Meet Patrick Sedillo | Contractor/ Broker / Owner

I Learned the Trade the Old-School Way

I got my start in construction in the early 1980s, working alongside my dad in his welding shop in Phoenix.

There weren’t any shortcuts. You showed up early, you worked hard, and you learned by doing.

My dad taught me how to cut and fabricate steel, weld, work with concrete and cement, paint, install, measure, level, and build. He taught me how to read plans and eventually how to create them. I learned what plumb, level, square, and flush really meant—and why being off by a little could matter a lot.

As I got older, he taught me how to lay out a job, organize the work, supervise a crew, and make sure things were done right.

But the biggest lessons weren’t about construction.

Show up when you say you’re going to show up. Take care of your tools. Respect the people working beside you. When you walk into somebody’s home, treat it like it’s your own. Don’t cover up mistakes—fix them. If something isn’t right, make it right. And don’t call a job finished until the customer is satisfied.

That was the old-school way of doing business.

More than 40 years later, I still believe in it.

Construction has changed. The tools are better, the materials are different, and technology has changed how we work. But level is still level, good work is still good work, and your word still has to mean something.

That’s how my dad taught me to work, and that’s how I run San Francisco General Contracting today.