Built to Last
How Durable Steel Structures Became a Leading Metal Building Contractor
In 2018, Durable Steel Structures will mark its 39th year in business. Started in 1979 by George Dausch, Durable Steel Structures has built a name for itself as the go-to building company for extremely challenging projects in the Baltimore-Washington Corridor.
Durable Steel Structures’ ability to take on unusual and complicated design/build projects has allowed it to distinguish itself from the competition.
How it all Began
As Dausch tells it, the idea for Durable Steel Structures just sort of happened one day. “I woke up one morning and declared myself a general contractor,” he says. “The next morning, I declared myself a metal building contractor.”
Dausch’s previous construction experience was with wood-frame pole barn structures, but he saw the potential in metal buildings. At the time he came up with the idea for Durable Steel Structures, Dausch ran a factory that built modular sheds and buildings. Seeing the ability for much more growth as a general contractor, he decided it was time for a career shift.
He admits that he didn’t know anything about being a general contractor, but he quickly learned everything he needed to be successful.
At the start, Durable Steel Structures had just one employee: George Dausch. His brother, Glenn Dausch, was still in college at the time, but a couple of years later, Glenn joined George in the business, and now serves as Vice President.
During the 1980s, as the company grew, Durable Steel Structures began to hire office staff and field personnel, most of whom are still with the company today.
Initially, Durable Steel Structures focused mainly on agricultural buildings and metal warehouses. Today, it has grown both in size and ability, serving a wide range of industries: commercial, industrial, retail, institutional and educational. The company has constructed everything from churches, gymnasiums and storage buildings to car dealerships and heavy equipment buildings.
Since 1979, Durable Steel Structures has designed and constructed more than 5,000 projects up and down the East Coast.
And Durable Steel Structures really does it all. The company does its own engineering, concrete work and steel erections. This wide scope allows them to provide their customers with a turnkey facility.
“We are very focused on the client,” Dausch says. “We understand their needs and get the job done in a timely fashion.”
Open for Business
Dausch is particularly proud of the way in which Durable Steel Structures expertly completes a job without interfering with a business’s operating hours. This is one of the company’s defining characteristics.
For instance, last year Durable Steel Structures was hired to put a new roof on an existing pre-engineered building. The building itself was built in the late 1970s and was experiencing such severe structural failure that it was in danger of collapsing. The building housed around $10 million worth of equipment. The company that owned it was open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and couldn’t afford to be out of operation.
That’s where Durable Steel Structures came in.
“We removed and replaced sections of the roof,” Dausch explains. “We worked around the clock and calendar and never had a moment’s downtime.” Durable Steel Structures completed the entire job without the company ever having to shut down operations or move to another building.
That wasn’t the only time Durable Steel Structures was able to perform extensive work without a business having to close.
Years ago, the company did a job for Smyth Jewelers, a large retail jewelry store. The store was in a pre-engineered building and Durable Steel Structures not only constructed a basement underneath it, but they also added two floors on top. Smyth Jewelers remained open the entire time, never losing a moment of business.
A Durable Company
Dausch attributes the company’s ability to complete these types of jobs to the fact that Durable Steel Structures typically doesn’t use subcontractors, relying instead on the experience and expertise of its own employees.
“We use all of our own employees,” he explains. “That allows us to very carefully choreograph a job so that we can make it flow the way we need to make it work without having to rely on anyone other than our own people.”
And relying on your own people is much easier when those people have been with the company for at least 25 years—as Durable Steel Structures’ employees have. Durable Steel Structures has experienced nearly no turnover, and many of the original employees who came on board in the mid-1980s are still with the company.
One contributing factor is that Dausch has never had to lay anyone off—even during economic downturns. That’s because he’s built the business to last by electing to stay smaller and choosing specific jobs.
At one point, the company was building one new building a week. During the last recession, Durable Steel Structures didn’t build a new building for three years, but Dausch made sure everyone still got paid. The company was able to rely on maintenance work and upgrades for its major clients.
Dausch says, “We’ve stayed focused on what we do. We carefully pick and choose our jobs. We try to run a tight ship, do well and keep our clients happy.”
It’s this focus that has provided Durable Steel Structures with its long-term success and ensures that the business will be around for many years to come.