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"We knew we could perform this kind of work on this large a scale because it takes all the different aspects of our business and puts them to good use," Maul says. "Jobs of this size and complexity require planning, scheduling, detail, and communication, both with the material supplier and the customers and tenants, and that fits right in with what we do best."

Driveways to parking lots
Started in 1986 as a part-time driveway sealing business when Maul was in high school, the company was run by Maul's brother and current vice president of marketing Chris, while Eric was in college. The brothers continued the company, eventually dividing the territory so they wouldn't compete, and Eric continued working even after he got a job in the health care industry.

In 1997 they sold the company when Eric had to move to Arizona for his job, but three years later, when he decided to move back to the Chicago area, he wanted back in.

"My timing was pretty good because the person we sold it to was ready to get out, so we just bought it back," Maul says. "It was a driveway company when we sold it and it was a driveway company when I bought it back. But we decided if we were going to make serious money in this business we had to be a commercial contractor, and now more than 95% of our work is commercial."

Today the company is run by the Maul brothers and by Chris Rowe, vice president of operations and a partner on the paving side who runs the paving division. Maul Asphalt employs 20 people during the summer, running three sealcoating crews and one paving crew each day. Maul says the paving crew has remained stable over the years, with about half the sealcoating crews being new to the company since 2000. Maul says they do three or four jobs a day, with half the work involving patching and paving and half the work sealcoating and striping. The company regularly services more than 200 clients, most of whom have multiple locations.