Tom Lopatosky – The Home Improvement Expert

How to Get Your Contractor to Treat You Like GOLD!!

      I have been fortunate to run a Contracting business for a LOOOOONG time. This year I will have been in business for just under 25 years. Seems like a lifetime to me!! Over this time I have also been lucky enough to ...
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Exterior

The Danger of Late Season Snowfall & Home Improvement Project Planning

  We, in Rhode Island this Winter, have been moving along relatively unscathed from a Winter Storm perspective. There have been numerous Winter weather systems that have come through over the course of the Winter months, but we have certainly been very fortunate. Most Wintry-type ...
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Exterior

Navigating A Home Improvement Nightmare!!…

This past week I walked into a situation that I have, sadly, seen many times before. I had a Client reach out to me that had hired someone to help them out with a Home Improvement Project who ran into some challenges and kind of ...
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Exterior

The BIGGEST Painting Mistake I ever made…????

  As a business owner, I do understand when coaching an employee through things, sometimes thoughts may cross their mind as if I am one that doesn’t make mistakes. Every now and then I have one of them mention this to me as I am ...
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National Home Warranty Day???

  Ummm…yeah…so, today (2/10/19) is ‘National Home Warranty Day’. I am absolutely NOT making this up!! Don’t believe me? Check it out by Clicking Here! NOW I really do believe that they have a Holiday for EVERYTHING!! When my Office Manager pointed this out to me, ...
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Exterior

The Next Big Thing in Home Improvement…

Whether it is Home Improvement, Fashion, Automobiles, etc., trends come and go and usually come back around again. One good example of this in Home Improvement is Residential Wallpapered Walls. Wallpapering one’s walls used to be enormously popular as there was quite a long period of time ...
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Exterior

How Can I Best Find a Wall Stud??

  If you have ever went to hang a TV or a heavy mirror and just tried to simply nail/screw your mounting hardware randomly on to the wall, you may have been rudely awakened by the object crashing down on you! The safest way to ...
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Exterior

What does it Mean to Re-Point a Chimney??

  As we are in a time period of the year where many homeowners start to turn their eyes toward potential Spring projects, perhaps one of the things that might make sense for folks to look at is the condition of their brick chimneys. Chimney ...
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Exterior

What Home Renovations Increase the Most Value When Selling???

  Often, I am brought in to work with a Client who is thinking about putting their home on the market in perhaps the not-too-distant future.   The Client typically is aiming at picking my brain in terms of what they can do to maximize ...
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Why Winter is the Best Time to Sell Your Home…????

Obviously, I am FAR from a Realtor. Because of the way my business operates though, a strong pulse on the Real Estate market is a by-product of which provides me tremendous insight as to how the Real Estate market (at least in Rhode Island…) tends to ...
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A Simple, Sure to be Often Overlooked, Home Maintenance Initiative…

This is NOT a lie!!…   I sat down earlier today to work at my desk and my desk chair, literally, fell apart underneath me :-/ It certainly could have been because I ate one too many tasty treats during the Holiday season. It could have also ...
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Addiction During the Holidays…

As we are in the midst of the Holiday season, it is a time of year when not everyone is feeling the happiest. It is a time of year when many of us know people that may not be in the best spots emotionally that ...
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A Top 10 of Reasons Why Smoke Detectors Commonly Go Off…..

  There is no secret of the importance of having smoke detectors throughout your home or business.   Whether battery operated units or units that are hard-wired to the local fire department should they be set off, their purpose is the same:   To alert us ...
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How Cold is TOO Cold to Paint Outside???

  One of the questions that I can bank on getting overwhelmed with like clockwork at certain periods of the year is, “How cold is TOO cold to paint outside?”     If you were to ask this question of almost any painter, contractor, paint ...
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Rust…..

  Perhaps one of the more unsightly things that one might see, rust can really take away from the cosmetic appearance of any given finish but it can also, if left untreated, cause extraordinarily expensive repairs. Rust forms when an iron or an alloy that ...
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Sprucing Things Up for the Holidays!!

  With Thanksgiving just passing, we are now fast tracking to the end of the year and all the Holidays that go along with the next several weeks. As many of us have family coming over in different capacities, there seems to often be a ...
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What on EARTH is going on with this Weather???

No, it is not your imagination. I know, I was thinking the same thing…     A good friend of mine, Harry Adler, has been an owner of Adler’s Hardware in Providence for quite some time. His family has owned the business since 1919 and ...
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Oil vs. Latex……

Perhaps the longest running technical debate that I have come across in my almost 25 years in business is the discussion of which is “better” oil or latex when it comes to exterior & interior home paint and stain products.   This is probably a ...
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What is a GutterBrush???

  What is a GutterBrush?     For my first 18 years in business, I searched seemingly intergalactically for a solution for our Clients who had challenges with the gutter systems on their home becoming filled with various types of debris. Cleaning out your gutters ...
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If a piece of wood furniture has a natural wood finish, can I just paint right over it?

Well….Can I? As crazy as it may sound to some, there are times when someone may want to paint a piece of old furniture to give it an entirely new look. This may sound odd to people that might consider themselves purists when it comes ...
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Why Fall is the Absolute Best Time of Year to Paint the Exterior of your New England Home…

  Seemingly throughout the course of every year a question that I am often asked is something along the lines of: When is the best time of year to paint my home? Obviously the answer could be different in varying parts of the country. Many ...
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How do you Clean Painted Walls??

  If you have painted walls in your home, there is a good chance that you have wanted to clean them, for one reason or another, at some point in time. We have some Clients that love to, literally, wash their walls every once in ...
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What is the BEST Way To Remove OLD Wallpaper???

When it comes to working on Clients’ homes, there are two things that I absolutely personally despise doing more than any other… 1) One is re-glazing old windows.         2) The other is removing old wallpaper. I am very fortunate that I ...
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When is a Cricket not a “Cricket”??

  If someone asks you if you have a cricket on your roof, your first inclination may very well be that you really have no idea what a cricket might be doing on your roof but you do not believe so… However, you may actually ...
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Mice, Squirrels, Raccoons – Oh My!!!

Believe it or not, another awesome Summer has passed and we are fast tracking right into Fall!!  As another beautiful New England Fall begins to enter into our lives, many New Englanders will begin to notice signs of uninvited guests (or as I often refer ...
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The Correct Treatment of Wrought Iron Rails….

Wrought Iron Rails can be a BEAUTIFUL aspect of a home.   As with most areas of your home, if you are fortunate enough to have these often underappreciated works of art as decorative pieces, proper maintenance of them can ensure that they add a touch of ...
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What the HECK is a “Stink Pipe”?

  You may or may not have heard of the term “Stink Pipe” before.   If you have heard of it, there is a good chance it was in passive conversation from someone in your circle of family or friends that works in the construction ...
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Where in the WORLD are these Water Stains coming from ?!?!?

  Possibly one of the most disconcerting feelings of any home or business owner is seeing a water stain popping up on a ceiling within their property.   Water stains and where they actually come from are seldom thought of until they are noticed and ...
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This Week… The Challenges with Skylights!!!

  Skylights can be an awesome feature to someone’s home. Skylights allow natural light to both warm and brighten interiors in ways that artificial lights (think lightbulbs – whether incandescent, fluorescent, or LED) just cannot do.   If you have a vented skylight, you also ...
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Painting Glossy Interior Trim…and Getting the Paint to Stick!!

  With all of the excitement in the residential real estate market these days, there are many folks moving into new homes. One of the first things that people often do when they get that new set of keys, is to paint the inside of ...
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OUR HISTORY

LOPCO Expert

While looking for a way to pay his way through college, Tom Lopatosky started LOPCO Contracting in 1995. Since then, when Tom began the company with less than $100 in his pocket, LOPCO has grown to become the Home Improvement Contractor of choice for a wide number of people throughout Rhode Island and Southern New England. Tom learned many valuable lessons as he grew the business while attending college. Ultimately Tom (in the year 2000) graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree with a Concentration in Marketing, a Bachelor’s Degree with a Concentration in Finance, and a Minor in Computer Information Systems from Bryant University (Bryant College at the time) in Smithfield, RI. 

Prior to earning his degrees, Tom graduated from Classical High School in Providence, RI (where Tom won the ‘Al Morro Award’ for Football in 1994). After High School, Tom left for the University of South Carolina to pursue his dream of playing football. Soon after his mother passed away in 1997, he relocated back to RI and completed his college career at Bryant. Tom continued to play minor league football for 9 years and was part of 4 championship-playing football teams. 

As the demands of the company grew, Tom decided to retire from football in 2006 and focus on LOPCO full time.
Under Tom’s leadership, the company culture of striving to overdeliver on every project they undertake has led to much repeat business and their clients are often very happy to tell their friends and families about their experiences with LOPCO. This has helped tremendously as LOPCO has sought to further increase their customer base. Tom’s long-term goal for the company is “To lead LOPCO Contracting in continuing to paint and build the way to social consciousness while becoming the largest painting and repair company in New England.”

Tom lives in East Providence, RI with his girlfriend Leslie and his daughters Tamara & Ivelisse. Tom has held a variety of titles over the years including President of LOPCO Contracting, Regional Board Member of the PCA’s (Painting Contractors Association) Northeast Council, President of the RI Chapter of the PCA, Board Member of RIBA (Rhode Island Builders Association), and Building & Property Trades Advisory Committee Member for MTTI (MotoRing Technical Training Institute in Seekonk, MA).

Tom has been a RIBA member since 2008 and a member of PCA since 2006. In 2013 Tom received the PCA’s National “Humanitarian of the Year” Award, a “40 under 40” Award from Providence Business News, and his BNI (Business Network International) Warwick peers voted him “Member of the Year”. Tom has been involved with BNI for a number of years as well as quite a few other networking organizations.

In 2006 Tom was inducted into the Classical High School Athletic Hall of Fame. Over the years Tom has been a contributing writer and/or columnist for ExpertBeacon.com, RI Local Magazine, ShopInRI Magazine, The Jewish Voice, The Rhode Island Echo, The RI Wave, the East Providence Reporter, and The Smithfield Times and also has had weekly Home Improvement Tips that have run on the radio (630AM & 99.7FM WPRO in the RI area) and on television (WPRI 12 in the RI area). 

Tom is Roman Catholic and is a firm believer that success is often correlated with a person’s faith, not necessarily a particular religion, but faith in a greater power. 

Roman 12:12 is his favorite Bible verse which reads, “”Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.” Tom is very involved with his Church (St. Adalbert’s Church in Providence, RI) – Tom served as Chairperson of St. Adalbert’s Church’s Polish-American Festival for 6 years – and really tries to make it a point on attending service at least once per week (Tom also spends 30-45 minutes in prayer prior to beginning each day).
As a fun sidenote, Tom made it as a Semi-Finalist in the second season of “The Apprentice” (the round right before the finalists are on the show!).

Tom has been featured on the Real Estate Radio Network, the ‘Discover Rhode Island’ TV show, and on The Strongpreneur Nation Podcast. Today, Tom has his own weekly Home Improvement radio show on 630AM & 99.7FM WPRO in the RI area – ‘PROTALK Home Improvement’. Tom feels VERY fortunate to have been involved with a number of terrific community organizations over the years, such as: Amos House, Children’s Wishes, Clinica Esperanza, Goodwill Industries of Rhode Island, Habitat for Humanity of RI – Greater Providence, The Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence, The Town of Johnston, RI Police Department, Junior Achievement of RI, One Neighborhood Builders (formerly Olneyville Housing Corporation), Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, YouthBuild Providence, and YMCA of Greater Providence. Two of the biggest community initiatives that Tom has been involved with are being a lead organizer of ‘Clean Day’ on the Woonasquatucket River Greenway for nine years and a lead organizer for YouthBuild Providence’s annual ‘Build-a-Bed’ event for four years.

In addition to LOPCO, Tom also owns Cheer UP Athletics – an All-Star Cheerleading Gym located in East Providence, RI – and The Smithfield Times. Tom is an avid New York Yankee, University of South Carolina (ALL of their sports!), and Providence College Basketball fan. Tom’s extensive experience and overall industry knowledge have made Tom one of the most sought-after experts in the Home Improvement Industry. Remarkably, Tom is often even called upon by other contractors to help them through challenges in their businesses (often speaking at National Industry Conferences). Because he has made it a focus to delve into and solve problems that others in the industry simply want nothing to do with, Tom has become an invaluable resource for homeowners near and far. With all being said, it confidently is safe to say that Tom Lopatosky truly is – The Home Improvement Expert!!!

Print Media Features & Published Pieces

PROTalk Podcasts