Today we’d like to introduce you to Eddie Mendoza.
Hi Eddie, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
As a teenager, my summers were spent helping my uncle as a painter. He introduced me to the construction industry and sparked my interest. He would pay me $100 a week, and at the end of the summer, I had $1000, for a teenager, I felt I was rich. It was that moment that my mom told me if you keep this same work ethic you can accomplish anything you set your mind to. After getting some field experience, my next goal was to learn about drafting to become an architect. I took two years of drafting in high school and designed my own house at the age of 17.
After high school, I decide to attend the University of Houston and major in architecture. My plan was to become an architect, but that all changed when a friend of mine suggested I look into construction management. He told me that if I pursued construction management, I would be able to be part of more than just the design aspect in the project. As a project manager, you get the opportunity to interact with everyone from the architect, vendors, sub-contractors, etc. I took his advise and changed my major to construction management and business administration, it was the best decisión I ever made.
During college, I worked for a custom home builder, and we built three communities in Sugarland. This gave me the experience and knowledge on how to build a new home from the ground up. I met a lot of awesome subcontractor and build great relationships. After graduating from UH, I accepted a position for a commercial concrete company as a project engineer. At the time, I was part of the biggest project in the nation at the Exxon campus project in the woodlands. Residential construction is great but commercial construction is the next level. I had the opportunity to learn about specializing in one trade, and all we did was concrete. I enjoyed my time there but after a few year I wanted to learn more and I decided to join a general commercial contractor to keep on advancing my career.
My new role was to be a project engineer and work side by side with all of the MEP (mechanical electrical plumbing) subcontractor on-site. This was an amazing experience because it helped me get out of my comfort zone and keep on growing. I enjoyed this about but God had other plans.
At the age of 25, a lot of my friends started purchasing their first homes. They all knew I did construction, and they would always see my posts on Facebook. This is when they started asking me if I could install new countertops in their kitchen or paint their house. I took this as a sign, saw the demand and Remodel HTX LLC was born. My first customer was Mr Angelo my neighbor and the rest is history.
After installing Mr. Angelos kitchen countertops, I posted it on social media, and it spread like wildfire. I received a lot of messages, and I started doing home renovations. I was single and didn’t have any kids, so sink or swim it was only me. This was the perfect time to take the leap of faith.
I started doing residential renovations at first, and then my friend asked me if I could do some apartment renovations. I told him yes, and we got the ball rolling with four units. We did the countertops, backsplash and tile work on the shower. I fell in love with multi-family construction because it’s the same thing we just do it 10, 20, 40 times, depending on how many units the apartments complex has. We stayed busy doing this all over montroes and heights in 2017.
In 2018, we started doing commercial construction. Our first project was an interior build-out for an auto shop. We had to renovate it and leave it to Meineke standards. Since then we have done multiple schools all over Houston installing granite countertops, etc.
Fast forward to now, we have started building homes from the ground up. We offer new construction and renovation services to homeowners, investors around the Houston area. Another huge milestone that we accomplished in 2020 was to do facility management work orders for Starbucks, Raising Canes, and Five Guys. Last year we did over 400 work orders for Starbucks all over Texas from Houston, Austin, Dallas, etc. These work orders opened a new line of work for us because it allowed us to open a night crew as well as an out of town crew. These work orders range from store closures. Trash hauls to weekly pressure washing the buildings.
We are truly blessed with the amount of work we have done in such a short time. We owe all of this success to all of our crews for their hard work and dedication. We want to thank all of our customers, friends and family that keep on recommending us.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Not at all. As they say, the first two years are always the hardest when you start a business. You had to focus on getting constant work to keep your guys busy, you have to give fair prices to win the bids, and on top of that, make sure you stay on top of all of the administrative items it takes to run a business, from getting insurance to doing taxes. It’s a lot to do but it’s so worth it. You have to work on the weekends because sometimes Customers aren’t available during the week but it’s all part of the game.
One of the biggest struggles I had to face was collecting payment for a new nightclub we did on Washington Ave. We did some bathroom renovations and the guys never paid. They ran out of funds, and we were stuck with outstanding invoices. This was one of the first commercial projects I did and man was it a learning experience. I took this as a way to grow and like they say, what doesn’t kill. You make you stronger.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Remodel HTX LLC is a construction company and we focus on residential, commercial and multi-family projects all over the house. We do new construction and renovations. We are known for renovation and we specialize in multi-family construction. We love to do apartments.
What sets us apart from others is that we focus on being the best at what we do and breaking all of the bad stereotypes that some customers have about general contractors. We focus on having a good line of communication from start to finish and delivering the project on time to meet the customer’s satisfaction.
What I’m most proud about my brand is that when your think about Remodel HTX you think about quality and communication. We make sure we do things right the first time and enjoy seeing the smile on the customer’s face when we deliver a project. I hope that every reader that reads this gets a little motivation that whatever you set your mind to you can do it. It may take some time, there might be some struggles, but it’s all worth it at the end. Do not give up and keep on going. You go this! Just do it.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
Just like they say, there is no I in TEAM I would like to thank the following people. My family for always believing in me and supporting me in all the ups and downs.
Mr. Angelo for being my first customer. Fernando for introducing me into multi-family construction. Rafa for giving me the opportunity to do my first commercial build-out. All of my crew because without them, I am just one guy. We do all of this together.
Dr. Murillo for selecting me to be part of the Emerging Leaders Program at the Houston Hispanic chamber of commerce which gave me confidence and leadership skills. Also, thank you for inviting me to multiple networking events around town.
Contact Info:
- Email: Remodelhtx@gmail.com
- Website: www.remodelhtxllc.com
- Instagram: Remodel HTX
- Facebook: Remodel HTX
