PILLAGER — For 30 years, a family owned business has served the Brainerd lakes area for those looking to home solutions or ways to get a fresh look on their homes.
Now that business has a new headquarters, a new take on its name with new owners as of 2020.
When the Erickson family was ready to retire, Nikki and Tom Turcotte were looking for a new opportunity for their own family and changing their career paths to focus on construction and home improvement was the start they wanted. With that, A2Z Home Solutions powered by ABC Seamless was born.
“We both just had a desire to — we wanted something for our family … a little bit of some sort of legacy that we were hoping we could leave,” Nikki Turcotte said.
Renee Richardson / Brainerd Dispatch
Turcotte said the Ericksons learned they were looking for that business opportunity and connected with them continuing the legacy of a family-owned operation.
The Turcottes bought the business during a challenging time at the height of the pandemic, when delays in getting material made it a challenge to schedule jobs and manage costs. They learned how to work through all those obstacles, which were beyond the regular ebbs and flows of regular business challenges. There was a time when they were waiting for windows for more than six months, making it difficult to predict for their customers when they’d be able to do the installation.
“I always say it’s like we need to under promise and over deliver and just be honest,” Turcotte said of those challenges during an unpredictable time. While things haven’t entirely gone back to what normal once was, Turcotte said they enjoyed making the change to own the business and make it their own.
“We love to help the people, we like the customer service side of things. … This is a different kind of service than both Tom and I have ever been involved in, but super fun to watch people’s houses transform, give them new life,” Turcotte said.
They brought their existing business skills in advertising and hospitality, leadership and organization and skilled staff to create the family legacy for a long-standing local business.
“As a family-owned business, we’re passionate about combining our skills, experience, and love for the trade to offer something truly unique to our community,” the Turcottes state on their website, complete with family and staff photos. “We recognized a need for a reliable, customer-focused company that genuinely cares about the homes it works on — and that’s precisely what we’ve built.”
The addition of A2Z Home Solutions to the business name was an effort to note they do much more than just siding and gutters. Their website also notes their mission is to help people transform their homes with “craftsmanship that stands the test of time, creating a legacy not only for the homes we improve but also for our children and grandchildren.”
Turcotte noted they provide a business with local ownership and local jobs that stand behind their work and their product.
Renee Richardson / Brainerd Dispatch
Needing more room, they recently moved from the Brainerd Industrial Park into a newly constructed building on land they owned in Pillager, giving them plenty of space for an expansive shop, room for vehicles and a way to demonstrate the products they provide. Turcotte said the added space with the move is allowing them to be more organized and efficient for the business.
The business provides home solutions for siding, roofing, windows, doors and gutters.
“We do exterior home improvement, so siding, windows, roofing, gutters, soffit, fascia, pretty much anything that you need to improve on the outside of your house,” Turcotte said. “We’re local, and we’re here for the long haul.”
The business offers work from quick repairs to major upgrades. In addition to themselves, they have a base crew of four, two helping in the office and three school-age children who are involved in the business, and they also have sub-crews they’ve work with for years.
Renee Richardson / Brainerd Dispatch
A2Z Home Solutions works with all kinds of siding — vinyl, engineered wood, aluminum, fiber cement and steel. Their franchise with ABC Seamless specializes in steel siding but they also carry other steel siding. And it may not be the steel siding one may think of as the past. This steel siding comes in a look akin to log or wood siding grains. It comes in a host of colors like green, gray, blue, white and much more. A shimmering blue provides a steel siding that includes a sparkle called prism. There are options for trim to provide maintenance free looks to gables, windows, eaves, soffits and fascia. With a lot of white siding with black trim popular recently, a current trend brings in dark colors like a dark gray. They even have options to use siding inside, and have an example on a kitchen island that has the distinct look of wood like shiplap.
Renee Richardson / Brainerd Dispatch
“There are so many fun things you can do with siding by changing the texture and the color to make make your house your own,” Turcotte said.
The ABC Seamless franchise covers Crow Wing, Morrison and Aitkin counties and southern Cass County. Otherwise, the business typically works within an hour to an hour and a half of the Brainerd-Baxter area.
For the future, Turcotte said they see continued growth in a lakes area as people want to breathe new life into their homes while also helping with new construction. She noted a lot of their customers continue with them for additional projects and provide word of mouth referrals. They work year-round and can also do window replacements during the winter, working typically when temperatures are in the 20s or warmer. The changeover to the new windows is done quickly so the home isn’t open to the cold of a Minnesota winter.
Renee Richardson / Brainerd Dispatch
link