Pete DeRosa works in such tight spaces that he and his crews have to wheelbarrow out materials. And if it weren’t for his Kobelco SR13 Gate Keeper zero tail-swing excavator, he’d be doing that a lot more.

DeRosa founded his company, P. DeRosa Inc., of Dix Hills, NY, in 1971, after serving in Vietnam and spending some time with a Long Island-based landscaping company.

In its early stages, DeRosa’s company did landscaping and provided landscape management. In the late 1990s, though, the business began moving away from its roots and eventually became a demolition and site excavation contractor.

During his years serving customers in Nassau and Suffolk counties, DeRosa and his company have come to be considered experts in doing back-yard excavation in extremely confined areas. Helping him earn this reputation has been his selection of equipment — Kobelco excavators. Recently, DeRosa upped the ante with his competitors by purchasing the SR13 Gate Keeper, which is a 3,500-lb. (1,588 kg) zero tail-swing excavator with an overall width of 34 in. (86.4 cm), enabling the machine to squeeze through very tight spaces, such as a back-yard gate.

“My SR13 Gate Keeper is an extremely flexible tool that allows me to access areas that no one else can,” said DeRosa. “At times the spots that we’re digging in are so tight that we have to wheelbarrow out the materials. It’s also a great tool for removing patios and concrete slabs in back yards.”

DeRosa also has five other Kobelco excavators in his fleet: two 35SR zero tail-swing machines; an SR70 zero tail-swing; an SK150, and an SK160 Dynamic Acera equipped with a grapple and an ACS coupler — all these, including the SR13, were purchased from All Island Equipment, of West Babylon, NY.

The Kobelco SK160 Dynamic Acera, with its grapple and ACS coupler, has proven to be dynamic in its versatility on DeRosa’s demolition projects: he can equip the excavator to operate as a grapple, attach the bucket for digging, or use part of the grapple with the bucket to operate as a thumb. All of these changes, he said, can be made in just a minute or so using the ACS coupling system. This setup also is very flexible for drainage applications. According to DeRosa, “one man can go to a job, change out from the bucket to the grapple without any assistance and no measurable downtime.”

P. DeRosa Inc. currently has 30 employees, including Pete DeRosa’s children, Kimberly and Shawn. The largest project to date for P. DeRosa Inc. was valued at $200,000.

For more information, call 631/643-2605, or visit www.allislandequipment.com.

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