Gaines and Company North Carolina Grading/Growth
Gaines and Company’s equipment expansion leads to excavation and grading, a newly offered site development turnkey service.
Construction is booming in North Carolina and Gaines and Company is expanding its’ grading and excavation turnkey services to meet unprecedented site developer needs. “We do all of our grading and excavation work in-house,” says George Grammer, Gaines and Company’s VP of the Raleigh, North Carolina division.
Gaines and Company NC is located near Research Triangle Park (RTP) and is strategically managed by Grammer, Jim Stafford, General Superintendent and Trent Hargis, Grading Superintendent. All three come with an abundance of construction industry experience, totaling over 98 combined years of construction experience.
“We understand the value of our customer relationships and that’s what our focus is on”
– George Grammer, Gaines and Company VP, Raleigh NC
“Jim’s brought a great deal of knowledge and experience with the paving side,” Grammer says. Jim Stafford has been with Gaines and Company for over a year and has decades of road building and paving experience. Trent Hargis has been with the company since 2016, recently being promoted from foreman to Grading Superintendent. Grammer, who is nearing 30 years with Gaines and Company, moved to North Carolina in 2016 to fill the VP position. Grammer’s son, Jake, was brought on as an estimator and both he and Hargis are trained in the AgTek software system for earthwork takeoff, estimating and digital 3D models.
Gaines and Company’s Raleigh NC division is growing its’ in house grading & excavation and turnkey site developer services.
Managing the North Carolina division requires knowledge and forethought, and this site development dream team has a plan. “The goal for us down here is to mirror the structure we have in Maryland that’s been successful for many years,” says Grammer. Gaines and Company has origins as an underground utility contractor, first in MD then in NC where it opened in 1998. Both sites later added excavation and grading as a natural extension of services. “We started doing utility work here in North Carolina then began the grading side of things late in 2016,” says Grammer. “We saw the need to do that to be able to grow our footprint.”
With the Gaines and Company headquarters as their model, the Raleigh managers are increasing grading crews and equipment inventory to keep pace with client expectations. “We can do a project more efficiently than most and we want our customers to be satisfied,” says Grammer. “The faster we can get a project graded and get the subsurface utilities in, the faster we can turn over lots to our customers – that’s the name of the game.”
Currently, there are five utility and three full-size grading crews in Raleigh and over the last three years, the North Carolina yard has added six off road heavy equipment trucks, three excavators, six bulldozers and a K-TEC pan, all equipped with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) capabilities. But the three NC managers agree they don’t want to get too big too quickly. “We’ve been very fortunate,” says Grammer, who’s seen his share of construction companies expand only to close their doors soon after. “We’re focused on managing it well and building good customer relationships,” he says, “take one job at a time and be successful, just grow that way.”
Gaines and Company offers computerized project management. Seen here: AGTEK 3D jobsite image of Gaines and Company Glen Oaks subdivision in northern Wake Forest, NC.
Gaines and Company completed 12,000 foot curb, 40,000 sq. yards paving, 140,000 sq. feet building pads for the just completed Twin Lakes Wegman’s project in Cary, North Carolina.
Each year Gaines and Company in Raleigh NC invests in grading & excavation equipment and currently houses six off road trucks, three excavators, six dozers and a new K-TEC earthmover with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) capabilities.
Stafford and Hargis are both area locals and say they’ve never experienced anything like the development happening now. “I have seen this place completely change in 25 years,” says Stafford. “It’s just amazing what it looked like when I started here in the mid ‘90’s to what it is today and we’re glad to be a part of it.”
NCDOT is in the process of completing the 540 Outer Loop around the greater Raleigh area and upon completion in 2020, the 264 Greenville Southwest Bypass will shorten travel time. “I’ve lived no more than probably 12 miles from where our office is my entire life and it’s unreal the amount of growth,” says Hargis, referencing a nearby neighborhood where over 1,000 homes have been built in the last 16 years in an area that used to have only one gas station. “All of that is because of the 540 and 264 being built,” he says.
After recent approval of the State Transportation Improvement Program, all 100 North Carolina counties will receive project funding for highway improvements through 2027. Along with these new highways, Grammer sees a lot of potential for the next 20 years. “Once you get the bottom half of the 540 built, it opens up that much more area,” he says.
Everything is moving in the right direction, according to Grammer. “We’re doing a lot of turnkey work now,” he says. Hargis manages most of the main dirt crew operations while Stafford oversees curb, stone and asphalt. “Jim managed Twin Lakes Center, a large turnkey project we just completed for Chesapeake Contracting Group,” says Grammer. “A lot of the earthwork we’re doing now is for residential communities, which is what we’re targeting since the housing market is so strong.” Gaines and Company’s current NC projects are mainly large apartment complexes and subdivisions. “We’re doing three right now, two in Cary and one in Raleigh,” says Stafford.
Wake County
alone projecting growth of 250,000 people in the next ten years, one lingering question remains – what is the driving force bringing so many people to North Carolina? “I think it’s a lot of things,” says Hargis, “it’s low taxes, jobs, it’s schools, it’s the people.” Research Triangle Park also is a big draw as research and development industries continue to move into that region. “It’s a very business friendly environment so the area here promotes growth,” he says. College students are flocking to the smaller, easily manageable, newly built apartments in Raleigh, and surprisingly many retirees are now headed to North Carolina instead of Florida. “They have the best of both worlds,” says Grammer of the short three-hour jaunt to either the beach or mountains. “You still see snow in the winter and a change of seasons,” he says, “it’s a pretty great place to live.”
