Hesse Fence & Deck owner thrives on creativity

Greg Hesse sees a connection between his profession building fences and decks and his passion, which is music.

Im a very artsy-fartsy kind of guy, said Hesse, who owns Hesse Fence & Deck and plays guitar in a band called Timbucktoo. A lot of what we do, other fence companies wont try. We kind of dig the improvisation involved.

That could be anything from a double-arched gate with a custom iron insert and gothic hardware for a residential customers backyard to a fence around Kapaun Mount Carmels baseball field that looks completely different on each side.

Over the years weve gotten into more custom design than I thought we would, Hesse said.

Hesse started the company 30 years ago actually, 32 if you count the two years he operated it as Wood Fences Unlimited. He changed the name because he started building decks and because his last name at least in east Wichita, is well known.

Hesses father ran a sporting goods store for years. Watching him, I thought Id do better as entrepreneur than working for somebody else.

Hesse got most of his training in Colorado, building condos in the mountains and then working for an uncles hurricane fence company in Denver.

I learned a lot of carpentry from a lot of skilled carpenters, he said.

He returned home to enter Wichita State University as a 21-year-old freshman, but dropped out when his fence-building business took off. Sales rose every year until 2010, when they dropped dramatically, he said.

Now, theyre climbing again.

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Hesse Fence & Deck owner thrives on creativity