Javier Carpio was 11 when he started accompanying his father, a welder, as he worked on gates and fences in homes in the community.

"We started with a pick-up truck, my dad and I" said Carpio, who is now 24. "I would do little things like passing the tools along. It was not easy, but I liked what I was doing".

Carpio still helps his father, but much has changed. Heavy Iron Welding, Inc is now a flouring company headquarted at the Coral Springs Corporate Park. For two years in a row, the business was judged the best in the city by US Local Business Association.

Juan Vasquez, Carpio's father, remembers sleeping three hours a day during the early days. "It was tough. When we started, I had to keep my regular job in the night. I did work on my own during the daytime. A year and half after we started, I quit my night job and hired a parttime helper".

"Business was good; we got several small welding jobs that kept us going, Vasquez said. By 1999, I started getting four to five guys to help me out. By 2000, we had 10 employees. It has been good so far. The quality of work that we do makes us stand out. We also finish projects on time. When we say we are going to be there, we make sure we are there".

The company, which is situated on a 3 acre campus within the park, specializes in steel and aluminum fabrication and installation, said Carpio. "We currently have about 30 projects; nearly all of them are commercial. We are trying to focus on government jobs now because of the economy. The biggest project we are working now is for $4.8 million. We lay a lot of emphasis on hand labor (and) most of our work is custom-made", Carpio said.

"We have done work in FAU, FIU, BCC and Palm Beach Community College; we also work in the Caribbean Islands, said Carpio who is in charge of sale. We were in Plantation but moved here a few years ago. We are minority-certified in Broward and Miami Dade counties. We would love to do a Coral Springs City project. Its just that the chance has never come our way".

Antonio Balarezo, who has spent 11 years with the company, does detailing work. I like the way we work as a team. "It is great to work on a piece of metal and see it turn into something really nice and special," he said.

"The company currently has 32 employees," Vasquez said. "We plan to take more once the economy turns around. We had to lay off a few people when the economy worsened, but we intend to take them back once things start getting better. We also have expansion plans. We intend to construct two more buildings for our metal fabrication division."