When some of the largest homes in the region had to be demolished, they were there. When all the stumps, logs and brush had to be removed from the town of New Canaan, they were there.
Whether providing all dumpsters at Yale’s New Haven campus, demolishing houses and clearing site work in downtown Stamford, Conn., to make way for the New Royal Bank of Scotland building, to clearing and planting a massive $2.5 million beautification project in prestigious Greenwich, Conn., AMEC Carting and Construction, LLC has led the way.
Month after month, the company works on high profile demolition and excavation jobs, like this spring’s demolition of 20 houses in downtown Stamford to make room for the new Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) building in that city.
“About 60 years ago, the area was very influential, but over the years, things have changed. These properties abutted the new RBS building in Stamford where AMEC provides all of the dumpsters,” said Guy Mazzola Jr., owner and founder of AMEC Carting and its sister companies. “The Royal Bank of Scotland decided to purchase the properties and demolish them to make the area nicer and provide a park-like atmosphere in the middle of downtown Stamford.”
AMEC Carting removed the houses, cleared the site and helped to beautify it. The RBS building was completed in May and AMEC provided all dumpster services during construction. Turner Construction, a client of AMEC Carting’s, built the building.
AMEC recently completed a two-year project in affluent Greenwich, which included approximately $2.5 million worth of site work, grading, drainage and demolition, on a 17-acre (6.9 ha) site.
“The land was actually three pieces of residential property that were combined by one owner to create a park-like atmosphere,” said Mazzola. “We cut out over 100,000 yards of soil and planted over 5,500 shrubs and over $11 million worth of trees. The new property ended up with a 10-acre back yard with terraces, a pool, a five-million-dollar pool house, and running paths.”
From Refuse to Refuge
Mazzola’s father, Guy Mazzola Sr., founded AMEC Refuse more than 30 years ago, a residential garbage service in New Canaan, Conn. His son, Guy, Jr., saw an opportunity for something bigger.
“Growing up in Fairfield County [Conn.], people had a lot of money but tended not to do their own manual work. So, when I was in college, for extra money, I used my Dad’s truck to start a clean-up service on the weekends when I came home and I called it Guy’s Clean-Up Service,” said Mazzola, Jr. “I started getting a lot of large work, so I had to start ordering dumpsters because the garbage truck couldn’t handle that much volume.
“I realized after a while that I was ordering so many dumpsters I should just buy my own truck,” he added. Nine years ago, Mazzola bought his first roll-off truck and started AMEC Carting.
“On the side, I was working for my uncle, learning demolition and excavation work. I wanted to open my own waste transfer station so I didn’t have to rely on anyone else, so I bought my machine to put at the station,” he said. “Unfortunately, I was held up in zoning, so now, I had a brand new John Deere excavator and needed to put it to work. I started doing demolition work, which worked out great, because I already had the roll-off truck to supply my own dumpsters.”
Building his company from the ground up is his greatest source of pride.
“I was able to start a business with one truck, two dumpsters and $10,000 in the bank and turn it into a multi-million dollar a year business without any investors or partners, aside from my family,” said Mazzola, Jr.
Father, Mother, Sister, Cousin
AMEC has always been completely family-run. Guy Sr. started as a driver, then a mechanic, and is now shop manager. His wife, Marie. began as receptionist, then handled accounts receivable, then became route manager. “My mother, Marie, now runs the C&D recycling facility we have in Norwalk,” said her son. “My sister, Tina, does sales for me.”
Mazzola Sr. and Jr. are partners in AMEC Carting, AMEC Construction and AMEC Commercial. “He owns 25 percent of the companies. My girlfriend, Michelle Marmarinos, runs my office and dispatch. My cousin, John Buzzeo, started off as a laborer, then a truck driver, then equipment operator, then job super, and now is my chief projects construction manager and estimator for our excavation and demolition services. As you can see, family plays a big role in my company.”
Another cousin, Vito Luciano, is a long-time sales representative.
The company’s first office was in his parents’ house. Its headquarters is now at 270 Main St., Norwalk, with smaller offices at its transfer station and at the firm’s construction yard and truck shop, also in Norwalk.
The unusual name of their company comes from the refuse route picked up by Guy Mazzola Jr.’s father.
“AMEC came from the refuse route my father purchased from someone when he was younger. Since the name was familiar to customers, when he bought the garage route from the old owner, he didn’t want to change the name,” said Mazzola Jr. “When I started using the garbage truck for clean ups, it said, ’AMEC’ on it, so there was already name recognition when I started the carting company.”
Six Hundred Dumpsters, 20 Trucks
AMEC has demolished some of the largest homes in the area, upwards of 10,000 sq. ft. (929 sq m) for residential spec and custom homebuilders, as well as provided the site work. AMEC won the contract to work for the State of Connecticut Highway Department a few years back, to haul all of the stumps, logs and brush out of the town of New Canaan. The company provides all of the dumpster services for the Yale New Haven campus.
AMEC services Fairfield, Westchester and New Haven counties. “We provide dumpster rentals to the public for various uses. Some common uses are construction projects, demolition, and residential clean-up and commercial use. Our demolition division offers both complete machine demolition and selective hand demolition,” added Mazzola Jr.
Currently AMEC does more than 50 demolition projects per year, ranging from $10,000 to $2,500,000 contracts. “We are a full service demolition provider. We have complete turnkey demolition services,” he said. “We provide the entire process for our customers. We attain all the local and state permits, all the laboratory and abatements required, perform all the utility shut-offs, demolish the structure with our excavation and wrecking equipment, haul out all the debris in our dumpsters, sort and transfer all the material at our own transfer station, and, finally, truck the end-product with our own 100-yard walking floor trailers to the products end destination.
“Our construction company provides all excavation and site services for new or altered structures. Our construction division provides mass excavation, drainage, road work, utilities, trucking and mason services that are inclusive of patios, walkways, fireplaces, etc.,” Mazzola added.
W.I. Clark, in Wallingford, Conn., exclusively supplies all of AMEC’s John Deere equipment. AMEC’s inventory includes: 350D, 330C, 120C, 160C, 200C and 200D excavators, 544J wheel loader, 605J track loader, 644WL waste handler loader, three 50D mini-excavators, 322 and 320 skid steers, 405 dozer, a 5,000-lb. (2,268 kg) Tramac hydraulic hammer, a MINI hammer, a Towmaster trailer, four grapples, a Harley rake, skid steer street sweeper and 544 wheel loader forks.
Currently, the company has 600 dumpsters and 20 trucks on the road every day and there are now just under 50 employees working at AMEC.
“Our family-oriented personal touch keeps all of our customers happy. We provide great and timely service,” said Mazzola Jr. “When customers call us, someone is always listening on the line, not just going through the motions. Each of our customers is important and we have great relationships for years with most of them. Our newer customers always compliment the individual attention they receive, and that’s how we want to keep it, no matter how big we get.”
(This story also can be found on Construction Equipment Guide’s Web site at www.constructionequipmentguide.com.) CEG
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