DryZone moves to Ellendale

Until recently, entrepreneurial repair company DryZone could fix a crawl space, waterproof a basement, right a foundation and even raise a highway, but not from under one roof.

Fortunes changed last fall when DryZone owner Bill Anderson acquired an old barn in Ellendale that formerly housed Yoder's meat market.

The 10,000 square-foot structure is large enough to consolidate his sales floor, showroom, warehouse, demonstration models and offices in one central location so the company can better serve hundreds of customers each year.

In 2006, Anderson and his father-in-law opened DryZone in an old Milton manufacturing facility. They both had other business interests but said they came across a good opportunity and serviced nearly 30 homes with the help of one part-time employee that first year.

Demand for their services grew, and operations expanded from the Milton manufacturing facility to include an office in Harbeson, where information could be relayed to various worksites through a loose network of cellular communications.

Over the next few years they added more staff; and other business interests were sold to keep up with the demand for the waterproofing, basement systems and foundation repair services offered by DryZone.

"It gives us office space, storage space and we sit on six to seven acres," Anderson said of his new flagship location.

Even though they opened this business just before the recession, DryZone has seen continued growth. Today, Anderson counts more than 40 employees and says the new location will help streamline services.

DryZone's growing list of accolades includes recognition from homebuilders' associations for the company's ingenuity, and more recently, a state contract was awarded to fix sagging segments of Route 1.

Anderson said DryZone incorporated techniques and products he typically uses to right foundations in his bid to raise the highway, and DryZone landed the state contract.

In late summer 2013, Anderson said, his crews descended on Route 1 at night, drilling holes in the roadway and spraying a foam typically used to support foundations in order to raise dips in the major highway as much as six inches.

With his new location wrapped up at the end of January and staff from as many as three satellite locations moving into the big red barn on Route 16, Anderson - a native of the Greenwood area - said this lease, with an option to buy, may mean DryZone has finally found a forever home.

"We are very lucky to move here,"  Anderson said. ""This kind of gets it all under one roof."

For more information about the products and services offered by DryZone, go to www.dryzone.com or call 888-345-8193.