Winning $7,500 grant boosts renovations firm in city
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify the name of the company that awarded the grant.
Three young men who forged a bond at Washington High School have forged a business that is building itself up.
Davy Oliverio, Sam White and Justin Blussick launched Totally Squared Renovations, a residential renovations company, in June 2021, a short stroll from their alma mater. The firm operates from Shirls Avenue, off Jefferson Avenue.
“We reconnected after high school,” said Oliverio, who heads accounting at the company. White, the operations manager with ample contracting experience, said Totally Squared does the majority of its renovations, repairs and restorations in Washington County, but also has served Greene and Allegheny counties.
The owners and their company recently received a financial boost, a $7,500 grant from Jobber, a Canadian firm that oversees a grants program recognizing quality work in home service. Jobber sorted through a massive number of applications from across North America, and ended up awarding $150,000 in Jobber Grants to 25 business operations.
The Washington company, which succeeded in its first application with Jobber, was the only candidate selected from Pennsylvania.
“This is a great program that Jobber runs,” Oliverio said. “This was huge and it came at a great time. We’re repairing trailers for companies our size, and this grant keeps us going, gives us a sigh of relief.
“It was cool being the only Pennsylvania company selected,” he added. “We’re thankful and proud of our team.”
Totally Squared Renovations says on its website: “We were recognized for our positive role in keeping our community’s homes and offices safe and running smoothly, helping hard-working people build meaningful careers, running a smooth business for ourselves and our customers, and giving back to the community where we live and work.”
Oliverio said he, White and Blussick, who is in charge of sales and marketing, supervise three to six employees. They would like to ramp up staffing, but like many employers in recent times, that has been a challenging endeavor.
“We’re looking to expand our reach over the next two or three years, but’s been a hard thing for us to find workers,” Oliverio said. “We have incentives – we offer paid time off, but not health coverage, though.”
Some of the grant money, he acknowledged, may go toward hiring, redoing the website and community outreach. “We want to give back to Washington. We (the three bosses) were all born and raised here. We want to give back to the youth.”
Jobber has been in existence since 2011 and has about 600 employees. It is headquartered in Edmonton and has an office in Toronto.