Vulcan Painters

Vulcan Painters, Inc. is an industrial painting contracting firm specializing in challenging painting projects, blasting and painting structural steel, and blasting and coating pipe. Our field work includes painting and maintenance in a number of industries and takes us to power generation plants, paper mills, chemical plants, and mines (we are MSHA certified). We also paint college buildings, hospitals, churches and historic landmarks. In our shops we paint and coat pipe and fabricated or manufactured parts.

Vulcan Painters is an industrial and commercial painting contractor located in Bessemer AL. We use the most advanced technology to meeting the coating needs of our customers locally and throughout the Southeast. Our work spans a number of industries, including power generation, pulp and paper, mining, bridges, stadiums, locks and dams, tanks, fireproofing, and pipelining. Skilled in surface preparation and paint applications including plural component spray as well as other methods, Vulcan specializes in assisting customers in the choice of and proper application of coatings appropriate to project specifications.

For both projects done in the field or processed in our shops, Vulcan Painters helps customers get the most from the coatings specified. With the proper surface preparation and selection of the coating most able to give lasting corrosion protection, Vulcan Painters helps customers preserve their investment in equipment, buildings and infrastructure. Getting the full life of both coatings and parts results from proper maintenance and proper coatings selected and applied. Vulcan Painters has NACE certified inspectors on staff as well as SSPC Protective Coating Specialists (PCS), Coating Application Specialists (CAS) painters and plural component trained applicators.

Vulcan Painters has extensive experience in surface preparation and coatings application on concrete. Our projects include floors, but also linings for secondary containment for chemicals, fuel, and other potential hazards, linings for tanks, clarifiers, sumps, or trenches, elastomeric coatings, slip resistant coatings and others. Our experience includes protecting and coating many of the diverse uses that concrete has in construction today. We are also certified in SSPC QP8-installing polymer coatings or surfacings on concrete and other cementitious surfaces.

Concrete floors provide the work space in many industrial and manufacturing facilities and taking care of them is something we are specially trained to do. Vulcan Painters installs a wide array of decorative, protective and functional coatings on concrete floors - sealers for dust control and reinforced toppings for heavy duty. Our projects include power plants, manufacturers, water treatment facilities, university stadiums, sport complexes and many other types of structures. For plants and facilities with existing floors, a pre-condition assessment will be performed to identify defects, such as those caused by lack of vapor barriers, poor site drainage, improper joint details and improper maintenance and abuse, as well as assess whether or not your floor is suitable for coating.

Vulcan's commercial projects include new construction and renovation. Whether it's a recreation center with a pool or the pool itself, we have the training to apply the coatings. Our expertise includes stadiums, science, mathematics and wildlife research buildings on campuses, dormitories, banks, high schools, churches and other structures. Our Protective Coating Specialists can help the customer select the best coating for the job. We are SSPC QP 8 certified to apply coatings to cement floors, and QP certified to apply architectural coatings.

Whether it is cars or piping, tools, tanks or stadium seats, Vulcan Painters keeps the plants they are manufactured in maintained, with coatings designed to wear well and take the stress of production. Our work in manufacturing plants includes just about every structure there is, from the exhaust stacks, to offices, hallways, facilities, structural steel and floors and railings. Whether called on for shutdowns, touch ups, or complete repaints, we are ready to prepare surfaces and apply the coating best suited to each need.

All of our painters at Vulcan Painters receive craft and safety training and regular refreshers, and since we are a union painting contractor, they go through a 3-year apprenticeship to learn the craft. But we also urge our employees to take Coating Application Specialist training and get certified. CAS-the SSPC Coating Application Specialist certification, came from a recognition that the industrial painter's job had evolved into an occupation that requires comprehensive craft training. Today painters apply sophisticated coatings, installed at specified temperatures, can have a very short pot life, and can cost several hundred dollars per gallon; it takes a substantial amount of training to apply these coatings correctly.

At Vulcan Painters, safety is our most important core value. Vulcan Painters strives to conduct its work processes so that employees have a work environment that is safe and healthy, and we continually strive to improve our safety performance to meet our customers' safety requirements and our own. To do this we have a safety program that has the commitment of both management and employees. We have a full-time director of Safety, Training and Leadership Development who keeps us on track. We measure our safety goals and make changes as needed.

The seeds of Vulcan Painters go back three generations, to the formation of a family owned painting company in 1938. In 1952, D. Avery Boyd and his brother, Martin Boyd founded Vulcan Painters. Two other Boyd brothers, William and Leslie, were also part of the business, located on Birmingham's Southside. Later, Vulcan moved to the historic Woodward Iron Company site where the company is today. The current site includes multiple buildings, rail siding and storage areas that became necessary as the business grew.

What is the best way to keep up with innovation, new products and new legislation affecting your industry? For us it is the exchange of ideas we find in our associations, not to mention that we find there the contacts we often need to research techniques, talk shop, share issues, etc. At Vulcan Painters, we share our own innovations as well through these groups, by presenting papers, giving workshops and serving on committees that set industry standards.

ISO 9001:2015 is an international standard that requires proof of continual improvement, customer satisfaction, preventive actions, and adherence to specifications and standards. In addition it requires regular internal audits and twice yearly external audits from the registrar. Vulcan Painters is certified by the certifying firm Bureau Veritas. Vulcan Painters Inc. and Vulcan Pipe and Steel Coating Inc. are registered to the ISO 9001:2015 standard. Our certificate number is 10082701. To provide coating, lining, and associated value added services to our customers' product with a focus on Customer Satisfaction.

Clients for whom quality work is important know that properly specified, suitable coatings applied over a properly prepared surface under specific conditions, and cured appropriately, offer long-term value and corrosion protection. Yet facility owners may not know how to make sure they get a good coating specification, or a competent team to apply high performance coatings, and the cost of coating failure and rework is high, from reduced profits to scheduling delays and even coating failure. The SSPC Painting Contractor Certification Programs provide a way for facility owners to reduce their risk when hiring a coatings contractor, because SSPC Quality Program certified contractors have demonstrated they have the experience, knowledge, equipment and training to perform high quality work in the different areas the certifications cover.

In October 2009 Vulcan Painters became the first painting contracting company company to achieve six Society for Protective Coatings (SSPC) Quality Program certifications including QP 1, QP 2, QP 3, QP 8, QP 9 and QS 1. Vulcan Pipe and Steel Coatings, Inc. has also achieved SSPC QP 3 certification. In addition, Vulcan is the first coatings contractor to meet the certification requirements of the QP 9 program and the QS 1 certification program. Vulcan Painters is an ISO 9001 certified company, and a substantial number of our painters have achieved the Coating Application Specialist (CAS) Level 2 designation from SSPC.