01 Jun Q & A with Justin Bride, Principal, Ascent Contracting, Inc.

What inspired you to start Ascent Contracting, Inc?

I founded Ascent Contracting, Inc. with a mission of transforming the typical home-building or renovation experience from a process that clients simply endure to a journey that is both meaningful and enjoyable. My everyday goal is to create an integrated partnership with our clients to promote collaboration. My team aims to add on to or begin the story of each client’s home. Every finished project is a beautiful house that a family very much had a big hand in designing and bringing to life. Ascent began in 2012, but really even before that, as an idea I had to heighten the reputation of the residential building industry.

I started my career working in commercial construction where I truly fell in love with building. Actually, a summer job in construction inspired me to switch degrees from physics to construction management, and I never looked back. Later when I moved from Michigan to Colorado, I worked for two construction companies for a total of seven years before beginning Ascent. What I learned through experience is that there is this organization and schedule for commercial construction that simply does not translate to the residential building industry.  Partially due to that, there is a stigma that exists among consumers about contractors and the general stereotype is that builders take advantage of their clients’ lack of knowledge about the build process. Through my daily conversations, I aim to bring an education of the construction process to potential clients so that they can have the power to make the best decisions for themselves.

When I founded Ascent, I started a business based on three simple values that align with a foundation of transparency. Those values are honesty, integrity and quality. I believe it is a true honor to be a part of the story of our clients’ homes. In most cases, the amount of money people spend to build or remodel their homes is the biggest investment they make in their entire lives. I don’t take the trust given with each project we pursue lightly. It’s important to me to make sure we have a high level of communication with our clients, that we are honest, and that we guarantee quality craftsmanship. We want our clients to feel connected to the people that work in and on their homes. And, we want them to know exactly what those people are there to do each day.

Nearly a decade into business, I am still absolutely true to those original founding values. As you might imagine, it’s not always easy to grow a business exactly as you intend to from the start. I promised myself and my future clients that I would always uphold the foundation of the business and I am proud to say that we have very strong relationships with both our past and present clients. The families that we work with enjoy beautiful homes that they helped to design, they are just as much a part of the story of their home as the people whose hands built it. 

What challenges have you faced in the decade you’ve been in business?

One challenge that has come up for me over the years is finding the correct formula for growth. I have been blessed to find incredible people to bring on to the team at Ascent—who share my values and vision—and for that I am grateful. When you grow a business from the ground up, customers come to rely solely on you for answers and guidance. While I absolutely love every aspect of my business from meeting with people to working in the field to handling unexpected issues, it’s been a goal of mine to train my team to be able to take some of this workload. I am very strategic about how I grow my business, never taking on too many projects if I don’t have the proper team infrastructure, and always ensuring we stick to our values of honesty, integrity and quality.

Tell us more about Ascent’s relationship with clients.

We take pride in guiding our clients through the build process from the first conversation to the last punch list walkthrough. Due to the fact that the construction process can take upwards of a year from that introductory meeting to the end of the project, we get to know our clients quite well. As I mentioned, it is really important to me to have our clients feel like a very integrated part of the build of their home, and walk away with happy memories about the journey of the project.

Recently, we’ve had the opportunity to follow up with our clients to review the process, the good and the bad. I am very pleased to hear time and time again that clients feel very lucky to have found Ascent and to have been able to work with my team. Not only do clients have positive feedback about the frequency of communication, the high level of detailed planning and the beautiful craftsmanship, but we also hear repeatedly that our clients enjoy having the Ascent team in their houses.

As the company continues to expand, I will continue to put a lot of time and energy into hiring the best people to fit into the culture of Ascent. We will definitely continue to get a third party to review client experiences and pay attention to customer feedback. I want our clients to continue to feel respected, like a part of the process and like a part of the Ascent family.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?

The COVID-19 crisis reinforced a notion that I have been experimenting with for some time now centered around pre construction planning. In my business, I have pulled lessons from the very scheduled commercial construction world over to my residential building business. One very emphasized part of commercial construction that isn’t typically an in depth process in the residential world is the art of pre construction planning.

Recently we have begun to request that our clients enter into a pre construction agreement in order to hire us to work on their home. This agreement is a paid portion of the project and includes elements that would no doubt be a part of the scope of the project, but, the timing of this planning is the most important part. Entering into a pre construction agreement with clients truly allows Ascent to give accurate timelines, budgets and scope of work.

An emphasis on pre construction planning typically also allows the team at Ascent to work with other industry professionals like our homeowner’s architect, interior designer and structural engineer. If and when we can collaborate with all of these entities from the start, it grants us the wisdom and power of foresight. We can see where a structural beam and the need for specific internal support is needed and how that might marry with the vision of the architect. We can plan for a long lead on a specific window or tile or flooring because we have exact plans much sooner than typical, sometimes including all the selected finishes. This knowledge allows us to get creative, solve problems in advance and plan for the future in a much more detailed manner.

During the pandemic when material lead times changed constantly, supply shortages came into play and a lot of unexpected circumstances came up, we learned to plan and control as much as we could before a shovel ever hit the dirt. What we learned was that there are a myriad of benefits to be enjoyed based on a high level of pre planning for each project.

When we caught up with Nils after the final punch list walk through, he talked about his experience working with the team at Ascent:  “It was important to us to be able to trust our contractor to have our best interest in mind as we were coming to collective decisions. We really enjoyed working with Ascent, it was a project of passion, on what we believe will be our ‘forever home’, so we were super appreciative of Justin and his thoroughness, his attention to detail. We felt very supported every step of the way in the process. The practical experience we had with the whole Ascent team was a true joy, it was wonderful to have the team be a part of our lives for the better part of a year. They were the kind of people that we liked having in our home. It was a joy to see progress on the home because we knew we would run into the guys and they were a big part of the positive experience. The gift they gave us through their craftsmanship and their attention to detail, we are experiencing and enjoying daily.”

This project was certainly a labor of love and it involved many twists and turns. The ability to continue to manage the project smoothly was due to the fact that the team behind the build was collaborative and forward-thinking. 5280 Home contributing writer Cheryl Meyers said it best, “Building a house to Tomecek Studio’s specifications is not for the faint of heart. Case in point: the home’s large custom windows, many with off-center peaks. ‘The frame of the house incorporates steel beams and columns in conjunction with wood trusses and stick-framed roof pieces that all surround floor-to-ceiling windows…all of these elements required extensive planning in order to ensure that items could be fabricated with precision and arrive on schedule.’”

We have a true passion for guiding our clients from the initial concept of their home to the completion. We are not looking to build a home where our clients simply endure the process of construction, we ensure families truly enjoy each step of the process. We know that looking back on the project fondly will add to the love story of the family matched with their forever home. If you haven’t, take a read of the 5280 Home article and revel in the project details the magazine put a spotlight on, it might just have you dreaming of your next home improvement project!

“It is really important to me to have our clients feel like a very integrated part of the build of their home, and walk away with happy memories about the journey of the project.”

– justin bride, principal of Ascent contracting, inc.