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Volume 13
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Number 10
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OCTOBER 2016
Cheers for 10 years
Rock stars
The BELCO team is active in the community.
L-R: Trevor Caka and Teri Mueller attend the Build Expo.
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hree brothers, Marco, Alfredo and Raul Blanco and their sister Dulce formed Blanco Electric Ltd. Co. (BELCO) in 2006. According to President Marco Blanco, in the beginning his sister Dulce answered phones, Alfredo and Raul did all the field work and he handled the estimating and project management. “The early days at the company were scary but also very exciting,” Blanco said. “My brothers and I had been planning for almost two years to open our own shop. “We had no formal business schooling but we had a ton of hustle and drive. We did our best to create a business plan and stick to it.” The Blanco’s quickly grew their busi-
ness and before they knew it their entire family began working at the company. They hired their brother Leo, father Marco Sr., sister Malissa and cousins and uncles. In 2009, they added their brother Joseph as a partner. Today BELCO employs more than 50 people To celebrate 10 years in business, the Blanco family held a Mardi Gras themed crawfish boil party. “One of the memorable moments of the night was right before cutting the special 10-year anniversary cake,” Blanco said. “My brothers and I stood in front of the cake each of us holding a bottle of champagne. We gave a special toast
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fter gaining experience in the masonry business, owner Jason Mueller opened Houston-based Hill Country Rock three and half years ago. His wife Teri helps him at the company today. “I became interested in the stone business after I bid on a hospital project and noticed our bidding was not competitive,” he said. “After digging in and learning about what was going on, we found out we were going up against another company that was cutting their own stone. “Teri and I decided we could do that too. So, we purchased some saws and our production picked up tremendously. We ended up building our own saws. This
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year we added our fourth saw and our sales have gone up.” Mueller says Hill Country Rock buys raw material from 30 different quarries in three states. “We bring in the material on trucks and send it through our sawing facility where we cut the face of the stone off about an inch or an inch and a quarter thick,” he said. “Next we palletize it and send it out to our customers.” Mueller says he and Teri spend time working at the office, tend to business at the rock yard and talk to builders on a daily basis. Trevor Caka, sales representative, is in charge of selling to new customers and continued on Page 18
School bell rings
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randt Constructors & Facility Services has completed the Good Shepherd Episcopal School remodel project in Kingwood. Project manager/superintendent Joseph Gaudiano says the project took three months from start to completion. “The original building was built in the ‘80s where many code requirements have changed that are required today,” Gaudiano said. “The main challenge was not only to renovate a school cosmetically, but to modify the infrastructure to meet current codes coupled with a compressed schedule.“ According to Gaudiano, the primary construction materials used were typical aluminum frames, P-lam doors, acoustical grid and ceiling, custom millwork and flooring. Each classroom was very millwork heavy and was equivalent to building a kitchen in each room requiring extensive
Good Shepherd Episcopal School classroom
plumbing, electrical and mechanical modifications, he said. Gaudiano says the architect, Inven-
ture Design, did a great job on the overall design and meeting the owner’s request, generating plans and competing
the permitting process in a short time frame. A few challenges the construction team met and overcame during the project were procuring construction materials with long lead times avoiding potential delays and finding issues with the building that required them to modify and develop a new approach on how they moved forward with construction. Gaudiano says the Good Shepherd team – Paul Brinsden, Jan Lopez and Heather Dumais were not only a pleasure to work with but worked tirelessly processing ideas and designs which made this project a success aesthetically and functionality. “Working with an owner and architect who understands and communicates the core necessities of an educational transformation like this takes commitment from all involved for the end result continued on Page 18