Hurricane Fran brought Chandler Lloyd, co-owner and vice president of Able Contracting, Inc., his first job, which was cleaning up and hauling the debris left after the storm raged through North Carolina. Founded with his mother, Joyce Lloyd, in 1996, Able Contracting has since diversified from a hauling company with one truck to an operation that provides demolition, crushing and trucking services to the Low Country and coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia out of their Ridgeland yard.

After developing a relationship with Unicon Concrete, which later became Ready Mixed Concrete Company, Able Contracting began hauling sand for the company with one truck, growing to a fleet of 20 trucks. By 2002, Lloyd wanted to diversify his company and bought a repossessed crusher. Four years later, Able Contracting keeps two brand-new crushers — a Nordberg LT110 and a Komatsu BR380JG-1 — very busy.

Both of the crushers are on tracks, allowing Able to crush at a project site or at its Ridgeland yard. The Nordberg crusher, which is an impactor machine, is typically used to process either concrete or asphalt at different regional plants. The Nordberg can process 200 tons to 300 tons an hour. "The asphalt plants reuse the crushed asphalt in their mix," said Lloyd. "The concrete plants end up with second or third product they can sell such as road base."

In addition to working at project sites, other local contractors and trash hauling companies bring concrete and asphalt directly to Able's yard. "We charge for the dumping, and then we crush, recycle it and sell it," said Lloyd. "We can separate the dirt and steel, and then crush the concrete, which is used for road base. Since we're two and a half hours from a quarry, it keeps us busy."

Able uses the Komatsu 280 jaw crusher to process concrete at its yard. They can also load material for customers either at the yard or on the project site with a Volvo L90 front-end loader outfitted with a computerized scale. "If we go out and do a mobile job, we can also turn around and load our customers' trucks for them and scale out the material."

Chandler Lloyd admits that expanding his crushing business has been "an expensive learning process." In addition to the crushers, he has a Volvo 290 excavator, two Hitachi EX270 excavators, a John Deere 624J front-end loader, a Hitachi 330 excavator fitted with a densifier to break down the concrete for the crusher, a Chieftan screen, and a Komatsu 290 fitted with a hammer.

To haul material, Able Contracting has a fleet of dump trailers that are outfitted with a Florida-style trailer from General Truck Equipment & Trailer Sales in Jacksonville, Florida. A Florida-style trailer features a short bed with a long gooseneck, which Able attaches to a single-axle tractor. "We found we're able to maneuver our trucks and trailers around on these smaller job sites much better than a (typical) 38-foot-long frameless trailer, for example," said Lloyd.

Able Contracting's investment in its equipment has paid off, and Lloyd notes that business has really increased. However, he's also quick to credit his growth to being truly blessed. "We have good employees and have tried to establish relationships with our customers like Ready Mixed Concrete, REA Construction and Banks Construction to name a few."

These relationships have also helped Lloyd expand his business. For example, "(Banks Construction in Charleston, S.C.,) has helped us with anything that we need. They've helped when we have breakdowns, showing us where to buy parts in town. They've even had their mechanics (get the parts) before our mechanic could get there."

The past 10 years have brought Able Contracting a long way, diversifying into a company that can haul stone from Columbia for concrete plants and crush concrete brought in from demolition projects at Parris Island and the Beaufort Air Station.

"What's different about the crushing is that it's opened a lot of doors for us. It's something that's different every day. We have been very blessed. It's been unreal," said Lloyd.