Fall Home Improvement
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE – Many construction projects begin from the ground up. And who better to get you started than Ground Breakers, located on the Caribou Road, a Presque Isle company specializing in earth work.
Owned by Scott Caron, Matt Leavitt, Dave Caron Jr. and Chad Caron, Ground Breakers offers a full line of services, from foundations and septic systems to water and sewer lines. “We specialize in new home construction and all the earth work involved with building one. We can go in and prepare for the foundation, build the septic system, build the driveway and hottop it. We can also build the lawn, with Caron’s Property Maintenance – another company of ours – able to come in and do the maintenance once the lawn’s designed,” said Scott Caron.
Caron said with Caron’s Property Maintenance there was a definite need for the added service Ground Breakers provides.
“We had the need with the lawn care business and Matt had the knowledge. We started last fall. Matt has plenty of construction experience and serves as our operations supervisor,” said Caron.
For the few months during the year when frost prevents the two companies from doing their primary work of lawn care and soil projects, Caron said there’s always snow removal to be done.
“During the wintertime we do snow removal. We actually have a couple large accounts for parking lots,” said Caron.
When the weather is good, work can be performed seven days a week.
“There’s always stuff to do on commercial jobs. We usually do those (jobs) on weekends, when businesses are closed,” said Caron.
Ground Breakers also offer materials for projects, including screened loam, crushed stones, gravel and more. Caron said the two companies work together, making it easier to complete jobs.
“With everything under one umbrella, there’s added convenience for the customer,” said Caron, noting the owners have 16 years of combined experience in such work. “Matt knows road layouts – that helps in preparing driveways for hottop. We do a lot for Lane’s and various hottop companies – do residential and commercial,” Caron said.
‘Summer’ construction began in April, with work expected to continue through early December, as it did last year.
“In the winter, we also do a lot of frozen water lines, catch basins,” said Caron.
Work is not limited to just the Presque Isle area, said Caron, who indicated the business will go anywhere from Bangor to Fort Kent for jobs.
“We’ve already had a big project in Bangor. We’ve done several driveways and a couple new homes,” said Caron.
Because larger projects take a bit more time, Caron said the company tries to line up jobs in close proximity to each other.
“Doing jobs in one community rather than traveling back and forth between several cuts down on expenses – transportation costs and time invested,” said Caron.
The jobs are made easier by the fact all the equipment is new.
“We have new equipment, including: wheel loaders, dump trucks, backhoes, dozers, excavators and skid steers,” said Caron.
The company also has a hydroseeder that’s used for seeding along roadways.
The idea to open Ground Breakers came about a year ago, when Caron’s Lawn Maintenance did work on the lawn of a new home.
“Last year we worked on a site where a new house went in. They needed a driveway and lawn. We realized that was an area we could expand on. There was enough work (on jobs like that) for a business to survive on its own,” said Caron.
After talking with Leavitt, Caron said they geared up and prepared over the winter to open the business once warm weather hit.
“We’ve been pretty lucky. We went out and purchased the equipment without having any contracts or anything. The decision to start the business was based on the previous summer and seeing there was a void there,” said Caron.
Caron said there were two key elements to his business’s success.
“Communication and cooperation are important.
For more information or a free estimate, call 762-3200.
“We’ve been busy from day one. Hopefully we’ll stay that way,” said Caron.
