Diamond Bullnosing Co., Inc.

A Quality Fabricator - Impeccable Services

By Deborah Teramis Christian

Back when he ran a small tile installation company called Vaticano Tile, Domenick Vaticano would spend a full day working in a customer's driveway doing custom bullnosing for the project. Bullnosing puts a finished edge on tile trim pieces; only the next day, after all that prep work was done, could he get on with the actual installation work he was getting paid for. After this tedious driveway interlude, something occurred to him. "I'll bet there are guys all over standing in driveways doing the very same thing," he thought. It was that moment, the idea for a tile bullnosing service was born.

That was in 1998. After two years of research, Diamond Bullnosing was born in 2000, and has since established a solid niche in the tile and granite fabrication market. The company has grown beyond simply bullnosing tile for contractors, and today offers a selection of closely related services in a one-stop shop that is exceptionally responsive to clients' needs.

Diamond Bullnosing stands out for a reason. In addition to bullnosing for contractors and do-it-yourself homeowners, their equipment has been expanded from their original custom-designed bullnosing machine to an array of specialized machinery and tools for the complete fabrication of granite countertops. With fabrication and bullnosing capabilities in-house, it also made sense to round this out with stone and tile installation services. Most recently, the company has added quartz-based products, such as Caesarstone and Zodiaq to provide even greater customer choice. As a multi-service company, Diamond Bullnosing takes specs from a builder or architect, works directly with slab suppliers to acquire the materials, cuts and finishes material in-house, then installs it on-site in one well-managed process. This eliminates the need for builders to work with multiple subcontractors for these tasks, and allows Domenick and his team to keep a close eye on quality and customer satisfaction at the point of installation.

Caterina Vaticano left a successful career in corporate America to help her husband grow the original Vaticano Tile into today's Diamond Bullnosing. She applied her project management and other skill sets to the business. This has helped her to create an atmosphere where employees embrace qualities listed from the company mission statement, which is hanging at every desk and upon the shop walls. The most important goal listed within the statement is that high standards permeate every aspect of their company. "Our workmanship is a given," says Caterina. "That's one reason contractors ask us to do their own personal homes. But what makes us really stand out is our focus on scheduling and customer service."

Both Domenick and Caterina are children of Italian immigrants. Going the extra mile is a part of their family history and strong work ethic. They are a powerful duo, passionate about their performance and their word. "For example," shares Domenick, "we have a job right now where there was miscommunication between the contractor handling the job and the homeowner. When we got there to install the new counter- tops, the old ones had not yet been removed." This unhappy homeowner was now faced with shifting time schedules against existing priorities. For Domenick, this was a no-brainer solution. "I kept my guys on-site, sent down reinforcements, and they're pulling countertops as we speak. We'll get the templates done today, and bring that work back in so that the homeowner will have their countertops two weeks ahead of when they were actually scheduled for installation."

The same diligence is evident when handling scheduling and meeting deadlines. "We are absolutely impeccable with our schedule," says Caterina, who places a high premium on responsiveness and great communication. "We're so careful about communicating with our customers. Should something go wrong, they know right away what has happened and if we need to delay."

This dedicated support is enhanced by our Customer Service Department, which is able to man any problems that may come up. Caterina notes, "If something happens on a job site - maybe a window sill breaks - we have the ability to send people out there and take care of the issue expeditiously." This is facilitated by the fact that Diamond Bullnosing concentrates their services and sales in Contra Costa County in the Highway 24/680/Tri-Valley area. Although they have done work in the Wine Country, Tahoe and elsewhere, and will work outside the area on appropriate jobs, they prefer to keep business closer to home where they can provide on-site service more readily.

Domenick and Caterina own the building their business is located in - a necessity for handling their steady growth. There are plans in place to increase production in the Granite Slab Division, and to build up the tile division, which spent some years on hiatus while the slab work got well under way. "There's a lot of diversification of skills within the company," says Domenick. "We have a built-in customer base from previous tile work. Now that we have these three things in place - bullnosing, granite fabrication and tile - we want to pump them up, do more of them, without ever compromising our quality."

Diamond Bullnosing proudly provides services to the very contractors they serve who are doing their own homes. That kind of excellent earned them an "Extreme Home Makeover" project in Livermore. At the base of it is the Vaticanos' sincere enthusiasm for what they produce. "We love the products," says Domenick. "That's what really shines through and helps us. In business, you have to sell yourself before you sell your company. If you don't love your product, I don't think you can sell it well."

Diamond Bullnosing is located in Concord at 1950 Olivera Road, Suite B. You can reach them at (925) 658- 7100, or visit their Web site at: 4stone.com

August 2005 Builder Architect Edition Issue

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