Custom Building & Consulting

About

Who we are

Eric Olsten, Founder

Leed AP, Class A Licensed General Contractor

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Born and raised in Minnesota, I moved to the Pacific Northwest to attend Willamette University. I got my start in the building industry in the mountain West, when my job as a ski patroler was cut short one season due to a bad snowpack. I ended up working as a carpenter in Crested Butte, Colorado, where I worked under a master builder on the historic preservation of an old mining community -- and I never looked back. I moved to Boulder, CO where I was a general contractor working in green building and as a building science consultant.

In 2011 I moved to Durham, NC, where my wife was working towards a PhD at Duke University. There, I managed whole-house renovations and additions for Grau Building Company, one of the Triangle's premier boutique builders.

My family moved to Richmond in 2017 so that my wife could take a position as an English professor at VCU and Olsten Building Company was born.