He had to learn to draw the line in his fencing business too. When a relationship with a client starts to feel wobbly and tensions arise, Lewis redoubles his efforts to connect with everyone involved so he understands clearly what the problems are and how they might be addressed.
"You've got to keep up communication with customers to head off lawsuits," Lewis said. But to ensure that the people you're doing business with keep their end of the bargain, litigation may sometimes be necessary. "Don't be afraid to go there," he said.
In the process of selecting his business, Lewis looked for a product he thought would have wide appeal and be environmentally friendly. By Lewis' reckoning, precast concrete fencing is green technology, and he makes that case to potential customers.
"Concrete lasts so long it is considered sustainable," Lewis said, meaning that it has a minimal negative long-term effect on the environment.
Lewis' claim has credibility, said architect Dan Heinfeld, whose Irvine firm LPA Inc. specializes in green designs. "Wood will literally disintegrate and splinter," he said, and needs to be treated with chemicals and often paint. "Concrete could have a very long life."
That makes concrete the winner in maintenance costs "hands down," Lewis said, but it has an image problem that presents a challenge to his efforts to build up his business. Concrete has been around practically forever, of course, and many think of gray industrial-looking block walls if they think of concrete fencing at all.
If people have heard of precast concrete, they picture "big, monolithic panels on the freeway" built as sound barriers to protect neighbors from road noise, Lewis said. They haven't seen the molded concrete simulations of brick, stone and even split rail fencing.
"Stone" is his most popular mold, but Lewis has high hopes for another that looks like stacked slate. "So far the people who have bought it are over the moon. I think it's going to be really popular."
It's one of seven styles of fencing Artisan casts from proprietary molds in its San Diego factory. The pieces -- vertical posts and horizontal beams -- are trucked to job sites where they are assembled by the buyers or by subcontractors working for Artisan. Prices range from $15 a linear foot for a rail-style fence to as much as $50 a foot for a wall 6 feet tall.
