Courtesy Hinman Construction
By Carol Ann Conover
Ballston Spa-based Hinman Construction, a family-run design-build firm, has built a growing share of its business around a demographic shift familiar to communities across the region: homeowners age 50 and older who want to remodel rather than move.
Nationally, 75% of adults age 50 and older say they want to remain in their current home as they age, according to AARP’s Home and Community Preferences Survey, and 73% of remodelers report increased client demand for aging-in-place features over the past five years, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Owner Kim Hinman said she sees that demand play out in a few distinct ways among her clients.
“I would say almost like three groups,” Kim Hinman said. One group built a large home within the past decade or so and later realized they wished they had a first-floor bedroom and bathroom, whether for an aging parent or for themselves as mobility needs change. A second group modifies existing space to make it work, converting a closet into a shower area or turning a dining room into a bedroom. A third group sells a larger house and hires Hinman Construction to fully renovate a smaller, existing home to suit their needs going forward.
Whatever the approach, Kim Hinman said the goal is the same. “The goal is to kind of make it still feel like it’s part of the house and not just, you know, we stuck this random room there,” she said.
Hinman Construction was founded decades ago by Kim Hinman’s husband, Jami, who started as a builder and framer. Kim Hinman came to the business from an advertising career and became involved after the couple married and started a family. “We decided that we would focus on the construction business, so I got involved with that,” she said. “And we became more of a remodeling company.” Over the past decade or so, the company evolved into a full design-build operation, using photorealistic rendering software so clients can see selections in place before construction begins.
Both of the couple’s children have joined the business. Their daughter, Caroline, works alongside her mother on design and planning, while their son, Jesse, manages projects alongside his father. “The way we operate right now is my daughter Caroline and I will do the initial phase, the design and the planning and the prep work for the project,” Kim Hinman said. “And then my husband, Jami, and son, Jesse, actually will manage the project.” The company keeps its workload deliberately small, bringing in trusted subcontractors, whom Kim Hinman calls the company’s “team players,” for specialty work on larger jobs. “We’re a small family business,” she said. “I don’t need to be the big, big company that takes on 100 different projects.”
That scale has helped the company build a national reputation through the Chrysalis Awards, a remodeling and construction awards program that has honored the country’s top residential and commercial remodeling projects since 1993, judging entries regionally before considering them for national honors. Hinman Construction has won both a national and a regional award through the program, including recognition for a mudroom and laundry room project that concealed a client’s cat litter box inside custom cabinetry.
“It’s a national remodeling and construction award,” Kim Hinman said. “You basically have to submit your projects in different categories, and it’s kind of considered like the best of the best.”
Trust, built over years of repeat referrals, is central to how the company operates, Kim Hinman said. She described one long-distance client who initially planned to rent out a fully renovated home before ultimately deciding to sell it instead, and said many clients simply hand over their house keys during a project rather than track every detail themselves. That trust extends to how the company handles permitting, she said, noting that skipping permits can complicate a home sale later. “We want customers to know that when they call, I answer the phone,” Kim Hinman said. “Our specialty is kitchens, bathrooms, whole house remodels. We have the ability to handle everything from start to finish.”
For Kim Hinman, the most rewarding part of the job comes at the end of a project, when clients see the finished result. “We love what we do and we think it shows through our work and the way that we work with people,” she said. “Clear communication is key, clearly defined scope and understanding, because it really should be an enjoyable process, and we try to make it that way.”