Contractor Profile — Hoppe Brothers & Sons
Working mostly with big-money entrepreneurs on 25,000- to 35,000-square-foot homes in Brentwood, Bel Air and elsewhere in Orange County, the two generations of Hoppes use daily meetings to build their brainpower.
by Bob Graham
after most of the 75 employees of Hoppe Brothers & Sons head to their California homes, the four owners gather for an informal meeting. Even though each of them occupies a desk in a separate corner of the 15-by-30-foot main room, they rarely have the time or inclination to keep close watch on their relatives’ work during the day. The daily meetings, which can last for five minutes to more than an hour, provide them with their only chance to share the joys and concerns of their growing decorative painting and finishing business.
Whether it’s trying to prepare for the next day’s labor demands or explaining a new product or process, the meetings are an integral part of what has made Hoppe Brothers & Sons a heavily sought after painting and faux finishing operation.
Working mostly with big-money entrepreneurs on 25,000- to 35,000-square-foot homes in Brentwood, Bel Air and elsewhere in Orange County, the two generations of Hoppes use the daily meetings to “build the brainpower,” says Bob Hoppe, 38, the youngest member of the family and the business’ operations manager. “We can do more with all of us than with one of us in figuring out how to do something,” he adds.
By using as many heads as it takes to figure out a challenge, the Hoppe name has become synonymous with finding ways to bridge the gap between the customer’s, designer’s or decorator’s creative vision for a space and the physical processes necessary to make it a reality.
“Our goal is always to give the customer what they want and we do that by working together to make it happen,” says Bob Hoppe. The meetings serve to “keeps us all plugged into the business…and the open communication probably helps us to avoid lots of conflicts,” notes Bob, who runs the administrative functions and handles all of the estimating. He can recall no real conflicts in the 27 years since the company formed.
Although they share an office, the Hoppes each manage their own part of the business. Bob’s uncle, William, 60, usually is overseeing one or more of the painting projects. Bob’s father, Howard, 62, spends most of his days at job sites making sure the six to eight work crews, made up of up to 20 workers, are protecting the Hoppe family’s business reputation, which dates back to 1937. That’s when Howard S. Hoppe started his painting business, a forerunner to Hoppe Brothers & Sons. Howard S. Hoppe’s sons, William, and Howard would later work together with him, absorbing in the field many of the lessons they still employ today.
In the same manner, Bob and his cousin, Michael, 39, started out by working after school and on weekends. At the time, the attraction was earning spending money, they recall, but before long they were integral parts of the family business.
The connection among generations also enables the Hoppes to feel confident with their latest enterprise, the Faux Masters Studio, a professional faux finishing studio. Michael runs the studio, which attempts to teach the art of faux and decorating painting and finishing. With more than 60 years of experience in the family, the Hoppes see the workshops as a way to spread their experience to others who want to do similar work with faux finishes.
One of the company’s most involved and most in demand effects is in distressing wood, a talent usually practiced by former furniture company workers who move into decorative finishing. Since the late 1980s, designers and decorators are increasingly hiring contractors who can give wood a lived-in, antique-like appearance. “We’re constantly being called on to make homes look like furniture,” says Michael.
To meet that challenge, the Hoppes apply a combination of stain, lacquer and Briwax. “For most painting contractors, their skin crawls when they hear wax because you can’t touch it up or fix it. But it can be done and done well if you work on the technique,” Michael adds.
Through a series of steps developed over several decades, the Hoppes can make wood on cabinets, panels and beams take on the shading, sheen and luster of an old wood rocker. The process is simple, but requires a great deal of practice and hands-on labor.
First, a thin coat of lacquer is applied with a pine bristle or varnish brush to the wood to prevent blotching and to give the finisher more control. Once that lacquer dries, the wood is stained, usually with a honey-colored, water-based stain.
After it dries, the Hoppes brush on a clearcoat consisting of a combination of lacquer and 50 percent lacquer thinner, using a bristle brush. “Although it adds a step in the process, you can’t get the protection and consistency of color without the clear coat of lacquer,” explains William. If the color after staining isn’t ideal, the Hoppes will tint the lacquer with universal tinting color. But that is rare.
Once the lacquer provides the necessary protection, it’s time to work on the appearance. For that, the Hoppes apply Briwax by hand. Once it’s applied, workers must hand-buff it, using #0000 super fine steel wool, #000 fine steel wool or cheese cloth.
Because the wax acts like a lubricant, and the steel wool creates a slight sheen, often the Hoppes will move from super fine steel wool to the fine steel wool. If the shine is still too great, they’ll buff it with cheese cloth, says Michael. “If you’re in love with the fine finish and patina of distressed wood,” explains Michael, “then you have to hand wax it. There’s really no other way.”
The use of the steel wool also helps to ensure that, like a well preserved piece of furniture, the appearance differs when viewed from various angles.
Most of the time, the Hoppes apply two coats of the Briwax, waiting anywhere from an hour to a day to apply the second coat. Because they are often being rushed, explains Michael, they will sometimes push the second coat’s start time.
The goal with the application and buffing of the Briwax is to create a darker, deeper coloration, as well as to give the surface a depth and luster of lived-in wood. “If people have their heart set on the look, you have to wax it,” William explains.
Adds Michael, with a laugh, “If you picture a guy polishing his car all day long, that’s what we’re doing to achieve this look.”
Because the distressed wood is succeptible to moisture, the Hoppes suggest avoiding its use on parts of a home that might come in contact with water. For instance, kitchen cabinets or paneling in a bathroom would show white spots once water came in contact with the wood. “You don’t want to do it in places that get a lot of wear, either,” says William, noting that the wax isn’t applied with the intention of high use.
The technique can take one or two workers about three or four weeks to complete a wood-paneled, 25-by-25-foot library, the Hoppes estimate. Typically, the Hoppes employ a crew of six to eight workers to complete such jobs in a week.
By focusing on the steps needed to meet customers’ expectations, the Hoppes have a stable of designers and decorators who bring projects to them that some competitors would consider impossible.
Take movie star Sylvester Stallone’s house, what William Hoppe called “a generic house” in Beverly Hills. For the last year, Hoppe has supervised a crew of 15 workeres charged with transforming a white house with blue windows into Stallone’s personal vision of a home in Italy’s Tuscany region. Realizing the need to age everything by a couple of hundred years, the workers used stucco and old-time finishes on the exterior. They aged the stone, using finishes. On the interior, they grayed the wood with stains, adding age to all of the hardware inside — even the picture frames — to ensure that feel was consistent throughout the interior and exterior of Stallone’s house.
The Hoppes thrive on these type of challenges. In situations where most painters fixate on what can go wrong, the Hoppes put stock in the processes and techniques that make things go right. That keeps Hoppe Brothers & Sons on the short list for decorators and designers conceptualizing challenging projects.
Taking a concept to fruition requires constant attention to detail and the sense to know when to modify the usual process, the Hoppes say. While processes have a place, they have to be modified to meet specific conditions. With six to eight crews working at the same times, the Hoppes rely on their superintendents, the location managers, to make those on-the-spot decisions.
They try to develop that skill, not in seminars, but in the field. New employees, often referred by other Hoppe workers, require about five years on the job before having the level of “personal confidence” and skill necessary to make those calls, the Hoppes say. That freedom to make decisions on the spot and to find a way “to attack the challenges so that you find a success” is a big part of why about a third of the Hoppes’ employees have been with them for more than a decade, including one man who other employees say is so in tune with the owners that he’s referred to as “the fifth Hoppe.”
“Our men shouldn’t be the ones to kill someone’s vision. But rather we want to encourage creativity by finding processes that can work on a project,” says Bob. “Most of our clients are business-oriented, not in a traditionally creative medium, so we have to respect when they try to be creative and make it happen for them.”
Even though they cannot be involved in the opening of every paint can or the application of every brushstroke, the Hoppes keep close watch over up to 10 job sites at one time. “We do actually see everything,” says Bob Hoppe. “We take part in everything from the sampling to the implementation. There is no project completed without a Hoppe’s input, no project done without our involvement. We do maintain that connection to the projects because we have a personal, vested interest in how each one turns out. It’s all of our names on it, and we want to protect the Hoppe name.”
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