Why Every Contractor Should be Paying Attention to the Aging-in-Place Market - Featuring Ross Gaskin of Health at Home

Ross Gaskin:

Yeah, I mean that’s that’s a lot of what we do. we’ve had quite a few contractors that maybe they want to bid somewhere and they’re like, “Hey, you know, this is my first time doing that.” And there’s a lot of things that can be very easily overlooked. So, one thing is when you’re setting a barrier free pan for a shower, a lot of contractors they’re used to setting a multi-piece shower unit that has a much bigger threshold to get in. Now, what’s nice about that is so if I’m doing tile, in order to get the proper pitch, it needs to be a quarter foot quarter inch per square foot to get that pitch to the drain. With a barrier-free pan, actually, that actual tolerance is a lot less. So if that pan is not leveled correctly, then you can do an entire job and at the very end the shower’s leaking. And it’s nothing to do with the product. It’s the fact that your contractor didn’t take the time to level the pan. And whenever we start, I’m I always joke myself. I’m like, I’m going to sound like a broken record, but please, please, please level.

00:13:48

Ross Gaskin: 00:13:48

If you just get that right, we can fix walls. we can fix the other things, but if the pan’s wrong and you put all your valve grab bars and everything in and you get your trim all set in and you put the water in and it starts going out of the shower. That’s not and that’s not a manufacturer defect. Not to say it can’t happen, but it’s more likely an installation problem. And that from there, you’re going to have to take everything out and the question becomes, hey, can I take that out and still reuse it or am I having to buy everything again? And then that’s going to affect your margins and other things for you and can really hurt you financially.

Janet Mobley:

And do you guys have any sort of program that you know you’re from that you know your health or health at home employees go through your team members to help when you’re talking to contractors or do you just know these things off the top of your head?

Ross Gaskin: 00:14:41

So, a lot of these things we know off the top of our head. We actually developed a new shower system that we’re currently working with a few state programs across the country. and we actually are requiring that they sit down with us. we have an installation video that we send them, but we actually require them to sit down with us to watch it. because we’ve gotten some calls on things where some somebody goes, “Oh, I’m having a problem with this.” And like you didn’t watch the video. So now we make them sit down and we go through and it’s not only to help them, it helps us not to be fully transparent, we just want to make sure that they have a good experience for their first time. And you know and this is true of anything but when something’s new like this taking a little time upfront to understand the process of process of installation and materials that you’re working with everyone just wants to rush through it so quickly. But if you slow down and take that time it can save you so much time in the back end. It can make your customer happier and make your life easier, make my life easier. but that is something that we are requiring and if we need to if they’re local we have sent people out to actually help with installs in the past but that’s not something we normally do.

Janet Mobley:

And local is where? Remind everybody.

Ross Gaskin:

We’re we’re in Charlotte, North Carolina, but we do cover we cover the whole country. but obviously we’re going to do more on the east coast than west coast.

Janet Mobley:

So, run through the list of products that a contractor could purchase through Health at Home.

Ross Gaskin:

So we do grab bars, grab bars, valves, shower seats, handhelds, slide bars, shower heads, barrier-free pans, barrier-free multi-piece showers. We have different types of wall paneling. then we have different shower systems like you see behind us. And the the things that we use are all tried and true. there’s always something cheaper out there that you can get that’s going to be we’ve really found in this cate Oh, and we do walk-in tubs. we’ve we have found a lot of when something seems to be too good to be true, it normally is. That’s why we have a really high retention rate with our customers. once we have somebody and as long as they continue to do aging in place, rarely do rarely do they leave us for other vendors. just because of the services we provide and all the materials we use are tried and true. and we’re not we’re not going to give you some super cheap, you know, wall paneling from China or somewhere that you’re going to have issues with. And that’s and especially when you’re dealing with some of the people and some situations that we’re in. you know having good materials when you when you see some of these homes that are getting these bids for you know the VA and state programs they don’t always have a lot of money but we really want to make sure that we’re we’re providing that good product because it’s so important that it’s installed correctly with good product because if there’s any issue with water leak leaking out anywhere or anything like that it can cause mold and mildew and really damage their health even more. And so that’s a really big concern for us is making sure that we have quality and that we help our contractors through the whole process.

Janet Mobley:

I’m not familiar with any of the state programs or any VA programs. So, most of our clients, you know, all of our clients are home improvement contractors. It’s about half and half. Half of our clients are like roofing, siding, exterior, windows. The other half are interior. And most of those are doing one-day bathroom remodels.

Ross Gaskin:

Yeah.

Janet Mobley:

Now, they’re installing, our clients are installing, you know, a system from like a big household name. You know, it’s a it’s a luxury bath or it’s a jacuzzi system and they’re not trying to have that funded through any sort of state program or VA program. It’s just homeowners who are paying for it, either financing or paying for it out of cash. I think what you’re describing is some program that offers assistance to people that want to modify their home and you’re trying to maintain compliance with that. Is that correct?

Ross Gaskin:

Yeah. just more on the state program side. It’s just they don’t have the amount of money the state’s giving them from a VA perspective or there’s other grants and things that they can that they can give them. They just they don’t get that much money and so we’re helping stretch that as far as possible. But one thing you touched on just to shift gears with you is we actually work a lot with those different programs  or not those programs, but we work a lot with different , franchisee models. One thing we do a lot of is our shower seats and our grab bars and we actually started kind of on a weird path to that because when we started we were doing teak seats and a lot of these guys, I actually had somebody call me today from one of the ones you mentioned.

00:19:55

Ross Gaskin: 00:19:55

And it’s really funny because we started with teak seats and that’s what everyone knows and they use in their showers. And teak is great, we sell it and I don’t have anything any big problem with it. But, we actually developed new shower seats, using an HDP material. It’s a high-density polyethylene. It comes in 16 different colors. And then we also have more finishes. we have matte black, gold, brush, stainless. And what’s nice is our shower seats are the ACP material is similar to like a Trex decking material. So you can put bleach on it, you can put any abrasive cleaners on it. And the reason that started is we were selling shower seats and every once in a while we’d call and someone say, “Hey, you know, this teak seat is, you know, defective.” We say, “Okay, so let’s go ahead and return it.” We’d get it back and then we’d look at the one of the panels and you’d see a big spot on it clearly where they just poured bleach or something and so we’d replace it. And so we actually started looking for different material. and that’s where we came up with this new material. And it’s it’s actually made from recycled milk cartons. So, it’s a green material. We use it quite a bit in some franchise models that I think you’re referring to across the country. and it’s been it’s been really nice. It has a 500 lb weight capacity because it’s made of stainless steel. and having the nicer finishes that match, you know, Kohler and Delta. And it’s been something really nice that I think some of your customers might be interested or some of your clients might be interested in.

Janet Mobley: 00:21:44

Yeah. So, if for listeners out there, if you’re already doing bathroom remodeling, if you’re already doing some aging in place and you don’t have the kind of variety for accessories or seats that you might be getting from your primary dealer or if you’re in a franchise network, it sounds like Health at Home can provide you with different colors, different materials, different accessories, maybe even some alternate shower pans, some alternate wall systems to provide your customers a wider variety and can help you the listener diversify where you get your products from.

Ross Gaskin:

Another thing that I noticed a lot that we deal with a lot that we’ve either someone’s had to do multiple times or we’ve had to replace is if someone is doing a tiled shower and they’re doing a mud bed or something to do a true barrier-free shower.

Ross Gaskin: 00:22:42

One thing that I I teach a lot of our contractors is about education. Not only from us to them, but from them to the customer. And one of the big things we see is our contractors do very well because they take the time to explain to their customers what they’re using and why they’re using it. And I think that’s a really big part, , because I’ve seen contractors that are really good contractors, but maybe not as good as talking with their customers. And I’ve seen the reverse of that where maybe not the best, but they’re very good, very personal and friendly. And that’s such a really big part. And  for us, you know, with material that we use, we see guys that are cutting floor joists and they’re taking things that,mud beds are great if they’re done properly, you don’t really have issues with them. But we have a system where you don’t have to cut or notch your floor for joist. You get a 10-year parts and labor warranty. It was actually designed by a tile contractor and a plumbing contractor that were using a lot of things out there and didn’t like that they have to cut a four joist and didn’t like that warranties didn’t include labor. So, if they got, you know, if they did everything right and something messed up, they’re like, “Okay, here’s a bucket of waterproofing.” and they’re like, “Okay, well, that’s not helping me, the contractor.” , and so once you educate your customer on things like that and saying, “Hey, I’m going to go through,” and I had a guy, he goes, “Hey, here’s what I’m going to use. I’m going to be a little bit more, but 10 year warranty, things are going to drain better. Here’s everything that you’re going to get with it.” And that education was so important because the next person that came in was going to do the job for less.

00:24:26

Ross Gaskin: 00:24:26

But then when the homeowner goes, “Well, hey, are you going to cut my floor joist?” because they educated the homeowner about what to ask. And just having that level of education where the homeowner is like, “Well, you going to tell me about that?” Like, “Well, no.” Well, technically you need an engineer to come in and look at the floor joist and make sure it’s braced up properly. But the contractors a lot of times aren’t going to tell the homeowner they did that. And so that case,  they immediately went back to the person that was like, “Here’s what I’m going to do and why I’m going to do it.” And I think that’s a really important part that a lot of contractors don’t always do. And that’s something we like to help our contractors with.

Janet Mobley: 00:25:26

So, if I was going to translate that into layman’s terms, me being the layman here, it sounds like you have products that you could sell to contractors that allow them to offer barrier-free showers to their customers that don’t do anything to negatively impact the structure of the home. It’s easier to install better product with a better warranty. Is that a fair summary?

Ross Gaskin:

Yeah. And there are some great products out there. Schluter has come out with something, they have some great products. but you know get in the weeds in that a little bit but that you know just examples of you know things that we use and then taking the time to also educate our c our contractors has been really important and it’s been really helpful and also to hear back from them. You know, we developed a new shower system that we use with state programs, but we actually got with our contractors and like, “Hey, what is it that you guys want and what is it that you’re not getting?” And that was a big pro that was a big process of getting everything done for them.

Ross Gaskin: 00:26:17

And it’s been really helpful. And you know, something else that we off also done is we’ll take on products. , if we have somebody that goes, “Look, I’m doing a bunch of jobs with you guys, but every time I’m having to go somewhere else to buy this, well, we can go ahead and we can put it in our warehouse for you to make it easier to do one-stop shop where we can have everything for you. So, you’re not sending your guy to three different locations where you’re paying them, you know, half a day labor just to go to three different stores, right?

Janet Mobley:

So, tell me a little bit about your distribution network and warehousing. If you’re in Charlotte and somebody’s in Oklahoma and wants to buy from you, how does that work?

Ross Gaskin:

We just ship it. So, we palletize everything. We go through and it just depends on what they want because we have so many different things that we offer.

Janet Mobley: 00:27:05

So if they start to buy from you and you can provide more items on your line card, then they’re not paying guys half a day to run around to three different plumbing suppliers to pick up a grab bar here and something else there.

Ross Gaskin:

Yeah. With our new shower system that we provided, what’s nice is we actually put we put the nails, we put everything in there. So when they get it, that was one thing that our contractors told us is that, hey, if I have somebody subbed out for this job and he gets to the job and goes, “Oh, I’m missing a bucket of screws or nails or whatever.” And then if I’m in the middle of nowhere, I’m going to Home Depot or somewhere to pick up a thing of screws. And then that way we can go ahead and just make it a little bit easier for you. And then we can put everything in one order. We didn’t reinvent the wheel with that, but it’s an example of listening to our contractors with trying to fix things that are problems for them.

Ross Gaskin:

This this type of work is getting more and more important. And the thing that we get I touched on it earlier, but we get so much of is hey I really want to have everything be accessible, but I don’t want to have look at like a hospital. And there’s so many products out there that can do that and it’s interesting. We’ve seen a fairly decent shift in some of our products like our shower seats. We sell more of those that have nothing to do with accessibility. That’s now it’s more of, hey, I don’t want to have something that’s going to be cold. If it’s tile, it’s going to be cold. It can leak. There’s more grout. I just want I want a bench for me to sit down. A lot of times I didn’t think about this until we started selling it. But it’s been very interesting to kind of see the other thing that’s interesting to me too is also that you don’t realize how fast some of these things can happen. Unfortunately, you know, we do deal with some younger people where they’ve had issues and let’s say it’s not too serious that somebody was playing football and they hurt their leg. And, man, for me to get over to get over the bath, just to have a grab bar on the other side was so important. It can happen a lot faster than you think. And there’s other things that we talk to our customers about that even if you’re doing a shower, hey, you don’t have to put backing for the full shower, but charge a little bit more and do the full shower. That way, you’re making a little bit more money and if somebody ever needs it, they can put a grab bar wherever they like, even if it’s something they don’t want right now.

Janet Mobley: 00:30:09

So, I don’t know if this is something that you do, but it’s worth asking the question. If there are contractors out there right now that they’re doing remodeling jobs, but they haven’t really gotten into this aging in place market yet, what advice would you give them? How do they get started?

Ross Gaskin:

Well, reach out to us. We’ll we’ll help you. We’re a great starting place. We deal with it all the time, use good materials, talk to your customers. I find most people will tell you what they want. You just need to take it. You just need to make sure you’re taking the time to listen and ask questions.I know a lot of us just want to take, hey, this works over here, so I’m just going to do this for every job. And take a little a little time to find out about any conditions or things they have can go a long way. And I will say I did have a very specific example a customer of ours which we’re seeing more of this is that there’s people out there that hey they go hey I just want to have a grab bar installed. Well he’s made an entire business off of that. And what I mean by that is he goes in and it’s almost like a loss leader. If he’s going in to install one grab bar, okay, but now I’ve gotten you into the house. This is what I specialize in. And a lot of times, people that are doing this can’t find, can’t find, you know, a contractor they need to go through and make sure that everything’s installed correctly. And so he uses that one grab bar to get in. And he’s done almost whole home remodels and done a ramp, a shower, everything just because that one person needed a grab bar. And then once he got in there and started talking to him, he did all this other stuff. And then there’s also little things like, hey, I keep other grab bars on my truck. So while I’m here, I can add another one by your toilet. I can add one by your stairs. And that one grab bar had turned into what his entire business is today. It’s very interesting.

Janet Mobley:

Wow. So, it sounds like if there’s a contractor out there that’s not currently doing any modifications to help people age in place, they might just start by offering grab bars?

Ross Gaskin:

Yeah. it’s well it’s really interesting because I understand look if I was a contractor I don’t know if I want to go out to do one grab bar and so there’s a shortage of that but if you look at it from a different perspective of hey this is getting me a qualified customer that I know needs this rather than me going out for a quote I’m actually going to get paid on the scrap bar and then you know look at it from the chance of an opportunity more than anything to say there’s so much more here that I can do and if somebody was motivated to have a grab bar installed, they most likely have other needs that you can satisfy. And a lot of times they just can’t find somebody and you know I get everybody wants to do the bigger job and that’s great but do the one grab bar get in there talk to the customer see what their issues are. And you’d be surprised just because they just need to find somebody and they’re, “Hey, I don’t want to do, you know, a whole sales program, but hey, now that you’re here and do you do anything else?” Oh, you know, what are you looking for? Oh, I need a I need a ramp. Oh, I need a I need a full shower remodel. There’s a lot of different opportunities there. But I don’t think people realize that.

Janet Mobley:

What about you mentioned ramps. I mean, what about things outside of the bathroom?

Ross Gaskin:

So, we don’t get into Rams. That’s a whole that’s a whole another ball game. But, there’s a lot of times they’re not too complicated. There’s there’s a lot of good companies out there. There’s a lot of people that we work with that actually have specialized and focused on ramps and kind of the same thing with the grab bar. They’re there doing the ramp and then while they’re doing the ramp they’re saying hey can you guys help me with anything else and they’ve started doing bathrooms using the same kind of idea like now that we’re doing the ramp and do you guys do other stuff and there just isn’t enough people out here that are doing this and so when they find somebody that’s doing one thing they don’t know where else to go and so if they feel comfortable with you it’s a great business opportunity for someone to open up but they just need to let their customers know that they can do those things.

Janet Mobley: 00:34:43

Yeah. so if someone was going to expand into modifications to help somebody age in place, is there any kind of training or certification that you would recommend contractors look into?

Ross Gaskin:

Yeah, there are some different ones. We just had a team member get her CAPS certification. They actually do a very in-depth look about aging in place. I think it’s it’s a great experience. To me, I think it’s more about finding the finding the right materials and using good materials and to kind of pivot from that, walk-in tubs. There’s some really cheap ones out there. We actually as a company didn’t sell them for a while because we couldn’t find something with the quality that we wanted. And I think there’s there’s more opportunity out there. I mean you’ve seen a lot of other really big companies like Safety Step got bought for I think almost $200 million and they’re kind of kind of driving the market for walk-in tubs and there’s great opportunities outside of those franchise models. But same thing if you’re there for that, if you talk to somebody else, say, “Hey, while we’re here, we can do some grab bars.” There’s easy things you can add on.

Janet Mobley:

Yeah. Well, Ross, what is one thing that you wish every contractor understood about accessibility work?

Ross Gaskin:

It takes very it’s very quick to learn, but it is different. And so, take the time, use good materials. You know, it’s it’s upsetting. We’ve seen jobs that we’ve gone in and we’ve had our contractors replace because, you know, hey, oh, I’m a contractor. I know what I’m doing. And so they again they just took something that they knew and they just they took it and they put a you know a square peg around hole. And if you just take a little bit of time to kind of look through what you’re doing there’s a lot of people out there that do supply this stuff. Even a lot of I get a calls from a lot of showrooms and supply houses that , they don’t focus us on this all the time and so we can be we’re a resource for them and you know no one wants call backs and I want to move on to the next job too which is why we also only sell good products too. But take the time to do that and , and if you are doing it for the first time take a little more time to make sure you’re doing it right. I can tell you the pan’s a very good example of something that I just absolutely hammer with my contractors that I’m telling you if you take a little more time and get this right, you make everything else so much easier on the back end. And you know, just please take those take those minutes to do that.

Janet Mobley: 00:37:53

Right. Fantastic. Well, for anybody listening who is looking for a new supplier and some resources about aging in place, tell our listeners the best way to get in touch with you. How can they find out more about Health at  Home and how can they get in touch with you?

Ross Gaskin:

So, they can go to healthomeinc.com. We apologize in advance. We’re updating our website, it was supposed to be updated, but that got pushed back. But you can also look me up at Ross Gaskin on LinkedIn. And then give us a call. This is what we do. we’d be happy to go through if you have a whole team of people. We can do a video conference. We do them all across the country with all the different materials that we have. give us a try. Again, we have a really high retention rate. I think because of that, we’re not we’re not trying to just sell as much cheap crap as we can out there. And so we do have a really good retention rate with our customers and they’re very happy and we’d we’d always love to, you know, meet some new people and bring on some new customers.

Janet Mobley:

Fantastic. So that’s Ross Gaskin. We’ll put these links in the show notes as well. You can look up Ross at on LinkedIn or you can go to their website to see the products that they carry.

Ross Gaskin:

Or you can email me at and you’ll see our price book on there and just know that’s list pricing. So that’s not what contractors get charged. and on top of that, the other thing we’ve done is as long as you’re buying our products, we’re not too worried about it. We can actually change our price book and digitally make it so it has your company’s names and logos on it so that it looks like everything’s coming from you directly.

Janet Mobley:

Yeah, that’s awesome. So, if you are doing some bathroom remodeling, that means you could go in and send a customer an email with a PDF of a price list of all the products and you didn’t even have to make that brochure. You guys make it full service.

Ross Gaskin:

Yeah it’s been really successful with a lot of our customers.

Janet Mobley:

So, Ross, it sounds like you’re making it easy for contractors to look like heroes in the home.

Ross Gaskin:

Trying to I’m I’m big on I want to make things easier for people. generally people if they have an issue with something, they’re always going to revert back to what’s easier and what they know. And so, you know, anything we can do to kind of help that process. And you know we are a midsize company so we do have the ability to kind of adjust on the fly which has been really helpful and something we can help provide our customers.

Janet Mobley:

Well, Ross, thank you so much for your time, for talking to our audience, and you know, we really appreciate everything, all your insights, and we’re super excited for our audience to connect with you.