Waldmann Construction – relentless commitment to customers through tragedy

Cheryl Hentz

Contributor

October 12, 2026

ST. GERMAIN – When an electrical fire forced the closure of one of Waldmann Construction’s two buildings last year, President Paul Durst said the company found a way to keep serving their customers with no real downtime and few interruptions. 

Durst said they accomplished that by relying on one of their other buildings and purchasing a separate location they had been eyeing for some time before the fire.   

However, Sept. 9, 2025, is a day he said he will never forget. 

As steady downpours of rain turned into strong thunderstorms, Durst said it was near quitting time when he and the company’s vice president were at one of the two buildings on their St. Germain site, finishing up email correspondence and getting ready to close up shop for the day.  

At about 4:45 p.m., he said a nearby lightning strike tripped their surge protector and ultimately the circuit breaker at their second building on the site. 

Durst said he reset the breaker and surge protector, never realizing how close that lightning strike had actually been.   

“I ran back to the other location, and we were waiting for everything [to power back up],” he said. “I looked out my window and saw smoke pouring out of the other building I’d just been in. I told our VP to call 911, and I ran back over there to make sure nobody was still in the building. Thankfully, nobody was – it was that time of day when everybody had already gone home.”

Reflecting, Durst said when he had gone back to the other building the first time to reset things, the fire had probably already started. 

“The [firefighters and investigators] think the lightning must have struck close enough where it backfed through the electrical system and most likely started a small motor or something mechanical in the cabinet shop,” he said, explaining that within that approximately 4,000-square-foot building, they had their production office in the front half and their cabinet and paint shop in the back half.  

Durst said the fire didn’t consume the production office, though there was a “tremendous amount of smoke damage.”

Durst said he was told the firebreak – which are barriers that prevent fires from spreading – stopped the front half of the building from burning. 

In Waldmann Construction’s case, he said a firebreak occurred because the building had multiple layers of drywall. 

“Code called for two sheets of drywall, and that helps slow down the fire for a specific period of time,” he said. “Firefighters asked me if I wanted to come over to the building and see if there was anything in the front part I wanted to save.”

Not thinking it was a good idea to go into a burning building, Durst said firefighters kept checking the firebreak wall, and the temperature never got higher than 78 degrees. 

“Yet, there was a raging fire on the other side of it,” he said. “Some smoke was coming into the office, but it wasn’t anything huge. It was nothing where I was uncomfortable being in that building.”

Durst said they salvaged a few things from the production office, but a lot of smoke remediation was needed. 

He said flooring and other items were lost just from the sheer volume of water that came in under the door. 

“We lost everything in the back part of the building, including a full kitchen we had just done for a customer and was waiting to be delivered, as well as some other customers’ projects,” he said. “We salvaged the concrete slab the building was on. We also had in-floor heating that was saved and is still intact.” 

Moving on the day after and beyond

Figuring out where to move their production office and cabinet/paint shop was at the top of their agenda when the sun rose the next day, Durst said. 

Having a sizable second building on the premises helped immeasurably, he said. 

“We had just moved over to what we had considered, kind of like our model home,” he said. “It has a lot of space, and a handful of us had moved over to that space already. It has a full, finished basement, so we ended up moving staff over there. It seemed to be the best use of what we had available for office personnel.”

Lady Luck showed up that morning for Waldmann Construction, Durst said, regarding where they could relocate their paint and cabinet division.    

He said there had been an office building for sale about 35 minutes north of their St. Germain office in the Land O’ Lakes area but more toward the Michigan border. 

“It had been for sale for years, and we had made an offer on it months before the fire happened,” he said. “We thought it would be a good idea to expand into that area a little bit more, and having a location there would help us do that.”

With that building, Durst said, came shop space that was basically “wide open.”  

“As our one building was burning, I called the Realtor® to see if we could get early occupancy because I told her we may need to move some of our operations up there,” he said. “As it turned out, the sale closed within a month, and we moved our paint operations to that building. As for the cabinet shop, we decided to put it in another outbuilding on our St. Germain property.” 

Ironically, Durst said, they had met with an equipment vendor the Friday before the fire and had given down payments for some of the larger equipment for a cabinet shop upgrade that was to be moved over to that building anyway.

“So, we already had these items set in place,” he said. “We just weren’t completely ready. The fire forced us to move a lot quicker than we had anticipated, but we didn’t have the fear of figuring out what we were going to do with our cabinet and paint operations. We didn’t get to move in right away, and we had to wait for some of the larger machinery for the cabinet shop, but we were fortunate enough to get enough of the smaller equipment to keep us up and running.”

Durst said nothing has been rebuilt on the site yet where the former building once stood. 

He said it took longer than anticipated for the permitting process, etc., but now that all of those things are done, they are ready to rebuild.

Looking ahead and growing from adversity

Durst said everyone at Waldmann is grateful for the firefighters who helped fight the fire.

A Facebook post from Sept. 9 showed how grateful Waldmann Construction was for the help it received in the unfortunate situation. 

“Seven months ago, our office was struck by lightning, causing a fire in our cabinet and paint shop,” the post said. “We knew change was inevitable, but we also knew we would move forward. Today, we’re incredibly grateful to share that some of our team is officially moving back in. After picking up the pieces, we’ve not only rebuilt but expanded our operations. While challenges remain, this experience has pushed us to adapt, grow and find new opportunities along the way.”

One of those new opportunities, Durst said, will come in the form of what they plan to rebuild on the former site. 

“We’ve determined that a training and development center would be ideal, where we can have shop space for hands-on training that’s not out in the field,” he said. “A laborer or apprentice can come in and take the time they need to learn the basics, all the way up to our experienced carpenters or masons who want to work on things or improve their skills.” 

Durst said Waldmann Construction intends to have a large, open classroom area where they can teach hands-on training, updated safety training with their staff or hold staff meetings.

“It makes sense to rebuild as a training and development center, so we can invest in our employees so they can grow with the company and make this a career for themselves versus just a job they’re doing now,” he said. “We’re fortunate because our staff takes a lot of pride in what they do. In return for the great job they do, we want to treat them well and help them improve.” 

Durst said it can be difficult to find skilled tradespeople, reinforcing their decision to build a training and development center. 

He said an in-house training center can help turn those construction jobs into long-term careers. 

A fresh start 

The rebuilding project, Durst said, represents both a fresh start for Waldmann and an opportunity to turn a difficult setback into something beneficial to the broader community. 

“The training and education center could even serve as a place where residents can learn skills like basic carpentry, repairs and other construction techniques in an accessible, hands-on setting,” he said. 

Durst said the design plans are complete, the trusses have been delivered and the permitting process is finally finished. 

He said the unique scope and permitting requirements make this a distinctive project and an important step forward for the company. 

“I’d estimate the training and development center will get underway by the end of October and be up and running by year’s end,” he said. 

Advising customers on fire prepardness

Having suffered through a fire themselves, Durst said he now has strong recommendations for their customers.

He said he suggests using a phone to record a short video, once or twice a year, of every room of their homes.

Durst said extra meticulous homeowners could take inventory, although a video of the larger items in a home/garage can achieve practically the same effect while using less time. 

“For more rural homes, consider putting a sprinkler system in the home, especially if it’s on the expensive side,” he said. “Fires happen, and fire departments in rural areas are usually volunteer-run, [which can lead to longer response times]. A lot can happen within a 20-minute timeframe when they are responding.” 

For more information on Waldmann Construction, visit its website at waldmannconstruction.com.