For 34 years, this local business has transformed buildings around the Tri-Cities with a fresh coat of paint.

In 1975, Marc Duarte, the founder of Paintmaster Services Inc., moved to the Tri-Cities and started painting, officially adopting the “Paintmaster” name in 1990.

This June marks the 10th anniversary of ownership for the brothers who took over their father’s business.

Jonathan, Mike and Luke Duarte, along with Miguel Aguilar, run Paintmaster Services Inc. and its sister company, Columbia Industrial Coatings. 

When their father retired in 2014, his sons bought him out. For Jonathan, the CEO of both companies, becoming one of the owners was easy: he started out working with the company and never left.

At the time, Paintmaster had been geared primarily toward the residential market. The next generation of Duartes pushed for greater involvement in the commercial sector.

Mike, the residential division manager, recalled that their first substantial commercial project as owners was Kamiakin High School.

“Kamiakin was a big project for us back in 2014. That kind of kicked us into commercial and doing a lot more commercial work,” Jonathan said.

Since then, they’ve painted and repainted several schools, many within the Kennewick School District.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, projects like these kept their business afloat. 

Despite the slowdown in residential painting, “we had five schools, new construction schools, going at that time, so (construction) was deemed essential on those,” Mike said. 

The company also has often painted for the cities of Pasco and Richland and many of the general contractors in the area, such as Chervenell Construction of Kennewick and Fowler General Construction of Richland.

“New commercial is all mostly specified work,” Jonathan said. That means that new commercial buildings, especially schools and hospitals, often have architectural specifications. Paintmaster’s job, in those cases, is to just follow the plans as they are laid out.

Columbia Industrial Coatings, Paintmaster’s sister company, was founded in 2016 to tackle industrial painting. It’s managed primarily by Aguilar.

The companies bought their current property at 2670 First St., Richland, in 2017, and the office was built in 2019. On their six-acre property, Paintmaster has two spray booths and a sandblast booth.

Services offered

Paintmaster Services Inc. offers new commercial painting, commercial repainting and residential repainting – both interior and exterior painting.

Their services extend beyond painting to the prep work of masking and caulking — work that typically takes longer than the actual painting.

In residential painting, such details as cabinet painting can be a part of their services, and in commercial work, Paintmaster will even paint murals. 

On the industrial side, the work tends toward places like food processing plants, where the company might do sandblasting, coatings or custom floors.

After doing plenty of commercial work in recent years, the owners want to make goals of regrowing the residential division, Mike said.

They don’t do consultations, but for residential painting, they have a lot more conversations to help make recommendations. Ultimately, it’s the customer’s decision. 

“I tell them that we are applicators,” Mike said. “But we do help.” 

With “commercial repaint, we get a little more involved in product selection,” Jonathan explained. “And then on residential repaint, (customers) usually rely on us a lot for product and product selection.”

Community involvement

Paintmaster and Columbia Industrial Coatings currently have around 60 employees who benefit from a profit share program, 401(k) and health plans.

The center of what they do lies in the company’s four core values: craftsmanship, integrity, being friendly and striving for excellence. They work “to really build a business that improves lives,” Jonathan said.

“We have the opportunity to change … 50-plus families’ lives, the people that are working for us,” Mike said. He tells the employees, “If you have any questions… those are your four answers.” 

It’s also important for the owners to take on community projects.

When it comes to work on churches, community centers or nonprofits, Paintmaster tries to do it at cost, which means the company essentially donates all its profits, said Mike and Jonathan.

Painting Esther’s Home for Mirror Ministries was one particularly memorable project. The company has worked with Elijah Family Homes as well.

“It was fun to give back,” Mike said.

They are currently involved in a Heel and Soul shoe drive with Fox TV. For every estimate Paintmaster gives, a new pair of shoes will be donated to school age children in need.

“We’re a company that wants to help the community grow and be that light in the community,” Mike said.

Paintmaster Services Inc.: paintmasterservices.com; 509-588-6421.