We were lucky to catch up with Drew Scogg recently and have shared our conversation below.
Drew, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
The seed for Scogg Construction was really planted back in 2016. At the time, I had recently graduated with my business degree and was living out in Los Angeles. While I was working out on the West Coast, I found myself constantly feeling the pull back to my roots in West Michigan. Our family has always had this deep, creative passion for building, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized we were sitting on a massive, untapped opportunity.
I started looking at the unique skill sets right inside our own family. We had Andy, who spent over four decades building homes and remodeling in West Michigan. Not only is he a licensed contractor with incredible craftsmanship, but his background as a public educator meant he knew how to communicate, teach, and guide people—something that is desperately missing in the construction industry. Then we had Austin, who had just graduated with a degree in graphic design and had an incredible eye for spatial aesthetics and creating ideal living spaces. And finally, I had the business and operational background to pull it all together and scale it.
The logic just made perfect sense to me. It was the ideal trifecta of elite craftsmanship, modern design vision, and strong business operations.
I knew this was a worthwhile endeavor because we were solving a massive problem in the residential remodeling space. So many homeowners feel anxious about hiring contractors because of a lack of communication, design guidance, or basic trust. Our unique approach was to build a company entirely around four core values: Faith, Family, Relationships, and Craftsmanship. We didn’t just want to provide the highest quality remodeling. We wanted to build completely honest, transparent relationships with our clients from the first design sketch to the final nail and warranties.
Honestly, what got me most excited wasn’t just starting a business. It was the chance to pack up my life in L.A., move back home to West Michigan, and build a lasting legacy with my family. We took the leap, officially established the company in 2017, and we’ve been building beautiful spaces and great relationships ever since.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m Drew Scogg, the Cofounder and President of Scogg Construction. We are a fully licensed and insured, local, family owned, full service residential contractor based right here in West Michigan.
My journey into this industry was driven by a desire to bring my family’s talents together. Our family has always had a deep, creative passion for building, but my formal background is actually in business. I was living out in Los Angeles working in the corporate world when I realized the incredible potential sitting right in front of me back home. My dad, Andy, has over four decades of experience as a licensed contractor, and my brother, Austin, is a brilliant graphic designer with an incredible eye for spatial aesthetics. In 2017, I moved back to Michigan to bring our skill sets together, combining their design and building expertise with my operational background, and Scogg Construction was born.
We specialize in comprehensive interior home remodels, specifically focusing on kitchens and bathrooms, along with home additions and custom builds. On the exterior side, we are also incredibly proud to be a certified TrexPro deck builder. What we truly offer is a completely turnkey experience. Our dedicated team handles the vast majority of the work in house and is on site every single day from the very start of a project to the final walkthrough. For specialized trades like electrical, plumbing, HVAC, roofing, and concrete work, we bring in our highly trusted partners. We manage all of those moving parts so you don’t have to, while our core team executes the rest of the build. Basically, if it involves transforming a house into your ideal living space, we make it happen.
The main problem we solve for our clients is the anxiety and uncertainty that usually comes with hiring a contractor. Home remodeling can be incredibly stressful, and people often feel left in the dark. What sets us apart is our emphasis on communication and guidance. Because Andy spent years as a public educator, teaching and guiding people is baked into our DNA. We don’t just show up and swing hammers. We bring Austin’s design expertise to help clients visualize the space, and we bring a highly structured operational approach so homeowners always know what is happening, what things cost, and what comes next.
We built this company on four core values: Faith, Family, Relationships, and Craftsmanship. I am most proud of the fact that we don’t just build beautiful spaces; we build genuine, transparent relationships. When we finish a project, we want our clients to feel like they worked with family.
The main thing I want potential clients to know is that we care about your peace of mind just as much as the final product. We respect your home like it is our own, and that includes using floor runners, dust containment walls, and HEPA air scrubbers on every single job to keep your living space clean and safe. We also back everything we do with a full one year labor warranty because we are completely committed to exceeding our clients’ expectations. From the very first design sketch to the final walkthrough, our goal is to deliver elite craftsmanship while making the entire process smooth, honest, and enjoyable.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I truly believe our reputation in West Michigan has been built entirely on our unique, customer focused approach and our four core values: Faith, Family, Relationships, and Craftsmanship. In an industry where homeowners often feel uncertain, we go the extra mile to be completely honest and transparent from day one.
Before we even swing a hammer, we make sure all parties are on the exact same page. We have a very clear structure laid out for everything, including exactly how we handle unforeseen work. Homeowners always know what to expect every single step of the way, which completely eliminates the usual anxiety of hiring a contractor.
Beyond the communication, it really comes down to the actual work. We build with exceptional quality and true craftsmanship to ensure our projects stand the test of time. We believe in our work so much that we back it up with a full one year labor warranty. When you treat people like family, communicate clearly, and deliver an outstanding final product, people talk about it. That is exactly why the vast majority of our business today comes directly from word of mouth referrals and repeat clientele.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
When it comes to funding Scogg Construction, our story is really one of pure bootstrapping. Because of Andy’s decades of experience, we were fortunate enough to already own the core tools and equipment we needed to get started right out of the gate. We didn’t go out and seek huge loans or outside investors. In those early days, it was literally just us owners on site every single day, swinging the hammers, managing the sites, and putting in the sweat equity.
From there, we took a very intentional, steady approach to growth. We just kept our heads down, focused on quality, and reinvested our earnings right back into the business. Over time, that organic growth allowed us to transition from just the three of us doing the daily labor to building out our own dedicated crews. We brought on lead foremen and highly skilled carpenters to run our projects, and eventually built out a full office staff to support the entire operation.
That careful expansion has been incredible to watch. It has allowed us to grow from those early, hands on days all the way to General Contracting multi million dollar commercial remodel projects alongside our residential work. The part I am absolutely most proud of is that we managed to do all of this without ever having to take on a single dime of business debt. Growing slowly and sustainably allowed us to naturally expand our capabilities and our footprint across West Michigan completely on our own terms.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.scoggconstruction.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scoggconstruction/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScoggConstruction/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/scogg-construction-rockford
Image Credits
Scogg Construction