How Ufer Wells got started
How Ufer Wells got started
About Us
Hello,
My name is Chris Ufer and I am the inventor of the Ufer Wells mounting system. I am just a regular working class guy that likes to fix things. The desire to understand how things work and how to make them better started before I could even walk. No Christmas present was safe with me. I wanted to take my presents apart and see what was happening inside to make them work. I was fortunate enough that I was raised in a family with just enough money to have "stuff" to fix. Being grateful for what I have and what I was given was always instilled in me by my mother.
My father growing up on a farm had a lot to do with my work ethic. He made sure that I had jobs to do at a very young age. I was raised in a suburb of Chicago, but that didn't mean I had it easy. My first job was mowing a remote-control airplane field at age 8. I started at 6:30am on Sunday and it took a little over 2 hours. I got a taste of earning my own money at a young age and could never let it go. Most of my life was spent running some sort of service-based business either in my neighborhood or town.
The desire to understand how things worked led me to "study" math and physics in school. Even though I was not the genius in the room, I excelled due to my extreme work ethic. Spending a lot more time on problems than some of the other students. After a number of years of undergraduate school in upper-level Applied Mathematics and Physics, the entrepreneur in me was itching to get out. Dropping out of school to start a painting business was probably not what a lot of people thought to be the best path towards success. That is how it went though and I always had to do things my way. It was a tough road, but I think it all turned out ok.
My painting business morphed into a handyman business which I owned and ran for almost two decades. It fulfilled my desire to learn about many different systems and processes, while keeping the entrepreneur in me alive and well. I wasn't afraid to work hard, get my hands dirty or learn something new.
I feel it is important that you know the back story for the next chapter of my life. It is who I was growing up that allowed me to be who I am today. Not perfect by any means, but always trying to improve.
At the beginning of COVID, my aging mother with chronic kidney disease was living with me and my family. I decided I needed to change the type of work I was accepting and start to accept outdoor work so that I didn't expose my mother when I came home from work. This led to the job that allowed me to come up with the idea for the Ufer Wells mounting system.
I was asked if I could replace three rusty window wells that were listed on an inspection report during the sale of a property. It was a little far away, but it fit the criteria of working outside and not being in close contact with the public. Before I even saw the job, I said that I could do it. "Yes" was usually my answer to these sorts of questions. When I got to the house to looked at the project and realized that it was going to be a lot more than I thought it was going to be. Knowing how window wells were made and how they were installed at the time the house was being built made me think that I could repeat that process to replace them. Unfortunately, these window wells were 5 feet deep and surrounded by 8" rock. There was no room to get any type of excavation equipment in the back yard, not even a wheelbarrow. One of the window wells was only inches away from a cement patio, so there was no room to dig a hole large enough that a person could secure the window well to the foundation. The deadline for the work was by the end of the week, so I knew I had to think fast! Sometimes stress can be a great motivator by being the energy in the equation which gets the work done. Needless to say, I solved the problem at hand by using angle iron to fabricate a mounting bracket so the window well could be secured while standing inside the window well instead of digging a large hole outside of the window well. Two of us were able to replace these three window wells in the heat of the summer in 2 days. Success!
After this job was complete, I was curious as to why the window well rusted in the first place. When I was a child, we had window wells and they didn't rust. Our house was next to a lake and was built 70 years ago. Why were these window wells rusting on a house that was only 10 years old? It didn't take long to search online and find that the premature rusting was due to the way the newer homes electrical system was connected to the earth (grounded). The required use of the Concrete Encased Electrode was the culprit. I figured that I had solved one of the window well replacement issues by making it easier to replace in confined areas, could I solve the premature rusting problem as well? Through many iterations and perseverance, I believe that I came up with a great solution to the problem, Ufer Wells. Not only does the system make replacing the window well much quicker, easier and less intrusive on the surrounding landscape, it keeps the window well from rusting prematurely in the future while keeping water out of your basement.
I hope that you found some interest in my story. If anything, what it has shown me is that all of life's paths are important. My combination of work ethic, entrepreneurial spirit, following my passions of understanding how things work, trying hard in school and willing to do whatever it takes has led me to this moment in life. This moment being one where I am offering an honest solution to one of the construction industry's problems. It may not make me rich, but I am grateful to have helped people with this difficult task of replacing a window well while giving them the peace of mind that it will be done right this time. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions that you might have regarding my product(s) or anything else related.
Have a great day!
Sincerely,
Chris Ufer
[email protected]
My name is Chris Ufer and I am the inventor of the Ufer Wells mounting system. I am just a regular working class guy that likes to fix things. The desire to understand how things work and how to make them better started before I could even walk. No Christmas present was safe with me. I wanted to take my presents apart and see what was happening inside to make them work. I was fortunate enough that I was raised in a family with just enough money to have "stuff" to fix. Being grateful for what I have and what I was given was always instilled in me by my mother.
My father growing up on a farm had a lot to do with my work ethic. He made sure that I had jobs to do at a very young age. I was raised in a suburb of Chicago, but that didn't mean I had it easy. My first job was mowing a remote-control airplane field at age 8. I started at 6:30am on Sunday and it took a little over 2 hours. I got a taste of earning my own money at a young age and could never let it go. Most of my life was spent running some sort of service-based business either in my neighborhood or town.
The desire to understand how things worked led me to "study" math and physics in school. Even though I was not the genius in the room, I excelled due to my extreme work ethic. Spending a lot more time on problems than some of the other students. After a number of years of undergraduate school in upper-level Applied Mathematics and Physics, the entrepreneur in me was itching to get out. Dropping out of school to start a painting business was probably not what a lot of people thought to be the best path towards success. That is how it went though and I always had to do things my way. It was a tough road, but I think it all turned out ok.
My painting business morphed into a handyman business which I owned and ran for almost two decades. It fulfilled my desire to learn about many different systems and processes, while keeping the entrepreneur in me alive and well. I wasn't afraid to work hard, get my hands dirty or learn something new.
I feel it is important that you know the back story for the next chapter of my life. It is who I was growing up that allowed me to be who I am today. Not perfect by any means, but always trying to improve.
At the beginning of COVID, my aging mother with chronic kidney disease was living with me and my family. I decided I needed to change the type of work I was accepting and start to accept outdoor work so that I didn't expose my mother when I came home from work. This led to the job that allowed me to come up with the idea for the Ufer Wells mounting system.
I was asked if I could replace three rusty window wells that were listed on an inspection report during the sale of a property. It was a little far away, but it fit the criteria of working outside and not being in close contact with the public. Before I even saw the job, I said that I could do it. "Yes" was usually my answer to these sorts of questions. When I got to the house to looked at the project and realized that it was going to be a lot more than I thought it was going to be. Knowing how window wells were made and how they were installed at the time the house was being built made me think that I could repeat that process to replace them. Unfortunately, these window wells were 5 feet deep and surrounded by 8" rock. There was no room to get any type of excavation equipment in the back yard, not even a wheelbarrow. One of the window wells was only inches away from a cement patio, so there was no room to dig a hole large enough that a person could secure the window well to the foundation. The deadline for the work was by the end of the week, so I knew I had to think fast! Sometimes stress can be a great motivator by being the energy in the equation which gets the work done. Needless to say, I solved the problem at hand by using angle iron to fabricate a mounting bracket so the window well could be secured while standing inside the window well instead of digging a large hole outside of the window well. Two of us were able to replace these three window wells in the heat of the summer in 2 days. Success!
After this job was complete, I was curious as to why the window well rusted in the first place. When I was a child, we had window wells and they didn't rust. Our house was next to a lake and was built 70 years ago. Why were these window wells rusting on a house that was only 10 years old? It didn't take long to search online and find that the premature rusting was due to the way the newer homes electrical system was connected to the earth (grounded). The required use of the Concrete Encased Electrode was the culprit. I figured that I had solved one of the window well replacement issues by making it easier to replace in confined areas, could I solve the premature rusting problem as well? Through many iterations and perseverance, I believe that I came up with a great solution to the problem, Ufer Wells. Not only does the system make replacing the window well much quicker, easier and less intrusive on the surrounding landscape, it keeps the window well from rusting prematurely in the future while keeping water out of your basement.
I hope that you found some interest in my story. If anything, what it has shown me is that all of life's paths are important. My combination of work ethic, entrepreneurial spirit, following my passions of understanding how things work, trying hard in school and willing to do whatever it takes has led me to this moment in life. This moment being one where I am offering an honest solution to one of the construction industry's problems. It may not make me rich, but I am grateful to have helped people with this difficult task of replacing a window well while giving them the peace of mind that it will be done right this time. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions that you might have regarding my product(s) or anything else related.
Have a great day!
Sincerely,
Chris Ufer
[email protected]