A2 Contracting and Design
0.00 0 reviewsAbout
The Story of A2 Contracting & Design
Design It. Plan It. Love It.
The summer sun was barely up over northeast Ohio when Andy Hogue pulled his worn F-250
into the gravel lot, coffee in hand, boots already muddy. Twenty years in the trades had a way
of making a man an early riser. He'd spent two decades building decks, laying patios, putting
up fences, and transforming backyard disasters into outdoor living spaces people actually
wanted to spend time in. He knew every local supplier by first name, could read a property's
drainage problem from fifty feet away, and had calluses thick enough to sand drywall.
He was waiting on Andy Roberts.
Andy Roberts rolled in ten minutes later, windows down, radio up, a rolled-up Ohio State
diploma on the passenger seat and his head full of soil science, plant biology, and sustainable
landscape design. He'd just finished ATI's Horticulture program — two of the most intense,
eye-opening years of his life. He could tell you exactly which native Ohio shrubs would thrive
in clay soil, how to build a rain garden that actually worked, which ornamental grasses paired
best with a craftsman-style home, and why the right tree in the right place could cut a
homeowner's cooling bill by fifteen percent.
The two Andys stood in that gravel lot, looked at each other, and laughed.
"You've got all the book smarts," Andy Hogue said, sipping his coffee.
"And you've got all the scars," Andy Roberts shot back.
They shook hands anyway.
The idea had been kicking around for about a year. Andy Hogue had grown tired of working
for companies that cut corners — contractors who'd rather throw down cheap materials fast
than do something a homeowner would still be proud of in fifteen years. He had the skill. He
had the reputation. What he didn't have was someone who could sit down with a client and
design something beautiful from the ground up, someone who understood plants as living
systems rather than just decorations you stuck in the dirt.
Andy Roberts had graduated with big ideas but no infrastructure. He could design a stunning
landscape plan, but he needed someone who knew how to actually build it — how to grade a
yard, pour a footer, set a fence post in frozen ground, manage a crew, and navigate a building
permit without losing your mind.
Together, they were something neither could be alone.
They started small. A business plan scribbled on a legal pad. A shared Google Drive full of
photos from jobs Andy Hogue had done over the years. Andy Roberts' sketches and plant lists
filling the margins. They registered the LLC on a Tuesday morning in a county clerk's office
that smelled like old carpet, and by Friday they had their first estimate in a client's hand.
The name came naturally. Two Andys. One vision. A2.
The logo said everything — a house, a fence, a winding stone path, a towering evergreen, all
bathed in a sunrise. Design It. Plan It. Love It. That was Andy Roberts' line. Andy Hogue had
wanted something like "We Show Up On Time," which was also true, but didn't have quite the
same ring to it.
Their first real project was a complete backyard overhaul in Akron. Andy Hogue ran the crew
— grading the slope, building a cedar privacy fence, pouring a paver patio that sat level and
locked tight. Andy Roberts worked directly with the homeowners on the plantings — a
pollinator garden along the fence line, ornamental grasses flanking the patio, a row of
arborvitae for a natural screen along the back property line, and a young red maple centered
perfectly in the yard that would one day give the whole space a reason to exist.
When it was done, the homeowner stood on her new patio, looked out at her yard, and teared
up a little.
Andy Hogue nodded quietly and made a mental note to never let Andy Roberts go.
Word traveled the way it does in northeast Ohio — through neighborhoods, through church
parking lots, through Facebook groups for homeowners who just moved somewhere and
didn't know who to trust. A2 Contracting & Design built a reputation not by advertising, but by
doing work that made people stop their cars and ask who did your yard.
They weren't always the cheapest quote. But they were the ones who showed up when they
said they would, who pointed out a drainage issue before it became a flooded basement, who
planted things that actually survived the first winter. Andy Hogue's hands built it. Andy
Roberts' mind made it beautiful.
Twenty years of experience and two years of education, combined, turned out to be worth
more than either of them ever could have built on their own. That's what happens when the
right two people find the right idea at exactly the right time.
In northeast Ohio, under that same sunrise they put on their logo, A2 Contracting & Design
was just getting started.
Design It. Plan It. Love It.
A2 Contracting & Design | 330-962-1194
Hours of Operation
About
The Story of A2 Contracting & Design
Design It. Plan It. Love It.
The summer sun was barely up over northeast Ohio when Andy Hogue pulled his worn F-250
into the gravel lot, coffee in hand, boots already muddy. Twenty years in the trades had a way
of making a man an early riser. He'd spent two decades building decks, laying patios, putting
up fences, and transforming backyard disasters into outdoor living spaces people actually
wanted to spend time in. He knew every local supplier by first name, could read a property's
drainage problem from fifty feet away, and had calluses thick enough to sand drywall.
He was waiting on Andy Roberts.
Andy Roberts rolled in ten minutes later, windows down, radio up, a rolled-up Ohio State
diploma on the passenger seat and his head full of soil science, plant biology, and sustainable
landscape design. He'd just finished ATI's Horticulture program — two of the most intense,
eye-opening years of his life. He could tell you exactly which native Ohio shrubs would thrive
in clay soil, how to build a rain garden that actually worked, which ornamental grasses paired
best with a craftsman-style home, and why the right tree in the right place could cut a
homeowner's cooling bill by fifteen percent.
The two Andys stood in that gravel lot, looked at each other, and laughed.
"You've got all the book smarts," Andy Hogue said, sipping his coffee.
"And you've got all the scars," Andy Roberts shot back.
They shook hands anyway.
The idea had been kicking around for about a year. Andy Hogue had grown tired of working
for companies that cut corners — contractors who'd rather throw down cheap materials fast
than do something a homeowner would still be proud of in fifteen years. He had the skill. He
had the reputation. What he didn't have was someone who could sit down with a client and
design something beautiful from the ground up, someone who understood plants as living
systems rather than just decorations you stuck in the dirt.
Andy Roberts had graduated with big ideas but no infrastructure. He could design a stunning
landscape plan, but he needed someone who knew how to actually build it — how to grade a
yard, pour a footer, set a fence post in frozen ground, manage a crew, and navigate a building
permit without losing your mind.
Together, they were something neither could be alone.
They started small. A business plan scribbled on a legal pad. A shared Google Drive full of
photos from jobs Andy Hogue had done over the years. Andy Roberts' sketches and plant lists
filling the margins. They registered the LLC on a Tuesday morning in a county clerk's office
that smelled like old carpet, and by Friday they had their first estimate in a client's hand.
The name came naturally. Two Andys. One vision. A2.
The logo said everything — a house, a fence, a winding stone path, a towering evergreen, all
bathed in a sunrise. Design It. Plan It. Love It. That was Andy Roberts' line. Andy Hogue had
wanted something like "We Show Up On Time," which was also true, but didn't have quite the
same ring to it.
Their first real project was a complete backyard overhaul in Akron. Andy Hogue ran the crew
— grading the slope, building a cedar privacy fence, pouring a paver patio that sat level and
locked tight. Andy Roberts worked directly with the homeowners on the plantings — a
pollinator garden along the fence line, ornamental grasses flanking the patio, a row of
arborvitae for a natural screen along the back property line, and a young red maple centered
perfectly in the yard that would one day give the whole space a reason to exist.
When it was done, the homeowner stood on her new patio, looked out at her yard, and teared
up a little.
Andy Hogue nodded quietly and made a mental note to never let Andy Roberts go.
Word traveled the way it does in northeast Ohio — through neighborhoods, through church
parking lots, through Facebook groups for homeowners who just moved somewhere and
didn't know who to trust. A2 Contracting & Design built a reputation not by advertising, but by
doing work that made people stop their cars and ask who did your yard.
They weren't always the cheapest quote. But they were the ones who showed up when they
said they would, who pointed out a drainage issue before it became a flooded basement, who
planted things that actually survived the first winter. Andy Hogue's hands built it. Andy
Roberts' mind made it beautiful.
Twenty years of experience and two years of education, combined, turned out to be worth
more than either of them ever could have built on their own. That's what happens when the
right two people find the right idea at exactly the right time.
In northeast Ohio, under that same sunrise they put on their logo, A2 Contracting & Design
was just getting started.
Design It. Plan It. Love It.
A2 Contracting & Design | 330-962-1194