Pair's engineering firm a big success

HYDE PARK -- Aaron Strik and Mike Baldinelli struck up a firm professional and personal relationship while toiling at a London engineering firm. "We had some goals and were still kind of young," said Baldinelli. "If we were ever going to do it, it was now." What they wanted to do was strike out on their own, a step they achieved in June after three to four months of preliminary work done mostly by Strik. They became the civil and structural engineering firm of Strik, Baldinelli and Associates Ltd. operating out of a sparse office in Hyde Park The "and Associates" part of the name is ambitious. So far the two operate alone. They expect to have four or five engineering associates next year when another anticipated banner construction season begins. Strik and Baldinelli are equal partners in incorporation and in practice. "This is better than being behind a desk (with another firm) and being a grunt worker," Strik said. "Now we grunt on our own," cut in Baldinelli. The partners say they've been astounded how their business has taken off. "We've had three times more business and three times more work than we forecast," Baldinelli said. "Maybe our expectations were low, but we were conservative, low but still good enough." Clients from previous contacts and by word of mouth flooded the pair with work they didn't anticipate. In a few short months this year, the Strik-Baldinelli company has worked on projects worth $40 million to $50 million. Some of the bigger projects are an affordable housing project near Dundas and Talbot street in London and a day-care centre in St. Thomas. The firm is doing the structural engineering work for the rebuilding of the Universal Forest Products roof truss plant in Thorndale, destroyed in an $8-million fire in April, affecting 144 employees. And there are already some speciality customers such as Coldstream Concrete, a sewer pipe manufacturer. But the mainstay of the business and one the partners say they will maintain no matter how many grandiose projects they win is the home building sector. "Residential is 50 per cent and commercial/industrial is 50 per cent," said Baldinelli. They have 25 home building companies on exclusive contract and they aim to keep them through "good service," no matter how small the trouble-shooting job may be. "People say how can you do a job for $50, but if you have 40 jobs like that it's $2,000 and it means something," said Strik. "We are small guys. We answer the phones, which our clients love." Timing was also right. "We entered into this when there was an opening and a need for what we do," said Strik, citing the record number of housing starts locally as well as nationally. The forecast for next year is only slightly down, still well above average. "I've always taken pride driving down the road and saying I designed that building," said Strik. "Now I can say I designed the building and my company got paid."