Keith Hunt effortlessly hands

Story & photographs by Renée Hueston

Established in a recession, Keith Hunt Construction is a business that has been built to weather economic storms and, 30 years on, is thriving. In the year of the business’ 30th anniversary, the ownership changed to Adam Wilson, who took the helm from founder Keith Hunt.

They sat down for an interview with the Express about how the transition has been going, and to reflect on three decades in the building and trades industry.

Keith started the business in 1992, “It was kind of necessity,” he said. He had been working for a developer that got into financial trouble. “The writing was on the wall. I had to get out of there and find something else to do. “

He said, “It was a bit of a struggle at the beginning,” but he had observed the troubles of the developer, who was so dependent on new builds, and realized that diversification would be the best path forward.

He focused on hiring good, flexible workers who could do a variety of projects.

“We do additions, renovations, new houses, commercial work, porches, decks, you name it,” Keith said. “That’s been our formula over the years to keep us busy.” He continued, “A lot of people ask us what we do in the off season. But we don’t have an off season. We’re busy year-round and all our guys are busy. That’s the secret – to keep the guys busy year-round or else they’re not going to stick around for long.”

They try to schedule the projects so that exterior work is done for winter, “that’s ideal, but it doesn’t always work out. Sometimes we’re in the elements.”

But, Keith noted, that was the case less often in recent years. “Our winters are so unpredictable anymore. There are times where cold weather just hasn’t been a factor.”

As for the pandemic, they have remained busy, but noted increases in nearly all their supplies, as well as long wait period for certain things, such as windows and garage doors. In addition to the long order process, they also noticed fewer options and styles being offered for things like doors or bathroom hardware.

Keith was very proud of all the projects they’ve done over the years, noting the diverse range of styles and complexity.

He said repeat customers were great to have, but it wasn’t common since most would only have one or two big home projects. He shook his head and laughed as he recalled four or five projects at Dave and Judy Mennill’s—additions and renovations, the likes— “after the last one Judy was sad to say there was nothing more for us to renovate.”

Building a solid foundation

Just like a home needs a solid foundation, so too does a business. Keith said that skilled, knowledgeable staff and trusted suppliers provided that base.

Keith said, “We have a really good team of guys. We started out way back with Mike Garrett, my brother-in-law, who is a very gifted carpenter and he trained all of the guys we have now.

“It’s not just the carpentry skills, but it’s also safety, how you get along with the clients and how you speak to the other contractors who are on the job. Everybody gets treated with respect.

“You hammer that into the guys and now we have the next generation and they’re doing the same thing. They’re training another generation of young guys to learn how to do things properly.”

Adam said, the team works well together, and also noted that “we consistently get comments from clients saying that our guys are really good to work with on the site.”

“We started a program actually almost 20 years ago now, when we recognized that none of us are getting any younger. We need to bring some new blood into it.

“The high school co-op program has been just golden for us. We get some kids from the high school, they get a chance to see what we’re doing, we get a chance to see how they work.

“Over the years we’ve hired at least six that have stayed on with us, have done their apprenticeship. We have a couple of guys going on 18 years now and it started with the high school co-op. Yeah. They were the young guys and now they’re the senior guys. “And now the next generation’s coming through.”

Keith noted that they were different from many other construction companies – they had low employee turnover. “We’ve actually had people call us other contractors and say, ‘How do you keep your people?” He laughed, “Well, we treat them well. Again, it’s not seasonal, it’s all year for us and it’s a career.

It’s not just the carpentry skills, but it’s also safety, how you get along with the clients and how you speak to the other contractors who are on the job. Everybody gets treated with respect.

Their team is a group of senior employees and apprentices, as well as subcontractors and apprentices.

Keith said that a lot of great workers over the years had started as student in the co-op program at East Elgin Secondary School.

“We focus on work life balance. Everybody needs a life, and everybody needs an evening and a weekend off.”

The work is divided between the job sites (nine carpenters) and the planning stages (three in the office). The company’s base on Beech Street in Aylmer has offices, as well as a meeting space, and a workshop in the back.

It’s there that project managers like Adam and Keith, along with projects coordinators, look after planning and scheduling so that work on job sites for the next day and week runs smoothly.

Adam said there have been some tools and technology changes, including power tools moving to battery controls and fasteners are becoming stronger.

And more significantly, air nailers are now ubiquitous in the trade. “You don’t swing a hammer all that much anymore.”

The biggest change over the years has been mounting bureaucracy, he cited building code updates, and the mounting needs for more qualifications and accreditation.

Keith said, “I remember back 30 years ago, I used to sketch out my own drawings, submit them for building permits, and that was all that was required.

But now it’s not just drawings, but also engineered trust plans, septic systems must be designed, lot grading plans, and on and on.”

Adam chimed in, noting, “today’s standard is so rigid and exacting to what you have to build. And then you see these old structures that you opened up that had none of those standards – they are the furthest thing from exacting. And yet here they are 125 years later still standing.”

And while the work can be challenging, they meet each new regulation or requirement with ease. But noted that each engineer’s report, or system plan was an extra cost that went directly to the customer’s bottom line. It’s one of those invisible costs in homebuilding that people can forgot goes into the total.

Keeping it going

Adam started as a student and remembers working with Keith and the team for the past 25 years. “The earliest I remember is the teacher strike in’97. I was 13 or 14 and came to work for a couple weeks while we were out of school.” And then he was there, “all through summers and between school and then after university I came back and worked for different stints.”

After his younger terms with the Keith Hunt Construction, Adam returned in 2011 as a project manager.

About five years ago, Keith started talking about stepping back from running the business.

“I read an article in one of the trade magazines about contractors who decide to retire, and they just close the door, and they get nothing out of it.

“It’s a lot of work—30 years—to build up a business and just turn around and say, ‘Okay, we’re all done.’ And you lock the door and turn off the lights and way you go.” He didn’t much like that idea, “So I thought, let’s take a look and see if we can’t keep things going.”

He talked about keeping the business going and Adam was receptive to the idea. “It’s to everybody’s benefit to keep it going.”

They worked on the transition over the past few years, and made the ownership change official this year, coinciding with the business’ 30th anniversary.

Keith said the process went very well. He’s staying on at the business but with a bit more flexibility. “Semi-Retirement.”

This summer, he took a twoweek trip to British Columbia, and spent time canoeing in Algonquin Park. “Stuff that I really couldn’t do before. This has been great to be able to do that.”

Adam said that things have been going well, but there was a noticeable change when he stepped into ownership. “You feel the responsibility of, not just the day-to-day work and to the clients, but also to the employees and their families.

Looking to the future, Adam said, his plans are “to make it more efficient on the front end so that the guys on the site can just keep doing what they’re doing. That’s our strength as a company. That’s what our bread and butter is, those guys building things. That’s what people hire us to do.”

Keith reflected on the past 30 years, musing on what a legacy, saying it’s partly being able to drive around the region and see all the houses they built or renovated, or public buildings. But, perhaps more importantly, “The other thing I would consider our legacy is we’ve got a whole new generation of carpenters that are hopefully going to stay in this area.

“There’s a whole team here with Adam that is here for future generations.” Adam took those words to heart. “If you can hire people and keep them in the community and give them a good life, then that pays dividends to feed forward cycle.”

Street he’d been working there since 2011, when he started as a high school co-op student. He said he liked the variety of the work, with lots of different skills used to address all the finishing needs in residential construction, but that he liked trim work the most.