Our founder Dean Collins was born into a military family and traveled around the country and world before settling into Arlington, VA, a sleepy bedroom community of  the Nation’s Capital, Washington, DC. Living within walking distance of the Potomac river, he spent a great deal of time in the creeks, woods, and the banks of the river. He and his friends built several tree houses before his early teens. The love for wood and carpentry was born.

After high school, Dean took a job as an apprentice carpenter with Miller & Long Concrete Construction and learned form carpentry on high-rise concrete buildings. At age 23 he was promoted to foreman, which proved difficult at first, at such a young age as many of the men in his crew were 10-25 years older and a great deal of them Vietnam vets.

In the 7 years working in this part of the construction industry Dean has been involved in the building of many iconic structures, most notably the Washington Holocaust Museum, The Raddison Mark Plaza, The Rosslyn Metro Center, The Bethesda Metro Center, The US Patent office, The US District Court house (500 C Street), Several Skyline Tower buildings, The Hyattsville Justice Center, The Rotunda, and the Patriot Center at the George Mason University.

Building decks came as a natural extension of building tree houses and in 1982 a friend asked Dean to help him build a deck. This was a gift of, that was of an unknown value at the time, as it was to become his career several years later when his father in-law inspired him to start a deck company and the rest is history.

Dean and his family enjoy snow skiing, scuba diving, riding motorcycles in the woods, and spending time in the Blue Ridge mountains.