The founder of Steps Plus, Robert Kopp, started making precast concrete steps as a side business in the mid-1950’s. Bob would work all day at his day job, then come home and cast steps in a walk-out basement with a partner. Because the concrete would not be ready for finishing in the evening, he’d set his alarm for 2:00 AM, at which time he’d get up, trowel & broom the steps, go back to bed, and then get up the next day to go to his regular job. Installations were done on the weekends. When the step business took off in the late 1950’s, he and his partner bought a building in Utica, NY and turned their full attention to the business of making precast concrete steps.
In 1967, Bob moved to Syracuse, NY to open a second branch located just off of Erie Blvd East. Gradually, commercial contractors started coming to him for architectural precast items such as sills and copings. The same skills used to make nice looking precast steps for home owners were now also directed towards producing high quality architectural trim products for commercial projects.
Judy Taylor, Richard Kopp, Robert Kopp, Bert Kopp (2008).
In the early 1980’s, Bob was joined by his two sons, Bert and Richard. With the aid of Judy Taylor, a bookkeeper who worked her way up to Executive Vice President, there was strong growth in the sale of custom architectural products. Items such as window sills, wall copings and band trim become a major product line and soon our 1 acre lot was too small to handle the increased business. In the late 1990’s the company moved to its present 4 acre location on Thompson Road, just south of Carrier Circle in Syracuse, NY.
Today, our retail division still makes and installs precast concrete steps, sidewalks and patios in the Syracuse area. Our Architectural Precast Concrete and Cast Stone Trim Division is one of the oldest and largest trim manufacturing plants in the northeast. The quality, honesty, and integrity that sparked the growth of Bob’s basement business in the 1950’s are still the guiding principles at Steps Plus today.
