Break Thru Inc. provides demolition, wrecking and waste-removal services to a variety of clients.

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From its modest start 13 years ago, Break Thru Inc. says it has grown to become one of the most successful demolition firms in the Chicago area.

Based in Lombard, Ill., the company provides demolition, wrecking and waste-removal services to the commercial, office, retail, healthcare, education and industrial building sectors.

President Roger Lisy and Vice President Brian Duddy founded Break Thru in 1995.

The two friends had worked for another demolition firm for eight years, and “[We decided] we could do this for ourselves,” Lisy remembers.

Lisy and Duddy opened Break Thru’s first office in a small house in West Chicago, Ill. Its living room was the company’s conference room, and its bedrooms were converted into private offices. For its first project, Break Thru completed a $2,600 stairway demolition at the John Hancock Center in Chicago.

Through the years, the company completed work for such clients as Home Depot, Motorola, Office Depot, Staples and Washington Mutual.

Although interior demolition projects now comprise 85 percent of Break Thru’s work, the company also has a division that can tear down complete buildings, Lisy notes.

Leading Break Thru
After 13 years, Lisy and Duddy say they have no regrets about striking out on their own. Although the two still work long hours, “[Ownership] definitely gives us the freedom of schedule,” Lisy says. “You can reward yourself much more than if you worked for somebody else.”

Break Thru has enjoyed longevity in its staff, too. This July, the company will have accumulated 34 employees who have a decade with the company, Duddy says. The employees receive a watch, to commemorate their tenure.

The company is focused on treating its employees well, Lisy says.

For instance, “We provide foremen with vacation pay, which is not required by the union contract,” he says, adding that the company provides extensive safety and site-specific training to its staff. “We also have an outsourced safety consultant on contract that we can lean to for something [where] we may not have experience,” he says. “We’re not afraid to spend money on training or [finding] out the answers if we don’t have them.”

Historic Hotels
One of Break Thru’s largest projects found the company demolishing portions of the Palmer House Hilton hotel in Chicago.

The company’s work included the demolition of an entire 67,600-square-foot level, as well as the demolition of storefronts and retail and office space on its street level. Break Thru’s budget on the project was up to $4.8 million.

What made the project especially challenging was that the work had to be completed while the hotel remained open. This, Duddy explains, allowed Palmer House to maintain its legacy as the only U.S. hotel that has stayed open and operational since the Chicago Fire in 1871.

Throughout the project, Break Thru planned its work closely with the general contractor, building management and other subcontractors.

In addition, “With the use of machines with special catalytic exhaust, special heavy lifting and hoisting equipment, skilled burners, operators and labor, Break Thru completed this project safely and efficiently,” he says, noting that the company is still completing minor work on the project.

This February, Break Thru also completed a $4.2 million demolition project at The Blackstone, a Renaissance Hotel in Chicago. The building, Duddy notes, is a local landmark that originally opened in 1910. “Seven [U.S.] presidents have gotten their hair cut there,” he adds.

For the project, the company gutted the 23-floor building from its basement levels to its roof. “The initial gut went pretty quick,” Duddy remembers. “During the course of the project, we took out elevators, staircases, and fire escapes.”

Taking a Direction
Break Thru feels the impact from the current economic climate, Lisy says. “The biggest challenge today is the recession going on,” he says, noting that the company has found it difficult to maintain the volume it was at previously.

The company has witnessed a reduction in the scale of its products, but stays busy with modestly sized jobs.

Additionally, “There’s been new demolition companies on the rise,” he says. But Lisy is confident that Break Thru will survive by adjusting to the market changes and selling itself on its abilities.

“We just got to ride the wave,” he says. “We’ll make adjustments as needed [and] we’ll come out stronger.”

The company is also taking the time to re-evaluate its operations, Lisy says. For instance, Break Thru is now strengthening its safety program and changing its hiring process to recruit more qualified workers. “We are going to make [the hiring process] a little more stricter,” he says.

In addition, “I’ve been getting a lot of requests to go out to northwest Indiana,” Lisy says.

“That might be something I have to investigate into, [and] see if we should be heading in that direction.”