Design and Construction Report special feature
Kansas City based Turner Ceramic Tile has a long history of supporting general contractors in their efforts to deliver exceptional projects. Today the company works on projects across a wide range of niches and scours the globe to find the best solution to meet each project’s specific demands.
Josh Turner, vice president, started in the family business working for his father (Allen) while in high school, learning the business from the ground up, working at tasks that ranged from delivering product to grouting. At the time, the company worked primarily supporting apartment project construction through a team of six.
By 2001, the company had grown and expanded into a variety of commercial efforts. Understanding the value of a family business, the company’s growth has included the addition of other members of the family, as well as trusted employees who, Turner says, over time have come to be like family. The staff now numbers 60 and the company’s range of services includes panel tilting installation, cut to size granite, project value engineering, design, and floor prep.
Working with commercial builders and developers, designers and architects, and on projects ranging from senior living to churches, restaurants, hotels and apartments, the company’s five estimators each specialize in unique niches. This allows them to understand the nuances of each project type, and to be efficient in finding solutions to meet their client’s needs.
Turner says part of the company’s success is its openness. “Despite this niche approach, we don’t go into a project with blinders on. We are always working towards the goal of the owners, whether it is focused on budget, schedule or design issues. Our focused expertise means our team of professional are fluent in the wide range of solutions and options available to allow the client the greatest access to options.”
“We are fortune enough to have some of the most talented employees in the industry,” he says. “The crews are challenged every day. It might be a design that takes the most patient hand and precise installation or a project that requires a team of installers and finishers to meet the most difficult schedule.”
The team regularly tackles difficult projects Turner says. Some examples of the challenges the team has handled include 35-story apartment complexes, several stories of exterior façade tile, custom 5 ft. by 10 ft., panel tile throughout a grocery store and Olympic-size swimming pools. Turner Ceramic Tile had also worked for the TV series Extreme Home Makeover.
Understanding the demands of commercial construction, the company has developed processes to meet it. “Our complete team is focused on attention to detail,” Turner says.
The warehouse manager, for instance, tracks and has tile ready in the warehouse. “For deliveries we use trucks that have an onboard forklift. The drivers are also mathematicians and will break down a complete order and have placed exactly where the project foreman needs it.”
He says a quality control manager walks the projects and reviews areas of install weeks in advance while installers and finishers work do what it takes to meet every goal. “Our project managers are on site daily reviewing the schedule, details, and resolving on going changes with the project foreman. At the completion the quality control manager and project foreman ensures the tile work has met the GC and owners needs.”
Turner says this saying hangs in the office. “Perfection is NOT attainable. But if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”
Turner Ceramic Tile is a member of the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) and the National Tile Contractors Association. The company employs Certified Tile Installers (CTI) and Certified Panel Installers.
For more information, visit https://turnerceramictile.com.
