Larry Janesky

Career

Larry Janesky was born in Bridgeport Connecticut in 1964. Active in boy scouts, he earned the Eagle Scout rank at age 14. He graduated high school at age 17 in 1982 from Bullard-Havens Technical High School located in Bridgeport, CT. He did not go to college but immediately began his career as a self-employed carpenter remodeling and building homes. He was contracted to build a 3,000 square foot house at age 18 and was spec building by age 20.

The last home he worked on had a leaking crack in one of the basement walls. He researched how to correct the issue and became aware of the basement waterproofing industry. Following the stock market crash of 1987 the demand for new home construction declined and Janesky decided to focus on basement waterproofing.

In 1987 he started his own company providing basement waterproofing and radon mitigation services in his 900 sq ft home in Milford CT, calling it Connecticut Basement Systems. The company became the largest radon mitigation contractor in the country from 1989 - 1992. In 1989 the company moved to Stratford Connecticut. Janesky invented and developed a line of waterproofing products of which he was the exclusive installer. He acquired patents on his waterproofing products and currently holds 31 patents.

A few years later in 1990 Janesky began creating a network of basement waterproofing contractors naming it Basement Systems, Inc. The contractors were made the exclusive dealers and installers in their area of the patented waterproofing products. The network grew and in 1997 Basement Systems Inc. purchased a 92,000 square foot building in Seymour, CT. Over the next decade additional space was needed and eight more buildings in the area were purchased and constructed, creating an industrial campus of 54 acres and a workspace of 365,000 square feet.

Larry Janesky founded the modern crawl space retrofit industry, calling the current building codes wrong, and blaming them for millions of failing unhealthy homes. At first he was criticized and opposed, but today, his ideas are accepted as mainstream, and building codes have changed around the country.

Larry has created the largest library of video online about how to make a home more energy efficient with his Dr. Energy Saver "On the Job" video series.

Between 1987–2011 Janesky created a number of sister and partner companies, several under the Basement Systems umbrella.

These companies included:

By 2013 Basement Systems had become the largest employer in the town of Seymour, CT. In 2017, the combined companies has approximately 340 employees. It is currently the largest network of basement waterproofing and crawl space contractors in the world with over 375 dealers in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland. In 2015 Janesky broke ground two projects to add another 150,000 square feet of work space to Basement Systems and Connecticut Basement Systems, including a training center for all his divisions. Upon completion of the project in 2017, there will be a total of nine buildings in the industrial campus.

Larry Janesky spends much of his time creating programs, writing, speaking and training to make home improvement contractors and other businesses perform better for customers, employees and stakeholders. He is an avid reader, writer, and practices what he teaches.

Basement Systems, Inc. Work Place

In an effort to improve the work environment Janesky had the Basement Systems headquarters built as a nontraditional work place. Different departments were elaborately designed and constructed in different themes. The Treehouse, a department built in 2009 to appear as a traditional treehouse, was the first of these unique work spaces. Other work spaces that were built include: the Eyestar Station (a futuristic space station), Boomtown (an 1880s mining town), the Tree Fort, and the Forge and Anvil (a 1920s factory). The inspiration for these different work spaces came from Janesky. Basement Systems has been named one of Connecticut's Top Workplaces several times, most recently in 2015 and 2016.

Recognition & Awards

Larry Janesky has received recognition and several awards. In 2008 he was the winner of the CT Business Junior Achievement Hall of Fame award. In the same year he was named the Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce Innovator of the Year.

In 2009 he was awarded the Greater New Haven Business Person of the year. He was also named one most influential entrepreneurs of the past 30 years in an article of Inc. Magazine.

In 2012 he was awarded the Connecticut Small Business Person of the Year and by 2015 he received the National Outstanding Eagle Scout Award and was named the EY Entrepreneur of the Year, New York Region.

Janesky has been interviewed a number of times including on the CEO show, iaq Radio, HVACR Business and Fox Connecticut. He has also appeared on Bob Vila and the Ron Hazelton Show.

Sports

Janesky is an avid motocross rider, having taken up the sport at age 32. In 2015, he and his son entered the longest non-stop cross country race in the world - the Baja 1000, beginning in Ensenada Mexico. The two man team, underdogs against four - six man teams, won the race by 60 seconds, in 25 1/2 hours. They made a 90 minute movie about the entire experience called "Into the Dust", which can be seen on You Tube. In 2016 Larry entered the race again, this time in the Ironman class where you have no teammates and must finish the 855 miles desert course alone. In an unusual incident, Larry injured his neck and did not finish.