The company, which is based in Poulsbo, is more than 20 years old. Coultas grew up around the construction industry, and recalls going with his father — a roofing subcontractor — to a job site when he was little to do odd jobs.

“He used to wake me up every Saturday morning and we went to different projects. He gave me 50 cents to sweep the floor and other jobs,” he said. Although Coultas learned more and took on more work on sites as he got older, he decided to go to flight school rather than follow in his father’s footsteps. But with all his money spent on his education, he soon saw himself getting back into construction, and ended up working in all phases from land clearing to infrastructure developing. As he raised two young children as a single father, he had to give up the commute to Seattle to have more time for the kids — plus, it wasn’t very easy to find a babysitter at 4 a.m. So Coultas started his own company, during a time when the economy was in a turmoil. Yet his reputation grew, and “the phone started ringing.”

These days, Coultas General Contracting works on both residential and commercial projects, new construction and remodeling, but remodeling seems to be its niche. He’s a member of the Homebuilders Association’s Remodelor’s Council, and is a past president of the group. “We’re well known for taking on difficult situations where there’s a lot of disrepair and lack of maintenance,” he said.

As the business grew and technology changed, Coultas found it challenging to change from doing everything by hand to using computers. And although he’s computerized everything from bookkeeping to tracking and estimating, he is still known for doing small estimates the old fashion way, by hand.

One of the new aspects for the company is a growing emphasis on “green building.” Coultas started offering green building services several years ago due to customer demand. “It’s grown into quite a trend, a necessity,” he said. “In the future, within another 10 years, probably 90 percent of our (Coultas Contracting) homes will be built green.”

Part of the customer demand is driven by consumer education, but Coultas also likes to personally encourage his customers to be more environmentally savvy.

“Twenty years ago, building green was a thought, and that was about it,” he said. “Now it’s becoming more and more popular,” he stated.

Coultas says since he’s learned about the science behind the environmental issues, he’s become increasingly concerned about the environment. He looks for ways to not only use less toxic products but also to use recycled materials — and he has always been a recycler of building materials on his remodeling projects as well. “On some older homes and older buildings especially, you find a quality of wood that you just don’t see anymore” he said. “A lot of the time that wood can be re-cut and re-used, or re-milled into something else, which keeps it out of the landfill or from just being burned. That helps the environment and saves the customer money at the same time.”

(Webmaster Note: More information can be found about Coultas General Contracting at their website at www.coultasgeneralcontracting.com.).