Chris Breen (Legacy Decks)

Chris Breen is the owner of Legacy Decks and the founder of Legacy Decks Academy.

For many, the trades are learned through osmosis, and Breen is no different.

As a child, he often rode shotgun from job to job with his father, a part-time contractor who primarily fought fires to support his family.   

“Construction was a side hustle for him,” Breen says from his studio in South Carolina.

“My dad was a full-time firefighter.”

That part-time exposure to building influenced the cerebral and ambitious Breen enough that when he got older, he started his own LLC.

Dreams of grandeur may have permeated his imagination, but Breen’s venture quickly drained him.

“I tried being all things to all people for a long time as a general contractor,” he recalls, humbly.

Fencing, kitchens, bathrooms, building new homes, and dog sitting.

Okay, kidding on the pooch overwatch part, but if the trade exists, Breen likely dabbled in it, and while he possessed competencies in a variety of arenas, nothing clicked.

“It was hard to scale because I was the only one who knew how to bid, manage, and order everything,” he says.

Tired of catering to the masses while simultaneously feeling perpetually stuck in neutral, Breen pivoted and opted to focus on becoming an expert in just one trade:

Decks.

Legacy Decks, mentioned at the outset of the article, is based in Greenville, South Carolina, a region of the country where deck contractors like Breen can build year-round, their operations never impeded by deterrents like frostbite-inducing cold or harrowing snowfalls that relegate the average Minnesotan to their respective couches.

“I know some guys in Minnesota build year-round, but down here we aren’t constricted by the climate,” Breen confirms.

For reference, I first encountered the energetic Breen at the TimberTech Summit at BPI in Elk River back in February.

That day, Breen animatedly spoke at length about his journey from a fledgling contractor to an entrepreneur who has now assembled a decking machine that churns out copious amounts of TimberTech decks every year.

When asked why he aligns himself with a manufacturer like TimberTech, Breen is very open.

“People buy what we educate them about, and we are very educated on TimberTech, as far as their product and their team,” he shares.

For Breen, his alliance with TimberTech is about more than offering homeowners PVC or composite deck boards.

“It’s the people behind the product,” he insists, which helps explain why Legacy Decks has almost exclusively installed TimberTech these last four years.

There are myriad reasons why deck builders would benefit from partnering with a manufacturer like TimberTech or Trex (explained below), but perhaps the most crucial is the ability to develop a relationship with a manufacturer who will be there when deck contractors need them most.

“For me, it goes back to people,” Breen says.

“I buy where I buy from because I buy from that person. There are many suppliers that I can buy from, but I buy from Trish, who happens to work at the supplier she currently works at.”

Adds Breen:

“When it comes to aligning with a manufacturer, you have to find one who can support you in your market.”

Throughout his many years in business, Breen has had conversations with reps from other manufacturers who make steep promises, only to soon after completely fall short of expectations.

In that sense, most deck builders don’t have time to interface with several different manufacturers, so it behooves them to pick the one that best meets their needs and lean into that relationship, for several reasons.

“The pros to being singularly focused [on a manufacturer] are the contractor programs, where you can earn co-op dollars, advertising opportunities, trips,” Breen explains.

“If you are distributing your book of business to multiple manufacturers, then you have a hard time ever hitting those tiers that benefit you as a deck company.”

As an example, Breen can’t remember the last time he had to pay for any sort of apparel for his team because they routinely use the co-op dollars they accrue from buying deck boards and railing from TimberTech.  

Author’s note:

If it seems like I’m simping and pandering to TimberTech, that’s not my agenda, but I do think they have cool products, and similar to other deck manufacturers like Trex or Deckorators, make a concerted effort to genuinely assist their contractors.

But let’s get back on track.

“I wouldn’t advise someone to not explore all of their opportunities, but for me, it makes a lot of sense from a business, relationship, and leverage standpoint to be somewhere between one and three manufacturers,” Breen says.

Plus, keep in mind that partnering with a singular manufacturer didn’t eradicate the challenges that Breen faced when molding Legacy Decks into the behemoth it is now.

Ten years into ownership of the company, Breen is still learning, but he points out that when his business reached the $3 million revenue threshold, that’s when things changed.  

“I wasn’t wearing as many hats,” he says, to which I assume he is attributing much of the company’s growth to building out a solid team.

“There is a big burden on the entrepreneur to get the business to $3 million, but then beyond that is where you really start to see some momentum kick in.”

Suddenly able to assume a more ancillary role within his own entity, Breen had options.

“I wasn’t answering the phone. I wasn’t running appointments, doing designs or managing projects. I basically wasn’t needed for any of the primary functions of the business,” he notes.

That’s when Breen felt compelled to help others in the deck industry circumvent the obstacles that were hindering them from getting to the next level.

Thus, the advent of the aforementioned Legacy Decks Academy.

Of course, even now, Breen is not pretending to have the decking business completely figured out, nor is he touting himself a deck guru like so many wannabe influencers in the not-so-distant roofing industry do.

So let’s be real:

Legacy Decks is not a $50 million business, but Breen has the tools and the experience to elevate deck builders who just can’t seem to implement that key catalyst into their businesses.

“I think the deck industry was primed for something like this,” says Breen, whose Legacy Decks Academy gained serious momentum after Breen spoke for several hours at a conference for deck builders awhile back, which really catapulted his academy into the limelight.

At present, Breen works with 50 different deck contractors across the country who are at different stages in their evolution.

Roughly half of his clientele is in the $1-2 million range.

“For those guys, they are starting to run into some friction,” Breen says.  

“Their systems aren’t scalable.”

Others are at that critical $2-5 million level.

“Their problems are different,” Breen emphasizes.

“They’re trying to find and grow talent within the organization to support the growth that they’re having.”

Again, Breen is well-equipped to help these deck companies navigate the daunting and debilitating war of attrition because he has already been through that chaos, and come out on the other side with the knowledge that solutions are there, provided a deck contractor is willing to expand their comfort zone.

Looking ahead, Breen is not shy about stating that he wants to continue to grow Legacy Decks, that they have indeed not reached their zenith as an organization.

So much so that it wouldn’t be a surprise to those in the deck industry if Legacy Decks eclipsed the $10 million mark in the coming years.

Of note:

They have just opened a second location, and have plans to unveil a third.

“I did not scope out that second location. I didn’t sign the lease. I didn’t get the keys from the landlord,” Breen says, touching once again on what has allowed him to continue to grow Legacy Decks.  

“My team did all that.”

Inversely, with Legacy Decks Academy, growth is not the primary focus.

Instead, Breen is emphasizing a “better not bigger” approach.

Says Breen:

“I’m not as focused on growing the membership as I am making it so good that people would almost be silly to try to do it without me.” QS

**

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