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hen owner of FYDAQ, Mike Craft was asked how he got into the underground utilities construction business, he commented, “sometimes jobs find you”. Mike Craft began his career in construction while still in high school and one thing led to another and his career remained on the same path. Mike comments, “We started out in 1993 like so many other construction companies, robbing Peter to pay Paul. You know I really need to thank all of our suppliers for loyally supporting our
company over the years. We have benefited their business and they have greatly benefited ours and that is how it should be.” FYDAQ began by performing sewer to house connections, channel entries and other basic jobs. Today, FYDAQ is capable of constructing all sizes of water, sewer, and storm drain projects. Mike Craft continues, “We work primarily for three or four select customers and we find this much easier to manage. We have had to go out and find some public works jobs and other miscellaneous type work, however for the most part our select list of clients have kept us very busy. It might have looked much different on the orange county contracting front if not for the aggressive participation of the Irvine Co devloping several Planing areas. They have been
the prominent builder over the past three years and we are thankful for every job we can do for them. Even today it is easy to grow in this business, but it is very difficult to manage sustainable growth. This is probably the most difficult part of our business today. Well that and the 91 Freeway. I mean it would be very easy to go out and purchase say 10 or 12 excavators right now, but that would not be sustainable. We are very busy right now, but who knows what tomorrow will bring. That is why we utilize companies like Westrax Machinery and ASAP Heavy Equipment Rentals. We own and operate a small fleet of Hitachi 330 excavators, Volvo loaders and just recently purchased a new John Deere 644 wheel loader, but we subsidize our inventory by working with Dennis
Background: LiuGong 936D excavator was used to install underground wet utilities. Top Left: Mike Craft, Owner, FYDAQ Co., Inc. Left: FYDAQ utilizes a Luigong 842 III wheel loader to transport material on the San Marcos project.