Speed Fab-Crete Owners Left to right, Jim Barton, Vice President Purchasing, Ron Hamm, Vice President Sales, Carl Hall, Vice President Plant Operations and David Bloxom, President.

Proven Management

Speed Fab-Crete Celebrates 13 Years-Plus Under Current Ownership

Speed Fab-Crete Design-Build General Contractors celebrated a 13-year anniversary in 2011 under ownership consisting of four equal "hands on" partners.

Speed Fab-Crete is considered a purist among America's general contractors who specialize in using the design-build contract method for construction. The company has specialized in design-build since 1951. Currently, Speed Fab-Crete has the most number of officially "Designated Design-Build Professionals" in the southwest, awarded by the Design-Build Institute of America.

Design-build has become an increasingly popular contractual method by which architectural, engineering and construction services are performed under a single contract with the building's owner.

Since 1989, Callahan & Freeman Architects, led by Frank Callahan and Charles Freeman, have been the design member of Speed Fab-Crete's team. Together, these firms have accomplished a variety of design-build applications, ensuring that owners get in their buildings on time and in budget.

An employee management group, led by David Bloxom, purchased Speed Fab-Crete in 1998. While Bloxom is President of the firm, the other principals and department vice-presidents are Jim Barton, VP Purchasing, Carl Hall, VP Plant Operation and Ron Hamm, VP Sales. Another partner, Jeff Spedding, retired in 2011. At the time of purchase of the firm, each of these individuals had been a supervisor of his department for years.

Collectively, the owners have enjoyed more than 150 years of management experience promoting and producing various facilities with the Speed Fab-Crete precast concrete wall building system. The firm also is celebrating 60 years as a construction industry leader, based in Fort Worth.

The firm's 10th anniversary in 2008 also marked Speed Fab-Crete's receiving a major grant to replace five aging diesel vehicles under the Texas Emissions Reduction Program (TERP).

The $388,000 grant, by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, allowed Speed Fab-Crete to acquire four 2008 Mack semi-tractor trucks and a John Deere front wheel loader.

By upgrading to newer, less polluting vehicles, Chief Fleet Mechanic Bud DeRego noted that the state agency said Speed Fab-Crete will prevent 47.4 tons of nitrogen oxides from polluting North Texas skies. The trucks will be used to deliver trailers with precast concrete walls to form a building's exterior. The loader will help to mix raw materials in the company's batch plant for pouring of the wall panels.

Speed Fab-Crete is a Green Advantage LEED Certified Builder with the U.S. Green Building Council. This "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design" accreditation allows the company to offer environmentally responsible design and construction to meet and exceed "Green" expectations. Also, Speed Fab-Crete's management and project supervisors include individuals who are Green Advantage Certified Builders or Job Superintendents.

The firm promotes a whole-building approach by offering environmentally friendly facilities in these areas: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, durable building materials and air quality control. Also, the Speed Fab-Crete concrete wall building system is considered a sustainable product because the components include recyclable materials.

Speed Fab-Crete began in 1951 as the Dave Bloxom Construction Company. It evolved into Speed Fab-Crete, which built its first building in Fort Worth in 1962.

The firm moved to Kennedale, a suburb of Fort Worth, in 1978 and is now one of the city's largest businesses and industrial taxpayers. Presently, the company has a work force of more than 100 team members.

Industry and Community Affiliations
  • American Concrete Institute
  • Associated General Contractors, TEXO Chapter, DFW
  • Design-Build Institute of America (Speed Fab-Crete's President, David Bloxom, is a past, two-year term President of DBIA's Southwest Chapter)
  • Architectural Precast Association
  • National Precast Concrete Association
  • U.S. Green Building Council
  • Texas Structural Steel Institute
  • Construction Research Center, University of Texas at Arlington
  • Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce

Precast Concrete Products & Field Finishes

Casting / Curing

The completed frames are moved to casting beds where, from our batch plant, concrete is poured into the panels, then smoothed and finished by Speed Fab-Crete specialists. When cured, normally in seven days, the panels are lifted off the casting beds, cleaned, inspected, and made ready for shipment.

Loading / Delivery

Final plant inspection of the panels includes acidizing, grinding, chipping and grouting to maintain consistent quality. Finished panels are hoisted by crane onto our custom-built lowboy trailer trucks for safe and timely delivery to your job site.

Job Erection

When the building slab is ready, a Speed Fab-Crete crane lifts each wall panel into place. The panels are load-bearing so no costly steel pre-construction is needed. Panels carry the weight of the building themselves and truss and stress both foundation and roof.

Our Product Line
  • Architectural precast concrete panels, structural & non-structural
  • Precast concrete walls for all building applications, loadbearing
  • Precast thin brick veneer concrete panels, structural
  • Precast concrete highway & embankment retaining walls, which meet TXDOT specifications
  • Precast concrete roof panels & floor panels
  • Precast concrete "safe" rooms, halls & closets for stormy weather
  • Precast concrete wheel stops, benches, tables, and splash blocks
  • Precast concrete restroom partitions
  • Precast concrete signs
  • Precast arch-box units, clear spanning 12' to 48', for bridge systems, which meet TXDOT specifications

Click here to see expanded aerial view of the plant

Quality Matters

Speed Fab-Crete is NPCA Plant Certified

Speed Fab-Crete has added to its credentials as a Fort Worth, Texas-based precast concrete producer by acceptance as a member of the National Precast Concrete Association (NPCA) and its certification of the firm's plant. Speed Fab-Crete is the oldest, continually operating precast concrete products manufacturer in the Southwest.

The NPCA plant certification is national recognition of a precast concrete business, which achieves a high degree of excellence in facilities, production, processes and quality control operations.

Speed Fab-Crete's Vice-President of Plant Operations, Carl Hall, said, "Such plant certifications give extra value and benefit to building customers without adding to the cost of the job." He noted, "NCPA is another elite group of industry leaders who promote use of precast concrete to project specifiers, engineers, developers, Department of Transportation officials and other public work officials." Hall added, "For the customer, selecting a supplier from NCPA's membership assures the highest quality of precast concrete in North America."

Speed Fab-Crete is APA Plant Certified

Another organization of precast companies, the Architectural Precast Association (APA), also certifies Speed Fab-Crete's plant. APA's members assure that architectural building products faithfully reflect plans by the architect.

Speed Fab-Crete also performs as a general contractor. Its plant is capable of fabricating and pouring a variety of precast concrete units, including walls for a building's exterior, modular arched bridges for public and private applications, highway retaining walls, monument signs, recreational tables and benches, and parking lot wheel stops. The bridges and retaining walls meet TXDOT specifications.

Design-Build

Speed Fab-Crete offers single source service in which our in-house design engineers develop permit plans for a building from the owner's ideas. Speed Fab-Crete can control the elements of time and money, giving you a guaranteed cost and occupancy date before construction begins.

General Contractor

Speed Fab-Crete is a general contractor. We take responsibility for the day-to-day oversight of the construction site, and management of vendors and trades. In addition, we keep communication between the general contractor and the involved parties open and clear through out the course of the building project. Our diverse single-source services include the following:

  • Preliminary design and complete construction plans to respect customer's budget
  • Architectural and engineering design capability
  • All construction management options
  • Master planning and expansion with computer-aided drafting system (CAD) and use of Building Information Modeling (BIM)
  • Site evaluation including impact fee research and environmental assessment
  • Site preparation and utility installation
  • Turnkey or shell construction of all type buildings
  • Steel fabrication and erection
  • Major commercial remodeling
  • Custom cabinety and millwork
  • Specialty buildings and precast concrete products
  • Palette of wall finishes including smooth, sandblasted or exposed rock aggregates
  • State-approved highway retaining walls
  • Project budgeting and cost estimating

Precast Concrete Wall Building System

Concrete and Masonry Wall, Roof and Floor Panels, Structurally Loadbearing

Since 1951, Speed Fab-Crete has specialized in a structurally loadbearing, precast, high strength concrete wall panel building system. Architectural panel applications and various veneer finishes, including a precast, thin brick system, are among numerous options offered by a proven leader in the American precast concrete manufacturing industry.

A proven precast, high-strength concrete building system produced in a certified manufacturing plant environment.

Architectural Precast Panels
  • Exposed aggregate
  • Sand blasted
  • Acid wash etch
  • Custom form liners
Structural Precast Panels
  • Exterior & interior building walls
  • Back-up walls for assorted veneers

Our precast concrete wall panels are fabricated in thickness of 3 to 8 inches, widths of 8 to 14 feet and in various lengths. The panels have steel channel along their perimeter complying with ASTM A 36. The panels are reinforced with bars. When erected, the wall sections are welded to each other at the steel frame and to a base plate embedded in the building's foundation. Special engineered mix designs allow for use of lightweight or normal weight concrete with compression strengths up to 6,000 pounds per square inch.