6 minute read
D2 Excavating Inc.
Austin-area contractor D2 Excavating Inc. focuses on providing quality earthwork in Texas
Focusing strictly on earthwork has been a major factor in D2 Excavating Inc.’s success during nearly two decades in business. That strategy also appealed to Vice President Jonathan Clarkson and Vice President Eric Houdek, who both joined the company about two years ago.
“I came from general contracting, managing multifamily projects that involved multiple scopes of work,” said Clarkson. “Dealing with one is challenging enough, let alone 20. I really like that D2 focuses just on the earthwork portion, and it’s a lot of fun.”
D2 Excavating is currently solely owned by Nancy Heaton, who helped found the company in 2005. Based in Leander, Texas, D2 Excavating serves about a 100-mile radius of the area and prefers to stay around Austin. Clarkson oversees D2 Excavating’s commercial side, while Houdek oversees its residential. Both operations offer similar services to general contractors throughout Central Texas.
“The initial step is taking care of any clearing,” explained Houdek. “From there, it’s heavy earthmoving and excavation, embankment, road grading, flex base installation, and getting prepped for curb and gutter and paving. We self-perform anything related to the earthmoving and subgrade, and we sub out the rest such as utilities and asphalt.”
Significant growth
In the relatively short time Houdek and Clarkson have been on D2 Excavating’s team, it has nearly tripled.
“When Jonathon and I started, there were roughly 25 employees, and now we’re up to about 70,” said Houdek. “The growth has been based on client needs as well as good management, operators and machinery. We have developed a list of repeat customers because we’re there from the start to the finish of the project. Our clients call us back because we put out a good finish product, and we take pride in what we do and what we’re selling at the end of the day. We’re also working with new customers and building relationships with them.”
D2 Excavating typically has 15 to 20 active jobs in various stages of progress at any one time. Its projects range in size from approximately 3,000 yards of excavation up to about 200,000 yards. A recent 150-lot residential subdivision included road improvements, roughly 50,000 yards of excavation, and about 30,000 yards of embankment for pond building and home development. Additional crews worked on smaller sites, moving 3,000 to 4,000 yards with embankment and putting in select fill as part of school renovations in the Austin area.
“Our people make the company successful — from our estimators to our management to our field staff,” stated Clarkson. “It also comes down to good planning. We set up our jobs so that everyone is on the same page going in, knows exactly what needs to be done ahead of time, and there are no questions when we get on-site.”
Savings with IMC, WPI service
No matter the size of the job site, D2 Excavating uses Komatsu dozers, excavators and wheel loaders that were acquired from Waukesha-Pearce Industries LLC (WPI) with the help of Austin-based Sales Specialist Cory Webb. Houdek noted that the company prefers to run machines that are three years or newer to help limit the amount of maintenance needed.
“Cory is always ready to answer questions and help with any need we have,” said Clarkson. “We rely on his expertise to choose the right-sized machines so that we get maximum efficiency and production. For many years, that’s primarily been Komatsu because of Cory and WPI’s service, as well as the machines themselves. We have practically no issues with Komatsu, and that reliability is essential to us.”
Webb and WPI have helped coordinate financing through Komatsu Financial and service through Komatsu Care.
“They are with us every step of the machine purchasing and leasing processes,” said Houdek. “We like Komatsu Care because we know the services are done on time, and it frees up our mechanic to work on other things.”
Recently, D2 Excavating added Komatsu D61EXi-24 and D71EXi-24 Intelligent Machine Control (IMC) dozers with factory-integrated GPS to help increase efficiency.
“We use the D61 on smaller sites and the 71 on larger residential sites; both from rough cut to finish grade, so they are versatile machines that get us through the whole life cycle of a project,” said Houdek. “The dozers eliminate a significant amount of surveying, staking and grade checking, which further reduces downtime. When you can show up to a job site with the model loaded into the machine that gives the operator all the information they need to move dirt, you can get to work and move dirt a lot faster. The savings we get with the IMC dozers compared to traditional methods are significant.”
D2 Excavating also utilizes standard Komatsu PC210LC-11 and PC290LC-11 excavators for digging, large building cuts and loading trucks, as well as Komatsu WA320 wheel loaders for a variety of tasks.
“Like the dozers, the excavators and loaders fit well on our smaller projects, and we can put them on larger sites and still get the same mission accomplished,” said Houdek.
Fine tuning
Having come from larger companies, Houdek and Clarkson are more than satisfied with the growth D2 Excavating has made in the last few years.
“I think the goal for D2 Excavating would be to continue to operate at a similar size but to fine tune the operation even more so that we can do better for our clients,” stated Houdek. ■
*The opinions expressed here are from the end user as quoted. The results described herein are those of these end users under certain conditions. Individual results may vary.
