<p>Meche Silvis, satelite manager Gale Contracting Services</p>

Meche Silvis, satelite manager

Gale Contracting Services

3587 U.S. 101

Gearhart

503-717-1220 or www.mascocs.com/galegearheart/ 

Gale Contractor Services, a division of the larger MASCO Contractor Services Company, does quotes and installation of insulation by appointment out of its U.S. Highway 101 offices. Call 503-717-1220 (office) or 503-440-0557 (cell) to make an appointment.

What do you do?

“We supply and install fiberglass insulation for residential, commercial and remodels. We also do insulation removals. A lot of times, like Coastal Restoration will go in after there’s been water infiltration, and they have us come in and suck out all the attic insulation or whatever gets wet. So we install insulation and remove insulation. We’re trying to get into garage doors, which we did for a while.”

How did you get started in this business?

“Gale Contractor Services has been in the area for about 14 years. I’ve been here almost that long, but I didn’t originally start out working for Gale Contractor Services. I worked for a company that was called Complete Insulation that was owned by Joe Corder, a local sheet-rocker here. That’s how I got into the insulation business. When I got out of the Marine Corps back in ’99, I moved up here because my brother was running that company. Two years after I started there, Gale Contractor Services bought complete insulation. So I just came along for the ride, basically.”

What is the volume of your business?

“I do probably about 50 quotes a month. I could probably do more than that if the phone rang more often, but generally I get out to about 50 different jobs in Pacific (Wash.), Clatsop and Tillamook counties in a given month. Our busiest time is right around October. It starts getting cold and people are like ‘hey; I need some insulation.’ So October’s a really busy month. For some reason, April tends to be kind of busy as well. December, around the holidays, tends to be pretty slow. Everybody’s traveling, and they don’t have time to deal with home stuff.”

How does the economy and weather affect your business?

“When the weather gets really cold, like when we have those cold snaps, this phone starts ringing off the hook, because people realize ‘hey; it can get cold in my house.’ And they decide to try and do something about it at that point. When the economy goes down, new construction goes down as well. But a lot of the work we do is with homeowners, so that’s not affected as much by the economy, other than the fact that they’re not doing as well financially and maybe can’t afford to get the work done. They could do it, physically, it’s not that difficult. But where the issue comes in is what they pay for the insulation. If someone goes up to Home Depot or ProBuild to buy insulation, they’re going to pay about the same sometimes more than what we would charge to supply it and install it.”