Carpentry business branches out

IOWA CITY - Carpenters aren't just only, well, carpenters anymore.

Today the term 'carpenter” can be used to refer to someone who is employed in a broader spectrum of woodworking including furniture craftsmanship, construction and remodeling, among other professions.

And a sub-area of carpentry, remodeling contractors, refers to carpenters in charge of home remodeling projects that involve many disciplines beyond simply woodworking.

'Oddly enough,” said Chris Weckmann, remodeling contractor and owner of Iowa City-based Carpentry by Chris, 'the things we do involve very little wood anymore,”

Weckmann said much of his job as a remodeling contractor involves orchestrating various disciplines involved in remodeling homes such as plumbing, lighting, tiling, drywalling, exterior home work and, of course, carpentry itself, which can include constructing cabinets, doors and trim.

The remodeling market nationwide has increased steadily since 2011, according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity, a report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University that studies home-improvement spending.

The same report projects a 9.9 percent increase in home-improvement spending by the end of 2014 - up from 5.6 percent in 2013.

But the remodeling group anticipates spending to drop to 7 percent during the first quarter of 2015, which would be the first quarterly drop since the beginning of 2012, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. WHY?

In the Iowa City area, some remodeling contractors and carpenters had a defense against the recent recession.

'This area that (spending by the University of Iowa) directly impacts is unique,” Weckmann said. 'This is very different from what Cedar Rapids looks like because we are much more protected from an economic standpoint.”

And others have found a niche. Kevin Watts, the owner of Watts Carpentry and Construction in North Liberty, said that since starting his business in 1987, he's seen a dramatic increase in demand for rot repair.

'There are not a lot of contractors that want to deal with that kind of repair,” he said. 'We do the work that others turn down, but we happen to be good at it.

Although remodeling contractors now deal with much more than just wood, Watts said the quality of lumber still plays a key role in the industry.

They generally rely on site selection in lumberyards because of the higher-end materials and greater selection found there. However, one of the challenges is that the number of lumberyards have dwindled since the 2008 housing bust. Moreover, competition for the lumber has increased with the advent of the Internet.

Joby Campbell, operations manager for the lumberyard at 158-year-old Gilcrest Jewitt, with retail businesses in Coralville and Marion as well as two in central Iowa, explained that Canada used to ship much of its lumber to the United States. But now the United States competes for lumber with China, India and other growing countries that order online.

'Instead of it just being shipped to the U.S. - instead of it just being a smaller pocket for distribution - you now have a world economy,” he said.