What do you mean, “Concrete PRODUCTS?!?”

When someone asks me what I do, and I respond that I have a precast concrete company, invariably, they ask either, “Concrete, as in driveways?” or simply, “Precast?”

Typically, when concrete is thought of at all, it is thought of as the stuff we park our cars on, or the barriers along the highway. Yet when I explain that we have a factory – or plant as we say in our industry and that we make concrete products, I usually get a curious look. Not curious, as in odd – but actually curiosity; Concrete PRODUCTS? Like what?

As long as humans have made concrete, we have made products from this amazing material. Boxes for plants, bricks for buildings, column sections and more have been found in the ruins of ancient Rome. And in our modern world, concrete products are all around you-you simply have to look. The next time you throw out a paper coffee cup – look: it may be a precast concrete garbage can that you are tossing your trash into. Or that table you sat on at Wendy’s with the kids after soccer practice last night? Precast concrete.

Your drinking water flows through precast concrete pipes before it gets to your home – and leaves the same way.

But that is only a small part of the large group of products made from sand, stone, cement, and water, known as “Precast Concrete”

Precast concrete manufacturers come in as many sizes and specialties as any manufacturing group. There are specialists and companies like ours, Sanderson Concrete, that are extremely diverse in their product lines. Whether it’s a brick and block manufacturer that specializes in paving stones and patio slabs, a pipe manufacturer with multi-million dollar machines pumping out pipe and manhole by the kilometer every day, or a small mom and pop operation with three employees – mom, pop and junior – who make a few bird baths and benches in their garage, precast concrete manufacturers take advantage of the fact that their raw material – concrete – is liquid, and can flow into just about any shaped mould they can dream up.

Sanderson Concrete fits neatly in the middle of the pack. We are a medium sized precaster with a wide range of products. With three main divisions, our diversity is our strength.

Our Utility division makes parking curbs, sumps, manholes and other drainage products.

Our landscape division produces site amenities such as planters – large and small,  furnitures, such as picnic tables and benches, drinking fountains, garbage cans, tree grates, and bollards.

Our architectural division produces window sills and lintels, signage and wall panels, stair treads, large custom pavers for public spaces and much, much more.

Our custom precast division spans all three of the other main divisions with a focus on custom architectural work.

We have produced custom stair treads for universities, embassies and office buildings throughout Canada and the US – including the offices of some well-known Canadian architects.

Window sills, lintels, panels and signage by the thousands on buildings from New York to Vancouver, and Florida to Alaska to Ontario. Some of our concrete picnic tables have made their way to the Grand Canyon and all throughout British Columbia and beyond. Just because concrete is heavy, doesn’t mean you can’t ship it across the country!

Sanderson Concrete’s prime focus is small and medium sized precast units with tight tolerances and architectural finishes. Although we do not manufacture extremely large products such as double-tees and larger wall panels, we have produced small bridge decks, 25’-0 panels and the multi-thousand unit runs of custom pavers, sills, stair treads and panels.

Sanderson Concrete Inc. was founded in 1929 and has been owned by the Arntorp family since 1988. In the late 1980’s Sanderson Concrete’s focus began to shift towards custom and architectural precast concrete.  While still maintaining a solid Landscape or site furnishings division as well as a utility products line, Sanderson Concrete has become the significant producer of architectural precast concrete elements in the Vancouver area.

Welcome to our blog! As we move forward, we’ll try and have a little bit of fun. This blog is where we can write a little about some of the things that we do. Stories about projects and events that maybe don’t fit too neatly into our website and other marketing materials. Hopefully, you will find some insights into what we do and what precast concrete is. We may not be experts at all things precast, but what we do make, we make very well. Feel free to drop me a line with questions or comments. We’d be glad to help – and if we don’t know the answer, we probably know someone who does! Good questions may result in good blog posts – or maybe we’ll just answer you directly…

I invite you to visit our website to take a closer look at some of what we do – and you are always welcome to come visit the plant – we are 12665 116 Avenue in Surrey, British Columbia.