One-to-One: How Welch Tile’s Calvin Stuart overcame adversity with a positive attitude and community support

I met Calvin Stuart about 20 years ago when he was setting tile at Coverings with the Welch Tile and Marble crew. After leaving Welch Tile for a few years to try his hand at running his own business, Stuart returned to Welch Tile and resumed his role as a team leader.

Unfortunately, he suffered a fall from a tree stand while deer hunting in 2020 and ended up a C4 quadriplegic in a wheelchair. Many people would struggle to recover from this type of accident. But Stuart is an optimist by nature, and his journey back to a leadership position these past five years is an inspiration to all who are fortunate to know him.

Before we jump into your innate ability to overcome life’s obstacles, tell us how you got into the tile business and what role Welch Tile and Marble played in your career.

My father-in-law was an auto mechanic for Dick Welch and I grew up baling hay across the road from his house. I went to school with some of the Welch kids and knew the family. Dick was at the shop one day getting his truck fixed, and he mentioned to my father-in-law that he needed to find some good employees—and mentioned me. Two days later, we talked. Two weeks after that, I started. That was on September 2, 1996. I was the 14th person Dick Welch hired, and that number grew to almost 30 over the next five years.

What was it like at Welch Tile at the beginning of your career?

After about five years learning the trade, I started leading some projects and riding along with Dick to jobs. We were a labor contractor back then, so I would sometimes assist our larger GCs in the area and help them price jobs. I got the feel for estimating and moved into project management, estimating and managing our own projects.

When Welch Tile started to take on more contracting projects all over the country, I couldn’t make that commitment, and I left the company for several years. I came back after my kids were a little older, late in 2017, and Dan Welch (President) asked me to oversee the apprenticeship program.

How has the apprenticeship program helped the company meet its strategic objectives?

It gets our workers up to speed a lot faster and gives them the ability to know why we’re doing things. You can teach somebody a task on the job and they can complete it, but the apprenticeship program goes into “why” you’re doing things a certain way—why do we put expansion joints in, and why do we use these particular products? It sets us apart from other companies because we have a standard we hold to, and that standard is taught from apprenticeship all the way through.

It also helps in recruiting new talent. Megan Garvey (NTCA Regional Director and Welch Tile Director of Human Resources and Marketing) talks to students at job and career fairs. We don’t push the tile trade. We push trades that have apprenticeships and trades where you can learn and develop. Our younger prospect applicants are sold on the fact that we have an apprenticeship—you’re paid for it; you learn on the job. We use NTCA University for content, and our office works closely with Becky Serbin of NTCA to register everyone. It’s a great program.

Welch Tile takes a lot of pride in the quality of its workforce and having Certified Tile Installers. How do you prepare your apprentices for this process?

We have a mockup test built so they can practice installing for the eight-hour CTI test. We quiz them through the book on potential questions for the written test. We don’t schedule the test until they get the stamp of approval that they’re going to pass. It’s an investment for the company because we pay for it the first time around, and we want to set them up for success.

You had a serious life-changing accident in 2020. What happened, and what has your journey been like since that day?

In October 2020, I fell from my tree stand and ended up a C4 quadriplegic in a chair. It’s been five years now and I’ve eased back into work. I was working a little bit here and there when I was feeling good, but I turned a corner physically with my progress and some medical help recently. Dan and the Welch Tile team asked me to help run their new manufacturing facility, and I am thankful I have been able to make a difference.

I receive a lot of support at home and on the job. One of our general contractors, EV Construction, helped build ramps to remodel my house. Welch Tile, of course, helped remodel and fix things in the house so I could get in and out. Some state-funded things with Michigan Rehab Services have helped me get my car and ability to drive so I could go to work, and they help pay for anything that I need for getting to and from work. And Welch Tile adapted doors and garage door openers for easy access. The manufacturing facility has been so convenient for me to get back to and be able to use my mind to help direct things again.

Tell us about the role you are playing at the new manufacturing facility.

We’re fabricating tile panels and shower bases in an assembly line-type facility. I’m able to oversee it because it’s in one space and I don’t have to go to the jobsites.

We have a couple of large projects going for hotels and college dorms, as examples. We can make tile panels for just about any situation that could be hung and installed. (See the December 2025 TileLetter for a story on Welch Tile Solutions’ prefabricated shower systems.)

We’re changing with the times. It’s still a traditional install. It’s still a thinset install. It’s still a sloped shower base and curbs and everything that you would get out on the job site, but it’s way more consistent. We can make everything repeatable. My role is to get the production up to what I think is acceptable in the production flow from storage to the jobsite.

Why do you think the time is right for Welch Tile to invest in this technology?

We have experienced tile setters all the way up to guys who are thinking about retirement but want to work a couple more years, but their back or their knees aren’t up for the jobsites anymore. The ergonomics of working back here on the assembly tables extends the life of a tile setter well beyond what they would normally be able to do in the field.

And this type of offsite construction is growing beyond just tile. We’re seeing hotels in Grand Rapids, Mich., come in on a semi and get set with a crane on the walls. If you can build a building and ship it on a truck and stack it up and bolt it together, we ought to be able to put a tile panel up and glue it to a wall and have it hold up.

Another huge advantage is job schedules. A hotel owner is so eager to turn rooms over and start making money, that if tile extends their job two or more months, they look at other projects or other products. With our manufactured panels ready to install, we can be ready.

Some of the stuff we’re building right now, I’m not installing until February. We can be so far ahead of the job, we can go in and keep to their schedule and change the direction of what they’re putting on the walls because of convenience.

Your story is inspirational. You have my utmost respect. How were you able to stay positive through all of this? Can you share any words of wisdom?

I’ve always had a pretty good attitude toward everything, even before the accident. So that played a big role in my recovery and being able to handle living with the situation. My family and friends and co-workers play a huge role in keeping me positive as well. There were dark days, but they didn’t last very long for me. I talk to some other guys in chairs. They have way more dark days than good days. I’m just glad that I have more good than bad.

Written by Bart Bettiga - Executive Director at National Tile Contractors Association

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