Ace Retaining Walls is a licenced and registered builder providing retaining-wall construction services. The company has recently taken delivery of a new Ditch Witch SK1050 and is very happy with the purchase.
Harry Parharidis, Director at Ace Retaining Walls, is a happy sort of bloke to talk to. And why wouldn’t he be? His business is not only doing well, it’s doing what it does well.
Harry’s happy nature showed through when we struggled with the spelling of his surname.
“It’s P-A-R-H-A-R-I-D-I-S,” he said patiently after we’d stumbled over it a couple of times. “I use ‘Paradise’ for short,” he chuckled quietly.
‘Fair enough, too’, we thought. Being based on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast would give anyone a fair head start on a ‘Paradise’ title.
For all his happy nature, Harry’s company, Ace Retaining Walls, is a hard-working outfit, running a fleet of machines and specialising in retaining-wall construction and excavation services for civil, commercial, and residential projects across south-east Queensland. Harry himself has over 30 years’ experience and is well-placed to assess the value of earthmoving machinery, even compact units like the Ditch Witch SK1050.
“We run excavators as well,” he said, “fivetonne and 10-tonne and up. But I needed a small machine to get into the small jobs.” “The Ditch Witch is pretty versatile.”
Good result
Harry was running a similar machine from another brand until it was stolen a couple of years ago, and after some research and consideration, the SK1050 got the nod to join the Ace Retaining Walls fleet.
“I just liked the running gear on the Ditch Witch,” Harry recalled. “It’s much easier to clean. And I went to the SK1050 to have 37 horsepower. It’s a stronger machine than the one I replaced.
“And lucky I did,” he said enigmatically.
Multi-purpose
Seeing the lure flicked in our direction we couldn’t help but bite: “Why?” we queried.
“The extra horsepower makes it’s easier when you’re working,” he explained.
“I’m quite a fast worker, especially on the machines, and anything smaller than that would’ve slowed me down and basically got me frustrated. If you’re digging up and you have to get some hard dirt out, with a smaller machine you have to play around with it too much. The SK1050’s got more power, so it’s basically done in one shot, whether you’re picking up stuff or digging out dirt.
“I use it to drill as well. So it’s a good machine in lots of ways.”
Point of view
When we spoke to Harry the Ditch Witch was still very new, and he was already rapt in the machine’s build quality and power delivery.
We wondered out loud about support from the dealer the servicing of the machine.
“Ditch Witch CEA has Craig Baillie on its side up here. He’s a good bloke and he was really easy to deal with,” smiled Harry. “And it’s a brand new machine, and brand new is brand new,” he chuckled again. “It’s fine at the moment. We’ll see how it holds up in coming years.”
For more on Ditch Witch machinery, log on to ditchwitchcea.com.au.
