Blastco Inc./Blastco Texas
One of Texas’ most successful coating and blasting companies is entering new markets while expanding its physical footprint. Blastco Texas Inc., a company of the TF Warren Group, later this year will relocate its operations to Channelview, Texas, with the intention of eventually opening a dedicated paint and blasting shop.
The company’s current headquarters in Houston features storage space for field equipment as well as sales and administrative offices. Abrasive blasting, welding, coating and lead abatement activities are performed on-site for clients including municipalities that retain the company to work on steel structures. The majority of Blastco Texas’ projects involve work on ground and elevated water tanks. “Our main market is water; tanks are our bread and butter,” General Manager Steve Wissing says. “If we have, say, 25 projects underway, 20 of those are probably water tanks.” Regular municipal clients include the cities of Houston and Austin.
In addition to water tanks, Blastco Texas performs projects in conjunction with sibling company Tarsco for the oil and gas markets. Tarsco engineers, fabricates, constructs, repairs and maintains petroleum, natural gas and other storage tanks. The two companies will share the new 15-acre space in Channelview, Wissing notes.
Blastco Texas originated as a local office of Blastco Inc., a Brantford, Ontario-based coating and blasting provider founded by TF Warren Group Owner and CEO Terry Warren more than 30 years ago. The company works on projects including water storage tanks, petrochemical tanks, bridges and temperature furnace units. The Texas office and an office in Los Angeles operate independently of one another, but share corporate management.
Branching Out
Blastco Texas for the past few years has expanded its project expertise to include dam gate rehabilitation. The company earlier this year completed work on five spillway gates at the Lake Conroe Dam Spillway, owned and maintained by the San Jacinto River Authority. Its work included blasting and coating spillway stoplogs, sluice gates, access ladders and service outlet stoplogs as well as adding new top girders, strut arms and strut arm braces, girder braces and steel plates to the facility.
The company has been working for the past three years on a similar project at the Toledo Bend Reservoir, located on the Sabine River between Texas and Louisiana. Work at a dam facility in Corpus Christi, Texas, began in September.
Whether for a dam project or a water tank, Blastco Texas prides itself on using the best equipment available and running projects with high quality and safety standards in mind. The company’s equipment includes units that recycle grit used during blasting. “Our experience working on complex projects, equipment and experienced staff set us apart,” Wissing says.
The Right Investments
Blastco Texas’ field employees are extensively trained in coating, blasting and lead abatement using standards put forth by the Society for Protective Coatings (SSPC) in addition to Blastco’s own requirements. Safety training is provided in-house. “A big part of our success is our staff; we probably have some of the best foremen and workers around,” Wissing says.The company’s professionalism and know-how have enabled it to perform multiple projects for many of its clients. “Working successfully with paint manufacturers, owners, engineers and others over the years has really helped us get this reputation as a leader in the industry, ” he adds.