Cat Mini Excavators Drive Productivity for Fresno Plumbing & Heating, Inc.

By Brian Hoover, Senior Editor

Fresno Plumbing & Heating, Inc. has been serving the Central Valley since 1945 with commercial, design-build and residential services. The company works on various commercial jobs, from schools and hospitals to new tract home developments and industrial building projects. Jason Poole has been working at Fresno Plumbing & Heating since 1993 and now serves as their fleet manager overseeing 200-plus pickup trucks, 10 heavy-duty semi-trucks, eight Cat mini excavators, skid steers, backhoes and numerous trailers. “Part of my job description calls for me to purchase, sell and maintain our truck, trailer and construction equipment fleet,” says Poole. “We have a full-time mechanic that I oversee, and he does a great job keeping our trucks and equipment running at their top performance levels. Our mini excavator fleet is made up of all Cat 305 machines.

Fresno Plumbing & Heating has a fleet of Cat equipment that includes eight mini excavators.

We lease our construction equipment from Quinn Company Cat because downtime is the enemy of productivity. We do everything we can to avoid downtime, and leasing ensures that our operators are in low hour, high production machines at all times.”

Poole points out that he also wants every truck and piece of equipment under warranty. “We have designated operators for each machine, and they take good care of their equipment. Every one of our Cat machines is under a 30 month/3,500-hour warranty. We average right at 100 hours a month per Cat unit, and the warranty does a lot toward peace of mind.” Poole says that Fresno Plumbing & Heating has been going with Cat since their first purchase in 2000. “We go with Cat primarily for the service after the sale. We tried other brands early on, but the quality, product support, and resale value moved us over to Cat. The Cat brand holds its value better,” continues Poole. “I have been working with Scott Fishel, our Quinn Cat representative, for around 15 years, and he has been there for us every step of the way. At the end of the lease period, if for any reason we want to keep the machine, Quinn Cat has allowed us to roll it over to a month-to-month lease at the same rate.”

Fresno Plumbing and Heating’s Cat 305E installing a sewer main at Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera.

Fresno Plumbing & Heating is extremely busy, and they have ordered additional Cat 305E2 mini excavators to support the workload. “We took delivery of our newest Cat 305 mini excavator last week, and it only sat in our yard for 30 minutes before one of our operators picked it up,” says Poole. “We have two more Cat 305 mini excavators on order and will continue to add machines as demand continues to rise.” Poole explains that his company uses the Cat mini excavators, skid steers, and backhoes primarily to dig plumbing trenches for commercial and residential commercial projects. “We did approximately 1,800 new home projects last year, and every single one required the use of one of our Cat mini excavators, skid steers or backhoe,” continues Poole. “We use our Cat machines at least twice on every project. Once to excavate the trench and then again later to backfill. Seventy percent of our commercial projects also require an excavator at some point.” Fresno Plumbing & Heating perform their own in-house maintenance on their Cat machines. “The beauty of having all Cat 305 mini excavators is that we only have to stock maintenance and wear parts for one make and model. That sure saves a lot of money and hassle.”

Fresno Plumbing & Heating currently has nine designated operators, and each of them is assigned a specific Cat machine. They each have a company truck and haul their own equipment. They show up in the morning with instructions on where to go for that day. Sometimes they remain on one job, while other operators move to as many as six projects daily. “We work on everything from a single residence to a $5 million hospital project. We recently completed a new hospital in Bakersfield that required an extensive amount of excavation. We had a machine and operator on that project for nine months installing 1,500 linear feet all-new PVC from 12 inches down to 4 inches,” says Poole. “We also recently finished a large apartment building project in Fresno that we had our Cat machines on for more than a year. We did the rough and under slab plumbing, installing 6 inch to 4 inch PVC pipe,” continues Poole. “Additionally, we have been very busy on the Riverstone housing tract project in Madera County. We have been on this job for three years, roughing in PVC sewer pipe, along with other plumbing on more than 1,500 new homes so far.

Above & Below: Fresno Plumbing & Heating uses a Cat 305E2 mini excavator to backfill at a housing project in the Riverstone tract in Madera.

Poole says that most of the excavation and backfill work is accomplished with the Cat 305 mini excavators. “We utilize our Cat 420 backhoes on the bigger and deeper excavating projects. We also use our Cat 259D skid steers to load and move material within and off the project area,” says Poole. “We train our highly skilled operators in-house, and they all seem to prefer using the Cat mini excavator whenever possible. They like them for their tight turning radius and ease of maneuverability, but there is nothing like a backhoe when you need one for those heavier, deeper trenching projects.” Poole insists that they get more productivity out of their operators when they are comfortable in the cab. “Our operators love the comfort they get in our Cat machines. Every machine is equipped with full A/C and heating climate control and other enhanced ergonomic controls and seating,” continues Poole. “The operators look forward to the end of their lease because they know they are getting a brand-new version with all the latest bells and whistles.”

Fresno Plumbing & Heating also has a service division that works for residential homeowners and industrial and commercial customers. “We use trenchless technology and pipe bursting machines to replace private building and residential sewer connections or laterals. We use our Cat mini excavators to dig both pilot and receiving holes on both sides of the sewer line,” says Poole. “Sometimes a job requires more excavator power than we can provide with our mini excavators, so we rent those larger machines from Quinn Rental Services when necessary.

Fresno Plumbing & Heating is an ESOP company (Employee Stock Ownership Plan), 100% owned by the employees. These company owners offer an extensive list of services devoted to new construction projects. Re-piping duties and other services are available on a 24-hour basis. For more information on Fresno Plumbing & Heating, please visit www.fphinc.com or call their Fresno headquarters at (559) 294-0200. Cc