Apparently, builder John Mason and painter Lance Davidson didn’t get the memo about the economic slump. As the owners of Davidson Contractors, they’ve built more than 100 homes since the recession hit, and sold nearly every one. Someone, somewhere must have dropped the ball while passing on the news.
Standing next to Davidson inside the elegantly designed interior of a recently completed home in Ooltewah, Davidson shrugs his shoulders and pushes a few words through his thick mustache. “We’ve skated through the crunch.” Davidson, 62, is the older of the two gentlemen, and one of the largest paint contractors in Chattanooga. Since he took over his father’s business at the age of 24, he and his crew have coated close to 20,000 homes and apartments in various shades of color. For years, he painted as many as 30 buildings at once.
Mason, 42, is a builder – the kind that hammers nails with his own hands. As he rests his arms on the granite bar that divides the kitchen from the eating area, he looks around at his handiwork. “He did the framing, the trim and tile work, and put up the siding,” Davidson says. Davidson is the more talkative of the two – until a topic arises that sparks Mason’s interest. This time, it’s the idea that a builder needs to get a few splinters in his hands if he wants to stay in business. “A lot of builders who didn’t do any of the work themselves have gone out of business. You can’t rely on someone else to do everything for you and still turn a profit,” he says.
Mason says he and Davidson are able to provide a better product at a more affordable price because they do the work themselves and directly supervise the subcontractors that help them. Also, being hands-on gives them the confidence to offer a generous 10-year warranty on the houses they build. “If you buy a house from Davidson Contractors, you get a 10-year warranty. That includes everything for the first two years, five years on all mechanical products, and 10 years on the structure,” he says. Davidson says the 10-year warranty has helped them to sell houses during the recession. So have the small touches the two men put into their homes that make them more visually appealing and livable. “We’re always asking ourselves what we would like, or what our wives would like, or what we can do to make a room unique,” Davidson says.
One of the most popular characteristics of a Davidson house is the larger-than-normal master bedroom, complete with stylish tray ceiling. The master in the custom-built home next door should comfortably accommodate its primary resident, who’s handicapped and will need plenty of room in which to move around. Mason’s reason for building spacious master bedrooms is rooted in economics and making the most of their resources. “Our plans might call for a 57-and-a-half foot house, but we’ll make it 58. Why cut off and throw away a half foot when we can give someone a slightly larger house for the same price?” he says. Even though Davidson is about 20 years older than Mason, both men have remarkably similar backgrounds. Davidson’s dad began priming him to take over the paint business when he was a teenager. The first thing he did was teach his son how to paint.
“Everybody thinks they can paint. And if someone takes this room and has enough time, he’ll eventually get it painted. But there’s a difference between painting a room or two on your own and trying to paint an entire house. “On new construction, you have only so much to spend per square foot on painting, and you have to be able to do it right and get it done quickly to make money.”
Davidson painted the room in which he’s standing dark green with white trim. At no point does one color bleed onto another, despite the liberal use of crown molding and baseboards. Rather, the lines are clean and the walls streak-free. Once Davidson had learned how to paint, his father taught him the ins and outs of running a business, including how to calculate the cost of a job. Mason’s father also put his son to work at a young age. “He knew I wasn’t going to be a doctor or a lawyer, so he pushed me into the business,” he says.
Mason then says he wanted to become a builder, and that the skills he acquired while working under his dad proved invaluable. “There’s nothing in this business like hands-on experience. You need it in order to succeed,” he says. Davidson and Mason started working together in 2004. Davidson had always wanted to “get into the building business,” and liked the idea of teaming up with Mason. Although they worked together to line up subcontractors, acquire construction loans, and sell their houses, each continued to do the physical work he grew up doing. The two men share more than a similar background; they also have a mutual desire to do work they can proudly identify as theirs. As Mason nods in agreement, Davidson says they’re always aware that they’re building a place a family will someday call home.
“I guess we could become nonchalant, given the number of houses we build, but every time we’re done with one, I step back, look at the finished product and feel proud. A lot of buyers these days will have a home inspector go through a house to make sure the builders did a good job. I’m not ashamed to have anyone walk through a house we’ve built. The inspectors that come through our homes rarely find a thing.” Maybe Mason and Davidson didn’t get the memo about leaving a few things for home inspectors to find.