How I knew that restoration & reconstruction were my true calling

You might say I had a passion for dismantling things and putting them back together from an early age. Whether it was a watch, a toy, or something a little more complicated. I always liked to know how things worked and what lay beneath the shiny surface. 

I grew up with a close friend whose father owned a family business. When I turned 16, I started playing sports and got my first job mowing high school football fields. I liked the clean and well-manicured look of the field after I was done with it. But then my friend’s father hired me to work for him for the rest of that summer at his company, Blackmon Mooring Steamatic Catastrophe or BMS CAT for short.

This was the 1970s, and professional restoration wasn’t even on the map yet. Most of the work involved restoring water-damaged carpets, drapery cleaning, and restoring furniture damaged by a moving company. But I liked working at BMS. The work was challenging, and I enjoyed restoring damaged items and making them whole again. At first, I was working part-time, then I transitioned to full time and went to night school to finish my education. By the time I was 20, I had moved from the operation side of the business to sales and got into a management training program. I was attending college, majoring in business, and also working as the general manager of BMS Houston operations.  

By the early ‘80s, we were expanding into different insurance work, especially major fires, both in homes and commercial buildings. Sprinkler laws weren’t a thing yet and many buildings didn’t have fire safety systems in place. That’s where the majority of the CAT side of the business came from. If a building such as a hotel caught fire, both the fire and smoke could damage two or three floors, but then the water used to put out the fire would damage a couple of additional floors. Restoring these buildings was always labor-intensive work.

In the mid-’80s I resigned along with five others; we started a company in San Francisco. There were about 20 of us in all and not one of us was prepared for what lay ahead. We had to find work immediately to keep the lights on. Within the first five years, we turned our fledgling company into a $40 million business. The big break came almost by accident when we picked up a contaminant and hazardous waste job. It was a hotel that had caught fire, and after we did the cleanup, it was determined that there was asbestos in the ballroom of this hotel. The acoustic ceiling was made of asbestos, and it had to be removed because it was smoke damaged. That’s how I learned how to do the very profitable asbestos removal work.

Around this time, asbestos regulations came into effect and our company started getting more and more asbestos projects. Schools and office buildings across the country needed to be stripped of asbestos and we had our hands full. We would be traveling to Kansas to remove asbestos from a school, and then next, we’d be on our way to New York to clean up the towers owned by the Port Authority. We also did a lot of work at the Twin Towers, removing asbestos from the garage and basement. This growth in the asbestos removal business attracted the attention of waste management companies. We sold our company to Fluor Daniels, which was when I started making plans to start my own company, American Technologies Inc.

In 1989 I started ATI in Orange, California. Now my background was water and fire damage, but I also gained asbestos removal experience  soI wanted to specialize in those fields specifically. I knew all the insurance companies in Southern California, as well as the independent adjusters and the industrial hygienists that worked on asbestos, and they started referring work to me. During the summers, I brought my sons to work with me in the company. Now 30 years later, my sons Jeff Moore and Ryan Moore are running ATI as co-presidents and my youngest, Scott Moore, is EVP of operations & environmental, health and safety.  

As ATI grew, so did the scope of our business. Not only do we do water and fire damage, but we also take up biohazard and contamination jobs. These days, where COVID-19 has become a pandemic, we handle jobs that range from cleaning hospitals to disinfecting cruise ships. When a cruise ship like the Grand Princess gets contaminated, it’s our job to decontaminate it from top to bottom.

Dealing with virus contamination is more involved and demanding than any other work we do. Both the equipment and materials used are different. We can use UV light, hydrogen peroxide, or other different chemicals as a disinfectant. We have been fielding many calls for this type of work lately, and we have the necessary equipment and expertise to handle this specialized work.

Since ATI started, we’ve been growing. Over the past ten years, we saw a steady growth rate of about 15% annually. The company’s revenue exceeds $300 million, and we’re looking at a bright future ahead of us. Even as the world economy is facing a potential recession, we are lucky enough to continue to open new markets and expand our business in diverse fields. 

My advice to young people just entering the field is that the restoration industry offers numerous opportunities in operations, sales, business development, accounting, administration and other areas. If you can apply yourself to any of these positions, work hard and ask questions, you’ll be recognized for opportunities in advancement.

Gary Moore is the founder and CEO of American Technologies, Inc., the nation’s largest family-owned and operated restoration contractor. Headquartered in Anaheim, California, the company specializes in both environmental and reconstruction services following natural and man-made disasters with an unwavering commitment to customer service. The company operates out of 20 branch offices nationwide with over 1,400 employees. 

Related: 

• Why becoming an actuary was the best career decision I ever made
• The best career you never considered
• Why work in insurance? It’s never boring!