Fifth Time's a Charm: Laboratory Renovation Achieves 'Wow' Factor

Absolute Dental Services knows a thing or two about growth: Due to its constantly expanding roster of staff members and services, it has renovated its Durham, NC, headquarters five times in the last 13 years. “If I have any advice for other lab owners, it’s this: if you’re expanding, go bigger than you think you need. We’ve had to renovate multiple times because we were always thinking just a little bit too small,” says Conrad Rensburg, who co-owns the laboratory with Drew Van Aarde.

In 2006, the then 12-person laboratory moved into part of a 6,000-square-foot building and, since then, it has expanded to a 76-person operation (with an additional 38 employees at three other locations) that takes up the entire original building as well as the two other smaller buildings on the property. The lab’s biggest construction project came in 2013-2014 when it added 4,000 square feet and transformed a breezeway...