In business for over 35 years, Universal Asphalt Co., Inc. has abided by a simple principle that has produced astounding results: treat your employees well and produce nothing but top-quality work.
An array of amazing statistics define the company profile for Universal Asphalt:
* 35 plus years in the asphalt business.
* The average employee has over 20 years of experience in asphalt-related work.
* Their fleet consists of 300 pieces of paving, excavation, concrete, and demolition equipment.
* Eight paving and grading crews, a sealing crew-42 field personnel in all, and ten inside staff employees.
* Over $25 million in annual volume.

All this started from the dream of one man. Dan Houck Sr. was just 26 years old when his newly-formed company, Universal Asphalt, performed their first job on April 12 1965. These were financially challenging times. After graduating from Compton Junior College, and serving six months in the National Guard Reserves, he worked for three years for Johnny Johnson at General Asphalt as an Estimator. It was then that Dan came up with the innovative idea of selling stock to his Mother, Father, Uncle and General Superintendent. This generated enough capital to get his dream off the ground. Growth in those early days was slow. They perfomed only a few hundred thousand in annual volume, and rented most all of their equipment. Then, like many successful companies, they found a niche market, and the company really began to take off.

(Left) An aerial photo of Universal Asphalt's Yard located in Sante Fe Springs, California. (Center) Universal Asphalt's Blaw-Knox PF3200 Paving Machine at work on a jobsite. (Right) An Ingersoll-Rand DD65 Roller compacting asphalt on a parking lot project.

During the late sixties, and early seventies, oil companies were building gas stations on just about every corner of an expanding Southern California city. Those corners not snatched by a gas station were then occupied by a fast-food franchise like McDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken. Being located in Santa Fe Springs, Universal Asphalt was in the thick of it, and took advantage of this incredible growth. They estimated that they probably paved three or four of these places a week. Ten years later, by 1975, Universal Asphalt was able to buy its first paving machine. Today, Universal Asphalt is a full-service paving contractor that performs both public and private works, with special emphasis on general construction, schools and universities, hospitals, as well as repair and maintenance.

Universal Asphalt recently overlaid several parking lots
at Dodger Stadium prior to the start of the 2001 season.

Today, instead of having to rent their equipment, they are in the admirable position of renting out their equipment and operators to other paving and related companies. As they grew, they were also able to perform larger and more complicated projects. One of their most memorable jobs was done for Western Airlines at LAX. Universal paved the entire taxi and tie-down areas. The company has also performed many other runway jobs for the Navy in El Toro, San Diego, and Long Beach. Another large project they recently completed, involved overlaying several parking lots at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. These high-profile jobs required the very best in quality. High standards and quality work have always been key ingredients in Universal Asphalt's ongoing recipe for success.
Then the move came to close several military bases. So Universal focused its efforts more on work for school districts, general contractors, and quite a lot of repair and maintenance work for property managers and apartment facilities.

(Back Row, Left to Right), Danny Martinez, Darren Houck, Dick Houck,
Dan Houck Jr., Dan Houck Sr., (Bottom Row, Left to Right),
Camille Barajas, Sharon Hicks, Bonnie Girton, and Curt Fauntleroy.

Universal Asphalt is a family-owned and operated company. Dan Houck Sr. is the CEO, while his two sons, Dan Houck Jr. and Darren Houck occupy key positions. Dan Jr. is the President, and Darren is an estimator. The estimating staff also includes Curt Fauntleroy, Keith Woodside, and Dick Houck (Dan Sr.'s brother). Sharon Hicks is Dan's sister and is the corporations Secretary/Treasurer.
Universal fully understands the importance and benefits of a family-run business. Similarly, they understand the importance and benefits of dedicated employees.
Universal Asphalt is a union contractor-one of the few remaining in Southern California. Most of their operators are trained in-house. They have several father-and-son teams, where the father passes on his talent and experience to his son. Not surprisingly, quite a few employees are able to say that this is the only job they've ever had. Such job longevity seems a rarity these days. Dan Houck Jr. sums up the company's philosophy regarding employees, insisting that they are the primary reason for the company's success: "We are a family business with many of our employees being here for more than 22 years. We invest in our people and pay top dollar because we care about them and don't want them to go work somewhere else. We work for many of the general contractors performing onsite roadwork in conjunction with parking lots and produce nothing but top quality work. We have a reputation for being extremely efficient in that we go in and get the job done and leave. We are actively involved in rental and rent to many of the suppliers on a regular basis."

Dan Houck Sr. collects classic cars as well as custom hotrods like the '46 Ford small block supercharged Chevrolet pictured above. This car is full of custom features including a set of fender skirts, Appleton spots, frenched '49 Mercury taillights, '49 DeSoto bumpers, as well as Cadillac hubcaps. To further enhance the detail, the hood has been nosed and decked, the headlights frencned, and the door handles removed.

Bitten by the hot-rod bug in his youth, Dan Houck Sr. avidly collects and drives many of the classics he admired back then.
Those were the glory days of the custom rods-especially those built by the Barris shop in South Gate. His vast collection includes: a '62 Thunderbird Sportster M Series with air (only 401 of these built); a '56 Mercury Montclair Convertible; a '57 Lincoln Mark II (at the time one of the most expensive American automobiles ever made with a price tag of around $10 thousand-1957 dollars); a '53 Ford Skyliner convertible (built for Ford's 50th Anniversary). However the car that seems to bring back the days out at the Barris shop the most is his '46 Ford small-block super-charged Chevrolet convertible that he found back in 1996. The car is full of custom features and won first place at the 50th Anniversary Grand National Roadster Show in San Francisco in January 1999.

Dan Houck Sr. and family in Aspen, Colorado, celebrating
his Thirty-First Wedding Anniversary.

Other favorite activities include hunting and skiing. For the past 23 years, the entire Houck family have spent ski vacations in Aspen, Colorado-where he and his wife were married 33 years ago.
Strong in family values, simple in their business philosophy, and generous to their employees, look for Universal Asphalt to continue producing the best work in and around Southern California.