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McGuiness Construction, Inc.Since 1986

Licensed and Bonded #490743

Pent-up demand, affordable home prices, and attractive mortgage rates will keep the Southern California housing market on a gradual upward trend in 2016. This is according to information found on the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) website. The NAHB site also states that home equity has nearly doubled since 2011 and now stands at $12.5 trillion, with projections expected to rise an additional 20 percent in 2016. NAHB chief economist, David Crowe, says that the single-family housing market is still slowly recovering and that custom home building is now at around 20 percent growth, close to where it was prior to the crash. Remodeling is also on the rise, with an increase of a projected 6.8 percent in 2015 and expectations of an additional 6.1 percent in 2016. But what about high-end custom home building? This is an area of single-family home construction that was once thought to be recession-proof, thinking that those with vast amounts of money could not be adversely affected by cyclical recessions. That was, however, before the 2008 Great Recession, which, for many builders, created a race to the bottom

of pricing in a bid to simply remain viable. Only those with a reputation strong enough to be in a position to refuse to chase unprofi table work remained. When the smoke cleared, these companies were once again in a position to prosper, with more fl exible lending policies and a renewed rise of wealth amongst the already wealthy.

In a recent market survey, 43.9 percent of builder/designer respondents agreed that custom home building is expected to be the strongest housing segment in 2016, with remodeling being a distant second choice at 27.2 percent of the vote. McGuiness Construction, Inc. has been involved in both high-end

custom ground up construction and renovations since 1986. David McGuiness founded his company 30 years ago on the foundation of creating a positive building atmosphere through honesty, integrity, and experience. His company’s goal has always been to build exquisite, quality homes in an atmosphere of cooperation and trust while offering the greatest possible value for each individual client.

McGuiness Construction, Inc. has earned a reputation for building extraordinary structures as one of San Diego’s premier contractors. They build one-of-a-kind, mostly coastal, upscale creations that come with luxury upgrades and unique architectural design. Their focus is on properties in La Jolla and Del Mar, because that is where they have built their reputation, but they also work all over San Diego County and on projects up and down the Southern California Coast.

Lane Fitch is the job superintendent and project manager for McGuiness Construction and has been with the company for just over seven years. Prior to this, Lane worked as a heavy equipment operator and superintendent for

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Honesty, Integrity, Quality Workmanship

Dan Walsh, Hawthorne Cat Rental Store (left) with Lane Fitch, Project Manager, McGuiness Construction.

High-End Custom Homebuilder Self Performs All Earthwork on Historical La Jolla Renovation Project

Written By: Brian Hoover

two well-known underground utility contractors in San Diego County for more than 10 years. Through his experience, Fitch has been instrumental in bringing all of the grading and excavating work in-house at McGuiness Construction. “We self-perform 95 percent of the earthwork on our projects and this is a big advantage when you consider that it is one of the costlier trades on any given housing project,” says Fitch. “It also gives us more control and in the end, it pencils out in our clients favor as well.”

McGuiness Construction’s diversifi cation and experience are what really sets them apart. “All of our superintendents have years of experience in a variety of trades and many have owned their own construction companies,”

says Fitch. “We have concrete contractors, fi nish carpenters and even a previous general manager of a large well-known resort in San Diego, working as superintendents here at McGuiness Construction. We have elite, top-notch talent that allows us to offer unique hands-on experience for every job and client.” McGuiness Construction self-performs just about every trade with the exception of plumbing, electrical, landscaping, wall and water feature construction. “We open the trenches for the utilities and then backfi ll them,” says Fitch. “We also do the excavation for the footings, cuts for walls and even excavate for a variety of water features, including pools.”

McGuiness Construction is currently on a multimillion-dollar

historical renovation project in La Jolla for a well-known architect out or New York. The architect is ranked by Architectural Digest as one of the top 50 in the world and he knows McGuiness Construction’s work well because they built his home in La Jolla several years ago. The La Jolla renovation project began back in November 2014 and will be completed by the end of 2016. McGuiness Construction began the job by fi rst clearing the vegetation that had gone untouched for the past seven years. “It was really overgrown and took us nearly a month just to clear down to raw dirt,” says Fitch. “We then went in and made our cuts and brought in a drilling rig to place the 40 foot I-beams for the shoring and retaining wall.” According to Fitch, the

Honesty, Integrity, Quality Workmanship

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McGuiness Construction rented a Cat 305.5 Mini Excavator from Hawthorne Cat Rental Store for use on a home renovation project in La Jolla.

home is being constructed into the hillside and they are using mini excavators to cut the slopes, backfi ll behind the retaining wall, dig footings and excavate dirt for exporting. “We have exported close to 3,500 yards of dirt, all with a mini excavator, two track loaders, and one skip loader,” says Fitch. “The working area is really tight and we use the mini excavator to dig, the skid steers to haul the dirt down to the driveway and the skip loader to load the earth into the dump trucks.”

McGuiness Construction owns just one piece of construction equipment, a Cat 259D Compact Track Loader from Hawthorne Cat in San Diego. They rent all of the other machinery they need from Hawthorne Cat Rental Store as needed. “I have worked with Hawthorne for 15 years, even back before joining McGuiness Construction,” says Fitch. “It just does not make sense for us to own and maintain heavy equipment because we work on so many different types of jobs. One day we may need a Cat 320 Excavator and a Cat 950 Wheel Loader to dig-out a basement and the next need a Cat backhoe loader or mini excavator to dig footings. Hawthorne has everything we need and our rental sales representative, Dan Walsh, is always there for us. You just can’t beat late model, well-maintained Cat equipment and they even have a variety of other popular brands for rent as well. Right now we have a Cat 305.5 Mini Excavator and a John Deere 210LE Skip Loader on rental out at the La Jolla

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Cat 303.5 Mini Excavator digging footings for basement wall while Cat 321D LCR Excavator exports material for a home in the Bird Rock area in La Jolla.

Cat 305.5 Mini Excavator and Cat 259D Compact Track Loader work in tandem.

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site.mcguinessconstruction.com

renovation project.”The historical home in

La Jolla was originally around 3,600 square feet, but will be approximately 4,800 square feet when completed. A well-known local architect originally built this home in the early 60s. In order to maintain the homes historical list status with the San Diego Historical Society, it was necessary for McGuiness Construction to follow strict guidelines, requirements and recommendations. “All of the original lines have been maintained and although the existing large fl oor to ceiling windows did not meet code, new ones were installed at the same exact size and dimensions,” said Fitch. “We are also adding several features like a vanishing edge pool, a cabana pool house, complete with a guest room, a spa by the pool and in the master suite, a custom water feature that includes a large, rather rare statue and three separate artists are busy creating works of art throughout the property, like statues and metal awning structures. It will be a one of a kind showpiece when complete.”

McGuiness Construction recently began Phase 6 of the concrete foundation work. According to Fitch, they have been pouring concrete for close to a year, however, two-thirds of the home has already been framed and all of the mechanical construction has been completed. “It was necessary that we work our way from the top of the property down due to access issues,” says Fitch. “This is why we had our landscape sub do the work behind the property fi rst, as there would have been no way to access this after construction was complete.” According to Fitch, other amenities include extremely high-end commercial heating and air products, ornate pool lighting and underwater speakers and multiple state-of-the-art audio and visual units throughout the property.

McGuiness Construction is also currently busy with several other maintenance and new build projects, with four or fi ve large new custom home projects coming up soon in La Jolla and the possibility of a fi ve-lot subdivision project in Del Mar. “Part of our services

include maintenance packages on the homes we build and remodel, as many serve as vacation rental homes,” says Fitch. “Our services run deep, as we continue to embrace ideas like green building techniques. We offer features like solar panels and wind turbines, water-saving appliances, new and improved insulation alternatives, recycled building materials, and many other eco-friendly options. The sky is the limit. If you can think of it, we can do it. We have done game rooms, theaters, yoga studios and are currently installing a bowling alley. We are here to make our client’s dreams come true and our owner, David McGuiness, personally visits every job regularly to monitor progress and answer any questions a client may have. Safety and customer satisfaction are our number one concerns.” For more information on McGuiness Construction, Inc., please visit www.mcguinessconstruction.com or call their San Diego offi ces at (858) 842-5112. Cc

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McGuiness Construction utilizes Hawthorne Cat Rental Store for their rental equipment needs on a home renovation project in La Jolla.

Power guaranteedFor every terrain.