Trent Greenawalt, co-owner of Specialty Precast, works on panels in February at the company's warehouse in Prospect. The business was founded in 1998 and employs eight people.Photography by

PROSPECT — Specialty Precast's product line is not nearly as set in stone, or concrete, as its precast wall panels.

In fact, the three owners of the business at 830 Unionville Road have new items and services.

Founded in 1998 and owned by Al Grady, its president; Trent Greenawalt, secretary; and David Altmire, treasurer, Specialty Precast employs eight people.

Greenawalt said, “We manufacture and install precast wall panels. We make basements and garages and some upgrades.”

He said, “We do a lot of homeowners, individual contractors, subcontractors.”

The concrete wall panels can be used in two ways: they can be sunk into the ground in what is called “below-grade application” or the panels can be stood up to create an above-ground structure.

The panels are used instead of a traditional poured concrete or cement block foundation. They are premade in Specialty's climate-controlled facility and then delivered to a construction site.

Greenawalt said controlling the temperature during the making of the panels maintains a consistency in the quality of the product that is impossible to get at a construction site.

He added using Specialty's panels also minimizes delays that could be caused by bad weather.

Greenawalt said the panels are well-insulated. They have an R-30 rating, and they also are watertight and ready to finish once installed.

The panels are 11 inches thick and already are studded.

“All our work is third-party inspected by the National Precast Concrete Association,” Grady said.

“We have to pass a yearly inspection by the association. It's like what you go through at tax time,” Greenawalt added.

He said the company's sand and stone are state-certified as well.

“We also offer a 15-year warranty on our product,” Greenawalt said, “What other product is going to offer you that?”

The owners said they sell most of their panels to residential home builders, which make up 95 percent of their business.The company can vary the wall panels to meet an individual buyer's needs.“We can change it to suit customers: windows, doors and beam placement. All done according to the customer,” said Greenawalt.The two types of wall panels are frost wall panels and foundation wall panels.Frost wall panels are used under garages and porches or as crawl spaces.Specialty's owners said the company also is capable of manufacturing custom heights less than 10 feet to accommodate multilevel structures. Typical panel widths are less than 12 feet in length and vary depending on the specifications for each project.Altmire said once the buyer decides on the dimensions and attributes he wants, Specialty takes two-and-a-half days to make a panel to order, and depending on the size of the order and the job's specifications, the finished wall panels can be installed in three to four weeks.After the panels are custom made, “we use a large crane to place the wall panels, which are delivered to the site by 18-wheelers,” Greenawalt said.He said the company subcontracts the cranes and the trucks to move its wall panels.“We come in and set it up for you,” said Greenawalt.The company does not add floors to the basements, leaving a crushed limestone floor for the builders to finish as they please.“I typically can do a foundation in two-and-a-half days,” Greenawalt said.The owners said the wall panels can be designed and assembled quickly because they are poured using high-strength concrete inside a building and cured overnight which makes the panels strong enough to move quickly.Grady, Greenawalt and Altmire were friends and neighbors before they went into business together.They remain friends and are planning to expand their business.“Depending on the market, we have growth plans in the next three to five years,” Altmire said.Those plans include an office and doubling the size of the production building.Greenawalt said, “If there is an increase in production, then we will have to add two to three guys.”The owners said it all depends on whether the economy strengthens enough to kick-start the home building market.“We're banking on a little rebound in the economy,” said Greenawalt. “Drive around right now and look at how many houses are being built.”“Our newest product is an uncovered wall panel. You don't have to drywall it to pass the fire code,” said Greenawalt. “In the past, you had to cover the panels in drywall to get an occupancy permit.”Grady said another new product Specialty offers is a waterproofing service.“This is exterior waterproofing that can be applied on block, poured-in-place concrete or precast,” said Grady. “We can come out and spray and lay drainage board and insulation board.”“Specialty concrete coatings are something we just started doing last year,” Altmire said.

<b>Address</b>: 830 Unionville Road, Prospect<b>President</b>: Al Grady<b>Employees</b>: 8<b>What it makes</b>: Precast concrete wall panels<b>Mission</b>: To serve Western Pennsylvania with high-quality, energy-efficient foundations for residential and commercial construction.<b>Website</b>: Specialtyprecast.com

Trent Greenawalt, left, David Altmire, center, and Al Grady are the co-owners of Specialty Precast in Prospect. Grady is the company?s president, Greenawalt is its secretary and Altmire is its treasurer.