Concrete Elegance was established in February 2004. Many people ask us why we started this business. Well – we weren’t planning to do it; the idea just fell in our laps. We read about concrete countertops in one of the home décor magazines and decided to make them for our own kitchen. And when we started talking about it with our friends and kitchen designers, we got an overwhelmingly enthusiastic reaction. So after a bit of market research, we saw that enough people were interested in concrete for us to take the plunge and join the ever-increasing group of former Bay Street professionals who have left their high-rise cubicles for dusty workshops.
Engineers at St. Lawrence Cement and Master Builders Technologies have generously shared their technical expertise and helped us create a high-performance concrete mix design. A training course at the Concrete Countertop Institute has taught us how to properly reinforce thin slabs and many other tricks of the trade. The Ontario chapter of the American Concrete Institute offers a fantastic pool of technical assistance and keeps us informed of the latest advances in concrete technology. And a recently established technical discussion forum on the Concrete Countertop Forums website allows concrete countertop professionals worldwide to share their knowledge and experience and help all of us, even local competitors, make better concrete and better countertops. This is why we have the utmost confidence in our product.
Since our inception, we have continued to refine and improve our mix design and methods of production, first to make stronger concrete, then to make it more environmentally responsible without compromising strength or appearance. While the pieces we made in 2004 are still looking great today, the concrete we make now is lighter, stronger, larger, faster to produce, easier to finish, more stain resistant and much, much greener. Ongoing quality improvement is part of the fun we have at work – and there is always room for improvement. |
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