Introduction

Hello and thank you for taking the time to read our first edition of the StoneBilt Concepts® eNews. I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce you to us and tell you a little about who we are and what we are about.

First a quick history – StoneBilt Concepts is a subsidiary of Precast Concepts, a leading manufacturer of concrete pipe and box culvert located in Henderson Colorado. As forward thinking and savvy business people, the company’s owners, Ed and Roxanne Anderson, were looking for an innovative way to diversify their business. After observing the popularity of concrete paving slabs during a trip to Europe, the idea for StoneBilt Concepts was born. Installation of our state of the art German machinery began in 2008, and production of our concrete paving slabs started in the early spring of 2009.

As much as I love our great lineup of wet cast concrete hardscape products, I won’t take up too much of your valuable time spouting out all the great features they have to offer (you will get the chance to read about them in this issue and many issues to come). However, I will tell you that we are very proud of our innovative products and excited to bring them to the Rocky Mountain Region. Our team brings decades of experience in the concrete and hardscape industries. We are very driven to provide each and every one of our customers with the best service in the industry. We want to help you to complete your project. Please feel free to ask us anything and we will do everything we can to help you to find the answers.

Going forward we hope to use this newsletter to bring you information about our products and services, and to keep up with hot topics and innovations in the industry. Please visit our web site at www.StoneBiltConcepts.com. And if you have any questions I can be contacted with the “ask the pro” function on the web site. If you are attending the upcoming Progreen Expo, please stop by and visit our booth, we would love to talk to you.

I look forward to the opportunity to serve you.

Sincerely,

Dion DeMeyer
StoneBilt Concepts
Sales and Marketing Manager

Project Spotlight: Residential Hardscape (Mead, CO)

North of Denver, Colorado, by about thirty five miles is Mead, “a little town with a big future.” At a newly built private residence in this town, we find StoneBilt Concepts®’ wet–cast concrete paving slabs and steps. The homeowners saw our Slate texture at a local distributor, Colorado Materials. They liked the color, high definition and texture of these slabs well enough to replace the specified random natural flagstone. The result is an inviting and attractive outdoor living space complete with StoneBilt Concepts premium paving slabs, coping and steps at significant price savings over natural stone.

Project Manager Mike Boettcher of Rock Solid Landscapes laid the smoke color Slate slabs in the traditional sand set system. He laid Pattern ten, a two piece repeating pattern, from StoneBilt Concepts’ library of laying patterns.

Smoke Slate steps tie the multi tiered project together. These highly textured steps were installed in the traditional way, over compacted jobsite backfill, and do a nice job of lending uniformity and flow through the outdoor living space.

Lastly, we find an interesting use of the paving slabs. In an effort to keep material variation at a minimum, Slate Smoke paving slabs were used in place of natural stone atop the seating wall. The contractor used a diamond blade saw to create radial cuts in the slabs, and the coping winds along the top of the wall. The slabs were set with wide white mortared joints.

“It’s a very good product; I’m impressed by it,” said Mike Boettcher. Rock Solid Landscapes has since gone to use StoneBilt Concepts’ material on other residential projects and plans to offer the product as an alternative to natural stone on future projects.

“We are very happy with it.” said the homeowner. “We were hoping to create this kind of look, but were having a hard time finding an affordable option with natural stone.”

StoneBilt Concepts premium concrete products make use of wet–casting, as oppose to the traditional dry–casting used in other segmental paving products. Our method delivers a great amount of surface definition in our slabs and steps. Indeed, the molds used to make the products are themselves cast directly from natural stone. We have Travertine, Slate, Sandstone and Limestone and work directly with designers and owners for custom products and colors. Because our paving slabs are cast in consistent dimensions they can be installed at a fraction of the cost of natural stone.

For more information, please click here.

Product Spotlight: Detectable Warning Paving Slabs

At most any street corner we find them: “tactile warning surfaces.” These areas, a result of the Department of Justice’s Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, must have “raised truncated domes,” “be an integral part of the walking surface” and “contrast visually with adjoining surfaces.” (Code of Federal Regulations, Department of Justice, 28 CFR Part 36: ADA Standards for Accessible Design, 1994) With these details, a visually impaired individual may better determine the boundary between a sidewalk and a street.

This Federal mandate has gone through some revisions since its initial conception in 1990. Unlike many other manufacturers of detectable warning surfaces, StoneBilt Concepts®’ Detectable Warning Pavers (ADA Slabs) make full use of the newest revision; our slabs have wider domes. We believe this makes for a stronger and more durable detectable warning surface.

Older ADA guidelines specify the base diameter and top diameter of the domes. Newer guidelines allow a range in these dimensions. StoneBilt Concepts’ slabs use the largest of the allowable dome sizes, creating a wider dome with a lower angle of approach. We believe this lower angled approach and overall dome size will result in less damage to the dome by any traffic, including snowplows.

There is more good news. StoneBilt Concepts is able to work with any designer or engineer to create custom colored ADA Slabs. ADA regulations do not actually require the typical red or yellow colors that are seen in most existing products. Instead there are requirements for a color contrast to the surrounding surface. We can cast concrete in almost any color, opening up several options for design professionals. However it is important to ensure your color choice will follow the ADA guidelines for contrast to its surroundings.

Our 8000 p.s.i. concrete ADA Slabs come in stock 2” x 24” x 24” and 2” x 24” x 12”. However, many ramps are radial. That is why, in addition to our stock sizes, we work with engineers, designers, contractors and owners in custom fabricating our slabs for professional clean finished radius applications.

You will find our ADA Slabs in several locations here in Denver, including around the Denver Federal Courthouse and RTD Market Street Station at 17th Street and Market Street. These slabs, in addition to being approved by a number of City agencies, are CDOT and NMDOT approved.

For more information, please click here.

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