Construction articles

Bill Gardocki

Why we believe in clamping tools

By Bill Gardocki, Interstate Landscape

You’ve probably read my past rantings about using tools on the job site that will help save your body. But, I can’t stress how important this is. I turn the big “six-oh” this year, and I can tell you for sure that you cannot sustain your health in this industry if year after year you are not looking for and taking advantage of every tool that helps save your back, knees and fingers.

Statistically, 80% of hardscape contractors who have been in the business for at least 10 years have had a back injury. And, the future doesn’t look any easier. All the products we use, from slabs to SRW blocks are getting bigger, heavier and more awkward to handle.

I remember meeting Steve Jones of Pave Tech for the first time about 20 years ago at their World of Concrete booth in San Antonio. I took my 4 top employees with me. My crew and I were impressed by the tools we saw that would make our jobs safer, easier and more efficient. I bought so much, I blew my credit card limit.

As a hardscape contractor, you should be taking advantage of every tool that helps save your body from fatigue and injury. It comes down to preventing personal injury, reducing labor hour losses due to injury, containing workers’ compensation costs and increasing efficiency. All of these factors are important to your crew’s morale and to your company’s bottom line.

Phil Bahler has a great slogan for Pave Tool Innovators, his hardscape tool company. Their mission is “to help you work smart, not hard….” Bahler Brothers Inc. of South Windsor, CT is the hardscape company that he and his family started 31 years ago. Phil realized the need to make life easier on the jobsite. He started designing and creating tools for his company which led to the creation of Pave Tool Innovators in 2007.

My company survives and thrives by using Steve’s and Phil’s tools. Some of you have seen our tools featured on our YouTube Channel, Dirt Ninja. We often get comments about being “sissies” or not being “real men” because we don’t lift our materials by hand. We don’t let any thoughts or comments like that cloud our judgement about the use of sophisticated lifting tools.

Any labor function where you remove potential physical risk is a winning proposition for your crews. That’s why my company has made the decision to invest in tools that eliminate the need for our laborers to hand lift heavy products. Clamping tools are a god-send for lifting. Once you learn how to use clamping tools efficiently your production will increase. Our clamping tools are regular fixtures on our job sites.

Whether you are lifting a 40 lb stack of pavers or a 4,000 lb granite or concrete slab, there are clamping tools out there that can do the job. Take a look at the paver, slab, step and SRW clamping tools we use.

Bill Gardocki is the owner of Interstate Landscape Co. Inc. in Londonderry, NH, installing hardscapes for over 40 years. Bill has taught over 100 classes as an NCMA and ICPI certified instructor. He also provides hardscape seminars for dealer/contractor education days, and in 2013 became the Landscape Construction instructor at his alma mater, the University of New Hampshire. Contact Bill@InterstateLandscapeNH.com

This is the Quick E Single Clamp BL 180 we use for installing large open cored slabs. On this Turfstone permeable driveway we used #8 stone to infill the open cores after setting the slabs on a combination of #57 stone and #2 stone. We installed 1800 sf with 3 people in 8 hours without lifting a single slab by hand.

We use the Quick E Large Block BL 1800 to install all of our large granite and large concrete steps like these 6' x 3' steps. In years past we would have used straps and blocks to set these steps – a much more time-consuming process. The clamp lifts and sets with no need for hands under the step to move blocks and straps.

This is the Rosetta Stone Outcropping setting clamp. This clamp attaches to the rear of the unit, and with the help of a mini excavator or skid steer places the large block safely in place.

This is the Quick E Block Clamp BL 450 we use to set our wall block on larger projects. 3 SRW units are placed on the wall. One unit is then flipped to face the correct direction while the other 2 units are slid into place. This tool eliminates lifting the block off the pallet and carrying it to the wall face.

We have been using the Pave Tech Probst ManHandle TSV for 20 years to lift and set all of our smaller granite steps. I can’t believe that when I started in this industry 43 years ago, I worked for a company where we were expected to lift 4’ granite steps (432 lbs each) into place by hand with 2 guys. It is a crazy thought today, but we didn’t think a thing about it back then.

Paver clamps like the Pave Tech Probst PaverPaw (left) and the Pave Tool Quick E Lifter are smaller clamps we use to lift, carry and place pavers.