You're walking down the sidewalk and suddenly you trip. You look behind you for the cause, but there is no apparent obstacle. It may be time to send in the saw.
But this is no ordinary saw — it's a hand-held machine developed nine years ago by an Orem man with a prayer and nowhere to go financially but up.
Now, with a mountain of debt paid off and money in the bank, Ballard Gardner, 69, is seeking a patent on his process of removing trip hazards from sidewalks. So far, he and his five-man crew that make up the company Amerex have cut or shaved uneven concrete hazards from more than 1,000 miles of walks from Ogden to Las Vegas.
"He's gotta be a genius," said John Inch Morgan, Taylorsville city administrator. The city is so impressed with Gardner that it has upped his $25,000 contract to $75,000 with plans for ongoing hazard removal. "It's a heck of a lot cheaper than pouring new cement."
Without divulging too much on how the saw works — a patent is pending — Gardner says he uses a special diamond saw blade to make horizontal cuts into areas of sidewalk that have raised more than one-quarter inch above the level surface. The Americans with Disabilities Act says these types of hazards must be removed. Sometimes, Gardner is called only after a city has been served with a claim from someone who has been injured because of a hazard.
In Provo alone, Gardner estimates he has repaired more than 350 miles of sidewalk.
"He's probably the best I've ever worked with," said David Day, Provo construction engineer. "With him, you just show him what needs to be done and you never have to worry about quality."
Gardner's method is not only cost-efficient in the short run, it's also saving Provo money by adding 20 years of life to some sidewalks.
Amerex also has had contracts with the Alpine School District, Ogden, Springville, Pleasant Grove, Lehi, Kanab and Denver and has fixed countless sidewalks for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And Gardner is now considering expanding his work crew.
But his future was not always as solid as the ground he often treads.
"I would wake up at 3 a.m., and it felt like pins and needles in my hand," said Gardner of life before his invention. "I didn't know how I was going to survive financially.
"You can't fall off the floor, and that's where I was at."
The idea hit him one day while he was looking at a sidewalk as he prepared to remove a hazard, thinking "there's got to be a better way."
With the exception of complete replacement, other methods left a rough surface or didn't solve the whole problem. A smooth, horizontal cut — or shave — was the answer.
"I figure it was an answer to a prayer," he said. "Sometimes the answers don't always come when you're on your knees."
He built one machine after another in his shop at home until he got it right. His expertise as a machinist and welder and penchant for inventing things for personal use paid off.
These days, Gardner wakes up at 5:30 a.m., but not with that pins-and-needles feeling. He works 60 to 70 hours a week, measuring sidewalks, training employees, writing bids and maintaining his equipment.
The additional payoff, he says, is when joggers, skateboarders, skaters, elderly people, parents with strollers, wheelchair users, people with canes and winter warriors out shoveling snow can navigate sidewalks without injury.
E-MAIL: sspeckman@desnews.com