From Bridges to Backyards: How Southern Gulf Construction Thrives on Florida’s Toughest Jobs

Quinton Comino: Hi, everyone. Today, I’m sitting down with Brian with Southern Gulf Construction. They work on concrete in particular, and they’re very experienced. The business has been around since 1986. The business owner loves to take the hard jobs.

Quinton Comino: So emergency bridge repair that happened because of an accident—they wanna take that job. Putting in a new water plant—they wanna take that job. They’ll even do things like small light-commercial construction—doing a restaurant, doing a Wendy’s, doing an AutoZone. They also do new construction—so they’ll do the flooring for a house, they’ll do the slab, they’ll do the walls, they’ll do the framing inside. These guys know what they’re doing when it comes to construction, and they’re absolute experts when it comes to concrete. So tune in on this one—I’m sure you’re gonna learn a thing or two.

Brian: Alright. How are you doing, boss?

Quinton Comino: I’m good, man. How about yourself?

Brian: Doing takeoffs as fast as I can and getting them out the door—but yeah doing good, man.

Quinton Comino: Awesome. So I really appreciate you taking some time today. Let us know—you are with Southern Gulf Construction—just let us know what your position is in the company. You were saying you were doing some takeoffs just right before.

Brian: My name is Brian with Southern Gulf Construction. Been here for about eight months now. I am the estimator for the structural and non-structural division for commercial and residential side.

Quinton Comino: Great—so help us understand what that means in layman’s terms—what is it that you’re doing day-to-day?

Brian: So my day-to-day job is to speak to other general contractors about projects that are coming out to bid—for water-treatment plants, commercial, residential houses and buildings, doctor’s offices. We do cut-out—we saw-cut and replace and pull back slabs at the same time. We do some hardscape like retaining walls and gravity walls and stuff like that too. We do box culverts.

Brian: So every day I’m looking anywhere in civil plans all the way into residential plans on what we’re gonna go after for the structural or non-structural side of concrete.

Quinton Comino: So these are big projects that you’re bidding?

Brian: Yes—big and small. Right now I’ve got three one-off houses here—there’s two in Cape Coral, one in Lehigh. So we are a licensed building contractor so we can go up to three stories before we have to have a different license. So on these one-story houses we’ll come in and we’ll actually—there are licensed concrete and roofing contractors—so we can actually take you from the ground and move you all the way up and do the dry-in with the roof.

Quinton Comino: Right—you’re building new construction or are you just pouring the walls, pouring the foundation?

Brian: No—we’ll go in and we’ll do the foundation—we’ll do all the slab work—and then we’ll do the CMU wall block work and then we can set the trusses and then turn around and do your roofing—and then we have subcontractors that do our framing, our drywall, all of our finish trim work and stuff like that at the end.

Quinton Comino: Okay—that’s when you’re quoted to do the job are you just doing the shell or you’re saying we’ll do that plus all that interior you just mentioned?

Brian: That’s part of my goal is talking to the other general contractors that actually have the job is I ask them you know what do you guys want?—you know do you just want me to do the shell or do you want me to try to do the whole thing?—because to us you know we’re gonna be okay in the long run no matter what—but if I can help our partners along the way our subcontractors that’s what I like to do—because everybody has to work together—and if we’re working together that means that you know there are savings coming along—you know we’re not out there trying to ream everybody—we want people to be in their houses and not feel like they got ripped off.

Quinton Comino: So you have builders approach you and say hey I’ve sold this deal to the customer or I’ve got one here—this is the property—can you give me a quote for it?—and then once the customer closes or whatever pays cash who knows then they commence on the job.

Brian: Yes—and then at the same time we do water-treatment plants—so we’re out at Babcock Ranch if you know what that is down here in South Florida—it’s its own visual community that FP&L is helping and it’s all solar-panel run—there is actually no nuclear-powered or nothing—so we did all the wastewater treatment facilities out there with them.

Quinton Comino: Babcock Ranch—yep I’m looking at this now—it’s a planned community located in Southeastern Charlotte County—so you’re Southwest Florida?

Brian: Yep—yep—and Mitchell and Stark is the one that is big GC out there and we have been working with them for around six years now doing water-treatment facilities.

Quinton Comino: Why so specific?—why water treatment?—concrete—a lot of it.

Brian: A lot of structural concrete—some of these walls are 24 inches thick to be able to hold the weight of the water coming—that is the inside acetylene tanks—so you know that those are the things like we’ve done rehabilitation on bridges too—so you know we like the challenges—you know the water-treatment plants aren’t easy—a house we you know done Wendy’s—we’ve done AutoZones you know we’ve done those small commercial buildings—but you know our guys man a lot of our like our foreman he’s been with us for twenty-eight years—a lot of our guys are twenty-plus years—they’ve been with us—we’ve got 50 guys and 38 to 42 have been with us since ’90—so these guys have been here for a long time and you know they like it because they get that challenge again—anybody can do sidewalk and stuff like that—so you know and you go and you facilitate where your company needs to go to grow—and water-treatment facilities was a big thing down here in Southwest Florida about six to seven years ago—so we were able to jump on that wagon and able to grow into doing that structural side for the treatment facility.

Quinton Comino: Yeah—so that was kinda what I was thinking—like water treatment there are a lot more homes that need to be built than water-treatment plants—okay?—so how do you make sure you have enough work coming in?—you’re going out there estimating things—when do you get from either the higher-ups or from your own understanding like hey we need to quote some more houses because I know I don’t have enough water-treatment plants coming in?

Brian: So me and Jamie—he’s my VP—he was the head estimator till they brought me on and he’s told what they have been looking for—and we keep a close niche on there’s three more treatment plants coming up—so that’s how we kinda judge on what’s going on—like okay we need to hit some more commercial and some residential as these are coming in so that you know we can keep the guys facilitated and happy and you know keep them fit—and where it comes is the communication inside the company itself of us going okay hey we see that this is slowing down before it comes to a stop—let’s jump into here real quick—on my background coming from the civil side I was a QC manager and then a project administrator for the FDOT for the first twenty-five years of my life—so doing civil work is something that is very common and simple for me—so you know us doing residential and commercial is great and then I’m able to bring in doing the civil for the bridges the roadway the box culverts and stuff—so that’s made it to where we’re able to affiliate a bunch of companies in Southwest Florida instead of just focusing on two or three items—you know we don’t have a lot of lay-down time—we actually are moving the guys around a lot—today we just landed two bathrooms in Bartow Florida to rebuild for the city of Bartow—so you know—

Quinton Comino: So it was—so say bathroom—see because when I hear bathroom okay so it’s like a bathroom remodel—that’s kinda a small job—but when you say bathroom that’s not what you mean.

Brian: Well it is—it’s only 564 square feet—it’s not big—but it’s not a normal remodel—yeah a shower and yeah shower and toilet—yeah brand-new facility getting put in because they need it at the park—so you know we’re going in and we’re putting the men’s side on one side and the ladies’ side on the other—and we’ll do all the forming the footers slab CMU—we’ll block it then the GC will come in and finish out the rest.

Quinton Comino: Oh okay—so he’ll do the roof and the interior and all that?

Brian: Yep—and you know it’s totally off on the side now—yep—so we had a contractor get ahold of us last week and I have a meeting with him tomorrow to go over a new boat ramp going in to the Caloosahatchee—so we’re gonna end up going out there and doing some seawalls doing some coping and then doing the concrete paving into the water and stuff.

Quinton Comino: Wow—now do you diverse with what you’re doing?—like your guys I mean they’ve been there for a long time though you did say that—so they pretty well could handle anything—but not any company could say yeah we’ll do the bathroom—yeah we’ll do that seawall—yeah we’ll do the water treatment—but yeah we’ll do a house.

Brian: It is hard to find contractors that are very versatile in a way to say that we are able to do this—the owner he was gung-ho—Kurt’s a really good guy—he’s been at it since 1986 with this company—so he’s the one that has trained these guys on what to do and where to do it and how to do it—it’s one of those things where if he feels that hey if I can do it my guys can do it we’re going after it—or buts—there is a new system that we’re doing now—we’re talking about you know we talked about communities and stuff like that—houses and stuff—and it’s a high—it’s actually for erosion control—they put this out there on the levees in Katrina in Louisiana before Katrina hit and the half a mile they did with this material did not wash out like the rest of the levee did—so we have got affiliated with Watershed out of Atlanta Georgia and became certified to install this material and it’s a concrete-based material—so our realm is if it has concrete we do it—wow—so I did maybe you could speak to this or a little bit of it I don’t know—I did a podcast with a gentleman just the other day—and what they’re doing is he’s doing a concrete house—he they have this proprietary mix that they do because I guess with concrete you’re not getting the R-value that you need in some cases—and I’ve got this proprietary mix where he says it’s an R-value of 30—and they do the house and because he’s got that you don’t need to have siding on the house—you don’t need to have any drywall on the inside—they might some sort of plaster finish I don’t know—but he’s got his own mix that he does and he does his own factory that he’s built and yeah just kinda curious what your thoughts are on that.

Brian: It’s kinda interesting—I’m wondering if he’s using it’s called a fiber-mesh a fiber mix where they run the fiberglass mix in it—that helps it with the some charity instead of having to use steel or wire mat—but to get an insulation that’s kinda weird—I’m wondering if he’s running like a zero-air in it—a lot of concrete has air for the expansion and decompression of it when it gets hot and cold—and that would tear into the R-value too—so I’m wondering if he has that—and if he does you know what is the structure what is the actual structural integrity and what is the PSI of the material?—down in Florida we don’t have a lot of freezing but you know we are hot ninety-nine percent of the time—we’re always hot—we need air in it because our materials get so hot it starts cracking and flaking away—so I’m just wondering you know what does his material have in it?—yes he’s able to achieve the R-rating and that’s great—but you know what did he take away to be able to get that material?

Quinton Comino: I don’t know man—yeah I don’t know—see I’m not well-versed in concrete in those mixes and what have you so I wasn’t able to dive in a little deeper like someone like you would—so yeah just kinda curious on what your thoughts were—but so for what you guys do though your concrete has enough ground—you don’t have to have any special sort of mix per se though I’m sure you have requirements for certain things.

Brian: Yeah—certain mixes we do—so like if we do an emergency bridge repair we got to have the bridge open within twenty-four to seventy-two hours—the bridge has to be open—so we’ll bring in a high-temp high-strength concrete that cures within twelve hours—so it’ll hit 5,500 to 10,000 PSI within three to four hours after it sets—instead of twenty-eight-day break—and the reason is because traffic it has to be opened up—now that material it’ll come out at a 100 to 150 degrees of concrete—it’s so hot because there’s so many chemicals in it to make the process cure faster and not eliminate the water—it’s really crazy on the things that we’re able to do with concrete.

Quinton Comino: Wow—that’s incredible—so why is that I mean I imagine that’s pretty expensive so you just don’t use that on a regular—

Brian: Yeah—the main thing is the FDOT comes in counties come in—hey we had a major accident and we need the bridge back open ASAP—what are you guys gonna do?—I mean you know we have to submit our MOT plans our lighting plans our concrete submittals how we’re gonna run the trucks when the cure times are gonna happen and you know so on and so forth—and you know that’s very important with concrete—you know there’s a lot of logistics in scheduling when it comes to concrete—so it’s you know you got co-joints in concrete—if you don’t pour your concrete consecutively and do the joints properly you know you’re gonna have to come in and do a compound and do a co-joint—well a co-joint is nothing but a weak spot flap—and that’s the last thing that you want—it’s the same thing with bridges to inbox because you know you got a time limit you gotta set them out and it has to be done within that time.

Quinton Comino: Yeah—wow—so when doing estimates you have to be very exact—and in some cases you probably gotta be really quick because it’s an emergency repair then they’re gonna someone you know today—ASAP yeah ASAP—they need them out there they need it ASAP—so you know and what’s with us is we don’t rent—we own a lot of our equipment—a lot of our equipment we own—we’re on five-and-a-half acres—so if the equipment is not here it’s on our job sites—but we always have everything at hand and ready—not hey yeah I can get you an estimate in two to three days for this emergency repair—I gotta get the cost of a crane and this that and that—no I’m laid out in my spreadsheets—I just need to add you know how many yards we’re gonna do along the bridge—you know my normal mathematic equations be able to give me that—now when it comes to time and stuff like that that one is a little bit harder—so I hate using this—it’s a little bit more of a guesstimating—but you know I have to factor in weather—I have to factor in rain—you know I had to if we’re doing bridge I have to factor in the tides—if tides are coming in or high or low so you know there’s a lot that goes into this and that’s where you know the actual estimating for it’s a little bit harder—more guesstimating because my hard cost I know what my cost might for you is—I know what this cost is—I know what that cost is—time is one of the hard things that we juggle with and I think that’s with almost every contractor that you know time management is big—that makes or breaks on any of your profit at the end of the job.

Quinton Comino: Really?—what tell me a little bit more about that—if your material cost I mean that’s hard—it’s the labor cost—it’s the equipment rental—it’s oh and then you know say say okay we got a 500-square-foot slab to do—I know it’s gonna take two days to dig it—it’s gonna take one day to lay the steel then it’s gonna take another day to do the pouring of the slab—but weather came in—now it took them five days just to prep the slab—now it took them two days to put steel in instead of one day—we had another rain day—now we gotta come back out and redig it all back out fix the washouts and redo it again—those are the things where we start losing—that’s why it’s important to try to be as best as we can on our time management the whole time.

Quinton Comino: I see I see—it’s changing the price—you totally this is what it is—yeah right yeah—our price is our price—the weather screws us over—well that’s on us—so you know when we go into it you know it’s okay we know everything works great—in five days we’re good—I’m gonna put eight days—I don’t want to because you get too far ahead of yourself—you start losing jobs because now you’re above your price before you—so it’s like you’re saying I have to be tight on which directions I go.

Quinton Comino: So maybe it’s a little too exposing but I have mistakes too—what’s a job could you share a moment where you bid something and you got the job and it was just way underbid or something went wrong or yeah I’d love to hear a story.

Brian: I did work for a general contractor—I won’t say their name because we split hairs—but we were out doing a job and my subcontractor gave me a great price for floor-tom saw to be placed out on the golf course—so I’m thinking I’m all happy man I’m that’s great—I think it was around $17 on this job by going to this guy—I’m all happy since he giggles—he gave me square feet instead of square yards—so he was way under what he was actually supposed to do—we I’ve luckily the association wanted a lot more work done on top—so I was able to do a change order and add work and was able to cover that cost—but it was one of those oh-crap moments—like you know everybody has them—and you know I’m into this I’m two-and-a-half years almost three years into estimating—you know I didn’t grow in as my job was inspection and project administrator utility coordinator QC manager and superintendent—so you know estimates I’ve seen and I’ve had to deal with just to make sure my contractors are installing like they’re supposed to be but doing the breakdowns and knowing the numbers has helped me able to understand why the contractors were so back in the days when I was doing inspections on like well no that’s outside the contract that’s outside the contract—I’m getting it a little bit more now because you know we over here as well we don’t like doing change orders—we wanna make sure we do it right and we get everything in there the first time—so we’re not coming back and like hey change orders—because after a while too many change orders nobody wants to work with you—because are you really doing your job?—are you really looking at your plans?

Quinton Comino: Yeah—so you said a little bit more why contractors say hey that’s not that’s outside of my contract—that’s not in the contract—when you were an inspector can you talk a little bit more about that?—you were an inspector for who?—inspecting what?—and why were contractors saying this?

Brian: So I started back in 2000 all the way up to 2023—so I’ve worked as an inspector aide all the way up to a project administrator for FDOT with private CEI companies—so your Metric Engineering is your Eisman and Russo’s your AIM and your Universal Engineerings—I’ve worked with those companies—and you know our job was always to make sure that the contractors you know were within a tenth of their grades when we did our roads or our asphalt to make sure that the asphalt’s at a certain temperature and stuff like that—and there was always times you go out there and it’s like hey look I know it’s outside of the plans but can you you know we’ll say asphalt—can in this triangle there’s a fifty-fifty square-foot area—can you add asphalt?—well no it’s outside—we’re finding out you know when you get to start digging more into it yeah the cost of asphalt is $165 a ton but then you gotta add the man hours—and you add this that that and this—and now you know it’s more understandable on like hey I get it now—like oh you want an extra five yards of concrete?—well it’s around $120 a yard—yeah that’s before we even add my cost to it yet—you know we don’t wanna go outside of our—hell I don’t wanna do that yeah—so if you could go back and do what you’re doing with the understanding that you have today what would change?—I’d be a GC myself—really?—yeah oh yeah—I go and get my own license and go and do my own—I’m building my first my fourth house by myself—really?—built three for yeah my parents and I’m finally building one for me—boy your parents got three before you?—yeah well hey you always gotta take care of your parents—it’s true no that’s true that’s true—yeah so yeah so you know yeah I would go back and actually get my GC license—wow—and actually go through you know I mean years ago I was in I had a scholarship and I should’ve done that for agriculture—but I went straight into construction—yeah—hurt my back ripped my back from my tailbone up into my neck—so that took me out of doing physical labor so that’s why I got into inspections—I see I see I see—other yeah wow—so you could have a totally different path—oh yeah you could’ve—but it still does sound like you have a you’ve over the past couple years you’ve made a big change in your trajectory—yeah yeah I took myself in the field—yeah I put myself inside the office and took a lot of stress off of my back too—that’s that was another thing—physically and figuratively?—no mentally—I had a heart attack about a year ago—so well yeah—so you know that one of my changes too of not being in the field as much—so I’m not arguing with inspectors and other people all the time—I’m more I’m taking care of numbers—I’m more or less stressed in making sure my numbers are right—but I win jobs and my guys keep food on their table—that’s really good yeah that’s good man—and but that’s a lot of responsibility—when you have to provide the jobs for the guys and they’re ready to work hard and they’re showing up every day at 8 AM and whatever you know—but you’ve got the stress of I need to make sure I get jobs for these guys because they’re relying on me—these guys you know they rely on me to make sure they have food on their table—yeah—now that’s my that that’s my that’s not how it now—no those guys can go and get job you know and do whatever—to me to make sure I stay humble and on my line of path is sure that I understand like these guys won’t eat—and if they don’t eat I don’t need to eat—I don’t need to make a paycheck if they’re not making a paycheck—yeah that high-level responsibility—yep you know—that’s so good.

Quinton Comino: Well that’s awesome Brian—so Southern Gulf Construction that’s probably about forty-four years something like that—yes since ’86 they’ve been around—yeah so that’s just that’s incredible—that’s long years—anything with concrete you guys you know it you done it—not a problem—you’ve got the team to do it—yes sir—yep—and we’d like to say anything—so it could be erosion control with concrete all the way up to doing a three-story hotel—that’s so great—and you’re in Southwest Florida—right?—just a little bit tell us just so our viewers know what areas are that you serve—so our areas will travel around a 100 miles north west and south—that’ll take us from Naples to Tampa over to Bartow into Miami and down into Marco Island—oh wow—yeah—well he’ll do stuff down there—oh yeah—well I mean Naples and Marco Island they’re about forty minutes from us—you know I’ve always kinda thought like Naples area it’s just like a different world—oh man it’s old money—yeah that’s for sure—old mafia yeah it is—but it’s like it’s so far removed—it’s almost like the Keys—it’s so far removed from everything else—you have Naples here you have Everglades and then you have Miami—and then like a little bit north above Naples after a little while you eventually get to you know Fort Myers Tampa—right?—yeah yeah you get Fort Myers into Charlotte County and just Tampa—yeah—but it’s just Naples just seems so far removed away on the Southwest edge of Florida—and like nobody knows about it or nobody goes there sort of thing you know?—well that’s you know who Al Capone is right?—yeah—a lot of his money went into Naples because he had a hideaway in the Everglades—oh really?—yeah he actually and if you go out to the Everglades he still have his house up—it’s actually a historical site—and he gets hideaway back in the thirties to get away from the cops and stuff—he would come down here from Chicago—oh my goodness that’s a long that’s a hike—I’m a history buff too—so here in Lee County where we are we were huge in World War II and World War I—so Sanibel and Captiva were our bombing ranges—oh wow—we used to and right now they’re the high-end places to build houses—they are they are yeah—in the thirties they were bombing ranges—they would fly out of Page Field in Buckingham Airport and fly over there—it’s about a fifteen-minute flight and they would bomb the ranges there—and then back—yeah—and then we had a bunch of out in Lehigh area we had a bunch of circle tracks with Jeeps on them—and they would put a target on it and put it in gear and it would run in that track in a circle—and the guys with their 50 cals up on the bench would learn how to shoot moving target—wow—and that’s what the Jeeps are for as they go around in a circle on the track—the guys with 50 cals will learn how to shoot you know because if you hunt or skeet shoot or that you gotta lead it—yeah—so that’s what they were teaching them how to do you know back in the thirties—so it’s neat to see how it’s changed too with that developments—yeah that’s just crazy—the stuff that just the way that society operated fifty hundred years ago just so different from today—their concrete was crazy back then—it took a little longer to harden but man like you know no—I don’t know if you know concrete never stops curing—yeah yeah—it always cures—it’s always hard for me—so imagine in the dam with three-to-five-inch aggregate sizes—yeah—and they were dumping that—I think there’s like five or six people that were buried alive in the Hoover Dam—that’s just crazy man—that is a how has but you know what though?—by and large concrete is like the oldest material that for construction—like from the beginning of time—the Greeks made it with fly ash—and that’s how they found out about it—yeah—so in a lot of ways it hasn’t changed—there are some great innovations with it for sure—yep—steel and concrete that was huge—figuring that out was huge—but for the vast majority of it it’s really stayed same—it stayed the same—the thing a lot is our chemicals that we put in it—and that’s just to harden it up faster or make it stronger—and you know but you’re right—your fly ash your stone your cemented ash all that pretty much stayed—none of that has changed—yeah that’s just amazing—that really fascinates me how resilient—and it’s funny because that’s what concrete is—it’s resilient—well and it comes back to our roads too—the way that the Romans built the roads—uh-huh—still just kinda way of how we still build it—we still build with a sub-base material then a hardened Baltic concrete material on top of it—and it’s funny to see that we’re still doing the same thing—we’re just you know doing it with a different style of materials at the end—yeah yeah—even more banging stone and everything is still roughly stayed the same—yeah that that’s really that’s amazing.

Quinton Comino: Well thank you Brian—I really here on the show it’s been great to hear about construction in particular—Southern Gulf Construction in Southwest Florida and that 100-mile radius it sounds like you can tackle any job just about that has to do with construction—and I would bet if there happens to be or it’s not something that you guys really focus on you probably know somebody who does—oh oh yeah—I know enough civil roadway builders and contractors down here—if you need roads done or you need anything underground we can get it taken care of—no ifs ands or buts—yeah that’s awesome—alright well that’s southerngulfconstruction.com—appreciate it very much Brian—really really appreciate your time today—thank you—yeah thank you—no I really appreciate it sir—yeah we’ll see you.