Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Sidler.
Hi Scott, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I actually came to Orlando to work for Disney as a musical theatre performer since that is what my college degree was in. I did that for over a decade performing in shows like Beauty & the Beast, Finding Nemo: The Musical, and Festival of the Lion King. In 2009 my wife and I bought an old Bungalow and set about restoring it ourselves. I found a dearth of qualified craftsmen in Orlando that knew what to do with historic buildings or cared about restoring them so it seemed like it was left to me to figure out. I was always pretty handy having grown up with a contractor for a father and a grandfather who was a painter, so I fell naturally into the trades and started my business in 2010 as a historic handyman. Over the course of the last 12 years, we’ve grown the business from a 10×12 public storage unit to a 30-person company that restores around 750 historic windows and doors each year from Key West to Washington DC.
I wanted to create a service for people who love their old house and want to retain that awesome historic character. I also hated the stereotype of contractors and wanted to set about changing that by creating a company where everyone was trustworthy, clean-cut, and polite and I feel like we have been able to do that at Austin Historical.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Starting a business is never a smooth road. It was pretty smooth sailing in the beginning but as we grew to more than 10 people issues started showing up because I couldn’t be everywhere at all times. The business has outgrown me and I was the bottleneck. It took a good 5 or 6 years to develop systems and processes and find the right people to help me grow the company to meet the mission I had to “Democratize window restoration.” Since 2020 it’s been really exciting as the pieces have started to fall into place and my vision has been coming into focus.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We restore and rebuild historic windows and doors for residential and commercial buildings built before 1960. All of our work is done locally by skilled craftsmen who take a lot of pride in their work. I love that our services help preserve the history of Central Florida and provide a greener option to window replacement which is inherently not eco-friendly despite the marketing. Throwing historic windows in the landfill when they can be repaired and restored to last another century is crazy to me. Most folks don’t know that these windows can be repaired and upgraded to meet the current energy codes.
How do you think about luck?
The harder we work the luckier we get it seems at Austin Historical. Aside from being lucky enough to be born in a great country like the USA with able bodies our crew is full of hard workers and that is usually all the luck we need.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@austinhistorical.com
- Website: austinhistorical.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/austinhistorical
- Facebook: facebook.com/austinhistorical
- Youtube: youtube.com/thecraftsmanblog
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/austin-historical-orlando
Image Credits
Austin Historical
