Hammers in Full Swing : Valley’s Small Repair, Construction Firms Struggle to Meet Demand as Post-Quake Prosperity Finally Begins

Daily invasions of the San Fernando Valley by an army of carpenters, plumbers, masons and electricians signal that, for small construction and repair businesses, the hoped-for boom from the Northridge earthquake has finally hit.

“Many people are just starting their repairs now,� said Robin Bauer, who co-owns the small Northridge contracting firm A.D.B. Construction and Installations with her husband, Dean. “If no one calls for the next two years, we will still be busy,� she said. Those new customers Bauer is trying to squeeze in must now wait weeks to get a small job done, and months for a large one, she said.

The surge in business comes from homeowners who were held at bay for months by lengthy insurance negotiations and pending aid checks from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. With that settled, contractors say they are finally getting hired to attack the big home-repair jobs left by the quake.

The result is as apparent to the ears as to the eyes: Once-silent suburban neighborhoods now come alive at 7 a.m. with a cacophony of jackhammers, drills and clacking timbers. On some Valley streets, nearly every home is fronted by a telltale pile of broken masonry and plaster.

Earthquake repairs have produced enough debris so far to fill a line of dump trucks stretching bumper to bumper from here to San Francisco. Officials with the city’s debris pickup program say the volume of waste has increased in the last two months due to a speedup in construction, and the free rubble pickup program was recently extended to January.

Statistics are hard to come by, but a sampling of local contractors produces a nearly unanimous consensus: Although calls for free estimates and small, emergency fix-ups poured in immediately after the January quake, the major surge for contractors has only begun in recent weeks.

“There was a lag time when no one was getting money,� explained contractor John Wurster, owner of John Wurster and Associates Inc. of Calabasas. Wurster said the impact of the quake on his business didn’t take shape until July, when his monthly sales surged 100% compared to the same time last year, and they are holding strong.

Jeff Steele, owner of Reseda-based Artisan Concrete, spent the first months after the quake in frustration, waiting for the work to come in. “Now it’s not frustrating,� he said. “But there’s no time left for personal stuff.� Steele has been working more than 60 hours per week since the earthquake. He now thinks his sales this year will be up 30% over last year’s, but he’s not getting to spend any time with his sons in football practice. And his phone just keeps ringing. “We are breaking our backs trying to keep up with it,� he said.

For contractors--an industry populated by small, mom-and-pop companies--the quake-triggered bounty is a reprieve after several bad years. Many had endured losses as a result of a slowdown in new home construction and remodeling. Now these same firms are turning customers away. Some are working strictly by referral, eschewing calls from yellow-page shoppers. Others have abandoned free estimates. Small contractors surveyed say their sales have at least doubled this year compared to last year.

Homeowners contemplating their torn-out walls and ceilings, with checks from their insurance companies or the SBA, often find the temptation to remodel irresistible. That’s made earthquake repairs are all the more lucrative for contractors. “People are adding on new bathrooms and new rooms in their houses. We haven’t seen that since the ‘80s,� said Jim Alexander, vice president of Woodland Hills-based William Frankel Plumbing, who said he expects his sales this year to be 40% higher than last year.

What’s feeding the construction boom is $665 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency grants for home repairs, paid out as of Sept. 1, and an estimated $7.2 billion in insurance claims still flowing into earthquake-affected areas.

“It’s just take it while it’s there,� said Wurster, the Calabasas contractor, summing up the spirit of the times. Wurster said his 35-year-old company will be profitable for the first time in five years thanks to quake repairs, and he recently hired four new workers, for a total of 11.

“It’ll be nice to get out of debt,� said Ed Bilow, who runs a one-man contracting operation from his home in Chatsworth. “I haven’t had to worry about the bills getting paid, and my wife is buying more things than usual.�

Bilow said revenues so far this year for his firm, A.D.-J.C. Creations, are twice last year’s, though he isn’t sure. He hasn’t found the time to file his quarterly tax forms and will end up paying a fine.

The repair boom comes as no surprise to staff members at the area office of City Councilwoman Laura Chick, who have learned to keep fraud hot-line numbers at their fingertips because they are deluged with complaints of contractor rip-offs.

Nor is it news to the dispatchers at the Devonshire division of the LAPD, who field a daily smattering of complaints from raw-nerved residents about construction noise. Ken Knox, senior lead officer for the West Valley precinct, said contractor fraud and illegal dumping are the hot topics at Neighborhood Watch meetings he attends.

Responding to reports of fraudulent and unlicensed operators, officials with the Contractors State License Board have conducted numerous sweeps of earthquake-hit areas. So far, they’ve cited 65 people for doing construction work without a license, an offense that carries a maximum fine of $15,000. Another 117 fines have been assessed to contractors who could not provide proof of workers’ compensation insurance, according to Sam Haynes, spokesman for the board.

More serious offenses, such as taking payments without doing any work, have been rampant too. The city attorney’s office has so far prosecuted about 50 cases involving earthquake-related contractor fraud, said spokesman Mike Qualls.

Joseph Caponetta, owner of Woodland Hills-based Caponetta Construction, said he thinks his sales this year will be 30 times higher than last year, for a simple reason: Last year was terrible. “I had no big jobs at all--nothing but bathrooms,� he said.

Since the quake, Caponetta’s big jobs have included jacking up houses to replace foundations and stripping entire houses down to the studs to retrofit. At one job in Encino earlier this month, Caponetta waited to meet with the owners, who have been living elsewhere since January. As he talked, daylight poured in through gaping holes in every wall. On the street below, heavy trucks cruised by, headed for jobs at neighboring houses.

With the extra cash in his pocket, Caponetta said he recently splurged on a childhood dream. He bought the body and chassis of a 1932 Ford street rod and plans to refurbish it.

Others aren’t quite ready to run up bills. Greg Parness, owner of a plumbing firm called Drain King, said the extra work should be just enough to cover his own losses from the quake. His office in Northridge was damaged severely, and so was his home. “It’s been a real hectic year,� he said.

Many repair workers talk of the strain of long days, capped by hours of paperwork at home at night. Some have been working mammoth schedules continuously since January. “I didn’t know it would be like this. I’m always running, always busy, working 15 hours a day,� Caponetta said.

And with the wait for quake repairs now stretching into eight months, customers’ patience is beginning to wear thin. Most just want the job done, and done quickly.

For workers, these repairs are often tedious--replacing walls or cracked plumbing--and lack the excitement of remodeling. “People don’t exactly bring the neighbors over to show them their new hot-water heater,� said John Van Diepen, owner of A Straight Line Construction Co., based in Simi Valley.

Although there is lots of work out there, that doesn’t mean money is easily had. Many contractors said they first had to learn that tried-and-true methods would no longer fly in this new market. The practice of giving free estimates, for example, overwhelmed many businesses after the quake.

“I realized it was getting out of hand,� said Bilow, the Chatsworth contractor. Bilow’s story is familiar to many in the business. He says few of countless free estimates he gave turned into jobs. Now, he charges a token fee to customers he doesn’t know to “weed out� all but the serious shoppers.

Contractors say they’ve learned to ask hard questions when potential customers call: Has their insurance company paid on their claim? How many contractors have they called? Are they flipping through a phone book? “We aren’t interested in doing only estimates,� explained Mona Van Diepen, wife of John Van Diepen, and controller of his Simi Valley firm.

Bilow and others say that, in the end, most contracts come from relatives, friends, former customers and referrals. “I’ve heard from people I built houses for 30 years ago,� said Wurster, the Calabasas contractor.

Construction firms have had to become experts at backing insurance claims. Caponetta said he’s developed a new practice of painstaking room-by-room examinations to produce dispute-proof estimates. “Now I guess I can call myself an earthquake specialist,� he said.

Opinions vary on how long the boom will last. Many contractors say that, although requests for new jobs may be peaking, they have enough work in the pipeline to keep them busy for months, if not years.

So far, 85% of earthquake insurance claims have been paid out, according to the Western Insurance Information Service, an insurance industry trade group based in Los Angeles. Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., said there are enough quake repairs remaining to tide over contractors until the economy improves and housing construction takes off again in 1996 or after.

Few small contractors are as sanguine. Although revenues at A Straight Line Construction Co. are up 75% to date this year from last year, and the firm has hired 13 new workers, owner Van Diepen doesn’t see the end of hard times. “Aerospace workers used to be our fundamental client base. Now our client base is earthquake victims. But when this is done, who is it going to be?� he said.

But a short-lived boom is good enough for Miry Rabinovitch. Rabinovitch is co-owner with husband Ze’ev of Banai Construction in Van Nuys. “We aren’t going to be millionaires,� she said. “But right now, we are enjoying not having to worry about tomorrow.�