CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Justin Stipcak spends a good chunk of his day in the sky. A favorite part of his job is operating a 350-ton crane.
“There’s always something different and new, and no two jobs are the same,” he said.
He studied to become a paramedic, but now he’s helping people in other ways, building communities and businesses that are contributing to North Carolina’s fast-growing cities.
“You can see the work that you’ve done whether that’s putting a big tower crane up and it’s going and servicing the Charlotte airport or building a house in downtown Winston-Salem,” he said.“You can see the work that you’ve done whether that’s putting a big tower crane up and it’s going and servicing the Charlotte airport or building a house in downtown Winston-Salem,” he said.
He’s built nearly 50 tower cranes across Charlotte since 2020, and worked on about 200 projects.
He starts work early.
“Most days our start time is anywhere from 5 in the morning to about 7 a.m.,” he said. “Before the pandemic a lot of people were working about 10-12 hours.”
Lately, he says he’s pushing 14-hour days – the legal limit by N.C. Department of Transportation regulations — to get the growing number of jobs done.
Now, he says there’s more jobs than workers.
“There’s lots and lots of open positions that they’re looking for work, but nobody is really pursuing that avenue, because they don’t know what we do,” he said.
That reflects a national trend. The National Center for Construction Education and Research says nearly half a million construction workers are needed nationwide.
So, Stipcak’s making TikTok videos to give people a behind-the-scenes look at different construction jobs, showing off everything from his 350-ton crane to his 550-ton boom. It also helps pass the time on these long days.
He’s built quite a following, racking up views.
“The most popular one that I had was last year with 90,000-plus,” he said. “But at the end of the day, when it’s time to work, the phone and TikTok get thrown on the dash, and it’s game time.”
He works on up to three jobs a day sometimes, doing everything from building tower cranes and offloading building materials to installing rooftop AC units.
He says even a few extra hands would help.
“But there are some days where it’s, hey, we have 15 objectives we need to complete here. If we had another two or three people, our day would go a heck of a lot faster,” he said.
Stipcak says his company mainly needs truck drivers now. He added many projects are taking longer to complete in the winter, since legally, they’re only allowed to work from sunrise to sunset, about a 10-hour window.
