ForConstructionPros.com

Having a solid base is essential to paving a driveway. For Bel Rock Asphalt Paving Inc., Belvidere, IL, it's essential for both its business and the driveways it paves. To build a solid base for the company, Bel Rock has focused on perfecting it's niche in the residential paving market, an expansion of the company's original sealcoating focus.

In 1999, Kelly Farina, vice president of Bel Rock, started his own sealcoating business - Sealcoating Specialist. For patching jobs, Farina enlisted the help of his friend Perry Michaud. In 2004, the two - both in their twenties - joined together and started Bel Rock as a paving division of Sealcoating Specialist.

Michaud, president of Bel Rock, says the company is small with 11 full-time employees and has recently unionized. The company services about a 15-mile radius from the Belvidere/Rockford, IL, area and focuses on the residential side, with a small but growing number of jobs coming from commercial clients.

From the beginning Bel Rock focused on residential driveways, Michaud says. "As we were getting into this business we wanted to be the asphalt company strictly for residential driveways. From new home owners to new construction, whatever it deals with from a residential standpoint is what we want to do," Michaud says. "There are other asphalt contractors out there that do residential driveways but don't strictly focus on that market. Residential driveways are our bread and butter."

Even though the company originally started in sealcoating, the majority of Bel Rock's business - an estimated 75% - now comes from the paving side, Michaud says. The other 25% is spread among sealcoating, crack filling, striping, and patching.