Page 16 - BusinessWest March, 21, 2022

Home Improvement
Space Race
Home-improvement Contractors Stay Busy Despite Challenges
Infinity Construction Corp. has stayed busy with excavation and site-preparation work.
The past two years have been challenging for most sectors of the economy, and home improvement is no exception, beset as it has been with material shortages and soaring costs. But customer demand has certainly been a positive story, as people suddenly spending more time in their homes found plenty of reasons to call a contractor. Now, however, with inflation not receding and the economy still in flux, the question is whether those phones will continue to ring with such regularity.
By Mark Morris
T
or luxury items, many people chose to address long-ignored projects around the house. It was a good year for the home-improvement industry.
“Because so many people were working from home, they decided to tackle problems instead of continuing to put them off,” said Ger Ronan, president of Yankee Home Improvement in Chi- copee. “The pandemic definitely changed peo- ple’s buying patterns.”
wo years ago, the COVID-19 pan- demic and a sudden shift to remote work drove people across the country into their homes, and they
“Because so many people were working from home, they decided to tackle problems instead of continuing to put them off. The pandemic definitely changed people’s buying patterns.
didn’t always like what they saw. So, instead of spending money on vacations
”
The problem today is that those patterns have
continued, and in some cases, customers have had to wait for their contrac- tor to start catching up on all the work they scheduled — while profession- als are still dealing with price hikes and material shortages caused by global supply-chain issues.
Siervo Jimenez, owner of ProBuilders Home Improvement (ProBHI) in Springfield, said some of his current customers first called when the pan-
16 MARCH 21, 2022 HOME IMPROVEMENT BusinessWest