United Rentals is playing a major role this week providing more than 70 pieces of equipment and a variety of services to an edition of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition being filmed in Maple Heights, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb. The build is part of United Rentals’ fourth year of partnership with the award-winning television show, which has relied on the rental company for equipment and volunteers on more than 75 new home constructions.
The Ohio build benefits the Anderson family. The parents, Andre and Jasmine Anderson have both lost their sight because of diabetic retinopathy yet are raising two boys, one of whom, Jaison, is hearing impaired. Despite these handicaps, the Andersons’ founded the Disability Awareness Center, where they provide community counseling and advocate for accessibility. The condition of the Andersons’ home has worsened to the point where it is dangerous for the family. The new home, to be constructed by Home Makeover will be a “smart house,” including a variety of features specially designed for the Anderson family’s disabilities.
The lead builder on the project Marous Brothers Construction, based in the Cleveland area in Willoughby, Ohio, and led by Chip, Scott and Kenny Marous, is a national account customer of United Rentals and planned for weeks designing the new Anderson home. The build will feature the participation of about 40 Marous employees, 15 to 20 subcontractors and 1,500 or more volunteers, including more than 30 United Rentals staff who will donate their personal time to participate in the project.
“We’re using a team approach to serve this project around the clock,” said John Clark, Cleveland branch manager for United Rentals. “The Andersons have shown that anything can be achieved, no matter how challenging, and we’re going to use that same determination to help build this house in about a week.”
“We have three aerials out here, a couple of 40-foot booms, a 60-foot boom, variable-reach fork trucks and some golf carts, light towers, gators, skid-steers, backhoe, mini-excavators, light towers, generators, a lot of everything on the job,” Clark told RER. “It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s very rewarding. A lot of our people wanted to volunteer and do whatever they can do. And we’ll have a regular road mechanic stopping by on a regular basis.”
Based in Greenwich, Conn., United Rentals is No. 1 on the RER 100.
