Neuber says he struggled to get through high school. He liked working with his hands and for his first job became a machinist in a factory, quickly becoming president of the 800-member union. A wildcat strike, which he didn’t authorize, led him to find another job as maintenance foreman for a highway department, his first taste of construction work. Shortly afterward, the concrete foreman retired, leaving him with the responsibility. “It was a very hands-on job and I learned how to finish concrete,” he says. Needing more income, he started a small company to do odds and ends concrete work.
By 1974, he was busy enough to go full time, and became a general contractor doing all types of work. By the mid ’80s, he was bidding 10,000- to 20,000-square-foot buildings and within a few years, 40,000- to 50,000-square-foot buildings. In 1990, he got his first 200,000-square-foot building job, and experienced his first floor tolerance issue. This led him to develop a close friendship with Allen Face, who encouraged him to join ACI. He developed elaborate prepour conference agendas, bought a Dipstick and used it to measure the FF and FL of his floors—learning how to install floors that routinely beat the specs.
Today, his company, Neuber Concrete, Kimberton, Pa., specializes in all types of big box/difficult floor construction, and develops mixes that produce low shrinkage. Due to present economic conditions, the company has moved into concrete parking lot construction.
Neuber is a devoted learner believing that education is the key—hard work isn’t enough. As a result, he is chairman of the ACI 302 Floor Construction committee. He believes that putting the time in and being an avid learner makes anything possible.
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