Richard w/ This Old House Shares His Story

Richard Trethewey from This Old House joins Bryan on the podcast and tells his incredible story and shares some encouragement and laughs.

Richard works with his sons, Ross and Evan. He has always worked in a family business and then left it to start his own with his sons. Family businesses truly are the backbone of this industry, as our business attracts lots of family-oriented business owners. Richard’s sons volunteered to join the business early on.

This Old House started off with a phone call from PBS about a home-renovation show idea; Richard had to start the show from scratch with no money, but his father agreed to do the show. The first years of the show were difficult because that was before Home Depot and the internet became popular, so DIY home renovation was still pretty new and unknown; Richard worried about “selling the secrets” of the trade. However, his main concern was with doing good work and setting a positive example for others whenever they watched him.

If Richard had to give one piece of advice to young people, it would be to join the skilled trades. Many high-profile jobs have an ebb and flow of good workers, but the skilled trades ALWAYS need good workers. Regardless of where people are or what the market looks like, people will need comfort. One of the most rewarding things about being in the skilled trades is being able to inspire others to obtain the skills to provide for themselves.

Nowadays, Richard spends time learning about new technologies and feels excited by the prospect of making American technology even better. He looks to Western European HVAC technologies as an example of what we can do. Richard also looks forward to empowering and inspiring the new generation and getting them to a point where they have pride in their work.