Low-Noise Hammer Makes Quick Work of Boulders
“There are 1,000 big boulders here, not solid ledge,” says David Dietz, president of Dietz Construction Corp. He’s talking about the 5-acre site his caompany is preparing for the East Hampshire District Courthouse in Belchertown, MA.
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| Hammer operator Mike Gregoire and David Dietz take pride in their work. |
“It’s a conglomeration of rocks, mostly granite, and the boulders range up to 16 feet in diameter,” says Dietz. “It’s more efficient to hammer it than to blast it. Breaking and excavating the rock here is our biggest challenge.”
It’s a challenge that Dietz and his crews are meeting quite handily. He figures it will take just eight weeks to break and excavate the site’s 8,000 cubic yards of rock. “All the rock is being broken to 30 inches and smaller,” says Dietz, whose company is based in Easthampton, MA. As well, approximately 10,000 cubic yards of earth will be excavated to remain onsite.
His hammer of choice is the new Volvo HB2400 low-noise model, mounted on a Volvo EC240B LC excavator. The 7,000-foot-pound hammer—introduced less than a year ago—is working very well in the hard New England granite, Dietz says. “We’ve used hammers from three other manufacturers, and this one works much better than those older models,” according to Dietz. “It’s a quieter-operating hammer and gives less vibration to the operator.”
Hammer operator Mike Gregoire likes the rig as well. “That hammer is perfectly sized to the excavator,” he says. “It’s stable, well-balanced, and doesn’t make much noise. You can extend the boom all the way out, and it won’t tip the machine.”
Ahead of schedule thanks to unseasonably warm temperatures, the company has worked the project through December and January—months normally too cold to work in New England. But this year, the ground was not frozen.
Originally the project was to shut down during the winter, Dietz says, but work began in October and should wrap up in June, well ahead of schedule.
 |
| From boulders to rocks and from rocks to rubble, finished sites are the Dietz specialty. |
When we visited the project, Dietz was using an EC290B LC to load seven tandem-axle trucks. Meanwhile, one EC240B LC alternated between hammering boulders and feeding broken rock to the larger excavator. A second EC240B LC was digging foundations and handling utility work.
Dietz prefers Volvo excavators and owns eight of them. “Our last five new excavators have been Volvos,” he says. “We like the production of our Volvo excavators. We’ve found them to be very strong and capable machines for rock excavation. The quick coupler system and hydraulics work well for changing buckets and attachments quickly, including the hammer.”
It takes just about five minutes to drop a bucket and mount the hammer, as we observed onsite.
Compared to other brands of excavators, Dietz says, the Volvo machines are more powerful and produce faster cycle times. Plus, the service and support that Dietz gets from Tyler Equipment Corp. play an important role in his purchase decisions. “Our salesperson is Jim White, and I’ve had a business relationship with him for more than 20 years.”
Dietz’s father, Herman, founded the company in 1963 and has since turned over the helm to David and David’s brother Richard. Annual revenues run in the $4-million-plus range.
Growth has been steady, averaging about 5%–10% annually for the past five years.
“We are a very aggressive company, an open-shop contractor,” says Dietz. “Many employees have been with us for 15 years or more. Our employees provide the driving force behind this company.”
Dietz says the Volvo excavators have “definitely helped in the growth of Dietz Construction,” explaining that the team of an excavator and articulated dump trucks is a more efficient way to move earth than dozers and scrapers, especially considering the tight sites and the wet, clay soils that Dietz excavates. “That’s where the combination of the excavator and articulated dump truck excels,” Dietz says.
The courthouse project bears a contract worth about $600,000 to Dietz, and that is about average size. His firm has performed projects up to $3 million. Typical site-prep projects for the company include large commercial sites, multifamily housing, retirement homes, and “big box” retail sites. The company is very willing to take on aggressive schedules.
About half the firm’s projects are competitively bid, and the other half are negotiated. “We have built relationships with a number of developers and general contractors so that we have a steady flow of new projects coming to us,” says Dietz.
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To build long-term relationships, Dietz strives to complete projects on time, to minimize budget overruns, and to reduce extra costs resulting from unforeseen conditions.
"Our developers don’t have to worry about anything outside the building foundation," says Dietz, whose firm starts with the land clearing and completes site preparation up through landscaping and everything in between.
Author's Bio: Daniel C. Brown is the owner of TechniComm, a communications business based in Des Plaines, IL.
Buyers Guide 2008
Low-Noise Hammer Makes Quick Work of Boulders
Dietz Construction find an excavator-mounted hammer more efficient than blasting.
“There are 1,000 big boulders here, not solid ledge,” says David Dietz, president of Dietz Construction Corp. He’s talking about the 5-acre site his caompany is preparing for the East Hampshire District Courthouse in Belchertown, MA.
|
| Hammer operator Mike Gregoire and David Dietz take pride in their work. |
“It’s a conglomeration of rocks, mostly granite, and the boulders range up to 16 feet in diameter,” says Dietz. “It’s more efficient to hammer it than to blast it. Breaking and excavating the rock here is our biggest challenge.”
It’s a challenge that Dietz and his crews are meeting quite handily. He figures it will take just eight weeks to break and excavate the site’s 8,000 cubic yards of rock. “All the rock is being broken to 30 inches and smaller,” says Dietz, whose company is based in Easthampton, MA. As well, approximately 10,000 cubic yards of earth will be excavated to remain onsite.
His hammer of choice is the new Volvo HB2400 low-noise model, mounted on a Volvo EC240B LC excavator. The 7,000-foot-pound hammer—introduced less than a year ago—is working very well in the hard New England granite, Dietz says. “We’ve used hammers from three other manufacturers, and this one works much better than those older models,” according to Dietz. “It’s a quieter-operating hammer and gives less vibration to the operator.”
Hammer operator Mike Gregoire likes the rig as well. “That hammer is perfectly sized to the excavator,” he says. “It’s stable, well-balanced, and doesn’t make much noise. You can extend the boom all the way out, and it won’t tip the machine.”
Ahead of schedule thanks to unseasonably warm temperatures, the company has worked the project through December and January—months normally too cold to work in New England. But this year, the ground was not frozen.
Originally the project was to shut down during the winter, Dietz says, but work began in October and should wrap up in June, well ahead of schedule.
|
| From boulders to rocks and from rocks to rubble, finished sites are the Dietz specialty. |
When we visited the project, Dietz was using an EC290B LC to load seven tandem-axle trucks. Meanwhile, one EC240B LC alternated between hammering boulders and feeding broken rock to the larger excavator. A second EC240B LC was digging foundations and handling utility work.
Dietz prefers Volvo excavators and owns eight of them. “Our last five new excavators have been Volvos,” he says. “We like the production of our Volvo excavators. We’ve found them to be very strong and capable machines for rock excavation. The quick coupler system and hydraulics work well for changing buckets and attachments quickly, including the hammer.”
It takes just about five minutes to drop a bucket and mount the hammer, as we observed onsite.
Compared to other brands of excavators, Dietz says, the Volvo machines are more powerful and produce faster cycle times. Plus, the service and support that Dietz gets from Tyler Equipment Corp. play an important role in his purchase decisions. “Our salesperson is Jim White, and I’ve had a business relationship with him for more than 20 years.”
Dietz’s father, Herman, founded the company in 1963 and has since turned over the helm to David and David’s brother Richard. Annual revenues run in the $4-million-plus range.
Growth has been steady, averaging about 5%–10% annually for the past five years.
“We are a very aggressive company, an open-shop contractor,” says Dietz. “Many employees have been with us for 15 years or more. Our employees provide the driving force behind this company.”
Dietz says the Volvo excavators have “definitely helped in the growth of Dietz Construction,” explaining that the team of an excavator and articulated dump trucks is a more efficient way to move earth than dozers and scrapers, especially considering the tight sites and the wet, clay soils that Dietz excavates. “That’s where the combination of the excavator and articulated dump truck excels,” Dietz says.
The courthouse project bears a contract worth about $600,000 to Dietz, and that is about average size. His firm has performed projects up to $3 million. Typical site-prep projects for the company include large commercial sites, multifamily housing, retirement homes, and “big box” retail sites. The company is very willing to take on aggressive schedules.
About half the firm’s projects are competitively bid, and the other half are negotiated. “We have built relationships with a number of developers and general contractors so that we have a steady flow of new projects coming to us,” says Dietz.
To build long-term relationships, Dietz strives to complete projects on time, to minimize budget overruns, and to reduce extra costs resulting from unforeseen conditions.
"Our developers don’t have to worry about anything outside the building foundation," says Dietz, whose firm starts with the land clearing and completes site preparation up through landscaping and everything in between.