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"This area we're in is very good for commercial work. There are a lot of strip centers and shopping centers and all sorts of larger properties around here," Harris says.

Harris says the percentage of public versus private work is usually close to 50-50 but in 2008 about 75% of the work was public work. Harris says 75% of his work involves sealcoating, cracksealing, and small patching; 20% is larger patching; and the remaining 5% is other miscellaneous work including snow removal, which he got into just recently.

Today only 15% of North Suburban's work is as a subcontractor, and most of that from a couple of large-scale paving contractors who don't want to get involved in the pavement maintenance business.

"Early on I was in the field to do the work; I wasn't in the field to sell. So about 80% of our work was as a subcontractor and I'd sell the other 20% for us," Harris says. "It's better for us now because we have more control and no one makes promises we can't keep."

Harris says a few years ago North Suburban Asphalt was subcontracting patches 20 ft. x 20 ft. and larger to other contractors, but he found they were very busy and the work wasn't getting done as promptly as he wanted. So he bought a larger dump truck so he could haul more mix and handle the larger patches himself, providing better and more prompt service to his customers.