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The force is with May
He lifts you up
Vincent May on a job at Kyle Field the Texas A&M football stadium.
Rodolfo Fernández, owner of Eskala North America.
incent May was a freshly-graduated Aggie with a construction science degree when he accepted a field engineer position in 1992. The gig lasted a year before May, itching to branch out on his own, founded building maintenance, waterproofing and structural restoration company Mayco Building Systems in 1993. “I jumped out on my own and started doing everything myself. I wasn’t intimidated; I was familiar with almost all of the construction processes,” he says. “My grandfather started working for a waterproofing company, The Horne Company, in the 1930s. Around 1950, he started his own waterproofing company, Caravella Waterproofing, in Houston. I worked for him on and off for him while I
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www.constructionnews.net H (210) 308-5800 H Volume 16 H Number 11 H NOVEMBER 2018
was in high school and college. My dad, who had worked for my grandfather, was running a waterproofing division for a roofing company at that time. I knew that if I went into the waterproofing business on my own, I had two of the best consultants in the world – my grandfather and my dad – at my fingertips.” Almost 26 years later, May has grown Mayco Building Systems to just under 50 employees, whom he says are the reason he is still in the business. In fact, May, who builds spec homes on the side, said he would make more money and have less stress if he left it all to put on his flip flops and shorts and develop the properties he owns in Galveston. “The only reason I don’t stop this continued on Page 14
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he verbal form of escalar, translated from the Spanish, means, “to climb.” As a noun, it can be translated as “ladder.” Eskala is a fitting name for Rodolfo Fernández’s company. His goal is to get the customer off the ground and in the air. Eskala rents and sells lift equipment. For a rental, it handles the greater Houston area. For sales, Eskala has gone to every lower 48 state (but would love to get Alaska). Fernández is from Mexico, and has been in construction his whole life. When he came to Houston 15 years ago, he grew frustrated whenever necessary equipment was down or he couldn’t get a part for it. Seeing the need, he started Eskala five years ago.
“Our main focus is customer service,” Fernández said. For instance, if a lift is broken down or has a problem, he’ll get a replacement out to the jobsite within two hours, then bring the broken one back to the shop for repairs. Eskala sells refurbished lifts of all the major brands. They are brought back to all original factory specs and sold at a good price to anyone who wants to own it. Fernández uses a trucking freight line to ship the lift out to the customer. In addition, Eskala sells parts to the lifts as well. They will research the needed item with the customer, then overnight it to him. “In the beginning, we started just selling scissor lifts,” Fernández said. continued on Page 14
Beauty and ambiance
n 2011, Irfan Abji and Alejandra Cobas-Abji acquired E Contractors, priding itself on service and truly exceptional construction projects when it comes to serving clients and the level of responsibility on each project. It has assisted school districts in saving thousands of dollars by understanding the project in whole, knowing what can be value engineered and what cannot, never taking quality control compromises to cut budgets. With so much business in the public sector, E Contractors is always cognizant that it’s not just the client’s money they are spending, but it is also the public’s money. Leveraging more than a century in professional experience in construction management to in-depth project management, E Contractors was an ideal fit for the construction of Egrets Landing, a Class A office building in Sugarland, TX.
Located in the Lake Pointe of Highway 6 and U.S. 59, Egrets Landing offers spectacular views of Brooks Lake. The new two-story office building with a modern exterior and steel construction has been completed after fifteen months of tedious planning and construction. The 22,000sf office building was comprised of red-iron steel structural framing, masonry brick exterior with wood fascia trims on the exterior and interior for finishing touches. Exquisite upscale materials and finishes encompass the two-story atrium and restrooms. Porcelain stone tile adorn walls and floors within the facility and are complimented with decorative chandeliers. The challenges faced by the E Contractors team was meeting requests to continuously seek ways to improve the design and concept that would bring the building to truly meet their expectations. Egrets Landing, 16554 Creekbend Drive
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