Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85685
contractor of the year finalist | by Mike Anderson Tim Davis Jr. Pueblo West, Colorado Straight Line Construction Year started: 1982 Number of employees: 95 Annual volume: $3 to $5 million Markets served: Commercial and resi- dential installation of helical piers, micro piles, compaction grouting, mud jacking H aving a degree in en- gineering, Tim Davis Jr. welcomes techno- logical challenges. As a contractor, he has the resources and capabilities to put his solutions into action. The combination of the two, says father Tim Davis Sr., has taken their 30-year-old family busi- ness and jacked it to new levels. That's not to say Straight Line, based in Pueblo West, Colorado, wasn't always a little different. When Tim Sr. broke out on his own, after 16 years as a "readying" superintendent working for large construction companies, he dis- covered a lot of new contractors scavenging for the same morsels of income. "In the early '80s, the economy here just hit bottom," says Tim Sr. "You couldn't buy a job." He turned his attention to a foundation rehab technique that was both unknown at the time and needed in his area: mud jacking, also known as slab jacking. Haphazard backfilling during an earlier residential boom left many homes in southern Colorado with what Straight Line politely calls "unwelcome movement." In lieu of tearing a slab out and starting over, Tim Sr. explains, drilling through the concrete and raising it Tim Jr. has taken the foundation built by his father, Tim Sr., and moved Straight Line Construction ahead with equipment innovation. Among company successes was the saving of a 114-year-old church with the installation of micro piles. with high-pressure grout offered a cost-effective solution for develop- ers faced with a rash of warranty claims. "We have a lot of problematic clay in Colorado," says Tim Jr. "The biggest problem we have is getting optimum moisture in the backfill. If you don't get the right amount of moisture in the back- fill, the clays consolidate as much EquipmentWorld.com | July 2012 59