“We are a full-service restoration company that deals with fire, water, mold, meth, and death,” said Zach Lear, Marketing and First-Responder for the company, and its division 1-800-BOARDUP. “We have an emergency response rate of 2 hours, so roughly 100 miles around Fort Wayne, and 100 miles around Warsaw.”
With locations in both of these cities, the company serves a large swath of northeast Indiana, usually on short notice. Fires, floods, and mold infestations crop up unexpectedly – as do methamphetamine busts.
“Typically the meth that we’re finding is in rental properties – they’ll get busted, and then the homeowner will have to deal with it,” Lear said.
He acknowledges that it takes a special kind of person to work in restoration – hours can be long and unpredictable, not to mention conditions are by definition less than ideal.
“You’ve got to be willing to trudge around in crappy water some days; you’ve got to be willing to go into a burnt house – there’s a lot of variables involved.”
Every job is different, and Protechs is capable of handling the full range of situations – from basic carpet cleaning to $250,000 fire restorations. The company has a particularly close relationship with the fire department, one that goes beyond the workday. Protechs is involved with a number of firefighters’ events, like Guns and Hoses and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.
This spirit extends into the community; for the past eight years Protechs has held a yearly golf outing to raise money to send burn victims to the Hoosier Burn Camp, covering the difference, up to $10,000, themselves.
“It’s our way of giving back to a community that gives to us. You can’t just take, you’ve got to give.”
With this kind of commitment to the community, it’s not surprising that the company has always been an investor in Greater Fort Wayne Inc.
Lear named several benefits of investment in GFW Inc:
“I love the CEO Roundtables,” he said. “The ability you get to be with decision-makers in this community through that CEO Roundtable is unheard-of.
“I also like my leads groups. I’m a big believer [that] if you work with a good network and surround yourself with positive people, positive results will happen. That’s what I feel like [GFW Inc.] is.”