Licensed handyman Buddy Laflin offers his services all over Mercer County.
Ever since Buddy Laflin was a little kid, he knew he was destined to be a contractor.
“I liked working with wood,” Laflin said. “I’d go down to the basement and just build things.”
Laflin’s uncle started helping him get some real experience at a young age.
“My Uncle Jerry was into computers, but he knew how to do electrical work and things like that,” Laflin said.
Together, they renovated Laflin’s mother’s bathroom when he was only about 13 years old.
After high school, Laflin went to vocational school at Mercer County’s Sypek Center for general building and construction. After he graduated, his dream had to be put on hold.
“There were no jobs in construction,” Laflin said. “My daughter just turned 15. When she was born, my wife stopped working. I actually went to work as a dental technician. My uncle worked there, and he said they needed someone with good hands, which I have. I went there temporarily, but I wound up being there 14 years. It made ends meet.”
Though Laflin was spending his days constructing custom made dental appliances, he spent his nights and weekends doing some construction work on the side.
In 2005, the opportunity arose for Laflin to start Buddy Laflin Construction, LLC offering construction and handyman services to all of the Mercer County area.
“I have some guys that I call on once in the while for help,” Laflin said. “But for the most part, it’s just me.”
Laflin said he does pretty much everything.
“Anything that goes wrong with your house, you can call me for,” he said.
Unlike most contractors, Laflin said, he always calls you back.
“When I was doing construction on the side, everybody I worked for would tell me they can’t get anyone on the phone,” Laflin said. “They would call everyone in the phonebook and no one would call them back. I try to make it a point to call everyone back whether I can do the job or not. I’m honest. I try not to gauge people. My price is my price. I’ve seen some pretty crooked people out there, and I try not to be like that.”
It may have took Laflin longer than he had hoped to be where he is now, but at the end of the day, he is just happy to be doing what he loves.
“I always liked repairing stuff and making things look better,” he said. “There’s not really one thing that I like most about it. I just like the whole thing. I like being able to work with my hands and fix things that people can’t fix. It’s always something different. It’s not the same thing every day.”
For more information, you can call Buddy Laflin Construction, LLC at (609) 468-0585.
