With that truck and some compact equipment, Palmer started his company, doing hauling and light demolition. By the grand age of 19, he landed a few demolition jobs that he now describes as “kind of funky.”
“These were interior gutting jobs,” he says, “and they were right up my alley. My machines were small enough to get in those places. At the time, they were too small for my competition.”
After a stint in the Army, Palmer went back to working, using the compact equipment with which he was familiar, and establishing McKinnley Excavating, using his middle name for the company moniker.
He now does a variety of excavation, demolition and retaining-wall projects, including a number of residential and commercial demolition jobs in nearby Gatlinburg after the area’s devastating fires late last year. This year, McKinnley Excavating landed a National Park Service job to rehabilitate a historic building.
Palmer attributes the growth throughout his 15 years of being in business to precision excavation, which he’s been able to do because of machine technology.
“What I’ve enjoyed more than anything is getting GPS on the equipment in the past year or so and watching our clients benefit from that,” Palmer says. “We started with a Trimble 2D unit on our D6 and then with a 2D system on a Cat 314 for pipe work. It’s been nothing but success. It definitely speeds up the process.” At times, he’s been able to use the technology to complete site-prep jobs of more than one acre in half the time he originally estimated.
