It seems like most contractors encounter an unusually challenging job that either changes the fortunes of their company or teaches them an important lesson that helps propel the business forward.
For JD and Tana Christensen and their Idaho-based business Platinum Plumbing that pivotal project occurred in 2013, around a year after the company morphed from a mostly plumbing-oriented business into a directional drilling firm.
The company won a bid to drill boreholes for 66 residential water-service lines in Idaho Falls. At that point, the Christensens felt they had enough experience to do the job.
“We figured we’d done this enough to handle the project,” says Tana. “In our bid, we said we could finish the job in 45 days.”
That confidence diminished a bit when it took three days to drill only 10 feet for the first service line, using the company’s second directional drilling machine, a D20x22 unit from Vermeer Corp. The problem? Solid lava rock — a totally unexpected obstacle, Tana says.
“The contractor who hired us had dug a test hole, but it happened to be right where there wasn’t any rock,” she explains.
A Vermeer rep told the Christensens that they needed to use a roller-cone bit to grind through the rock. The bits cost about $2,500 apiece and wear out quickly; the company ended up buying six. At times, the Christensens also had to use a duckbill attachment to steer the drill bit and move it back on course.
Fortunately, after drilling boreholes for roughly half of the homes, the rock diminished and gave way to more sandy conditions. Still, it took about 2 1/2 months of 16-hour days, six days a week, to complete the project, Tana says.
“To say it was the job from hell would be the understatement of the century,” she says. “It was awful. We didn’t see our kids very much for months. But once you start, there’s no turning back.”
The good news: The primary contractor who hired Platinum agreed to pay more to compensate for the extra time on the job.
“We didn’t make as much money as we thought we would, but it still was a profitable job,” Tana says.
Furthermore, the couple learned a few valuable lessons: Avoid drilling work in Idaho Falls. Provide two bids on all projects — one for rocky conditions and one for non-rocky conditions. And buy a bigger directional drilling machine, which the company did when it invested in a Vermeer D23x30 (30,000 pounds of pullback force and 24,000 pounds of thrust).
“Plus we now know how to work better in rocky conditions,” Tana notes. “In this business, you learn something new every day.”
Read more about Platinum Plumbing in the April 2024 issue of Cleaner magazine.
