by Rachel Schreiber

Paul and Kathy Marx, owners of The Grout Medic, met up north on a skiing trip 15 years ago. These circumstances might sound normal, but considering it was Paul’s first time skiing and his last weekend in Michigan before heading back to Florida, that weekend, their fate was sealed.

Paul was born in Maryland on Andrews Air Force Base and raised in Wetumpka, Alabama. He enlisted in the Navy after high school. Paul says, “I’ve been all over the world because I grew up in a military family. My grandfather was a Pearl Harbor survivor. In the Navy, I worked in naval intelligence and information systems. I started as a programmer and later I was the senior technical liaison. After he was discharged, Paul worked for various companies as a software engineer. The majority of work took place between the CFO, the sales group and development. He helped with systems integration and implementation and professional systems.

Kathy’s family has a long history in Ann Arbor. Her grandfather bought Ann Arbor Buick in 1923. When he died 1930 her grandmother, Ella Prochnow, who became the first woman automobile dealer in the US, took it over. Kathy’s father ran the dealership after Ella passed. The dealership was in her family for 75 years. Kathy relates, “One of the things that made me want to be in business here is that I was born and raised here and I really love Ann Arbor.”

She graduated from UM and earned her MBA in marketing and management from The University of Cincinnati. After she completed her master’s degree, she moved back to Ann Arbor and was employed at several companies, including Flint Ink and later at Sensicore. She lost her job when Sensicore had a major downsizing. About that same time her father died, which gave her time to reflect on her next career move.“Of all the places,” she says, “I found out about The Grout Medic through a woman that I reconnected with at my father’s funeral. “The woman was a business broker.” Paul states, “This is a great opportunity not to have to travel. I can be a football coach on Saturday; she can be there for the kids’ activities too.”

“Paul was a stay-at-home dad for seven years and The Grout Medic was an opportunity to put both of our strengths together. “He’s good with his hands and likes to interact with people. I can leverage all my marketing strengths and do the books,” she says.

Kathy explains her decisive factor for choosing The Grout Medic, “What attracted me when I saw it was, I said, ‘I want my grout cleaned and I had no idea that anybody did this.’ It’s a great niche in that when we looked at the competition, that this was one where the tile people don’t want to do grout and tile restoration, handymen don’t do it enough to make it look good. Just a few people do it.”

Paul  says, “We’re honest. We set expectations for our customers and find out that’s what’s setting us apart from our competition. I tell our customers what their job is going to look like when we leave. I won’t tell them their 20-year-old grout is going to look new after a cleaning; it may after a regrout. I set a fair price.” They employ a professional vapor steam technology to clean the grout because it not only cleans, but sterilizes the grout and then they apply a sealant. Paul explains, “If the grout is beyond our help, we can remove it and regrout. Everything we use on the grout is a mold inhibitor. Ninety percent of the time we’re in someone’s bathroom.” They also do grout restoration, grout sealing, caulking and tile replacement. The Grout Medic works for residential and commercial clients, which include maintenance companies, McKinley, construction companies, fraternities, apartments and offices. Paul doesn’t miss the software days, he did take his lessons from his successful software engineer era to his new business. He states, “My software PowerPoint presentations would be directed toward the CFO, CEO or CIO. Now I look at it as the same thing, here’s a million dollar deal and here is Mr. CEO and Mrs. CFO and I give them my presentations the same way. That’s how I treat the customers.”

If you have found this story, interesting, informative or inspiring, please let Paul or Kathy know!  The Grout Medic can be reached at 734-998-1790 or marx@thegroutmedic.com, www.thegroutmedic.com.