Bringing Groundworks ‘in House’

Looking back at another of my articles previously published in Earthmovers Magazine, in it's un-edited form and bringing it to life here on the internet with alternative photos and video footage.

When you are running a successful independent housing development business, it might seem like a great idea to create your own “in house” groundworks company and invest in the equipment to do the job and be totally self-sufficient, rather than outsource the work to third party contractors.

That scenario was the vision of Gareth Hughes, one of the Directors of Harrington Homes who are based in Ivybridge, Devon.

Starting a new business at the height of a global pandemic might seem like a strange decision, but backed by a significant investment in September of 2020 Ionic Groundworks was founded as a stand-alone company contracting to Harrington Homes, on its developments across the South West and up as far as the Bristol area. With plenty of work lined up in the pipeline, they are all set to be an up-and-coming firm.

This latest company joins other businesses under the Harrington Homes umbrella which include, Future Construction SW Ltd who are take on the role of the main contractor on the sites and Timber PAK SW Ltd, who as the name suggests supply and fix all the timber frame modules for the new properties.  

One of Gareth’s first job’s in establishing this company was to appoint a Groundworks Manager, which he did by offering the position to Luke Gilbert whom he had known for some considerable time, and who has many years of experience under his belt, working for a number of big players on the South West groundwork’s scene. It was Luke who we met during Earthmovers visit to a brand-new site in the village of Lifton, in Devon where much of the new plant and machinery has been deployed.

By drawing on his site connections, Luke has assembled a great gang of men, all with proven track records and experience in the groundworks sector in this neck of the woods. This initial team consists of 8 men, but that is certain to increase significantly in the early stages of 2021, as they have 3 – 4 new sites to start across Devon and Cornwall.

The company is already looking to employ more groundworkers, machine operators and labourers in the coming months and also looking at providing NVQ training and apprenticeships for young people to attract that much needed young blood into the industry.

Talking about attracting young people into the industry, Luke said, “Let’s be honest, years ago groundworks wasn’t really regarded as a trade, but these days it certainly is, and a good trade at that, what a lot of people don’t realise is that there is good money to be earnt in this game, admittedly in the winter it can be hard, but in the summer, it’s a dream job and we want to be seen to be helping the youngsters get involved going forward!”.  

In setting the Ionic Groundworks business up, the owners have definitely put their money where their mouths are, by investing around £480,000 in this fleet of brand-new plant and equipment. Case and Wacker Neuson kit was chosen supplied by the main dealer for the South West, M&M Plant Sales.

The initial order consisted of 2 x Case CX130D 13 tonne hydraulic excavators, 1 x Case CX80C 8 tonne midi excavator, 2 x Case CX26C 2.5 tonne mini excavators and perhaps the most surprising machine is a Case SR160 SR160 skid steer loader.

On the Wacker Neuson side of things 3 site dumpers have been purchased, consisting of 1 x DW60 straight tip 6 tonne, and 2 x DW30 swivel skip 3 tonne models, on the compaction side of things 1 x RD28-120 double drum vibratory roller, 1 x RTLX SC3 sheep’s foot style trench compactor and a number of plate compactors make up the tally.

Talking about the company’s shiny new fleet of plant Luke said, “When my employer Gareth Hughes started going down the route of establishing this firm, we looked very closely at our options for machines. After much deliberation, and we did look at a lot of brands, we decided to opt for the Case product, we find it to be a fantastic product, very well made, great to drive and our operators love them.

We have some challenging conditions on this site, we have a lot of soft ground and the water table to contend with here, but so far, the Case kit has handled everything we have thrown at it. As well as being silky smooth to operate, they have plenty of power for lifting, I’ll give you an example, in the early days of the site set-up, one of the 130’s was lifting the site cabins in onto the job as access is pretty restrictive, and it was just throwing them around no problem at all, and it’s the same with the manhole rings, just great plant!”

With M & M Plant Sales also being Wacker Neuson dealers, it was a pretty logical decision to also add the dumpers and compaction kit in on the deal almost like a one stop shop scenario.

Commenting on that Luke said, “Naturally M&M recommended the Wacker Neuson range of kit to us and it just made perfect sense for our business really and I’m so glad we did. Once again, it’s a quality product, top drawer German engineering and great value for money. On this sticky site, we are finding the dumpers have great torque for ploughing through the mud and if they can deal with this, they will cope with anything!”.

“As for the compaction equipment, well, what can I say, they have been a world class name in compaction for many years, and this latest kit is taking it to the next level”.

“Dealing with M&M has been absolutely brilliant, not only are they just a few miles down the road from our job site here in Lifton, but their back up and advice has been second to none, I know that if we have any problems whatsoever, I can pick up the phone and talk to the owner Mark Gregory and everything is sorted, no problem, he really goes above and beyond with customer service which is much appreciated by us, and more business will undoubtably follow on the strength of that level of service and of course, the quality of the products”.

On this site in Lifton the team will initially be putting in all the roads and sewers before commencing on the foundation works for 20 properties, consisting of four flats, and sixteen 3- and 4-bedroom houses with some provision for affordable homes.

Work on this site commenced in late September and to make things harder for the team, it’s rarely stopped raining since they started. It was clear to see that this is likely to be a constant battle against the elements during the coming winter months, but despite the weather, progress is being made towards the proposed completion date of October 2021.

However, on the day of Earthmovers visit to site, we were blessed with some rare winter sunshine to catch up with the men and machines doing the work.

Lead operator and foreman on the job is Matt Franklin who generally runs things day to day out on the site, to assist him in this role, the operators use two-way radios to communicate with each other.

Taking a break from the deep drainage work he was on to speak to us, Matt had high praise for the Japanese Sumitomo designed and Italian assembled CX130D, saying “It’s one of the best machines I have operated in years, so smooth and with plenty of power when needed, it’s a pleasure to operate!”.

Other operators on site include Tony Holliday, who is running the second CX130D, Josh Dean on the CX80C, Mathew Lane who operates the CX26C, while Chris Falle operates the SR160 skid steer loader.

So often seen in the USA, the skid steer loader is not such a common sight on UK building sites, and at first glance it might seem a strange choice of machine to have on the fleet. Having said that, this machine is already proving its worth on the job, thanks to is array of attachments.

Apart from its standard bucket, it also has forks which they use for unloading and distributing materials on the job, and the brush bucket attachment means that the road can be kept as clean as possible during the day.

Luke said, “The local residents around the job have been good as gold, so we like to do our best to keep them happy and cause as little inconvenience as possible, that was another reason we invested in the skid steer with brush bucket, its really become a useful little tool in our arsenal. Once a week we do bring in a big mobile sweeper to give all the lanes locally a good sweep up”.

For Luke and his team, its an exciting time, especially being able to make a fresh start with a brand-new business that they can all put their stamp on, they are being well looked after and with a full order book of work lined up for the new year, they will have plenty of work to get stuck into in 2021.