ForConstructionPros.com

"That," he says, "was the real beginning of North Suburban Asphalt Maintenance. Ever since then the business has doubled, tripled, and even quadrupled in sales from one year to the next, and 2008 was our biggest year yet, maintenance-wise."

Harris says North Suburban Asphalt tackled what he termed "probably the biggest parking lot sealcoating job in Illinois in 2008" for Harper College as a subcontractor. In addition to cracksealing more than 15,000 linear feet of cracks over 14 parking lots, his crew sealcoated 2.6 million sq. ft. of pavement in two phases, including all ring and connecting roads throughout the college complex.

"That job had some tough parameters because they wanted two coats but they wanted at least eight hours between the coats," Harris says. "So we worked in parking lots on opposite sides, doing two one day, switching to the other side the next day, and then back to put the second coat on the first lots on day three."

In 1999 Harris hired three workers, and halfway through that season his brother, Lon, joined the crew. North Suburban ran that way until 2003 when Lon left. Rick Kaczmarski soon joined, and he is now the superintendent on the jobsite responsible for running the yard, ordering material, and directing all operations in the field, freeing up Harris to focus on sales and customer service.

Today, more than 20 years after Harris first put squeegee to driveway, North Suburban Asphalt Maintenance rarely does any residential work (with one important exception, see sidebar), devoting all its efforts to sealcoating private commercial, industrial, or multi-family residential properties or public properties such as schools and colleges.