DARING TO DREAM...
Randy, Brad, Betty, Wayne and Kevin
Oke
FROM ONE HOME TO SIX HUNDRED
THE HISTORY OF OKE WOODSMITH BUILDING SYSTEMS
Oke Woodsmith Building Systems was launched in 1984 with just one client and a tremendous vision. In the years since then, the Hensall-based company has built and renovated 600 distinctive custom homes from Muskoka to Rondeau Provincial Park for clients who have come to expect the unusual.
The idea for the company came about in 1983 when the four Oke brothers – Brad, Wayne, Randy and Kevin – reunited with their parents for Christmas. At that point, Brad, an architectural technologist, was employed by Bell Canada in Saudi Arabia and Wayne, an engineer, was working in the tar sands in Alberta.
Over Christmas dinner, Brad enlisted his family’s aid to help him build a home in Southcott Pines in Grand Bend. Wayne volunteered to quit his job in Alberta to work on the project, Kevin quit his job as welder in the agricultural sector, and their father, Don, decided to resign from his management position. Many years before, Don had owned his own construction company.
With just one client, Oke Woodsmith was born. It was a courageous move, given the recession of 1981.
“How foolish were we to think we could start a construction company?” Brad recalls. “Three guys quit their jobs, I bought them each a brand new truck and we started to build my house, so we were going to be a one-house wonder.
“The only reason we were successful quickly was the fact that my father had 33 years of building experience and was very well-respected as a builder in the area. Even though we started off fresh, people weren’t looking at a bunch of kids building houses.”
Don, who was an equal partner in the company, priced the homes and ensured his sons correctly estimated the time needed for each stage of construction. After completing Brad’s house, the partners landed a contract for a $1-million home in Grand Bend, which raised their profile in the area.
Randy and Brad worked for the company on evenings and weekends until the business grew. Brad, who was still working for Bell, was the last to join full-time in 1986.
“It took us two years from inception until the company was large enough to pay five. The day I came in, we had three new contracts,” Brad recalls. “We went out to dinner to celebrate because we figured now we were a construction company.”
Brad’s role centred on selling the homes, which involved providing architectural drawings to clients based on their ideas, budget and property. That was a new concept in an area where clients normally chose a stock plan and contracted a builder to construct it.
There was no charge for the drawings, which included three revisions and pricing. If clients weren’t happy with the results, they weren’t obligated to work with the company.
“With nine out of 10 people that we did that for we were able to achieve the budget and the design to their liking,” Brad says.
The five partners undertook all aspects of the construction work, from roofing to drywalling the homes. Randy believes that was a benefit.
“It’s very satisfying when you start a job from the ground up and finish it. Any one of us could build a house from start to finish and lay the carpet, lay the tile, lay the hardwood – finish it completely.”
In 1987, the company began building foundations and, later, above-grade exterior walls with Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF). The partners believed they were headed in the right direction because of the improved energy efficiency and sound resistance of concrete.
Home buyers, however, were skeptical until the company began incorporating concrete floors with in-floor radiant heat into the design. Visitors to two of the company’s model homes in Grand Bend came specifically on cold days to experience the warm floors.
“Concrete floors are warmer and the colder it is outside, the better they are inside,” Randy says.
At that point, clients began to appreciate the floors and recognized the value of building exterior walls of concrete to the eaves because of the added comfort and energy savings.
Oke Woodsmith has since become one of the leading builders of ICF homes in Canada and is also the distributor throughout Ontario and Quebec for Lite-Form, an ICF building system. The company sells the systems to builders and to private individuals throughout Ontario.
Over the years, the partners’ roles in the company have changed very little. Brad is responsible for the design and sales of the homes, Randy is the general manager of the Oke Woodsmith office and manager of Lite-Form, Wayne acts as construction supervisor and Kevin, a finish carpenter, looks after the drywalling and fine details. Don and his wife, Betty, who joined the company in 1990 as general manager, have since retired.
Altogether, 45 staff members comprise Oke Woodsmith, including a team that is responsible for the company’s framing, trimming and concrete work. Employing in-house staff instead of subtrades ensures consistency in each home from the time a site is excavated to the time a client moves into a home.
Annually, the company builds about 20 new homes and undertakes up to 10 renovation projects. The partners have also designed and built many commercial projects, including a fire hall east of Toronto, as well as office complexes and agricultural buildings in Huron County.
Oke Woodsmith is currently building homes in the Grand Bend area, and in Muskoka, Windsor, Niagara Falls and points in between. The company specializes in the unusual, which attracts clients from young professional couples to empty nesters.
“I like the challenge of taking an unusual site and making it work, or taking a budget for a small home and giving clients what they want,” Brad says.
While the company will always be a custom home designer and builder, the partners are turning their attention to the aging population. One new project, Stone Meadows, a one-floor condo community in Zurich, is geared toward retirees. The development is one of the first of its kind in Huron County and a first for Oke Woodsmith.
“What we’re trying to do is provide similar qualities that we offer in a custom home, but in a smaller square footage and a more economical package,” Brad says.
Randy hopes to create other similar communities as the company evolves. He believes Oke Woodsmith’s future will be in the Oke children who, like their parents, joined the company after working farther afield.
“I’m hoping our growth is in family members – our kids – joining the team,” Randy says. “That’s where you get genuine interest in the company and the ability to expand it.”
Our Team
Picture taken in front of the Grand Bend,
Yacht Club Lighthouse, one of Oke Woodsmith's earlier projects...
