30 Years - Wow & Whew!
by: Roy Spencer - President/Founder
I can't let this anniversary pass without reflection and awe at all that has transpired at Perma-Seal during the last 30 years. The immediate impetus in starting the company was the need to feed my small family and keep a roof over their heads. I had worked for 2 previous waterproofing contractors over the previous 3 years and was thoroughly disgusted with their shoddy approach to workmanship and ethics. I had seen enough of the industry however, to see the latent opportunity for a business that could provide permanent repairs and a non-leaky warranty, and thus Perma-Seal Waterproofing was born.
Working out of the back of my F-150 pickup truck and my 2nd floor apartment "office", I was able to find enough work from local newspaper ads and the flyers that I would put on door handles in predawn hours. Using funds from my first job to buy materials for the next kept efficiency to a maximum and debt to a minimum. I'll never forget the lonely, and desperate, feeling I had one stormy Sunday evening when I was trying to stop the torrential outpouring from a wall crack. I had done everything I knew of to stop the flow, but it kept on coming and was on the verge of surging onto the carpeting of a finished basement. I intuitively realized that I had to call someone for help, but quickly realized there was no one to call: I WAS the waterproofing company. There was no cavalry, no boss, no one to lend a helping hand or saving strategy. Once that sobering truth settled upon me, I found the resolve to stop that water. Bracing myself against a supporting wall, I forced a final ball of hot water plug into the multi-chiseled void and thank goodness, the water ceased. The carpet, and my waterproofing career, were both saved at that fortuitous moment.
In the ensuing years, I've learned a lot but perhaps, unsurprisingly, haven't learned anything "new". It seems everything I've experienced has been proof of the well established truths of life and business:
- News of good work travels fast; bad work, faster.
- There are no shortcuts to long term success.
- Say what you'll do, and do what you say.
- Hard work leads to good luck.
- Good ethics is good business.
Perma-Seal has grown to become the largest residential waterproofing company in the world (WOW!) and that was never my intention. I only wanted to feed my family and lay my head on the pillow at night knowing I had done an "honest" day's work. There was, and is today, such a demand for work of integrity in the foundation repair industry, that the steady, and sometimes meteoric, growth of our company has become a natural outgrowth of our good works. You may rest assured that Perma-Seal will never forget its' roots: we will continually strive for excellence and will always stand behind our work.
