):
So running a successful business involves
lots of moving parts.
We kind of touched on that.
But how do you balance thecreative part with all the
technical moving part?
Matthew Van Eyk (46:08):
yeah, so I'm not extremely creative, sadly
enough.
I wish I was more creative.
Um, you know, if, if someonehas an idea of what to do, I can
execute execute it very welland, you know, modify it to
improve it, but I'm not like themost creative person myself, um
(46:30):
, so I, you know, rely ondesigners like, like you guys,
to assist with that.
We've had a good relationshipoh yeah, terrific.
Scott Woolley (46:39):
I love that standpoint.
Matthew Van Eyk (46:40):
Yeah, we do too yeah, um, and so you know,
especially like on largerprojects where you know you have
a whole patio or a wholebackyard or a whole exterior
remodel I heavily rely on peoplewho have the design aspect.
I wish I did, but I don't havea terrific one.
Scott Woolley (47:01):
Well, we rely on people like yourself, right?
Tiffany Woolley (47:04):
Who can execute our designs in a flawless
install?
Scott Woolley (47:09):
Yeah and I think what's even more important that
we talk about is that peoplethat we partner with that we
bring on that when the client'scoming to us going.
Oh my God, I love this guy,matthew, that you have doing my
backyard.
He's just like great, I mean,that's a good that's you want to
hear that with like everyvendor for sure and everyone
(47:31):
that you're working with youwant the client to feel that way
, no doubt in the process, nodoubt because that's like we've
said a number of times the wordof mouth comes in over and over.
Tiffany Woolley (47:40):
Then for sure, for sure yeah I know, and even
as we're sitting here and I'mhearing all these like technical
things that I don't think aboutas much.
I'm like as that one drivewaywe have, you know, in the works
right now where we're likemixing the materials and we're
doing a design in there.
I was like I think only you cando that, yeah, yeah.
Scott Woolley (48:03):
So last question for you yes, sir so last
question for you, yes, sir, forsomeone who's listening,
thinking that they want to getinto, you know, the exterior
hardscape business, thelandscape business.
What advice would you give them?
What?
What would you say to someone?
Matthew Van Eyk (48:20):
I'd say, if I'd say, work for someone for three
, four, five years before doingit, um, you know, and like at my
last company, you know, when Iwas hired I told the owners I
wanted to start a companyeventually I didn't know when,
um, so my old boss was, was verykind, he knew I wanted to do
(48:42):
that and so he kind of broughtme in on more of the business
aspect of it than just you knowmy job, um, and you know how to
work with clients, what jobs youpursue, or pursue more than
other ones.
So I'd say that's probably thebest, the best approach so
(49:03):
you're living the american dreamand I consider to be the
american dream.
Scott Woolley (49:06):
Dream is that you fell into a business.
You loved and liked thebusiness, you learned a lot
about that business and otheraspects of construction and then
one day you decided I'm goingto go do this on my own.
Yes, sir, you know it's a bigrisk to quit a job that you're
working for a corporation.
Matthew Van Eyk (49:24):
Yes, sir, and then go.
Scott Woolley (49:25):
I'm going to start this business.
I have no clients, no one'sever heard of me, no one knows
that I'm doing this.
Matthew Van Eyk (49:31):
And I had one kid and one on the way.
Tiffany Woolley (49:35):
You had a child on the way.
That was perfect timing, ohyeah.
Matthew Van Eyk (49:38):
I got my third one on the way now.
No, but it just proves that.
Scott Woolley (49:42):
I mean if you put your heart behind it.
Oh, I mean if you put yourheart behind it, no matter what
you're looking to dopossibilities can happen.
Tiffany Woolley (49:49):
With faith and hard work right.
Matthew Van Eyk (49:51):
A lot of hours, no doubt.
Tiffany Woolley (49:53):
No doubt about that.
Matthew Van Eyk (49:55):
But it's very rewarding.
Scott Woolley (49:57):
That's wonderful Well we appreciate your time and
spending with us today.
Thanks for having me and havingyou on the iDesign Lab.
Matthew Van Eyk (50:04):
Yeah thanks.
Tiffany Woolley (50:06):
And as we wrap up, we have a couple quick
little questions, yeah, okay sowhat's your I mean you have
little children and obviouslyone on the way what's your
favorite?
Like vacation, like hotelvacate, like I mean when?
Matthew Van Eyk (50:19):
you guys want to get away and um my wife and I
is it what's the coolest, ormaybe design, or I mean my
favorite vacation right now withkids, um is my wife and I.
We go like for four or fivedays to an all-inclusive resort.
We usually do it every year andyou just sit there and don't
(50:41):
talk a lot and don't do a lot.
Scott Woolley (50:44):
You can sleep a lot are there any favorites that
like uh, cool or well done.
Matthew Van Eyk (50:50):
Yeah, probably the our favorite one was the
sanctuary in dominican republiccool uh, that was yeah, that was
was.
That one was terrific and theservice there was amazing, yeah
amazing.
Yeah, that was that was.
That was probably the best oneso far.
Yeah, my family and my wife'sfamily lives close, so it's not
(51:11):
like we do a lot of vacationswith family, just because we see
them, you know once a week ortwice a week?
That's good, Every other daythat's wonderful.
And then you know, I have a lotof cousins.
My dad's one of seven.
My dad's one of seven.
Tiffany Woolley (51:28):
My mom's one of six.
Matthew Van Eyk (51:29):
Wow, how fun.
And so, like most vacationsright now are just, you know,
Families.
Yeah, I go in a family and youknow it's our kids are, you know
, two and a half and one and ahalf and one on the way, so it's
not like you can do a whole lotwith them.
Right, so most lot with themright.
Tiffany Woolley (51:48):
so most of it's just you know hanging out with
other people, kids, yeah, hopingthey play together, exactly
like that's what I say.
It's like having built-inbabysitting exactly like he's
gonna go other place go to likea restaurant where they can walk
around and yeah, so sorestaurant.
Scott Woolley (51:57):
Is there any really cool restaurant that
comes to mind?
Um, we like to try to focus,like and think about design.
Tiffany Woolley (52:06):
Or you walk in or I even say even lack of
design, because sometimes, likebarefoot and the behind, I mean
who knows?
Scott Woolley (52:12):
yeah, yeah, yeah we did a podcast recently about
ugly design oh, that's kind ofcool.
You know, you don't realize,you don't think about it, but
there's a lot of ugly designaround us.
Voice Over (52:21):
Oh, there's no doubt a lot of time.
Scott Woolley (52:22):
We laugh about it and don't even really think
about it like why did someonedesign you know that like crocs,
you know like?
Matthew Van Eyk (52:29):
oh yeah, those are.
Scott Woolley (52:29):
You know, there's no doubt the christ, the ugly
christmas sweaters, that people,you know, people throw parties
yeah, I have not been to one,but there's like you know,
restaurant because, because it'slike restaurant, something that
most people go to every so youknow regularly, or yeah, yeah,
uh, favorite restaurant design,or lack of design, or or
(52:55):
experience, or even experience,because there's a the design and
creating the experience.
Matthew Van Eyk (52:59):
Yeah, we have a good friend who has like three
qualifications the ambience, thefood and the music I know live
music is fun too yeah, I'm not afan of live music oh that's my
wife is so I put up with itevery now and then I don't like
it at a restaurant.
Tiffany Woolley (53:15):
It's too loud.
I like to talk.
Yeah, I like talking.
Matthew Van Eyk (53:18):
I don't want to maybe if it's someone I don't
know great, um, but yeah not, Idon't like it just most of the
time at restaurants.
Um, probably elizabeth is inwest palm beach.
Tiffany Woolley (53:34):
Yeah, that's such a cute atmosphere I love
that and you can.
Matthew Van Eyk (53:37):
We usually always sit outside and you can
look at all the big boats yeah,that's probably our favorite.
There's another good, a reallynice one.
It's called yacht in west palmbeach.
I'm at fort lauderdale, oh,it's kind of like it's, it's
it's in a, it's in a marina, um,and it's like mostly service to
(53:58):
the boats, boats, but it's avery nice restaurant.
It's right on the on the riverthere oh fun great good eating.
When I worked down there, weused to go for lunch there all
the time.
It's a really nice place.
Tiffany Woolley (54:13):
Awesome.
Well, thank you for joining ustoday.
Matthew Van Eyk (54:16):
Yeah, thanks for having me, I appreciate it
yes thanks, yeah, certainly.
Voice Over (54:20):
All right iDesign Labs Podcast is an SW Group
production in association withthe Five Star and TW Interiors.
To learn more about iDesign Labor TW Interiors, please visit
twinteriorscom.
This is iDesign Lab, a podcast where creativity and
curiosity meet style and design.
Curator of interiors,furnishings and lifestyles.
Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, aninterior designer and a style
enthusiast, along with herserial entrepreneur husband
Scott, idesign Lab is yourultimate design podcast where we
explore the rich and vibrantworld of design and its constant
(00:23):
evolution in style and trends.
Idesign Lab provides industryinsight, discussing the latest
trends, styles and everything inbetween to better help you
style your life, through advicefrom trendsetters, designers,
influencers, innovators,fabricators and manufacturers,
as well as personal stories thatinspire, motivate and excite.
(00:43):
And join us on this elevated,informative and lively journey
into the world of all thingsdesign.
Today, we're excited to haveMatthew Van Eyck, the owner of
Oakscapes, as our guest.
Oakscapes is a premier paverand landscape design company
that specializes in high-endresidential design solutions,
from crafting beautifuldriveways and installing lush
(01:04):
turf for your backyard garden tobuilding the perfect paver
patio.
Matthew and his team atOakscapes are passionate about
helping clients fall in lovewith their homes by offering a
comprehensive range of landscapeand design services.
Matthew prides himself onOakscapes' reputation for
excellence, always puttingclient satisfaction at the
forefront.
Join us as we dive into theworld of high-end outdoor design
(01:27):
the art of transforming outdoorspaces and the secrets behind
building lasting clientrelationships.
Welcome, matthew.
Tiffany Woolley (01:35):
Welcome to the iDesign Lab podcast.
Today we have Matthew Van Eyckwith us and we spend a lot of
time talking about design andmostly about interior detailing.
So today I'm excited to diveinto exterior with you, but we
want to start and tell us aboutwho you are and your amazing
(01:57):
company, oakscapes.
Matthew Van Eyk (01:59):
Thank you very much.
Yeah, matthew Van Eyck, withOakscapes.
I started the company about twoyears ago now.
I started doing pavers when Iwas 15.
15?
Scott Woolley (02:12):
Yeah.
Matthew Van Eyk (02:13):
Was your father doing it?
No, no, my parents bought acoulter home.
Okay, what's a coulter home?
It's like a big company, like aGL yeah, it's like a gl home or
like a morrison or somethinglike that, right, um, and so
they bought, like a brand newculture, home in a community and
um, you have your one yearwarranty.
You know, with most of thesebuilders right, and the driveway
(02:37):
was done terribly, uh, so whichwe see quite a bit yeah, no
kidding, no kidding.
And so I started.
My parents, like you know, wentthrough the whole spiel of
trying to get the warranty tofix it and whatnot.
So they had their paper guycome out and fix it and so he
was working and you know wealways like working outside my
(03:00):
brothers and I and my dad.
So he's like, hey, do you needany workers outside?
My brothers and I and my dad.
So he's like, hey, do you guys,do you need any workers?
And this guy was like I don'tknow 50 or something, and you
know, kind of like one of thosegood old boys like yeah, a
little bit, a little bit kind oflike a hippie, kind of kind of
funny.
Um, he's like sure.
So I was.
(03:21):
I was 15 or 16, and mybrother's 14.
And so we started working forthis guy.
Scott Woolley (03:27):
Oh, you started working for the guy yeah.
Matthew Van Eyk (03:29):
Really yeah.
So we were both in high schooland we'd work whenever we had
times off.
We were homeschooled.
Tiffany Woolley (03:36):
You were.
Yeah, I didn't know that.
I want to dive back into that.
Matthew Van Eyk (03:38):
Okay, yeah, so we could kind of like work when
he needed us to work.
Scott Woolley (03:43):
you know he wasn't he didn't like that, Not
just on your house, but on thehouse.
Matthew Van Eyk (03:46):
No, no, no yeah yeah, so we started working all
over for Coulter Homes andCoulter was building a lot up in
Stewart at that time so he hadlike four communities for
Coulter he would do repairs on.
And then we, you know, was itdriveways, driveways, patios,
walkways?
Yeah, mostly.
You know, especially pool decks.
(04:07):
The pavers around pools alwayssink because they're not back
graded correctly.
So we did a lot of pool decks.
And we were like we were youngso we, just like when we were
hot and tired, we'd jump in theswimming pool and stuff.
Scott Woolley (04:21):
At someone's house.
Matthew Van Eyk (04:23):
Yeah, it wasn't the most reputable in the world
.
Scott Woolley (04:27):
So that's how you got started.
That's like a funny story.
That was hysterical, I mean somany people that we sit here and
talk to.
They went to college, theyplanned this, but you kind of
just maybe fell into it yeah,literally, literally, literally
so you learned the craft fromthis guy who was kind of a
hippie.
Matthew Van Eyk (04:46):
Yeah, he was a little bit of a hippie.
He was Brazilian, so he would.
Scott Woolley (04:49):
But I have to ask a question because we know your
work, and your work isimpeccable.
It's really really well done,Thank you.
Was this guy the same kind ofhigh quality that you?
Matthew Van Eyk (04:59):
were Not quite so much.
Tiffany Woolley (05:01):
But you learned about probably what not to do.
Matthew Van Eyk (05:04):
Yeah, we learned not what to do, and then
we learned you know, when youdo so many repairs, you know
what.
Tiffany Woolley (05:09):
Is the problem?
Matthew Van Eyk (05:10):
Yeah, causes problems, so that helped us out
a lot, so my brother and I didthat for three or four years.
Tiffany Woolley (05:18):
That's a long time at that age.
Matthew Van Eyk (05:20):
Yeah, a long time yeah, and we were making
$10 an hour, right, which wethought was gold, right, right,
you know everyone else was doing, you know, hourly at Publix or
whatever, making $6 or $7.
Scott Woolley (05:35):
But it's hard work.
You carry bricks, oh yeah, sodo you.
Tiffany Woolley (05:37):
You carry papers For sure.
Matthew Van Eyk (05:45):
But this guy, I mean, we didn't know, but he
was making a lot of money off ofus.
Oh, that's so, but yeah, so Idid that.
Then I went to college.
I worked for a couple big gcs.
I worked for rangerconstruction, which is like a
big commercial um civilconstruction company.
Then I worked for a gc and boca.
We did a lot of commercialrenovations, which was a lot of
fun.
(06:06):
But we work for nationalcompanies so what was all this
work?
Scott Woolley (06:10):
exterior, outdoor , no hardscapes, so interior,
too, no.
Matthew Van Eyk (06:14):
So for ranger it was civil construction, so
you know you're doing.
You know, we built bridges,roads to 95.
Tiffany Woolley (06:22):
Wow.
Matthew Van Eyk (06:23):
So, like big construction, that was a lot of
fun.
Tiffany Woolley (06:30):
But it was I don't know.
I don't like big corporateenvironments.
I know you spent so much timeright going through all the red
tape.
Yeah, so much time, I agree, somuch waste.
Matthew Van Eyk (06:35):
I mean it was really cool, like the Hood Road
Bridge in Palm Beach Gardens uphere, like I was on that
construction project and it was.
It was a blast, but it's just,yeah, a lot of big, big
corporations not a big fan of it.
So then I went to the gc in bocamds builders, which I loved a
(06:58):
lot um, and they're excellent,the owner's excellent, my boss
was excellent, so we had a lotof.
I enjoyed it a lot there.
But we work for nationalclients, so we work for Verizon
and T-Mobile and those kind ofcompanies Contracts.
Yeah, great contracts, but weworked in the southeast, so I
(07:19):
was the estimator and projectmanager for some and you just
don't get to see your projects.
Scott Woolley (07:26):
Finished.
Matthew Van Eyk (07:27):
Yeah, you know, they're in the middle of
nowhere, Alabama or Mississippi,or you know, up north Florida.
So you like, you know you getto see pictures in your building
.
Yeah, you don't get to see, youdon't get to make a
relationship with yourcontractors and whatnot.
So I decided to quit there andthen start Oakscapes.
Tiffany Woolley (07:46):
But I love that you knew that at a young age
that you wanted to have a nicheand you wanted to build
something more.
Matthew Van Eyk (07:52):
Oh yeah, I always wanted to start a company
.
You definitely have theentrepreneurial spirit.
Scott Woolley (07:56):
Yeah thank you.
So you jump out of sort ofcorporate world into your own
business.
So now you're designing andcreating your own business.
Tiffany Woolley (08:06):
Yeah, your own brand.
What?
Scott Woolley (08:07):
made your pick doing outside, or, or you know,
hardscapes as I call it, yeah,compared to doing something else
in construction, or um, I knewit well, uh-huh, and I was good
at it.
Matthew Van Eyk (08:21):
I am good at it , right, um Right, and you're in
Florida, you want to gooutdoors?
You know that's why people cometo Florida.
Tiffany Woolley (08:28):
Isn't that the truth?
Matthew Van Eyk (08:29):
You spend so much time on your pool deck and
your patio and you know you canbuild and create designs that
people love and they spend a lotof time at, and then,
especially with the outdoors andespecially with primarily
residential construction, youget to have a relationship with
these people and you know theyjust appreciate you and love
(08:50):
your work and you know, word ofmouth, yeah, word of mouth.
But I just like love workingwith people.
So that's, that's the, uh, themain reason.
Yeah, I love that.
Yeah, my brother, actually heended up.
He.
He owns a paper company up inStewart as well.
Scott Woolley (09:05):
Really.
So you're both kind of doingthe same thing, is it like?
Tiffany Woolley (09:09):
a sister or like a sister, I would call it a
sister company.
No, we're a brother company.
Matthew Van Eyk (09:14):
We consider doing that, but it was just
better, I think, just to do ourseparate.
We might merge eventually, verycool.
Voice Over (09:21):
But, he's been doing it for like six years now.
Matthew Van Eyk (09:24):
So yeah, so it was eventually um, but he's been
doing it for like six years now.
So yeah, so it is.
Scott Woolley (09:26):
I mean all from yeah, a guy that's in your
driveway yeah yeah that is sofunny.
Tiffany Woolley (09:34):
Do you know where that guy is today?
Matthew Van Eyk (09:36):
oh yeah, he's still up in stewart.
He's still doing the same oldthing.
Tiffany Woolley (09:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah so what made you choose
south florida?
Matthew Van Eyk (09:45):
obviously stewart's kind of not south
florida, but yeah, so, to focus,my dad's a pastor, and so he's
he.
I was born in canada, then hewent to school in california and
then he was called to be apastor up in vero and then he
transferred to stewart, um.
(10:05):
So that's what brought us toero, and then he transferred to
Stewart, so that's what broughtus to Florida, and then I went
to school at.
Fvu for engineering.
Oh wow, and so that's how Icame down here.
Tiffany Woolley (10:12):
Yep.
Matthew Van Eyk (10:13):
And I've lived here for eight years or
something like that and met mywife, got married here and her
family's close by.
Tiffany Woolley (10:22):
Right here, yeah, aw.
Scott Woolley (10:24):
So it's literally the american dream yeah exactly
, I love that so you jump intoand create oakscapes.
How did the name come about?
Well, because designing,creating a name can.
Matthew Van Eyk (10:35):
Yeah, that's, it's challenging, so van eyck
means from the oaks in dutchokay and so I didn't want to
like last name correct.
I didn't want to use my lastname, just in case you know,
someone ever sells it, orsomething yeah, um, but I still
wanted to incorporate that.
So, and we want to do.
You know, landscaping andhardscapes and whatnot?
(10:57):
So I thought it was a nicemerging of the two it really is
that's.
Tiffany Woolley (11:02):
I love that.
Matthew Van Eyk (11:03):
Yeah, it's kind of fun.
Tiffany Woolley (11:04):
It took a while yeah.
Scott Woolley (11:08):
So how difficult is it to go into a business like
this and find your first client?
Yeah, it's.
Matthew Van Eyk (11:16):
I mean, it was a challenge, you know, I
expected, anticipated, you knowbeing, you know, rather slow for
the first six months a year orwhatnot.
Scott Woolley (11:29):
um, but I mean, did you have a client?
Tiffany Woolley (11:34):
or pound the pavement, literally knock on
door.
Yeah.
Scott Woolley (11:38):
I did.
Did you have a client to startwith, going, okay, I've got a
client, now I'm going to startthis business because I've got
some income coming in?
So you basically decide you'regoing to start this company.
You have no new business.
You create a name and nowyou've got to go find a client.
Matthew Van Eyk (11:55):
Yeah, yeah, that's challenging.
Yeah, it's very challenging.
Scott Woolley (12:00):
How did?
Matthew Van Eyk (12:00):
you overcome that.
It was.
You know, I tried a lot ofthings and as you do it, you
learn and modify and figure outwhat works.
Scott Woolley (12:11):
But what were some of the first things that
you did?
Was it putting a websitetogether, putting an ad?
Matthew Van Eyk (12:16):
Yeah, so I did a lot of that background work
before I quit my other company.
Scott Woolley (12:21):
Okay.
Matthew Van Eyk (12:21):
So I just did it at nights, you know, and on
Fridays, and I take a Friday offhere and there just to prepare
for this right um.
So I had, you know, my websiteup, I had, you know, all my
estimating templates andeverything you know in check,
you know, um, and then I had amarketing company ready to go.
Scott Woolley (12:42):
Okay, so as soon as I so you, hired a company to
help you in the market, correct?
So all of this is what weconsider designing your life?
Yeah, so you're designing andputting together a plan to
launch a new business?
Yes, sir, and it's.
There's a story behind everyone of these, and how people do
it.
Yeah.
Tiffany Woolley (13:00):
So how did your values and, obviously, being
homeschooled and what youlearned shape the value and the
principles to what Oakscapes isnow and will grow into?
Matthew Van Eyk (13:12):
Yeah, that's a good question.
Tiffany Woolley (13:13):
I mean the name says a lot about the value.
Matthew Van Eyk (13:16):
Thank you, you know, I worked in construction
in Florida a long time andthere's a lot of poor
contractors or subparcontractors.
As you know we've yeah, we'vedealt with them Right and we
still deal with them.
And so you know I always wantedto and you know my principles
(13:38):
is to stand above everyone anddo the best work you can, and so
in our projects we try to standby all the premier installation
guidelines, the ICPI, which isthe International Interlocking
Paver Association, so there'snational regulations for these
(14:03):
things that aren't necessarilyimplemented but, they're
suggested by guys who've beendoing favors for years, so we
try to do the best.
Tiffany Woolley (14:12):
I didn't even realize that.
Matthew Van Eyk (14:14):
Yeah, so we try to adhere to that.
Tiffany Woolley (14:18):
Is that changing constantly, or is that
something that's kind of triedand true?
Matthew Van Eyk (14:22):
I mean it is changing a little bit in regards
to like trivertine and marbleand porcelain and how you
install all those things.
You know pavers have beenaround for like 150 years, so
it's that really hasn't changedtoo, much.
You know.
There's, like you know, newdesigns for your edge restraints
and whatnot, but it's prettyminimal designs for your edge
(14:48):
restraints and whatnot, but it'spretty minimal.
Um and so, and so you know,just to you know, do good work,
be a step ahead of everyone and,you know, communicate well.
You know, I don't want to comeback in a year or five years and
someone be like, oh, thisdriveway looks terrible right um
, you know, I want to be therefor someone who could live in a
house for 20 years and thedriveway still looks great or
the patio looks beautiful.
Tiffany Woolley (15:06):
Right right.
Scott Woolley (15:08):
So the projects that you're approaching in a new
client are most new clientshave a plan and you're kind of
following what they want to do,or are you kind of leading them
on the design process?
Matthew Van Eyk (15:24):
Yeah, it's probably about 50-50.
Scott Woolley (15:29):
Half of them have an idea of what they want to do
, but do they have the stuffpicked out?
Matthew Van Eyk (15:35):
No, very few have what they have picked out.
Scott Woolley (15:40):
So you're helping them in picking it out.
Correct If you're not workingwith an a?
Matthew Van Eyk (15:45):
interior designer, correct, correct, yeah
.
So you know, most people havelike an idea of what they want
you know, maybe not the exactshape and whatnot, or you know
the the material necessarily.
So you know then we go throughwhat their budget is.
Tiffany Woolley (16:01):
I was gonna going to say that would depict a
lot right what thefunctionality is for it.
Matthew Van Eyk (16:06):
You know if it's.
You know if they have littlekids there.
If they have, you know theirgrandparents walking around
what's the safest thing for themto use, and then, obviously,
their price point.
Scott Woolley (16:17):
So you brought up budget.
Do you try to get out of peoplewhat their budget is?
Matthew Van Eyk (16:22):
Because most people don't want to express a
budget, yeah, so I pretty muchalways try to get it out.
Most people don't want to.
Scott Woolley (16:32):
Right, which is a hindrance that people don't
realize.
We talk about that a lot.
Matthew Van Eyk (16:36):
Yeah, that's a big thing and you know,
especially with materialselection, your budget plays
heavily into that.
Scott Woolley (16:43):
Right construction.
Matthew Van Eyk (16:48):
Um, your budget plays heavily into that right.
Um.
So you know, and budget's hard,especially if you're just doing
a patio just by itself withoutdoing a whole redesign.
You know people don't reallyknow what the pricing is, or you
know what to expect and sincecovid everything shot up, so you
know they think it's still fivedollars a square foot when the
standard now is eight dollars asquare foot or what have you?
um, so, yeah, budget it's.
(17:10):
It's difficult to get people todo that and, yeah, people
aren't really anticipating likehow much it's a big cost?
Tiffany Woolley (17:19):
yeah, and it will, because it covers a lot of
area it covers a whole lot.
So what is a standard Like?
Do you base like budget on theprice point of the house, of the
real estate value?
Matthew Van Eyk (17:33):
No, not really Just for like consistency, it's
mostly just based off ofmaterials and then the project
at hand the project at hand, ifit's, you know, depends on where
the home is you offer slightlydifferent materials and whatnot
Based on the value of the homeor the area.
But you know I still try to notjust make standard assumptions
(17:59):
and, just you know, giveeveryone all the options and
then say you know, papers aregoing to be your cheapest,
travertine and marbles a littlebit higher than your porcelain
is the most expensive I know.
Tiffany Woolley (18:09):
and people automatically think now
porcelain's, like you know, oh,it should be less expensive.
Yeah, yeah, oh yeah.
Matthew Van Eyk (18:14):
They think it's like cheap.
Tiffany Woolley (18:17):
Right and it's the opposite.
Matthew Van Eyk (18:20):
Yeah, the material manufacturing for
outdoor porcelain is quiteexpensive.
Tiffany Woolley (18:24):
It is.
Scott Woolley (18:28):
So kind of what we're talking about.
When I say hardscapes, it'sreally you handle everything
that's exterior of the house,from driveways, patios, walkways
, planters Correct, yeahretaining walls.
Matthew Van Eyk (18:39):
Retaining walls .
All those steps, whatever hasto be.
Scott Woolley (18:43):
Grass, artificial grass, correct yeah, pool
design.
Matthew Van Eyk (18:47):
Yeah, usually pool design.
We, you know we work with youguys on some things.
Tiffany Woolley (18:52):
Right.
Matthew Van Eyk (18:53):
And then there's a good pool contractor I
work with.
So you know, usually I just letthem handle the pool design for
that, and then we construct thehardscape design based off of
the pool design.
Tiffany Woolley (19:06):
Pool design.
Matthew Van Eyk (19:07):
Yeah, because, like a pool, is usually the
focus point, you know, of apatio.
Tiffany Woolley (19:13):
Right.
Matthew Van Eyk (19:14):
So it's good to hem out their design and what
they want, and then you knowwork around that.
Scott Woolley (19:21):
Right know, work, work around that, right, yeah,
so I see there's a lot morethat's put into backyards than a
lot of other places around thecountry because, people are
spending so much more time ohyeah in their backyard.
Oh yeah, you know, hanging outentertaining, jumping in the
pool yeah so it's from anaesthetic point and a value
(19:42):
standpoint of a home.
Matthew Van Eyk (19:43):
Yeah, for sure.
And even if you're planning onselling your house in five years
or three years or whatnot,you're not going to lose that
money if you put in a pool deckor a patio or whatnot.
Tiffany Woolley (19:56):
It comes back.
Matthew Van Eyk (19:57):
Yeah, it definitely comes back there's no
doubt there's value yeah.
I mean a lot of patios are theselling points for houses.
These days you know, especiallyhere in Florida.
You know they could be like ohyou know, the house needs some
work, but it has a beautifulbackyard.
Exactly, you're right, andthat's what catches people's
attention.
Right, that's so true.
Tiffany Woolley (20:16):
That's so true.
So how do you balance thetechnical aspects of the outdoor
, like drainage, in line withmaterials?
And one thing I think about indesign a lot is the undercover
patio being seamless with a pooldeck Like those are not
necessarily seamless, but partof all the design.
(20:37):
And meanwhile sometimesundercover patio you're using
slab versus paver.
It could be sand set like.
How do we, how do you go aboutall those variables?
Matthew Van Eyk (20:51):
that's a hard question.
Yeah, it's.
It's a little bit challenging,especially in florida, because
usually if you have like anundercover patio, especially if
it's enclosed, it's already done.
Tiffany Woolley (21:08):
Yes, Often, you know and people.
Matthew Van Eyk (21:10):
you know people typically start with the inside
of their house and then do theoutside of their house and they
don't usually like what do yousay Coordinate the two?
Yeah, yeah, have a cohesivedesign.
Tiffany Woolley (21:21):
My favorite word yeah, have a cohesive
design which you like.
Matthew Van Eyk (21:22):
Saying yeah, my favorite word, yeah, and so
that's always challenging,because you know people don't
want to pay for the materialstwice, right, and then say, you
know this matches the inside.
But whatever you put, you know,if you like white stone and you
put you know a beige or youknow a tan in here, it doesn't
match.
So that's always a little bitchallenging, it doesn't match.
(21:44):
So that's always a little bitchallenging and so it would be
helpful to, you know, havepeople think a little bit of
what the whole design is theinterior and exterior.
Scott Woolley (21:59):
I think one of the things that Tiffany was also
kind of alluding to was is thatit's not just putting in a
patio, you're for sure.
You're taking into accountdrainage?
Yeah, Like she mentioned.
Matthew Van Eyk (22:05):
Yeah that's always very difficult.
You know, I worked in NorthCarolina for a year, where you
have a lot of hills.
Hills, yeah, so it's easy toget rid of water, Right, you
know very easy, and you know theproperties are larger.
Voice Over (22:21):
They just slope down .
Matthew Van Eyk (22:22):
Yeah, it just slopes down into the creek there
and you don't got to worryabout it.
In Florida we don't have thatand by law all the water, that,
all the rainwater on yourproperty has to be retained on
your property.
Scott Woolley (22:38):
Correct Can't roll off to someone else's.
Matthew Van Eyk (22:39):
Correct.
So that's one of the teachingaspects in in when you're
dealing with homeowners we justslip it right to the edge and
it's not my property and you gotto, you know, say no, that's
not the proper way to do things.
You know.
You can't just put pavers rightto your fence line.
If you don't, you know, put adrain in there and put the water
(23:00):
somewhere else.
Scott Woolley (23:01):
Right.
Matthew Van Eyk (23:03):
So that's always a struggle.
Tiffany Woolley (23:05):
Well and drainage can hinder your
installation as well, can't it,I mean.
Matthew Van Eyk (23:14):
Yeah Well, and drainage can hinder your
installation as well, can't it?
Yeah, so drainage in Florida isvery challenging to work with,
and so we're very mindful of it.
We try to make sure that allthe water drains either to the
front of your property or put aFrench drain in.
Those are additional costs thatpeople don't appreciate, so
it's hard to sell people on thatbecause oh, this other guy.
Scott Woolley (23:33):
People don't think about that when they're
redoing the backyard, becausewe've run into projects where
we're going and we're redoingthe interior of a house.
The back of the house looksbeautiful.
It was recently done, but thepeople are saying we've got this
problem that when it pours thewater is collecting on this one
side of our poolright near our back door and it
(23:54):
sits there for like it will takea day for it to go away.
What do we do about that?
And then we look and who didyour backyard?
They didn't properly pitch.
They pitched it the wrong way,where the water's rolling
towards the house and puddling.
Matthew Van Eyk (24:09):
So there's two big issues with that in Florida.
Either they didn't pitch it theright way or they didn't
consider where the water wouldpool and install the correct
drainage.
And then the other big issue isin Florida is that everyone or
not everyone many contractorsuse recycled concrete as their
(24:30):
base material.
Voice Over (24:32):
And what's the?
Matthew Van Eyk (24:33):
difference.
So you're supposed to use likea lime rock base or something
similar to that that lets waterpercolate through.
So when we do our installs, wedo three to four.
For a patio, we do three tofour inches of lime rock, Then
you have your DOT bedding sandand then you have your pavers on
(24:53):
top.
All those materials let waterpercolate through.
And so you don't have sittingwater.
You know you still install yourdrains.
You know if you have excessiverain or whatnot, but you know
just simple rain.
This lets water percolatethrough Recycled concrete.
Tiffany Woolley (25:10):
Does rain this lets water percolate through
recycled concrete does not letany water is it less expensive
recycled car less and is it like, like I was thinking of it this
way too is it like not anatural, is it kind of a
synthetic, correct, correctcorrect.
Matthew Van Eyk (25:24):
So you know there's.
You know, on some jobs it'sit's okay to work with to some
degree, but for the largemajority of jobs it's not the
best.
So that's a struggle withbidding projects.
You've got to educate thepeople and say we use the
(25:45):
correct materials that arehelpful for you, helpful for
water, med know, helpful forwater mediation, you know
helpful for what the staterequires.
Um, not just.
You know what's cheapest andwhat we can do the fastest.
Um, so those are.
Yeah, so you know like.
So the the best way to explainit is um, if you put recycled
(26:10):
concrete in recycled concrete ina bottle of water and shake the
bottle of water there's so muchmicro powder in there that the
whole water bottle is discoloredfor like an hour or two.
The material that we use whenyou shake it.
It sits there in five minutes.
(26:31):
Material that we use when youshake it, it sits there in five
minutes it all sinks down and itdoesn't have the micro plastics
or not like the micro concretein it that inhibits the water to
percolate through.
Scott Woolley (26:38):
Yeah, interesting yeah, so are you seeing, or is
there currently, any kind oftrends in your industry that
seem to be like the hot thingthat people are doing now, or
yeah, people are reallyinterested in porcelain,
porcelain, very, very interestedin porcelain.
Matthew Van Eyk (26:57):
Um, and then there was shell shocked or price
shocked correct.
Tiffany Woolley (27:01):
Well, in most of the porcelain, the, the, I
feel like the drive of thedesign is because they're big
pieces.
Matthew Van Eyk (27:07):
Correct, exactly, you're exactly right.
The large format is attractiveto people and if you do marble
or travertine, the biggest youcan really go is like 24 by 16
inch, and porcelain you can gomuch, much larger.
Scott Woolley (27:23):
Why is that?
Matthew Van Eyk (27:25):
Just because.
Scott Woolley (27:26):
Is it the strength of the material?
Matthew Van Eyk (27:27):
Yeah, so like marble and travertine is a
natural stone, so you're kind ofstuck with the strength of the
material, correct?
Yeah, so like marble andtravertine is a natural stone,
so you're kind of stuck with thestrength of material.
Porcelain is a pressed andcooked concrete.
I mean clay.
So it's a lot.
It's far stronger, like aconcrete.
Paver is about 6,000 to 9,000pounds per square foot.
(27:51):
Your travertine is like 5,000and your porcelain is like
30,000.
Oh geez so it's much, much,much stronger.
Tiffany Woolley (27:59):
And you still have to.
Matthew Van Eyk (28:00):
It's still recommended to install it on
like a slab first, versusDepends on the size the larger
sizes they always recommendputting on a slab.
If you're doing it on adriveway, you can do it on the
largest we suggest doing forsand set is, uh, two feet by
(28:21):
three feet.
Um, if you get bigger than that, the, the piece is just so big
it almost tends to want to rockRight, which would, yeah, which
doesn't look good and it'dprobably crack easier.
Yeah, correct the long term.
So you can do like 24 by 36pretty well.
(28:44):
On sand we do a method calleddry packing, and so when you put
your base rock down, you haveyour bedding layer of sand and
we mix a concrete aggregate withour sand and so it almost makes
it like a thin layer ofconcrete that really locks all
the material together and helpsany tilting or anything or
(29:08):
unlevelness.
So that helps a lot, especiallyon the larger format ones.
Scott Woolley (29:12):
So there's a technical aspect to doing what
you do.
Oh yeah, significantly.
Tiffany Woolley (29:16):
Well, there's your engineering background.
Yeah, exactly Do you and yourbrother share like stories or
like hey, I found this product.
Matthew Van Eyk (29:25):
Oh, all the time, all the time, and yeah,
and then you know, like allconstruction, you always have
struggles on your job, so wealways go through that.
Scott Woolley (29:35):
So, jobs, is there a particular or is there
one job that comes to mind thatwas like your favorite, or the
job that you really loved or aremost proud of?
Yeah, anything special that youcan tell us about that?
You, yeah, I mean, I did myneighbor's job.
Matthew Van Eyk (29:53):
Um, I love doing that.
My next door neighbor, they uh,they moved in about three or
four years ago and they had us,you know, someone flipped the
house and did like a poor patiojob right so you know, we became
friends, and so they're tellingme what they wanted to do, and
they didn't really know I didthis, yet I was like, oh, I'd be
happy to do it for you.
Tiffany Woolley (30:13):
Right, right, I'm heading that way.
Matthew Van Eyk (30:15):
Yeah, so we redid their whole back patio, we
put in an outdoor kitchen, weput like an accent wall in with
their TVs, because they lovewatching football on Sundays,
and we put a whole bar in thekitchen.
And so I love that because itlooks beautiful, but I also get
to use it all the time I wasgoing to say you get to visit it
, your handiwork, yeah.
(30:37):
So that was a lot of fun, youknow, and they, you know they
love it and appreciate it and itturned out beautiful.
So that's probably the favoritejob I've done so far.
Tiffany Woolley (30:47):
So back a little bit to the
entrepreneurial spirit would,when you were getting your feet
wet and starting, was it mainlyword-of-mouth?
Or I mean when you hear of thatlike special job they're your
best.
Matthew Van Eyk (31:01):
Yeah, I mean that's for any like good
qualified lead word-of-mouth isthe best you know.
Working in construction for anumber of years, you know I had
some contacts already, um in theresidential market, uh, so I
had a few contacts and then, umyour marketing when you're
(31:22):
starting out is I?
I didn't know, I've never donemarketing before.
Scott Woolley (31:25):
So so is it internet marketing?
Is it yeah?
Matthew Van Eyk (31:28):
so google ads right primarily, uh, so trying
to figure out that.
So the google ads leadsinitially, as we're learning,
like weren't great, other thanwe do a lot of repair work,
paper repair work, for you know,trees up lifting roots in your
driveway patio, a lot of paverssunk around your pool edge, so
(31:51):
the Google ads were great forthat, and we still get a lot of
work out of that.
And so I did a lot of that workbecause I could do it myself
and it was, you know, lowoverhead and you know most of
it's a day or less work, so itgave me time to do other things.
(32:13):
You know larger projects.
Just, you know most of it's aday or less work um, so it was
it gave me time to do otherthings.
You know, larger projects, just,you know, take time and energy,
um, but I yeah and planning,but I had the time to uh go
around and do all these jobs, so, uh, that that that was very,
very beneficial and helped me.
You know, kind of get off theground and and as you do these
repairs, people appreciate a lotand you know, save your card
and you know they have a friendwho's doing a pool deck or patio
(32:35):
, like hey, I know a guy who dida great job yeah, so that was
that was a good way of justgetting my name out to quite a
few people.
Tiffany Woolley (32:44):
So what does your team look like today?
Team look like today.
Matthew Van Eyk (32:47):
So right now it's myself and my crew.
It's primarily a three-man crew.
We pick up one or two guys, youknow, for larger scale projects
.
My crew leader is far better atpavers than me.
Tiffany Woolley (33:05):
Really yeah, wow.
Matthew Van Eyk (33:07):
Yeah, yeah, he's the best.
Yeah, I love him a lot.
We work great together.
Scott Woolley (33:12):
How did you find him?
Matthew Van Eyk (33:14):
I drove around a lot looking at paper jobs
Really yeah and looking at crews, so I found him doing a job,
and you know he's doing anexcellent, excellent job.
And he showed me some otherjobs and when you're doing this
long enough, you can quickly seewhat is good and what is good
(33:37):
and what is bad.
So then you know he's.
He started out just doing a jobfor me here and there, and I
mean I love his work a lot.
It's it's better than what Iwould do or what I could do you
know, not for repairs, but youknow driveway installs and pool
installs and whatnot.
(33:59):
So yeah, so he's great.
I love him a lot.
Tiffany Woolley (34:01):
And then that gives you more time to pursue
the entrepreneurial side ofbuilding a bigger brand, which I
know you're in the process ofevolving right now, which I
think is very exciting and muchneeded which is, you know more,
incorporating the whole outdoorexperience.
Matthew Van Eyk (34:19):
Exactly.
Tiffany Woolley (34:20):
So tell us your philosophy on where that's
going.
Matthew Van Eyk (34:24):
Yeah, so we, we are starting to.
I wanted to just begin doingpavers because I knew the
business aspect of it, theinstall aspect of it, but I
didn't.
You know, I've never owned acompany or run a company, so I
wanted just to start, you know,somewhat on a smaller scale and
(34:47):
learn how to do it well put inyour yeah, and put in your
processes you know of how toschedule, how to budget a job
and whatnot, and you know figureout how to do that all well,
and then the goal, the finalgoal which we're building into
right now is is being a completeexterior modification to the
(35:09):
house.
Tiffany Woolley (35:10):
Yeah, thank you very so you know from your.
Matthew Van Eyk (35:12):
You know your hardscapes to your landscaping,
to your lighting, yourirrigation.
Uh, the goal is to really justbe a one-stop shop so homeowners
and clients don't have to callthree or four contractors and
you know, deal with all of themI agree, you can just call one
contractor and get everythingdone.
Tiffany Woolley (35:30):
And that really back to my favorite cohesive
word.
But not only does the designlook cohesive in that regard,
but also you eliminate your risk, I feel like oh yeah,
tremendously For clients,otherwise you just end up with a
blame game.
And he didn't.
Or he's late, or she's late.
Matthew Van Eyk (35:46):
Yeah, without a doubt.
Yeah, I mean later she's.
Yeah, without a doubt.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean there's the aggravationand a lot of pointing fingers
and then you know, on anyproject you're gonna, you know
there's little things you'reyou're bound to miss yeah you
know, obviously you, youminimize those to extent that
you can.
But when you work with just onecompany to do all the work,
then you, they're responsiblefor it and it's not like, oh, I
(36:11):
didn't know that was in, or itwasn't budget mining correct and
it or it wasn't you know, youknow, you know.
I didn't know we had to removethis tree.
I thought this demo guy wasgoing to remove this tree like
little things, like that it's soI mean and you.
So you just it's easier toprice it, it's easier for the
homeowner just to work with onecontractor instead of four and
(36:32):
scheduling, so it just makeseverything a lot smoother.
Scott Woolley (36:36):
So in all these facets of what you're doing.
How do you stay on top ofwhat's new or what's coming out,
or is there shows that you goto conventions?
Matthew Van Eyk (36:46):
There's a couple.
I've been quite busy so Ihaven't done a ton of them yet.
Um, I'm working on, you know,hiring someone to do a lot of
the running around for me, togive me more time to do that.
But you know, working with youguys, um, you know you guys stay
on top of everything.
So you know you.
You know you tell me what's newoftentimes.
(37:09):
And then you know all mymaterial suppliers.
They always stay, you know ontop of what's new, yeah for sure
, and what's selling a lot, andyou know what's working, what's
not working.
So they, you know, just beingin construction, everyone
communicates a lot, so thathelps.
And in construction, everyonecommunicates a lot, so that
(37:30):
helps.
Tiffany Woolley (37:30):
Is there certain vendors that you choose
to purchase the materials fromlike as a regular go-to?
Matthew Van Eyk (37:38):
Yeah, definitely so.
For porcelain, which is mostpopular, I only supply from one
company called Hardscapescom.
Scott Woolley (37:46):
So porcelain is most popular now.
Correct, compared to yourtypical thick paver, that most
driveways or backyards For adriveway.
Matthew Van Eyk (37:57):
Just to step back, for a driveway we always
suggest pavers, because they'recalled interlocking pavers,
because the strength of thepaver is in the the surface area
of the one paver touchinganother, and so when you have
cars driving and pushing on them, especially like when you turn
(38:17):
quickly into a driveway, that'sa lot of force on those pavers,
um, and so porcelain and evenmarble or travertine, you know
they, they're larger pieces, soyou have less surface area
between the pavers, um, andthey're usually a lot thinner,
so they tend to fail on adriveway.
On a patio, you don't have thatissue.
(38:38):
So on a driveway, unless you'reputting concrete down, and then
you know mud setting umporcelain or marble or something
on top of it, we try to alwayssuggest doing a paver driveway,
not on patios because you'rejust walking on it.
But for porcelain, yeah, we onlysupply from hardscapescom.
(39:00):
They got an office in Boca andthen one in Jupiter or showroom.
The reason we only use them isbecause they have the friction
go factor on the top of theirpavers.
So it's a rough surface like apaver would be, but it has the
(39:22):
beauty and elegance of like aporcelain tile.
And so why I like that?
First, like a marble ortravertine is especially on pool
decks where you have water ittends to get a little slick, but
the porcelain is, since theyhave this rough surface, it's a
lot, it's a lot safer and it'sbeautiful.
(39:46):
I think it's.
You know, I like the moremodern look, so it's very
beautiful, and so that's why wesupply from them exclusively For
your marble and travertine.
There's, you know it's allimported from Italy, right?
Not Italy, turkey, excuse me.
(40:07):
And so you know it's more ofthe quality control on your
suppliers, you know, notnecessarily the material itself
but a lot.
Yeah, color variation correctyeah, so I primarily use sinai
marble and tile down in pompano,um.
They're excellent to work with.
(40:28):
If you ever have to do anaddition or an extension, they
make sure you're pulling fromthe same lot that you already
used and they're, in my opinion,their material is more
consistent than some of thebigger contractors or
distributors that go for volume.
I mean, they still move a lotof material, but you know I
(40:50):
prefer them and they're they'remuch easier to work with.
Tiffany Woolley (40:54):
Is there any sort of warranty that goes hand
in hand with the work or theproduct at all, or?
Matthew Van Eyk (41:01):
For the material, yeah, yeah.
So for marble and travertinenot really, because it's a
natural stone, so it's notreally the, since they're not
manufacturing it.
There's not a lot of warrantyon that On any job.
(41:27):
It's good to see if yourcontractor can give you 20 or 30
extra square feet, if you havethe space to keep it, just for
you know any issues or ifsomething gets discolored,
especially like your, yourmarbles, your lighter materials
tend to always, you know they'reporous.
Yeah, they're very porous yeahthey're very porous.
your porcelain and your paversdefinitely have have a warranty
on them.
Yep, huh, yep.
(41:47):
And then we, most contractorsonly do a one year warranty on
their work.
We include a five year warrantyon our work just because we
believe we're installing itcorrectly.
Tiffany Woolley (42:01):
So yeah, so obviously your company Oakscapes
has an impeccable reputationand how do you, like you
mentioned before, like there issometimes design changes that
come up mid-process ormid-installation, or how do you
kind of mitigate any of yourrisks or communications with the
(42:23):
client when those things withthe client when those things,
yeah, it's good to just be openup front instead of.
Matthew Van Eyk (42:32):
You know you can always get caught doing the
work and not getting paid forthe work.
So it's always good just tocommunicate.
Well, if someone wantssomething different and it's,
you know, minimal, you know youkind of just eat the cost.
Just, you know you don't want tobe a hassle to your clients but
, like on a larger change orders, it's always good to make sure
(42:56):
they know what they want andknow that it wasn't initially
included and just communicatelike if you're going to do this,
you know it's going to costthis much more because it's
different material or morematerial or you know many
variations.
But, that's in my opinion.
It's just better to you knowpresent what the cost difference
(43:19):
, if there is a cost differenceup front, and then you know move
forward from there, instead ofyou know saying, oh, we did this
work because you said we'regoing to do it, instead of you
know verifying so, and then youknow your, your, your clients,
not caught off off guard and say, oh, I didn't know what that
was going to cost more.
You know that happens, canhappen.
So yeah, that makes life a lotsmoother for for both, both
(43:43):
parties.
Tiffany Woolley (43:44):
And like within this, like ecological.
Is there any of that that youcome across like?
Oh we people.
Scott Woolley (43:51):
Do you have any clients or customers or people
that are you know?
Is this all echo friendly?
Tiffany Woolley (43:56):
or like is this , you know, not coming?
Matthew Van Eyk (43:59):
in the environment.
Yeah, surprisingly not a ton ofthat um shocker yeah, there's
not a, not a ton of that everynow and then, um, primarily with
artificial turf.
Um, people are kind of getshifty about that just because
it's it heats up a lot correctum, it's hot, it gets very hot
(44:24):
and um and so people are worriedabout, like plastic, you know,
getting in their soil, orplastic getting in their dog or
their kids or whatnot.
That's like that aspect.
Tiffany Woolley (44:39):
Oh yeah, and does that happen?
I'm sure we're all microplasticto death.
Matthew Van Eyk (44:45):
Yeah, I mean I don't think any more than
drinking a water bottle, Right?
Yeah, I mean that's not reallyan issue Like for pets and stuff
.
I mean, you know there'spet-friendly turf.
Tiffany Woolley (44:58):
Yeah.
Matthew Van Eyk (45:00):
That only means it's more porous, right?
That lets you know the urine orstuff flow through better it's
not like it's really safer thanthan the other ones right um, so
yeah, the only, the onlyeco-friendly is really only an
artificial turf.
Um, you know, if people aredoing it, we, you know, try to
(45:21):
suggest.
You know, do it under a pergola.
Or you know, do it under a treewhere there's more shade.
You know if you're going tohave your kids playing on it and
whatnot.
If not, it doesn't reallymatter.
You know, most of the time youdon't go out when it's 90
degrees outside.
Scott Woolley (45:34):
You go out in the evening.
We love artificial turf.
Oh, me too.
I love it.
It's the best.
Tiffany Woolley (45:43):
Well, it's so clean.
Yeah it.
With so many trees, it just thegrass doesn't grow.
Matthew Van Eyk (45:48):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, yeah, no, I love
artificial turf a lot.
You know, I love mixing andmatching it with pavers.
I do too.
I think it looks beautiful, Ido too, yeah.
Tiffany Woolley (45:58):
So running a successful business involves
lots of moving parts.
We kind of touched on that.
But how do you balance thecreative part with all the
technical moving part?
Matthew Van Eyk (46:08):
yeah, so I'm not extremely creative, sadly
enough.
I wish I was more creative.
Um, you know, if, if someonehas an idea of what to do, I can
execute execute it very welland, you know, modify it to
improve it, but I'm not like themost creative person myself, um
(46:30):
, so I, you know, rely ondesigners like, like you guys,
to assist with that.
We've had a good relationshipoh yeah, terrific.
Scott Woolley (46:39):
I love that standpoint.
Matthew Van Eyk (46:40):
Yeah, we do too yeah, um, and so you know,
especially like on largerprojects where you know you have
a whole patio or a wholebackyard or a whole exterior
remodel I heavily rely on peoplewho have the design aspect.
I wish I did, but I don't havea terrific one.
Scott Woolley (47:01):
Well, we rely on people like yourself, right?
Tiffany Woolley (47:04):
Who can execute our designs in a flawless
install?
Scott Woolley (47:09):
Yeah and I think what's even more important that
we talk about is that peoplethat we partner with that we
bring on that when the client'scoming to us going.
Oh my God, I love this guy,matthew, that you have doing my
backyard.
He's just like great, I mean,that's a good that's you want to
hear that with like everyvendor for sure and everyone
(47:31):
that you're working with youwant the client to feel that way
, no doubt in the process, nodoubt because that's like we've
said a number of times the wordof mouth comes in over and over.
Tiffany Woolley (47:40):
Then for sure, for sure yeah I know, and even
as we're sitting here and I'mhearing all these like technical
things that I don't think aboutas much.
I'm like as that one drivewaywe have, you know, in the works
right now where we're likemixing the materials and we're
doing a design in there.
I was like I think only you cando that, yeah, yeah.
Scott Woolley (48:03):
So last question for you yes, sir so last
question for you, yes, sir, forsomeone who's listening,
thinking that they want to getinto, you know, the exterior
hardscape business, thelandscape business.
What advice would you give them?
What?
What would you say to someone?
Matthew Van Eyk (48:20):
I'd say, if I'd say, work for someone for three
, four, five years before doingit, um, you know, and like at my
last company, you know, when Iwas hired I told the owners I
wanted to start a companyeventually I didn't know when,
um, so my old boss was, was verykind, he knew I wanted to do
(48:42):
that and so he kind of broughtme in on more of the business
aspect of it than just you knowmy job, um, and you know how to
work with clients, what jobs youpursue, or pursue more than
other ones.
So I'd say that's probably thebest, the best approach so
(49:03):
you're living the american dreamand I consider to be the
american dream.
Scott Woolley (49:06):
Dream is that you fell into a business.
You loved and liked thebusiness, you learned a lot
about that business and otheraspects of construction and then
one day you decided I'm goingto go do this on my own.
Yes, sir, you know it's a bigrisk to quit a job that you're
working for a corporation.
Matthew Van Eyk (49:24):
Yes, sir, and then go.
Scott Woolley (49:25):
I'm going to start this business.
I have no clients, no one'sever heard of me, no one knows
that I'm doing this.
Matthew Van Eyk (49:31):
And I had one kid and one on the way.
Tiffany Woolley (49:35):
You had a child on the way.
That was perfect timing, ohyeah.
Matthew Van Eyk (49:38):
I got my third one on the way now.
No, but it just proves that.
Scott Woolley (49:42):
I mean if you put your heart behind it.
Oh, I mean if you put yourheart behind it, no matter what
you're looking to dopossibilities can happen.
Tiffany Woolley (49:49):
With faith and hard work right.
Matthew Van Eyk (49:51):
A lot of hours, no doubt.
Tiffany Woolley (49:53):
No doubt about that.
Matthew Van Eyk (49:55):
But it's very rewarding.
Scott Woolley (49:57):
That's wonderful Well we appreciate your time and
spending with us today.
Thanks for having me and havingyou on the iDesign Lab.
Matthew Van Eyk (50:04):
Yeah thanks.
Tiffany Woolley (50:06):
And as we wrap up, we have a couple quick
little questions, yeah, okay sowhat's your I mean you have
little children and obviouslyone on the way what's your
favorite?
Like vacation, like hotelvacate, like I mean when?
Matthew Van Eyk (50:19):
you guys want to get away and um my wife and I
is it what's the coolest, ormaybe design, or I mean my
favorite vacation right now withkids, um is my wife and I.
We go like for four or fivedays to an all-inclusive resort.
We usually do it every year andyou just sit there and don't
(50:41):
talk a lot and don't do a lot.
Scott Woolley (50:44):
You can sleep a lot are there any favorites that
like uh, cool or well done.
Matthew Van Eyk (50:50):
Yeah, probably the our favorite one was the
sanctuary in dominican republiccool uh, that was yeah, that was
was.
That one was terrific and theservice there was amazing, yeah
amazing.
Yeah, that was that was.
That was probably the best oneso far.
Yeah, my family and my wife'sfamily lives close, so it's not
(51:11):
like we do a lot of vacationswith family, just because we see
them, you know once a week ortwice a week?
That's good, Every other daythat's wonderful.
And then you know, I have a lotof cousins.
My dad's one of seven.
My dad's one of seven.
Tiffany Woolley (51:28):
My mom's one of six.
Matthew Van Eyk (51:29):
Wow, how fun.
And so, like most vacationsright now are just, you know,
Families.
Yeah, I go in a family and youknow it's our kids are, you know
, two and a half and one and ahalf and one on the way, so it's
not like you can do a whole lotwith them.
Right, so most lot with themright.
Tiffany Woolley (51:48):
so most of it's just you know hanging out with
other people, kids, yeah, hopingthey play together, exactly
like that's what I say.
It's like having built-inbabysitting exactly like he's
gonna go other place go to likea restaurant where they can walk
around and yeah, so sorestaurant.
Scott Woolley (51:57):
Is there any really cool restaurant that
comes to mind?
Um, we like to try to focus,like and think about design.
Tiffany Woolley (52:06):
Or you walk in or I even say even lack of
design, because sometimes, likebarefoot and the behind, I mean
who knows?
Scott Woolley (52:12):
yeah, yeah, yeah we did a podcast recently about
ugly design oh, that's kind ofcool.
You know, you don't realize,you don't think about it, but
there's a lot of ugly designaround us.
Voice Over (52:21):
Oh, there's no doubt a lot of time.
Scott Woolley (52:22):
We laugh about it and don't even really think
about it like why did someonedesign you know that like crocs,
you know like?
Matthew Van Eyk (52:29):
oh yeah, those are.
Scott Woolley (52:29):
You know, there's no doubt the christ, the ugly
christmas sweaters, that people,you know, people throw parties
yeah, I have not been to one,but there's like you know,
restaurant because, because it'slike restaurant, something that
most people go to every so youknow regularly, or yeah, yeah,
uh, favorite restaurant design,or lack of design, or or
(52:55):
experience, or even experience,because there's a the design and
creating the experience.
Matthew Van Eyk (52:59):
Yeah, we have a good friend who has like three
qualifications the ambience, thefood and the music I know live
music is fun too yeah, I'm not afan of live music oh that's my
wife is so I put up with itevery now and then I don't like
it at a restaurant.
Tiffany Woolley (53:15):
It's too loud.
I like to talk.
Yeah, I like talking.
Matthew Van Eyk (53:18):
I don't want to maybe if it's someone I don't
know great, um, but yeah not, Idon't like it just most of the
time at restaurants.
Um, probably elizabeth is inwest palm beach.
Tiffany Woolley (53:34):
Yeah, that's such a cute atmosphere I love
that and you can.
Matthew Van Eyk (53:37):
We usually always sit outside and you can
look at all the big boats yeah,that's probably our favorite.
There's another good, a reallynice one.
It's called yacht in west palmbeach.
I'm at fort lauderdale, oh,it's kind of like it's, it's
it's in a, it's in a marina, um,and it's like mostly service to
(53:58):
the boats, boats, but it's avery nice restaurant.
It's right on the on the riverthere oh fun great good eating.
When I worked down there, weused to go for lunch there all
the time.
It's a really nice place.
Tiffany Woolley (54:13):
Awesome.
Well, thank you for joining ustoday.
Matthew Van Eyk (54:16):
Yeah, thanks for having me, I appreciate it
yes thanks, yeah, certainly.
Voice Over (54:20):
All right iDesign Labs Podcast is an SW Group
production in association withthe Five Star and TW Interiors.
To learn more about iDesign Labor TW Interiors, please visit
twinteriorscom.
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