NCTS achieves global reach as tile and stone
contractor with safety, training and focus on
budget, constructability and responsiveness
Design and Construction Report staff writer
From its beginnings as a small tile
and stone contractor in the heart of
the recession serving a few select
clients in Northern California, NCTS
has grown to an almost $20 million a
year tile and stone contractor work-
ing all over the world.
President Roger Leasure says the
company works with large general
contractors who have stringent pre-
qualification and safety processes.
“General contractors who value a
subcontractor that can help them
with budgeting and constructability
from design drawings to construc-
tion drawings like to work with us be-
cause we help them better define
our scope of work and get it done,”
he said.
In addition to highly skilled and
knowledgeable estimators and pro-
ject managers, NCTS also supports
the industry by growing its own
skilled labor base through a recently
established in-house training school.
The company developed its own 50-
page curriculum to address the cur-
rent industry standards for means
and methods on tile/stone installa-
tions. On a weekly basis NCTS instruc-
tors bring in groups of setters and
finishers to a school built in one of its
warehouses, where they walk them
through the fundamental principles
of different installations and then
practice the techniques on large
scale mock ups.
“This will represent an investment
of around $200,000 this year but it’s
an investment to ensure we have
skilled people ready to take on the
most challenging projects,” Leasure
said. “The best way we can provide
more value to our clients is to have a
larger pool of quality installers than
our competition. On a yearly basis
we identify a handful of our installers
who we think are qualified and send
them through the Ceramic Tile Edu-
12 — May-June 2018 — The North Carolina Construction News
cation Foundation (CTEF) certification
course. For a nonunion shop, this is
the equivalent of a journeyman card.”
The company also uses its own
skilled labor to work with others in
the industry. “I feel so many tile con-
tractors have an us vs. them mental-
ity,” he said.
“Right now, 25 of our 130 guys in
the field are from other licensed tile
contractors. They like working for us
because when they get a little slow
we will keep their good guys busy
and we pay them weekly without re-
tention and organize and stock the
job so they just need to show up and
install.” Leasure says he is careful to note
these subs are managed on their
jobs by their own foremen and super-
intendents to ensure quality installa-
tions. “We count on them to help us
out but in the end it’s our name on
the finished product, so we take the
quality of their finished work very se-
riously. Our subcontracting partners
who continue to work with us know
our standards.”
The company has developed an
expertise in handling hospitality pro-
jects and malls but performs on a
wide range of projects. Some no-
table projects completed and under-
way are: Thunder Valley Casino and
Resort in Lincoln, CA; Cache Creek
Casino and Resort in Brooks, CA; Im-
perial Palace Casino Saipan, Northern
Mariana Islands; Meritage Resort and
Spa Napa, CA; Grand Sierra Resort
Reno, NV; Valley Fair Mall Renovation
and Expansion San Jose, CA.
Leasure says mall work requires
specific attention to detail and capa-
bilities including demolition of the ex-
isting flooring at night, grinding
nightly for public safety, shot blasting
to meet the correct profile, floor lev-
eling, installing of membranes for
moisture and crack control all before
layouts and installation begin.
“I remember on a past mall project
hiring a local tile setter who walked in
and saw the team on scissor lifts
hanging plastic, a guy on a bobcat
tearing out tile, guys on forklifts, ev-
eryone suited up in hardhats,
glasses, vests etc. and he remarked
that ‘this isn’t tile work, this is heavy
construction.’ I think that is the differ-
ence that sets us apart from your
standard tile shop. We take on
scopes of work that normal tile
shops won’t and our guys are trained
in fall protection, boom lifts, fork lifts,
OSHA certifications and current silica
standards.” The company’s work on the Valley
Fair Mall renovation and expansion
required tearing out 240,000 sq. ft. of
stone flooring, grinding, leveling, and
anti-fracture membrane. The team
also had to deal with degraded con-
crete slabs in areas that were uncov-
ered during demolition operations.