A former union iron worker from Los Angeles who launched Tri States Rebar Inc., of Spokane Valley, in 1983, and his son have built up a company that now employs 35 people and pulled in revenue of $7 million last year.


The business fabricates steel concrete-reinforcing bar, called rebar for short, and installs it for general contractors at project sites. Along with rebar, it sells other concrete-reinforcing materials such as wire mesh and post-tension steel cables wrapped in greased plastic.


Were still trying to expand, but are slaves to the economic market, Jack Ilenstine, the companys founder and president says. Steel prices can be very volatile on our bottom line. Prices can go up $20 a ton over a month.


Ilenstines son, Jeff, who has been with the company since 1988 and is its vice president, says, Were as busy as weve ever been as far as fabrication goes, with the five people currently working in the shop the most weve ever had.


Tri States currently is working on its biggest job evera $2.2 million subcontract to provide rebar for six North Spokane Corridor bridges being built for the Washington state Department of Transportation by the Max J. Kuney Co., of Spokane.


A big jump in Tri States revenue came in 1992 when the company expanded beyond its prior role as a rebar installer and began fabricating the steel material, cutting and bending it into the shapes and sizes its customers required for jobs. Currently, Tri States installs about 95 percent of the concrete-strengthening material it fabricates for customers.


The company buys straight and coiled rebar and other materials from western Washington and western Oregon steel distributors and has those materials shipped to its 3.5-acre site at 7208 E. Indiana. It then cuts and bends the material to meet customer specifications, says Jack Ilenstine. It ships out about 20 percent of its finished products to locations in Eastern Washington, North Idaho, and Western Montana that are within a 200-mile radius of Spokane, he says. It does about 80 percent of its work for customers within the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area.


Jack Ilenstine says that about 90 percent of the companys revenue now comes from the fabrication, sale, and installation of rebar, while 7 percent comes from post-tension cables, and 3 percent from wire mesh.


Lubricated post-tension cables, placed in wet, horizontal slabs and beams of concrete, are stretched tight after the concrete around them cures, providing additional strength in those elements of the structure, Ilenstine says. He says such cables reduce the amount of concrete that otherwise would be required to provide comparable strength in such structures.


Jeff Ilenstine says such cables have been used for many years in other parts of the country, particularly in California where concrete is used more commonly to help protect against earthquake damage, but arent used often here, and rarely are used in building homes. Yet, he says, the companys sale of post-tension cable is rising.


Post-tension cables are a very fast, inexpensive way to build a building, and we are selling more and more of them every year, he says. Their sales arent huge yet, but theyve really blossomed in Spokane compared to what they used to be.


Customers


Jack Ilenstine says nearly 70 percent of Tri States revenue comes from its work for five or six general contractors here, whom he declines to name, and most of its projects for those contractors involve large structures.


We do sell a little rebar to contractors who do homes, but those sales are a minor part of the companys business, he says.


Tri States will work on jobs such as small retail centers and some apartment units for which its contracts are as small as $25,000, but most jobs are bigger, Ilenstine says.


Until getting the North Spokane Corridor bridges job, Tri States biggest endeavor was a $1.8 million subcontract from Bouten Construction Inc., of Spokane, to supply rebar to supplement Boutens huge concrete contract for construction of the Group Health Exhibit Hall here. Tri States furnished about 2,000 tons of rebar for that job, which was completed in June.


Jack Ilenstile does about 95 percent of the companys estimating, and says its important to strike a balance between anticipated increases in steel prices and the chance the company wont get work if its estimates are higher than those of its competitors. Relying on computers and a long background in the use of steel products, he studies engineering plans for proposed projects and determines how much of Tri States products is necessary to meet design specifications. He then decides whether to submit a bid to the general contractor that won the project.


About 80 percent of the companys work comes from project bidding, while the rest comes from negotiated contracts, says Jeff Ilenstine.


After Tri States signs contracts with its customers, it turns to specialists known as detailers, who determine the exact length and size of each piece of rebar and other products needed to fill an order. Jack Ilenstine and an employee are the companys in-house detailers, and the company also contracts with up to three outside detailers to get the work done. With the aid of computers, the data the detailers compile is recorded on computer disks, then taken to the fabrication crew.


Among the equipment used to cut the pieces of steel to exact lengths are two computerized machines, priced at about $200,000 each, that use the information from the disks to program and make the cuts.


Tri States was located in the north 6600 block of Market Street from 1991 until 1997, when it moved to its current 6,300-square-foot warehouse and office building in the Valley. Jack Ilenstine owns the building and property there.


Both Jack Ilenstile, who plans to reduce his hours at Tri States within the next three years and ease into retirement, and his son speak cautiously about whether the company will expand beyond its current size.


Jeff Ilenstile, whos expected to take over the company with the help of 20-year employee and field superintendent Jeff Arnold, is even more cautious than his father when talking about the businesss future.


The Ilenstines say its much easier to scale back on production than ramp it up, and Jeff Ilenstine says, You may make more margin by doing less work. You have more control when things are slower.


Contact Rocky Wilson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at rockyw@spokanejournal.com.