Brothers Jeff Marut, left, and Scott Marut, right, of Marut and Sons Excavating, on the job site at Parkside Elementary School.
Marut and Sons Excavating took a big risk last year when the company committed to a project that demanded months of attention. The danger was not having any other business when it was over, says Scott Marut, vice president and a co-owner with his brother Jeff Marut.
Marut and Sons is based in Perry, Ohio, northeast of Cleveland and near the southern shore of Lake Erie. It’s a bustling area, and the company has remained busy by refocusing its work as the market changed.
The project consisted of building wastewater systems for two new schools that consolidated all students from six older elementary schools. Combined, the projects involved 30,000 gallons of tankage and a drip system for dispersal of effluent. Initially the school district wanted both systems built in the course of a single construction season.
“I’ve always worked for a bunch of different people, and when we decided to take these projects on, what was important was that we didn’t go off the grid for essentially eight months,” Scott Marut says. “[It would be difficult to] tell people I’ve been working for, for 10 or 15 years, ‘I can’t get to that.’”
When they bid the job, Marut made it clear the company did not have the staff to meet the goal to complete the project in one season. But the school district wanted them, so the job was split across two years. Part of it was done in the fall of 2018 and part in the summer of 2019.
Weather was a challenge on the second phase of the job. “It’s been raining basically since last fall,” Marut says.
Because of the split workload, the company could still service existing customers. Scott and Jeff Marut were in the field more often than usual so their installers could focus on the school. This past summer, the second school was even completed about two weeks ahead of the occupation date.
“Financially it was a little bit risky. It was new to us, with the process and the paperwork,” he says. “Looking back on it, it was challenging, and I’m glad we did it. There’s something to be said for operating outside your comfort zone, but it also makes you appreciate your niche, too.”
