When they can steal some time from their day-to-day life, Ryan and Kristen Hale head for the highway; they enjoy exploring Utah’s glorious scenery and having adventures with their rescue dog, Louie. But most days, their focus is closer to home. They’re all in on their business—and their business is concrete.
Ryan’s been pouring concrete since he was seventeen, and he’s good at it. For years, colleagues encouraged him to start out on his own. “A lot of people were telling me, ‘Once you start your own business, let me know.’”
Almost twenty years later, in 2023, that idea became a reality. “I just couldn’t see myself working for anybody else at my age and with how much experience I had. I'd wanted to start my own company for a long time.”
Ryan quickly realized that running a business required far more than just knowing all about concrete. “I didn’t realize how much communication it was going to take to run a business,” he admitted.
That’s where his wife Kristen came in. Due to her 15 year career as a graphic designer, Kristen had the exact skills Ryan needed for All Hale Concrete. Initially, Kristen helped Ryan from the sidelines by putting together the All Hale website, handling bids, and assisting with the business's administrative side.
“I come from the marketing world in corporate,” she said. But when she felt ready to move on from her company, she made a major decision. “I ended up…quitting my job, and so we just joined forces instead of me going back to corporate.”
Kristen’s involvement quickly became essential. She took over communication, bidding, marketing, hiring, and organization—areas Ryan openly acknowledges were not his strengths.
Their partnership is built on shared standards. “We’re very meticulous with how everything goes from the prepping to the finished work to cleaning up the jobs,” Kristen said. Ryan, she added, “is a perfectionist.”
Their company name reflects both a sense of humor and a deep respect for the material they work with. “Concrete demands you,” Kristen said. “Once you start pouring it, there’s no backing out. It’s do-or-die time.” All Hale is also a play on their last name and a lighthearted nod to the nature of concrete itself. Ubiquitous and essential, concrete is the second-most-used material in construction after water. Fittingly, it has become both their livelihood and their metaphor. It requires full commitment and respect—there’s no halfway point. That reality fuels both their healthy respect for the material and their passion for its artistry.
“Everywhere we walk, Ryan pays attention to the concrete and critiques it,” Kristen said. ”He's like, ‘Oh, this sidewalk–they messed this up here.’ So yeah, it just rules our lives.”
All Hale’s name is also a clear signal of who you’ll see on the job. Because they take on only a limited number of projects each year, Ryan Hale is present on every one of them; it’s all Hale. He doesn’t farm the work out to other companies–he has his own crew.
His hands-on approach throughout every project means closely overseeing measurements, prep work, and execution. “We do a lot of shed pads and garage pads—they need to be square and with the right measurements,” he said. “I’m there making sure everything’s done right.”
One non-negotiable for them is reinforcement. “We put road base and rebar in everything we pour,” Ryan said. “A lot of guys don’t really think that you need to put rebar in stuff, and I strongly disagree.”
They also see a clear distinction between their company and much of the competition. Ryan described the concrete industry as falling into a few categories: unlicensed side work, large general contractors who subcontract concrete work out, and companies like theirs.
“We just do concrete,” he said. “That’s our focus.”
Kristen, coming from outside the industry, was struck by how disastrous it can be when companies cut corners. “There is so much that can go wrong and does actually go wrong,” she said. They often encounter customers dealing with cracked, sinking, or crumbling concrete from previous work that wasn’t done properly.
That reality has shaped their approach. They aim to be transparent, thorough, and dependable. “We’re trying to be the most trusted contractor out there,” Kristen said. “Someone who’s going to give you a good, decent price but also do it the right way.”
For both of them, the most rewarding part of the business comes at the end of a job.
“What really keeps me going is just seeing a job completed and cleaned up and done,” Ryan said.
Kristen agreed, pointing to both the physical transformation and the emotional payoff. “It’s cool to see the customer happy,” she said. It’s especially fun for the Hales when a happy customer leaves a review that reflects the care and effort behind the work.
“A patio isn’t just a patio,” she added. “It’s a place where they’re going to have barbecues and create all these memories.”
The business is demanding, but they find meaning in building it together. “It gives us a good purpose,” Kristen said. “We really care about it and want to make it grow.”
For Ryan and Kristen, their all-in philosophy—hands-on, detail-driven, and deeply personal—is what sets them apart. They’ve built their business on trust, integrity, and the belief that doing it right the first time is the only way worth doing it.
“We’re not willing to risk an unhappy customer,” Kristen said. “We just put our all into it.”