RICHMOND, Va (WRIC) – There’s been many industries feeling the negative affects of the pandemic, but some companies have seen a boom in business.

Lane Homes and Remodeling has seen between 10% and 15% more customers asking for renovations, but still, the company’s president Edward Lane says this year hasn’t come without challenges.

Lane tells 8News they’ve got a backlog of renovation projects waiting to be put through the design process.

The Schmidt family is one of many families that’s grown Lane Homes and Remodeling’s client base during the pandemic, according to Lane.

When Anne and Dave Schmidt called the renovation company, they wanted to let some light in during what is a dark time for many.

“We’ve got all these windows and we had big walls in front of everything so you couldn’t really see outside too well,” said Dave Schmidt.

At first, when the Schmidts thought about knocking down a wall and upgrading their kitchen, because of COVID-19, and with the kids in virtual school, they thought that maybe they should’ve waited and that it could’ve been a bad idea.

But they decided to move forward with the project. Lane says the biggest challenges with this project were getting steel manufactured and acquiring the cabinets for the Schmidt’s project, which took an extra week or so.

This project was not the only one without hurdles due to the pandemic. It takes a couple of extra weeks to get inspections done for projects, and it’s hard to get appliances and lumber on time because of shortages.

“It’s just a challenge for everybody,” Lane told 8News.

Lane says their company has worked together with the city and the county to speed up the inspection process.

For now, Lane says they’re happy to be busy, another light in the pandemic’s darkness.

“I can’t complain,” Lane said. “The business is there and the business is strong.”

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