When owner Roger Schumacher started Schumacher Tile & Stone, he had one thing in mind -- guaranteed customer satisfaction. That is why, after being in the business for nearly 13 years, his current company’s philosophy, “where customer service is chiseled in stone,” has been an important factor towards its success.
Schumacher began his career doing installation in the flooring industry, and then transitioned into sales four years later. With the experience gained from being sales and marketing manager for Carpet One, in addition to prior flooring experience, Schumacher opened Schumacher Co. in 1994. Eleven years later, he merged the business with Harvey Neef, present owner of Carpet One and Neef Creative Ventures, as well as Schumacher Tile & Stone’s principal owner. Schumacher Co.’s name officially changed to Schumacher Tile & Stone in April 2007, and as of April 1, 2007, the company now resides in its new location of Meridian, ID.
Schumacher Tile & Stone operates out of a 36,000-square-foot facility where production is currently at a rate of 50 kitchens a month and 600 annually, with a focus on, “full service covering its stone and solid surface facility,” said Dick Bettencourt, a member of the slab division.
The shop itself consists of a 6,800-square-foot slab production shop, a 6,800-square-foot indoor slab viewing area, a 5,400-square-foot showroom to be completed by December 2007, a 2,000-square-foot solid surface fabrication facility and a 10,000-square-foot warehouse.
With the help of a total of 60 employees, including 18 workers installing tile and stone, and 16 workers within the slab division -- working either the day or swing shift -- Schumacher Tile & Stone manufactures granite countertops and installs tiles -- both ceramic and natural stone -- carpet and DuPont Corian, according to Bettencourt.
The facility is equipped with a Sierra bridge saw and a Pro-Edge III edge shaper and polisher, which are both from Park Industries of St. Cloud, MN. In addition, Park Industries’ new Titan CNC machine was recently installed.
“The CNC will increase our capacity for customer work and undermount sinks,” Schumacher explained. “It will also speed up our general production process so that we can complete our projects in a more timely manner.”
There will also be an additional edging machine by September of 2007, and the shop itself is set with two overhead Jib cranes and a Ghines Idrodos dust collector, as well as a fully contained water recycling system, where collection tanks are processed through an Avaco system, back through a pressurized tank system and recycled back through the water lines for production equipment, according to Schumacher.
Door skins, ripped down to 2 1/2-inch strips, and sheets of plastic for radii are used for templating. At the moment, the Park Industries’ Titan CNC is used to digitize hard templates, although the company does have plans to purchase an LT-55 Precision Laser Templator from Laser Products in the future.
While Schumacher Tile & Stone has a chunk of its market in Southwest Idaho (80% in Boise), principal markets also exist in the Sun Valley Area (10%) and Lake Fork/McCall/Tamarack (10%). Both slab and tile are equally a force in these market areas.
Recently Schumacher Tile & Stone completed work on the Valley Club Recreation Center, Elkhorn Springs Paired Homes and multiple projects in the Boise, Eagle and Tamarack areas.
With projects being completed and continuing to be worked on, Schumacher Tile & Stone anticipates a long-term steady growth by establishing itself as a leading source for granite, marble, quartz, travertine and tile in southern Idaho.