Construction Equipment Owner

Some contractors approach Labor Day as an opportunity to take a break and give their employees and equipment a breather before the stretch run through October and up to Thanksgiving (the general target of most contractors in the Midwest and northern climates to end their season).

Other contractors take an entirely different approach, looking at the three-day weekend as a chance to tackle the toughest jobs – the unusually large jobs, the jobs where traffic control is a nightmare most of the year, or the hard-to-schedule properties – to knock them out so they can get on to other jobs as they push through to the end of the season.

Both approaches have their value and their proponents – but the approach to this holiday weekend isn’t as important as what can happen from now on. That’s because while most of the country is looking forward to Labor Day as the last vacation weekend of the summer, paving and pavement maintenance contractors, no matter how they take advantage of Labor Day, are looking ahead to the profit push for the rest of this year.

The date varies from contractor to contractor, of course, but most contractors indicate their break-even point for the year is behind them at this point of the season. (You do know when you’ve earned enough to pay for running your business, don’t you?) So whatever work you can bring in from now until the weather cools is (almost) pure profit, sending black dollars heading straight to the bottom line.

So now is the time to make the push that can make or break your year, and the more you can produce now, the bigger bow you can tie around your year-end financials. So good luck if you’re working the weekend, and good luck if you’re not. Either way the next 90 days will largely determine how profitable your season will have been. As for me, Labor Day marks the start of a stretch run that lasts through National Pavement Expo. So I’m taking the weekend off!

Like all of us who have entered the workforce, whether as a contractor, manufacturer, supplier, marketer (or even editor), my son, Zack, has just taken that big first step. Zack graduated in May from Illinois State University and following a week-long trip out east visiting baseball parks and halls of fame (that’s for another blog) he headed for St. Louis and a part-time job, and as of this week he is gainfully employed full time at a radio station in Chicago.

Along with the job he was awarded the opportunity to pay for a car, monthly train pass, auto and health insurance, phone and Internet, and lunch. Kim Johnston is on a similar path. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire she joined Cygnus Business Media as assistant editor on Pavement Maintenance & Reconstruction (she also writes part of the time on Cygnus’ Concrete Contractor magazine), and along with all those responsibilities Kim’s assumed, she’s added an apartment to her life (Zack’s still living at home).

By now they’ve both probably realized they have a long work road ahead of them, but I can’t help thinking that their focus should be on what they’re doing, and how well they can do it, and what they can contribute – not how long they’re going to be doing it. Because while making a living is the goal, adding something to the world and leaving something behind should rank a very close second. The reason that’s true is that work is valuable – to each person individually and to all of us collectively. And whether you’re a laborer sealcoating a driveway, a striper marking a roadway, a sweeper cleaning a parking lot, or the owner of a company that provides these services, you are adding something, improving something, leaving something behind, making your mark, as it were. Probably a little hard to keep in mind when you’re luting 350-degree hot mix late in the afternoon on a 90-degree day, but true nonetheless. So to Zack, Kim, and everyone else out there kicking off their careers, work hard and do a great job. It not only feels good, but it will also pay off down the road.

Wouldn’t you love to have the talents of a professional marketing firm at your fingertips to help you promote your concrete homes business, for FREE?!?! Thanks to the Portland Cement Association, you do! The PCA recently rolled out a web-based advertising tool that allows you to create and customize print ads, brochures, event postcards and e-mail blasts to promote residential concrete products. You pay for printing and postage. The advertising tool allows you to tailor your message to your market, choose PCA-supplied photos or upload your own photos, and customize the pieces with your logo.

Once you’ve created your marketing materials you can take them to your local home show, send them to a mailing list of interested clients, or add it to your company literature packets. You can even create print ads for your local newspapers and magazines.

Get the word out about concrete homes!

So it’s late August, the bulk of the sealcoating season is behind us, and without jinxing the industry I think it’s safe to say that the coal tar sealer issues that plagued the industry last year are nowhere to be found. Availability of RT-12 has been consistent, RT-12 producers have delivered on schedule as promised, and sealer manufacturers have been able to meet customer demands with nary a blip in the delivery schedule.

Well what the heck happened?

First, RT-12 plants remained on line. There were no breakdowns, no shutdowns, no labor issues, and no unexpected repairs that would have disrupted the refining of crude coal tar into RT-12. So the supply of RT-12 was stable - in other words coal tar sealer producers received what their RT-12 suppliers said they could provide.

But perhaps more important is a sea change in contractors’ attitudes toward sealer material. Contractors who last year were forced to switch to asphalt-based sealer because coal tar sealer was unavailable found that asphalt sealer worked fine, was available as needed, and that most clients didn’t care which product was used on their parking lots provided it worked - looked good and protected the asphalt. So many contractors who last year tested asphalt-based sealers added them to their arsenal of sealcoating products, reducing their reliance on coal tar. Plus, sealer producers continued to develop and improve their blended products - part coal tar part asphalt - as a way to offset any possible disruption in RT-12 delivery but also as a way to cross-breed some of the benefits of coal tar and some of the benefits of asphalt-based product. The result of all this has many contractors offering two or in some cases three sealer options to their customers, reducing the burden on the coal tar product and the RT-12 producers. A good thing all the way around as the industry continues to show its resilience in the face of just about whatever obstacles confront it.

Now, the cost of sealer this year - at both the producer level and the contractor level - is a different matter entirely, but let’s at least be content with the stability of an industry that has proven itself year in and year out.

Paving residential driveways is so different from paving roads and parking lots that we probably should come up with a different term for the work. Where roads (and some parking lots) are about volume, and commercial paving is about margin, driveway paving is about neatness, care, and cash flow.

Residential homeowners are picky, they want everything to be “just so,” and they value their patios, sidewalks, gardens, shrubs, and lawn - to say nothing of their houses - almost as if they own them.

If you haven’t already had the chance to flip through the August/September issue of Pavement, check it out, especially if you’re a driveway paving contractor. Top Quality Paving’s John Ball uses more than 20 driveway-paving photos to offer tips and insights into how to do a great job for your justifiably finicky residential customers. And if that’s not enough for you there are a bunch more photos and insights online in our Equipment Gallery. And if even that’s not enough for you John will be presenting “Essentials of Parking Lot & Driveway Paving” at both National Pavement Expo West, Nov. 15-17, in Las Vegas and National Pavement Expo, Jan. 31 -Feb. 2 in Nashville. Look for a similar article on paving handwork in our October issue.

Concrete Contractor recently announced its annual list of the 25 most popular products of the year, according to the magazine’s readers. To learn more about these products read about them in your Aug/Sept issue (hitting your mailbox soon), visit an online photo gallery at ForConstructionPros.com or visit the online version of the Aug/Sept issue of Concrete Contractor.

Did your favorite product make the list? If not, leave a reply below about a piece of equipment or product that makes your concrete jobs easier and more efficient.

Well, this is going to be interesting, if not entertaining.

I’ve been accused, by family, friends, co-workers - in other words people who know me - of being a Luddite. And for those who don’t know, Luddites were members of an early 1800s movement of English textile workers who protested - often by destroying textile machines — changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution. That’s the origin; more recently the term Luddite has been used to describe anyone opposed to technological progress or technological change.

OK, so maybe there’s some truth in that, but only a little.

I like music but don’t have an iPod, I don’t own a cell phone (but will borrow one from my wife when I head off to National Pavement Expo or National Pavement Expo West), I prefer manual to electronic door locks and manual to electronic windows, I play tennis with a wooden racket, I still listen to LP records but own and use a CD player, I don’t text message, I don’t Instant Message, and I’m not at all proficient on a computer, despite the fact I can muddle my way through a number of software programs when the need arises. So that’s why those who know me are going to get a big kick out of me blogging for Pavement Maintenance & Reconstruction as well as the two trade shows. So be it.

But I have help. Our internet specialists Sam Simon and Jacob Bare understand all this stuff, so I’m going to put the technological details in their able hands and I’ll handle the writing. What exactly does that mean? Well, we’ll have to see. No question I’ll be writing about paving and pavement maintenance & reconstruction, and I’m sure I’ll pass along some of things I hear almost every day from contractors and manufacturers (sometimes I’ll pass them on anonymously if that’s what it takes to get the information out). I’ll try to provide some anecdotal information on materials or equipment pricing, just as an FYI (who says I couldn’t text message if I wanted to?), I’ll tip you off to some of the NPE or NPE West seminars you might not want to overlook, and I’ll certainly try to provide timely news-type information when appropriate.

But there’s more to this blog than that, as implied by its Roundabout title, so I’ll probably be writing about a whole variety of topics. Baseball? For sure (with the possible exception of the Yankees). Music? Yes. Books? Yes (I’m a big reader). The progress of the Illinois Wesleyan University women’s basketball team (my daughter is the starting point guard)? I don’t see how I could avoid it. My son’s pursuit of a career in radio? Same answer. Politics? No way.

So I’ll make an effort to post something every day or so (no promises) so why don’t you bookmark this site or add it to your favorites or whatever else you can do to make it easy to visit frequently. Meanwhile, I’ve got to click the right sequence of keys to send this over to Sam and Jacob to get it up where you can read it. Somewhere in North Dakota a missile silo will probably be opening soon.

As the world looks to alternative energy sources to replace our usual sources of energy such as coal and oil, people come up with some interesting solutions, as described in this article about foot power. The article explains the idea of capturing the energy created in human footsteps and using it to create electricity. Mallrats, students changing classes throughout the school day, attendees to sporting events and concerts, and subway commuters all become possible sources for energy! With the green building movement gaining momentum every day, you’ll see more ideas like this spring up in the news. If you run across any interesting green building ideas, please, e-mail them my way! 

I’m back at my desk in good ol’ Wisconsin after spending several days in Vermont for the Concrete Foundations Association summer conference. Foundation contractors from all over the country had the opportunity to learn about some of the latest technology in site prep and layout, GPS tracking for vehicle management, and green building. Green building was probably the topic that was on most people’s minds, with poured wall contractors talking a lot about their experiences building concrete homes. Van Smith presented a seminar on VanDeck, a new removable concrete forming system for concrete decks offered by Western Forms. In the exhibit area, information was also available on the Thermomass product and Western Forms’ Comfort Wall system. Contractors agree that green building is not a fad and an increasing number of customers are looking to take advantage of the energy efficiency that concrete offers.

I’m in Vermont right now attending the Concrete Foundations Association summer meeting. This morning I attended seminars on succession planning, crisis communication and in-house training. In a couple of minutes I’m going to eat some Ben and Jerry’s ice cream , but before I do I want to leave you with a quick tip a contractor mentioned during the crisis communication seminar. One of this contractor’s employees had a medical emergency on the job, and the “in case of emergency” contact numbers the employee had given the owner many years ago were out of date. With cell phone numbers changing constantly, and people’s “call in case of emergency” choices potentially moving or changing too, it’s a good idea for you to update these records often — maybe once a quarter, or at least once or twice a year. If an employee gets hurt on the job, it’s important for you to be able to contact his or her family members immediately!