Raising the Bar: What Truly Sets Mile High Coatings Apart

The fastest way to waste money on a garage floor, basement coating, or patio finish is hiring a contractor who only knows how to sell one solution. We get honest about what actually separates a great coatings company from a slick pitch, and why a value system in the field often matters more than the brand on the bucket.

We talk through how we approach residential painting, concrete coatings, and epoxy flooring across Colorado’s Front Range: starting with the condition of the surface, the customer’s timeline, and the real use of the space. Moving in, selling, remodeling a business, or finishing a tenant space all change what “best” looks like. You’ll hear why we’ve built Mile High Coatings to offer multiple application options instead of forcing every project into the same system, plus what that flexibility looks like from a small porch to a 30,000 square foot commercial job.

David also shares the origin story, from starting solo in 2008 to landing early larger flooring work, learning with the right support, and hitting a turning point on a fire station project that proved the team could execute at a higher level. We close with practical ways clients save: bulk buying that improves value, and a one stop approach for garage upgrades that can include paint, floors, and demo so you are not coordinating three different trades, while still bringing in licensed electricians where needed.

If you found this helpful, subscribe so you don’t miss the next conversation, share it with a friend planning a remodel, and leave a review to help more Colorado homeowners find reliable epoxy flooring and concrete coating advice.

To learn more about Mile High Coatings visit:
https://www.MileHighCoatings.com
Mile High Coatings
970-314-1023 

Transcript

Welcome And Core Standards

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to the Mile High Coatings Podcast, where we elevate your spaces to a new peak in quality. Hosted by David Naniga, president of Mile High Coatings, this podcast explores how expert residential painting, concrete coatings, and epoxy flooring can transform garages, basements, patios, and commercial spaces across Colorado's front range. So grab your favorite beverage, sit back, and dive into the world of high-quality coatings.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

A company's value systems and real-world results often matter more than the products they used. Welcome back, everyone. I'm Julie Schwenzer, co-host and producer in the studio with David Nanaga, the president of Mile High Coatings. David, it's great to be back with you and hear more of your advice.

What Sets Mile High Coatings Apart

SPEAKER_01 0:52

So if we can jump into a question that is kind of a continuation of the last episode where you spoke about how you yourself don't like when salespeople or companies are too salesy or push things on customers that they don't need. And I think that it says something about you and your standards. And if we could like throw that in with this next question, is about how does mile high codings stand apart from other companies in the industry? And I know that it's a funny question because you don't want to sound too salesy, but you know, at the same time, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

Yes. Um okay, yeah, that's a that's a good that's a good question. And you know, surprisingly, uh it's funny, it every now and then it'll it'll catch me off guard when someone just you know might be you know doing an estimate or whatever, um, and talking and then they just throw out, well, why should I choose you? You know, over someone else. I'm like, yeah, okay. Um so so to answer your uh answer your question, this would probably be um rather get off on a tangent here and there, but I would say um, as you mentioned, you know, I'm not like a pushy. Um, but I also want to make sure that we, you know, if we're looking at a project that we discuss, you know, all the available options. So, you know, um, because one thing that that I've noticed is some companies just offer like one or two different options for say a a patio, um, or or for everything. All they do is this one, this one thing, you know. And so and not that there's anything wrong with that, but you know, when uh you know, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, right? And so so I've I've intentionally over the years um you know tried to position our company to be to to be able to offer a wide variety of of coding options and and different solutions based on you know the project needs, uh, based on you know the condition of um whatever condition of the house, um, the the customer's sort of uh position like we talked about last time. Are they are they moving into the house? Um are they selling? Is it a is it a business that's doing a remodel? Um is it a brand new business that you know is a tenant finish in their, you know, and so so so so all these different scenarios, you know, obviously uh potentially can you know we'll will need different different applications and and you know suit their needs differently. And so you know, a basement floor, for instance, we'll use that example. We can we can pretty much do any of our applications, you know, in a basement floor. So uh whereas maybe another company if they just do one thing that they're gonna just sell and um and so there's that. That that's one way that I would say that we're different than than some companies. Uh

Building A Non Franchise Company

SPEAKER_02 4:14

the other thing, you know, I started my light coating in 2008 by myself. I'm the sole owner, and um, I literally started by pounding the pavement. You know, I didn't I didn't buy the company, I didn't, you know, acquire it. You know, it's not like my dad started it and I just kind of inherited it. I mean, I booed some ground, literally printed out business cards and flyers and started knocking on doors. And so I say that because, you know, you see a lot of franchises, um, and you see a lot of uh, you know, franchise company um that uh, you know, some some some guy may maybe maybe he um retired or maybe he got bored with you know working his his nine to five and and was looking for a franchise to buy and decided to get into um you know buying a garage floor company. Um and so you know that that person may or may not have really any any experience with that, and they kind of just dive right in. Um not only that, but uh you know we again we're kind of uniquely positioned uh to be because we have multiple crews and we have a lot of flexibility and versatility within those crews to where we can do a small front porch if we need to, um, all the way up to, I mean, we've done 30 plus thousand square foot projects. Um and so, so, and and and everything in between. And so um, so there's not a lot of companies, I think, that that have that versatility. A lot of times you you see only companies that do, you know, chase big, big commercial projects, um, or new construction or whatever, and then you have, you know, companies that, you know, companies that might be like, you know, a guy and his brother is um, you know, a guy and a helper doing a you know, yeah, doing projects and maybe all they can handle is uh you know smaller types of projects, you know, garage floors and that type of thing. And that's fine too. Uh but but but I would say that we have that versatility and the experience to be able to to handle small projects to to very, very large projects.

First Big Epoxy Job Lessons

SPEAKER_01 6:31

So, David, what was your first big project that you did with your team running mile-high coatings?

SPEAKER_02 6:38

It was pretty much our first flooring project um that we did back in, I want to say it was probably 2009. And uh it was actually about 23, 24, 2,500 square feet somewhere in there. Um, so it's pretty decent, decent uh project. And and what I did was was a combination of um I I hired a guy that had um experience doing epoxy, and then I I had one of my painters um at the time help, and then um, and then it was me, and then I had uh my product rep where we bought the epoxy from. Um, I kind of had him on site. I would probably drag him out there more than he needed to be, but I was super paranoid and and just I just really wanted to make sure that the product went well. And so he was out there, you know, help helping, explaining, making sure that the prep we were doing was satisfactory and everything. And then so I was I was very intimately involved um with that project and and making sure that you know that it that went well, um, but also learning, you know, from you know, from the guy that I hired that had experience and knew what he was doing. And ultimately it wasn't like some some crazy uh you know learning experience. I mean it was it was a simple, it it was big, but it was a relatively simple project, which which was pretty ideal. Um, in the fact that it was simple because you know it kind of gave gave you just enough, you know, I I didn't feel like I bit off more than I could cheat at that time. And so, so we, you know, successfully completed the project and uh it went went pretty well. And then, you know, then we you know did a did did an uh you know, our next project was was probably not that certainly not not as large. And so um so so yeah, you kind of just learn and and and that's so I've always been very careful. Like I'm not gonna jump into something uh without being totally confident that we can do it. Um and and of course, so we're learning experiences, you know, we made mistakes and um and and and messed up and you know, of course, always fixed them, you know, the best we could and all that type of thing. Um this just happens, that's how you learn, right? So um, but yeah, so um yeah, I mean, and then you know, kind of since then, you know, it was a lot of garage floors in the beginning, a lot of patios, and then it's kind of kind of snowballed from there to to then, you know, we've done fire stations. The the we did a fire station uh in 2011. That was kind of the I I feel like that was kind of our jumping off point um to where we we started doing sort of medium and large uh projects very confidently. Like we we we nailed it, um it looked it went very well. And um, and it just you know, from there we we really felt like okay, we we can do this. We we we not that we had it figured out, but we certainly um, you know, I had no hesitation, you know. I I felt like you know, we could we could take on um projects of of even much larger size at that point. So um and and and we have so well that's that's great.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

And

How Clients Save Time And Money

SPEAKER_01 10:09

uh I know you have um you talked about this in a a recent episode, but maybe you could share another story too about how you saved a client money by like identifying unnecessary work that they got from a different contractor or different, you know, a different company with a quote, or you helped them, you know, protect them from possible like charge increases or something like that. Or they just, you know, were offered a bunch of work they didn't need done.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

Sure. Oh well for one thing, uh we kind of a little bit back to what I was saying towards the beginning in terms of being unique positioned. Um we're not you know, we're big enough that we can buy in bulk um and buy essentially our materials and supplies, you know, at wholesale. And so we're able to sort of pass on those savings and not be um, you know, so you know, hot high price like some just other companies that that you know that they need to be because they, you know, they just need to make their margins or or whatever. And so so really every project we do, we we're able to kind of just inherently save customers money compared to you know the the competition. And I'm not suggesting that we're the cheapest, uh, but the value, um, I would say I I would challenge uh you know anyone to to to beat our value. Um I I haven't found it uh to where to where there's someone else offering a better value than we do. And you know, we there there's little little things that we can do um that kind of set us apart too. Um, you know, we might be able to save someone money by by, you know, if they're working, if they're doing a garage remodel or rehab or upgrade, whatever you want to call it. And, you know, you know, we have the ability to, you know, if needed, you know, do drywall, do texturing, uh, which we don't do that often, but but we certainly can, and it's no big deal. Um we obviously can paint. Um so we can we can paint the the garage, um and then of course do the floor and then do you know cabinets. Whereas, you know, other companies, if they're just a foreign company, all they do is the floor and then, you know, the you know, the homeowner has to find a painter, then the homeowner has to get a cabinet company. And so so trying to find, you know, a company that that can do all of those, provide all those services in one um like we can, you know, that's where people can really, really save and benefit. And and even like uh, you know, demoing old cabinets, you know, a lot of times people will, you know, they'll maybe they remodel their kitchen and they pull their old kitchen cabinets out instead of throwing them away, because they're probably in still halfway decent shape, they throw them in the garage and kind of hodgepodge, and they, you know, they've sort of got cabinets out in the garage, but maybe, you know, over the years, you know, they get beat up and and and worn out and everything. And and so, so we we can we can uninstall those cabinets and dispose of them of them for you, you know, and get rid of them and then, you know, do you know, complete the project, you know, however, you know, whatever the scope is, whether we're painting or whether we're doing the garage floor. So there's you know, just things like that to you that we that we can do. Um it it's it's funny, you know, we might we go into a project and someone's like, oh, I gotta find someone to do to do this, or I gotta find someone to pull up the car player or remove the tile. It's like, yeah, we can we can do that. So now they're not coordinating several different people and trades. It's like they can all just have us handle everything. Um, and and we're able to sort of you know provide value there for sure. And and and ultimately savings. So I would say those, those, that's probably the the the biggest thing. And you know, again, we're not trying to be like the jack of all trades and and and do, you know, like one thing we don't do, for instance, is you know, like if someone's doing a garage upgrade, like we don't, we're not electricians, so we don't mess with lights. Um and and you know, that's one thing that you'd want to have a licensed and qualified electrician to to deal with that type of stuff, so we don't we don't touch that. Uh and so so you know, that'd be an example of you know uh of maybe something that that that we can't do. Um so okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Thank you so much, David. I have more questions for you, but I know we're out of time, so maybe I'll save it for another episode. But it's it's great to learn more from you and take a closer look at what sets Mile High Coatings apart from the rest.

SPEAKER_02 15:02

All right. Sounds good.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

Thanks

Wrap Up And Free Quote CTA

SPEAKER_00 15:08

for tuning in to the Mile High Coatings Podcast. Ready to give your space a fresh, durable finish? Visit MileHighCodings.com for a free price quote or call 970-314-1023. At Mile High Coatings, we're not just painting walls, we're setting a new peak in quality. Until next time, keep your standards high and your coatings higher.