Jim Dodson Sr.
Jim started in the trades in 1973, apprenticed at George Hyman Construction, and spent the next 45 years building his name inside federal Washington: the U.S. State Department, FBI, Secret Service, Blair House, the Pentagon, the FAA. In 1986 he and his brother Bill went out on their own as Dodson Brothers Construction. His son Jim Jr. inherited the company in 2018 and renamed it JDH Remodeling.
1973: George Hyman Construction, and a Thursday-Night Classroom.
Jim was seventeen years old when he walked into his first job at George Hyman Construction in 1973. He entered a four-year union apprenticeship: four days a week on real Washington job sites, then Thursday nights every other week in the classroom. The program did not just teach him carpentry. He came out with real hands-on time in welding, electrical, plumbing, and heating, the way tradesmen were taught to see a whole building instead of a single trade.
His first jobs were federal and civic. Blue Plains Sewage Treatment Plant. The office building at 21st and K Street in Washington. The Library of Congress. The U.S. Courthouse. Most of it was form construction: building the wooden frames that shape concrete before it cures. It is unglamorous work, and it is the work that teaches you what a building is actually made of. From there he moved to interior finish work under Clevenger.
Somewhere in those early years, he found the part he loved. Carpentry. He started picking up side work with another carpenter he had met at Hyman, running full days on the union site and then running out again at night and on weekends to build for private customers. That side business is what eventually became Dodson Brothers Construction.
Dodson Brothers Construction.
By the mid 1980s the side work had grown past what two men could finish after dinner. Jim and his brother Bill looked at each other and made the call. In 1986 they went out on their own as Dodson Brothers Construction.
"We were working so much after work that we couldn't get to all the work. We just decided to start our own business." Jim Dodson Sr., Founder
The first official job under the company name was the U.S. State Department at 23rd Street in Washington, D.C. It started as ticket work, time-and-material, but the door opened fast. Within months Dodson Brothers was working inside the FBI, Secret Service, Blair House, and the Pentagon. They moved into tenant work. They got busy fast.
Jim ran the company the way you would expect from a man raised in a union apprenticeship. A truck. A set of hand tools. Estimates written out on a legal pad with a pencil. No software, no CRM, no marketing. Just the phone, the name, and the work.
The Buildings He Worked Inside.
Between his Hyman years and Dodson Brothers, Jim spent a career inside the buildings most contractors will never see the badge line at. Every one of these is a real project he put his tools on.
The very first official job under the Dodson Brothers Construction name. Time-and-material tenant work that opened the door to the rest of federal Washington.
Jim calls this the hardest job of his career. Working nights inside the largest office building in the country, tearing up and re-laying only as much corridor floor as the crew could finish before staff arrived the next morning.
Mid-project, Jim added ADA-accessible water doors and raised office floors that had not been budgeted, because the blueprints called for them and the finished building would not have worked without them. The company was later given a formal bonus award for the work.
Ongoing tenant work inside FBI facilities during the Dodson Brothers years.
Cleared tenant work inside Secret Service space in Washington.
Interior work inside the historic residence used to host visiting heads of state, across the street from the White House.
One of the first-year Hyman apprenticeship postings, where he worked form construction on the largest library in the world.
Hyman apprenticeship project, learning to build the wooden formwork that shapes concrete before it cures.
One of his first union assignments, working the largest advanced-treatment plant of its kind in the country.
The Job He Turned Down.
Sometime during the Dodson Brothers years, the State Department asked Jim to build out the dining room for the second Ronald Reagan inauguration. It was a marquee job, on a very short clock, in the middle of an already full schedule.
Jim did the part he could personally see through. He turned the rest of it down. If he took the whole job he would have had to hand pieces of it to crews he could not personally vouch for, and he was not willing to do that with his name on the ticket. He calls it one of his rare regrets. He also would not do it any differently today.
"The work I did was my name. I didn't want anything to be bad. I didn't want to depend on someone else doing my work. Because my reputation meant everything to me." Jim Dodson Sr., Founder
That is the rule Jim built the company on and the rule he handed to Jim Jr. Only take work you can personally see through. Never sign your name to something you cannot control.
What He Passed Down to Jim Jr.
Jim Jr. grew up on his father's job sites. Jim Sr. put him to work early and, more importantly, put him to work on both the low side and the high side: framing crews, dumpsters, sanding, hauling; and then invoicing, estimating, sitting across the kitchen table from customers. Jim Sr. wanted his son to know what the whole business felt like from the inside before anyone ever handed him keys to it.
"Always be honest with the customer. Don't worry about the money. The money will come as your name is building. Do good work, good things will happen." Jim Sr. to Jim Jr.
The other rule he handed down: do not take on more than you can personally finish. Jim Sr. watched too many contractors overpromise and then borrow crews, cut corners, or miss deadlines that had their name on the paperwork. He wanted his son to understand that at the end of the day, the homeowner is going to remember the man who signed the contract, not the sub who did the work.
In 2018, Jim Sr. formally passed the company to Jim Jr., who renamed it JDH Remodeling for his three children: J.J., Dallas, and Hayden. The name changed. The rules did not.
Retired. Watching from the Side.
Jim Sr. is retired now. He does not walk sites the way he used to. He watches Jim Jr. run the company he founded and, in his own words, sees his son take what he built and make it better than he ever could have. The tools are different. The technology is different. The rule about your name being on the line is exactly the same.
"Someone like little Jim took what I worked hard for and made it better." Jim Dodson Sr., Founder
The People Carrying the Name Today.
Jim Sr. built the foundation. His son and his daughter-in-law run it now. Meet the family that inherited it and the specialists who work alongside them.
The Standard Is Still His.
JDH Remodeling is the same company Jim Sr. founded in 1986, run today by his son. If you would like to see the standard the family holds itself to, meet Jim Jr. or book a free inspection with the team.
Meet Jim Dodson →