Each week on “Around Town,” our host, Tom Reber, talks to members of the First Coast community who are making an impact in their part of town. Today, Tom speaks with Ron Stark of Sunshine Foundation Repair
Transcript:
Tom:
Hi, everyone. I’m your host, Tom Reber of Around Town with Tom. And today we have a fantastic guest: Ron Stark with Sunshine Foundation Repair. Welcome to the show.
Ron:
Thank you. Pleasure to be here. I appreciate it.
Tom:
Ron, every house has a foundation, and from what I’m hearing, they’re all different.
Ron:
They are all different.
Tom:
So how did you get involved with Sunshine Foundation Repair? Tell me a little bit about how that happened.
Ron:
I met the owner some time ago. We became good friends, and in conversation I kept hearing about the company. I was semi-retired, thinking about what I wanted to do next, and I thought it would be great to be part of building what he was building. I approached him, he said, “Yeah, come on board,” and now I’m here.
Tom:
You’ve got a real estate background, and that ties directly into home inspections. Is that part of what led you into this line of work?
Ron:
Absolutely. I’ve been around construction, done a lot of rehab myself, and managed a portfolio we owned. So it just felt like a natural fit.
Tom:
In the North Florida area, we’ve got over 11,000 real estate agents, and almost every transaction involves a home inspection.
Ron:
They absolutely do.
Tom:
We have lots of older areas around Jacksonville, and I heard you mention earlier the different types of foundations—stem wall, monolithic slab, and raised foundations.
Ron:
You know something about this?
Tom:
Just enough to be dangerous! From my perspective, it’s all about the money and the collateral—the house. In almost every real estate transaction, one of the first things that comes up in an inspection is a hairline crack in the wall. And people wonder: is this a problem?
Ron:
Yeah, and that’s where we show up. We come in, evaluate it, and determine whether something is contributing to the changes you’re seeing.
Tom:
Here in Jacksonville and the surrounding areas, we’ve got sandy soil.
Ron:
It’s poor soil.
Tom:
Exactly—and a lot of water, with most of us being only about five to ten feet above sea level. Water changes things.
Ron:
That’s correct. Beyond just being close to water or having a high water table, many homeowners also drop all their roof water right next to the house. That’s a lot of square footage draining directly at the foundation. You really want that water diverted about 15 feet away. We see a lot of failures because of water coming down at the corners.
Tom:
Especially with big two-story homes that don’t have gutters—water just runs straight down the walls and into the foundation. Problems waiting to happen.
Ron:
It does. Not for us—it’s great for business—but obviously we don’t want to see those issues. Still, we have permanent solutions when they happen.
Tom:
How often do you run across something that isn’t fixable? Is it rare?
Ron:
Very rare. As long as I’ve been doing this, I’ve only seen one case—down in St. Augustine. They had persistent water issues. The home was slab-on-grade, and we couldn’t find a way to move the water to a place where it wouldn’t flow back toward the house.
Tom:
So the landscape just wasn’t working with the house?
Ron:
Correct. It was a higher-density, older neighborhood—poor planning. And St. Augustine is known for water. But we came up with some ideas. It took time, but we put together something that could be presented to a future buyer.
Tom:
Sounds like almost everything has a solution. Very rarely do you see a true dead-end situation.
Ron:
Less than 1% of the time.
Tom:
That’s great to know. On the mortgage side, I’ve been in the business 35 years, and we run into foundation issues often. Many buyers immediately back out when they hear “foundation problem.” But sometimes there is a solution. We can work with you, get a repair estimate, and convert the deal from a standard 30-year fixed loan to a 30-year fixed renovation loan. Then the house gets repaired—and sometimes the buyer even gets a new kitchen.
Ron:
Exactly.
Tom:
So if we work together with buyers and real estate professionals, we can often find a way to make it work.
Ron:
Is that a 203K?
Tom:
Yes—203K, HomeStyle renovation loans, even VA renovation loans for veterans. There are so many opportunities if you dig a little deeper. Home inspections might list 90 issues, and 89 of them are easy fixes. Then there’s a crack in the garage that needs an expert. That’s when we call Ron and Sunshine Foundation Repair. Most of the time, it’s nothing major—or it’s something very manageable.
Ron:
We keep our fingers crossed!
Tom:
One last question—what’s the strangest foundation issue you’ve run across?
Ron:
This one’s from St. Augustine again. Not exactly a foundation issue, but part of my job is crawling under houses. So I’m suited up, masked up, carrying my little briefcase under there, taking pictures. I roll over and something bumps my leg. I look, and there’s this long log. Didn’t make sense how it got under the house. I rolled it over—and there’s an alligator face carved into it. Scared the heck out of me. I crawled away as fast as I could.
Tom:
I bet you did!
Ron:
Yeah. Fast as possible.
Tom:
Ron, thank you for being on the show. It’s been a pleasure, and we’ve learned a lot. It’s great getting to know you and Sunshine Foundation Repair—and how we can work together.
Ron:
Thank you very much.
Tom:
All right, guys. If you’d like to learn more about Sunshine Foundation Repair and Ron Starke, visit DailyNewsNetwork.com. Thank you all. Cheers.
