Learn About Lifetime Piers - Factory, History, & Leadership

Leadership Team

The team behind Lifetime Piers has earned a sterling reputation in southeastern Wisconsin through the outstanding work of Summerset Marine Construction, enhancing lakefront properties with the highest quality piers, lifts, and waterfront solutions since 1990. Led by owner Larry Chapman, Lifetime Piers continues the tradition of superior knowledge and service to meet and generally exceed the waterfront living needs of our customers.

Meet Larry Chapman

Larry founded and started Summerset Marine Construction in 1990 at the age of 20, while attending the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater for his undergraduate degree. The company evolved into a multi-location business, selling, servicing and delivering boats, piers and lifts.

Larry has been highly involved in Wisconsin’s sailing and boating community for the past 20+ years, acquiring an encyclopedic knowledge of the multi-brands, including Bennington, MasterCraft, Nautique, and Chris-Craft, while having built and sold the largest boat dealer in Wisconsin. This knowledge and understanding affords our team the requisite background to design the perfect pier for our client’s custom needs.

After many years building and maintaining wood piers, Larry saw the need to manufacture a high-quality, zero-maintenance product that offers the stability and timeless look of a wood pier. Lifetime Piers patent-pending designs evolved out of that need and desire. In 2014, Lifetime Piers was launched only after the years of research and development required to perfect our designs; accept no substitute.

It is the Summerset Marine team-passion for the industry, our understanding of the characteristics of each lake, and the best-practice options we make available to our clients that have driven the best-in-class designs incorporated into Lifetime Piers; the bespoke pier and lift designs that we custom-create to produce fantastic solutions that are as practical as they are aesthetically pleasing. Today Lifetime Piers has four distinct offerings: The Lifetime Classic, The Lifetime Minimalist, The All Seasons Permanent, and The Lifetime Commercial designs.

Larry and his family live on a lake in Southeast Wisconsin, pursue national sailing titles together, and truly enjoy their time on their piers and on the water.

Welding
Jessie planing

Our Factory

The Summerset Marine Construction manufacturing facility located in Whitewater, Wisconsin, also serves as the national headquarters for Lifetime Piers. Our product showroom is fully staffed with designers on hand to help you visualize and create the ideal set-up that will best accentuate your lake front property, while maximizing its value. Clients are also welcome to tour our state-of-the-art facility and our extensive inventory of new and used piers and lifts.

Lifetime Piers are entirely factory direct and locally manufactured, with 100% of all materials sourced in Wisconsin, USA. Our team of professionals is focused on two things: quality control and customer satisfaction. Putting the customer first means we are always on hand to respond to our clients for service needs or questions. Customer-centric operations are the cornerstone of our customized construction solutions. Our products are specifically designed to accommodate the full spectrum of waterfront clients, while our team handles all aspects of design, construction, installation and support, from beginning to end.

Not only have we built our reputation on the quality of the product and the bespoke services we provide, we are intimately familiar with the unique characteristics of each lake and waterway. We know what works, what to prepare for and how to provide the perfectly practical waterfront solution to match every lifestyle, while enhancing the value of every lakefront property and shoreline situation.

Our staff is always prepared to welcome clients to the factory showroom to view inventory and designs. We will also be happy to visit your property in order to customize the finished product to your unique specifications. Please do not hesitate to give us a call to set up a time to visit the Lifetime Piers custom manufacturing facility during its hours of operations.