We recently caught up with Rod Norvell, founder and previous owner of Colorado Coating Pros (CCP) under its former name, Amairitek. For those who don’t know Rod, we thought you’d enjoy learning a little about the history of our family-founded, still family-owned company and how it has evolved over the years. For those who know Rod, we’ll share a little of what he’s up to now.
As a young boy, Rod started helping in his dad’s business, which was founded 65 years ago, before Rod was born. At about age 18 Rod was officially a part of the business, along with his dad and a brother. He continued to work in the family business until 1993, when his dad retired. At that time, Rod opened his own company with two brothers and a sister-in-law working for him. In 1996 Rod’s dad decided he wasn’t quite ready to retire after all so came back and worked for Rod for three years.
Rod built his business by sending out a couple hundred letters every six months to general contractors whose contact information he pulled from the phone book. He continued this method of outreach for several years and each time he gained new customers – some still customers today.
The business offered a variety of services including commercial and industrial coatings, sand blasting, industrial cleaning, and painting. The work involved water tanks, water treatment facilities, power plants, and concrete floors in all types of buildings. As is still the case with Colorado Coating Pros, many of Amairitek’s customers were municipalities. The City of Colorado Springs and Colorado Springs Utilities – all of which are owned by the city – were two of Rod’s biggest customers.
Last year Rod decided it was time to head in the direction of retirement. He put his business on the market and connected with Colorado Coating Pro’s current owners though a commercial business broker. Like his dad, he was not quite ready to fully retire so has continued to work some, helping with the transition.
Rod enjoys hunting and fishing – favorite activities he didn’t have much time to pursue when running Amairitek. He can foresee dialing back his workload to spend more time with his wife, who is set to retire this spring from a career as a registered nurse. They are considering spending some winter months at a high-end, RV park on Lake Havasu in Arizona, complete with restaurants, bars, sand dunes where they can ride their Polaris ATVs, and a great lake for boating and fishing.
“Handing the business over to Joel didn’t bother me. I was ready. I don’t miss having to be out in the cold at 6:30 in the morning. I do miss the contact with the people, many that I worked with for thirty years,” Rod commented. He shared that a couple of his customers were the sons or grandsons of the owners of companies that his father worked with and that he’s grateful for the relationships that grew along with his business. He first met one of his customers – a general contractor who is now 85 and semi-retired – when he was 16 years old. “These are friendships,” said Rod. “I hope Colorado Coating Pros and their customers will enjoy relationships as long and as good as they have been for me.”
We are counting on maintaining those long-term relationships and the trust that goes along with them – cornerstones of our family-owned business as well. We are honing our expertise and the focus of our services; “Colorado Coating Pros” says what we do, and we do it well. We are committed to always bring you the most effective – and cost-effective – solutions and techniques and to always do the job right.
We’d like to share a couple of recent projects as examples of not only that expertise, but some specialty services we are now offering.
Pipe Blasting and Coating
We’ve been working on a pipe blasting and coating project – a fun niche in which to work. We were contacted by a utilities district about a pipe that had rust inside, which was not appropriate for their purposes. The rust needed to be removed, followed by application of a rust inhibitor.
To accomplish this most effectively, we invested in specialty equipment. It connects to sand blasting machinery and has a robotic spinner that is pulled through the pipe, blasting the sides of the pipe as it spins to remove the rust. With this highly effective equipment in our arsenal, Colorado Coating Pros now offers pipe blasting as a specialty service. As you can see from the photo, you can expect excellent results.
Pipe Exterior Painting
We’ve also recently painted an array of pipe exteriors in a water treatment facility, achieving a uniform look throughout which really improved its appearance. The pipe surfaces are now well protected which helps extend their longevity. This type of project can be prepped and completed quickly, with minimal disruption of your work.
Now is a great time of year for these types of projects – both of which were indoors. Give us a call today and get your indoor projects on the calendar before we get busy with outdoor jobs as the weather gets warmer. We are here to serve you. Thank you for your ongoing business and friendship.