San Antonio Construction News • OCT 2020
Page 5
Don’t just cover it up
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Seizing an opportunity
K-Stone Co-Owner and Vice President, Rick Stone
tarting out in the janitorial business in 1997, Rick Stone and his wife, Dana, moved from Phoenix to San Antonio, started K-Stone and quickly landed H-E-B as one of their clients. The company then branched into a janitorial distribution business. “We were cleaning 130 stores a night for H-E-B and some other grocery chains here in town. Do you remember Handy Andy? That is where the management side of our business comes from. We would find the business and then we would find contractors to do the work and we would manage the work,” says Stone. By 2003, the company evolved once again into the decorative concrete business when one of their vendors who made the buffing machines got into grinding machines. “We got interested in that, brought in some of the grinders and started doing polished concrete on the side. Now it has evolved into 80 percent of our business. Distribution is the other 20 percent,” adds Stone. As a subcontractor, K-Stone brings life to concrete whether it is freshly laid
concrete or concrete that has flooring applications previously applied. “We used to get a lot of projects where people who were remodeling wanted a nice concrete floor and didn’t want the hassle of carpet and tile. We would rip it all out and polish the concrete and turn old, ugly concrete into something dazzling. There is a lot of character in concrete. Why cover up a perfectly good floor with carpet and tile? “As for new construction, we like to get into a project at a particular point before sheetrock is installed. That way we can give the owner a nice clean looking floor with sharp edges. With sheetrock, it is hard to get the edges just right,” Stone continues. Stone adds that the company does very little residential and has noticed the trend in commercial and industrial is leaning towards more matted-finished concrete. K-Stone is a polished concrete contractor and janitorial supply distributor. They are HUB, WBE certified and have been locally owned and operated since 1997. -cmw
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Dalia and Chris Treviño, Better Bilt LLC owners at the One Twin Oaks Office Building (Photo taken 2010).
n 1992, after 15 years in the heavy structural steel industry, Chris Treviño took advantage of a golden opportunity and started Better Bilt LLC. He started the company alongside his wife, Dalia. Working 16-hour days, seven days a week, Chris worked non-stop to move his company forward. He worked out of his house with a few pieces of machinery until the company moved into its current location with a fully furnished sheet metal shop. “We grew this company establishing a great client base. No advertising, just growing our client base and taking care that client base,” says Trevino. Better Bilt LLC specializes in a variety of areas. On the ornamental side, they specialized in stainless steel, aluminum, copper and brass handrail systems; wall panels of all kinds and various architectural designs as specified, and they provide light structural to decorative mild steel.
The company has built a reputation in the restaurant market for their skills in creating vent hoods of all types, stainless steel counter tops and dish tables to name a few, as well as, providing architectural design and consulting. As one might expect, being a sheet metal fabricator, Better Bilt LLC has found a niche in commercial HVAC supplies which includes DX systems, package units, split systems and chillers. In Better Bilt’s 28 years in business, Trevino still marvels the GSA East Travis Street Parking Garage as his most memorable project. “The size and decorativeness still just stands out to me. It is a beautiful parking garage,” Trevino says. The six-story parking garage was built to complement the Hipolito Garcia Federal Build and U.S. Courthouse. Trevino and his team at Better Bilt LLC serve San Antonio and its surrounding areas. Better Bilt LLC is HUB, SBE, MBE and WBE certified. -cmw
