Founded in 2017 by father-and-son team Robert Timberman and Robert Timberman Jr., Black Diamond General Contractors is a full-service earth work and site work company based in the Charleston Peninsula of South Carolina. They do a bit of everything — from groundwork, infrastructure work, water, sewer city work, city repairs — they even have a vertical construction division.
“We do a lot of public utilities, site development, and we do some vertical construction, mostly in residential. We do commercial as well,” says Robert Jr. “Essentially, what we are is a one-stop shop. We'll get a site that's completely wooded. We'll clear it, develop it, install the stormwater, water mains, sewer mains, and the public utilities and hand over a finished product ready for vertical construction.”
A Growing Fleet
The Timbermans started Black Diamond with a single compact track loader — a CASE TR340. Now, Black Diamond owns 17 CASE machines, and many of them are currently working on this 26-acre site. “We've got a 650M dozer, two 1150M dozers, one that has a Leica [machine control] system installed,” Robert Jr. says. “We've got an SV212D roller. We've got a 921F wheel loader, a CX145D excavator, a CX300D excavator, CX350D excavator, a CX210D excavator, a TR340 CTL and its multitude of attachments, all running currently at this time.”
Robert Sr. explains how the skid steer is one of the most critical machines on the site from the first day until it’s handed over. “Because of the implements that go on the TR340, it's limitless, from the start of the silt fence that you see on the perimeter of the project. Without that auger and the trencher, there's no way we could get everything put in place.”
Some of the busiest machines on the site are four CASE excavators — a CX145D minimum swing, CX210D, CX300D and CX350D. The Timbermans appreciate the powerful, versatile, and feature-rich machines. “There are 16 retention ponds total on the project,” Robert Sr. says. “That back dig has 81,000 cubic yards being removed from it. The CX350D is just invaluable when it comes to moving that amount of material.”
With the amount of grading necessary on an undeveloped site, at least one of the excavators is feeding a portable plant all day — separating roots, old bricks and other materials in order to produce usable topsoil that can be used onsite or sold locally. They also put the larger excavators to work when clearing timber. Robert Sr. stands near a mountain of 60+ foot pine logs, having just finished a conversation with a local timber broker. “On this project, there were some very, very large trees, so that's why all our excavators always get a thumb. When we're trying to take down some of these larger trees, [the CX350D] is about the only machine that's going to handle those stumps.”
Protected by CASE ProCare
Black Diamond buys all of their CASE equipment through Hills Machinery. All CASE D Series excavators and M Series dozers come standard with CASE ProCare – a three-year CASE SiteWatch™ telematics subscription, a three-year/3,000-hour full-machine factory warranty, and a three-year/2,000-hour planned maintenance contract.
“It's invaluable,” Robert Sr. explains. “We're equipment operators. We know how to do job sites. We know how to run that. Equipment has evolved to the point to where all of the new systems that are incorporated in it, which are a huge benefit, also create a huge challenge. So, to have somebody trained, that's available at any given time, and Hills Machinery will answer the phone, whether it's Sunday, it does not matter, there is always someone available to me in order to take care of that system and get it up and running or adjusted.”
