ASCENDUM helps McGhee Grading & Excavating increase quality of work by providing reliable Volvo machines for projects, ensuring efficient operations. McGhee's dedication to excellence and customer satisfaction drives their successful 25-year business in North Georgia.
CEG photo
(L-R): Shane McGhee and his brother, Justus McGhee of McGhee Grading & Excavating based in Chatsworth, Ga., meet with their ASCENDUM sales representative, Mitchell Gross at a job site in North Georgia.
The size and scope of construction companies ranges widely in the United States, from the massive, multinational firms to the much smaller outfits that employ a dozen or so people.
But there are also very small companies within the construction industry where fewer than a half-dozen people work hard to prepare raw land for larger firms to build upon. How long those businesses thrive and succeed depends on multiple factors, including the caliber of their work, their reputation, and with whom they choose to associate in the business.
The latter category includes one North Georgia company that has managed to succeed for 25 years with only a two-man crew.
The firm, McGhee Grading & Excavating, located in the town of Chatsworth, southeast of Chattanooga, Tenn., was formed in April 2000 by Justus McGhee, before his brother, Shane, joined him around 2004. Besides grading and excavating, their business also handles demolition projects from time to time.
The McGhee brothers grew up around this type of work thanks to their late father J.C., who at one time had his own company, J&S Excavating, in Gordon County, Ga.
"I got involved in clearing and dirt work after learning from my dad when I was a kid," Justus said. "He taught me a lot, and I'd ride on the dozer with him all day long behind his seat. By the time I was a teenager, I was already operating equipment myself."
In the early days of McGhee Grading & Excavating, Justus performed all the work himself before Shane came aboard. In addition, their uncle S.T. McGhee, who has since passed away, also lent a hand during the company's formative years.
Over the next quarter-century, the company began building a stellar reputation among larger contractors in the North Georgia area because of the detailed work it does in creating home sites, digging basements, ponds, and lakes, working on driveways and building large commercial pads.
A whopping total of 31 machines make up the company's rolling stock today, which, Justus admitted, is an unusually high number for only two guys.
"Well, some of them are just older pieces," he said, "including dozers that I just like to have around. Shane and I operate everything we have ourselves. It's like my name says, ‘Just us.'"
Volvo's A25G Articulated Truck Becomes
‘Game Changer'
On a recent warm and sunny spring day, the McGhees could be found working on a beautiful, 635-acre property in the hill country near Adairsville, Ga.
"This project has been going on for two years now," said McGhee. "The owners have had more and more added to it as we've worked. They are building a new home, and we have redone the 75-year-old lake here.
"It had been leaking and wouldn't stay full, so we dug the mud out with the Volvo A25G articulated haul truck we bought. We actually excavated a little deeper because the lake was shallow on one end; now, though, it holds about five to six feet of water."
In all, he added, the McGhees have moved approximately 50,000-cu.-yds. of dirt from the work site.
"And I wouldn't have been able to do the job without that Volvo articulated truck," Justus said. "It was a game changer for me. If I had known about this machine years ago I would have bought one sooner because of how well it worked right after it rains. And in this part of the world where we get a lot of wet weather, that's a huge thing. We hauled hundreds of loads of muck out of here with that Volvo."
The A25G artic truck being used in Adairsville is just one more Volvo model that McGhee Grading & Excavating has purchased and, each time, Justus has called on the ASCENDUM Machinery branch locations in Chattanooga and Buford, Ga., just northeast of metro Atlanta.
McGhee decided to begin running Volvo's construction equipment after having used a few models owned by a friend and fellow contractor, he said.
"I really liked the Volvos and, from there, ended up buying a used 2011 EC160C excavator. It's now sitting on a 32-acre tract of land that we cleared. That machine is very smooth, quick and has a lot of power for its size. Then, I ended up getting a Volvo SD70 smooth drum compactor and I purchased a 2019 Volvo VHD tandem on-road dump truck that has given us great service."
Just last fall, he worked with Mitchell Gross, his sales representative in ASCENDUM's Buford store, to obtain a new Volvo EC160E excavator for his firm.
So far, the fuel efficiency on McGhee's newest machine — like all Volvo excavators — has proven to be outstanding, he said.
"The power that you get for the fuel economy on Volvo's excavators is simply awesome. On my new EC160C, I'm getting almost 14 to 15 hours a day out of a single tank."
Likewise, he has been very pleased at how hard ASCENDUM works to deliver new equipment to him as quickly as possible. Obviously, supply-chain shortages have triggered shipment delays in recent years, he acknowledged, but McGhee is confident in the dealership's efforts on his behalf.
"When I needed an artic truck and ordered this 2023 A25G, [Volvo] had just had one dropped off at the Savannah port. It arrived almost in the same week that I ordered it and came straight here. Since we got it, it has been a great machine and has just 517 hours on it."
McGhee believes the Volvo articulated truck, like the excavators he owns, also give him a bit of an advantage in the field.
"The A25G moves around a lot easier than my regular tandem on site, but the Volvo also has nearly the same power as a larger machine and a lot better fuel economy; we probably save about 35 to 40 gallons a day while doing the same amount of work," he said.
ASCENDUM Quickly Responds to
McGhee's Needs
Being the sole employees of McGhee Grading & Excavating, the duo not only run the business and operate the machines, but they also work as their own shop mechanics.
"After our dad got sick in 1988, we went to work for a trucking company where we learned a lot about diesel engines, making repairs, welding, brakes and a lot of other stuff," said Justus. "We did that for about 10 to 12 years before I started on my own in the grading business."
ASCENDUM's Gross said the McGhees are "amazing" people with whom to conduct business.
"These guys take a lot of pride in their equipment, so it's always nice to work with someone that enjoys the machines and maintains an actual connection to them," he said.
As equipment technology has advanced over the past 25 years, though, McGhee admitted that it has been more challenging for the two brothers to service the newer pieces themselves, but if they do need help, he does not hesitate to contact his trusted dealers.
In particular, he lauded the folks at ASCENDUM for quickly sending technicians to the job site when electronic issues arise on the machines he bought from them.
In the time that Gross has worked in the Buford branch of ASCENDUM, though, a problem with one of McGhee's Volvo machines has not yet come up.
But if it does, he said, "Justus knows to call me, and I'll get somebody on it or get involved myself to make sure that we're taking care of him on our end. I've told him to let me work for him. We talk after hours sometimes; it doesn't matter to me what time it is."
To help him get parts, McGhee said he often deals with ASCENDUM Chattanooga's Mike Brown, whom he describes as always willing to assist the contractor in time of need.
"If we require a part, it's sometimes easier for us to go up there," McGhee said. "But, if we need to have them get it to us, [ASCENDUM] usually does so by the next day or no more than two or three days at the most."
Despite Heavy Workload, McGhee's Results Impeccable
McGhee said that his preference is to stay on one project at a time until it is completed, but, he said, "We are always juggling five or six projects – sometimes even seven – at one time."
Although he continues to bid on projects, the contracting company also relies heavily on its high level of respect among other builders to generate business via word of mouth.
McGhee also has been advertising the company's services on its own YouTube channel, where videos, photos and project descriptions illustrate its expert work to a much wider audience.
"Since I started that channel a couple of years ago, local people like watching it and seeing what we're doing," Justus said. "I've had people out of state who have seen it call to ask if we'd come to South Carolina or North Carolina for their jobs, but we really try to stay in this area of North Georgia because it costs so much to mobilize for a distant project — we try to keep our work within 40 miles of home."
Gross added that he sees McGhee Grading & Excavating's YouTube channel as not only a fabulous tool for the construction company to promote its business to potential clients, but one that advertises ASCENDUM's line of outstanding products that McGhee uses on its job sites.
McGhee Loves His Work Too Much to Leave Just Yet
Justus McGhee acknowledged the possibility that the operation of his grading company will one day be turned over to his son, Justin, and Shane's son, Tyler, but, right now, he said he cannot envision retiring anytime soon.
"When I first started this business 25 years ago, I met people that have been like family to us ever since," he said. "I really love what I do, and I enjoy helping people."
In a summation of how he does business, McGhee added, "For me, quality always comes first. I don't want to leave a customer with a problem because our company name is all over the job. And, if I can't do a job that they need, I am always willing to refer them to another contractor that will do a good job for them." CEG
(All photographs in this article are Copyright 2025 Construction Equipment Guide. All Rights Reserved.)
Eric Olson
A writer and contributing editor for CEG since 2008, Eric Olson has worked in the news-gathering business for 45 years.
Olson grew up in the small town of Lenoir, N.C. in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where he began covering sports for the local newspaper at age 18. He continued to do that for several other dailies in the area while in college at Appalachian State University. Following his graduation, he worked for, among other companies, the Winston-Salem Journal, where he wrote and edited the newspaper's real estate and special features sections for 10 years. Since 1999 he has worked as a corporate media liaison and freelance writer, in addition to his time at CEG.
He and his wife, Tara, have been happily married for almost 40 years and are the parents of two grown and successful daughters. He currently is in the employ of two dogs and three cats, a job that he dearly loves.
Read more from Eric Olson here.
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