Wasatch Painting is a family-run business that has been working in the construction industry for decades. Our parent company, Wasatch Mountain Contracting, was originally formed in the early 90s by Mark Tyson. Mark started working in the construction field a few years out of high school in the 1970’s, training with the local carpenters’ union and working as an apprentice with his father-in-law, Robert Ord, founder of Ord Construction, who had just relocated from Northern California to Utah. Once Mark earned his contractor’s license, he started his own business, “The Manager”, and began building projects and relationships in the industry throughout the 80s. During this time he formed a partnership and established Salt Lake General Contracting. After a successful partnership, Mark chose to once again launch a new company and established Wasatch Mountain Contracting. Throughout the 90’s Wasatch Mountain Contracting (WMC) served many wonderful customers working on varied and interesting projects. From custom homes, to golf course restroom buildings, to complete renovation of homes, WMC did it all at one time or another.
As Mark continued to lead the business he always brought his children along for company, and at times an extra set of hands. Always wanting to teach the value of hard work, he put them to work doing anything they could, (and maybe sometimes things they couldn’t do.) From a young age they were sweeping job sites, hauling lumber, and straightening bent nails. After working hard through his teenage years, Mark’s son, Tyler Tyson, swore he would never choose a career in construction. But that soon changed. Tyler realized he loved to create and build things and construction was in his blood. A third generation builder was in the making as Tyler enrolled in Brigham Young University’s Construction Management program, graduating in 2007. Upon graduation and wanting to see how large construction companies are run, Tyler joined Jacobsen Construction as a Project Engineer.
During the early 2000’s WMC had built some great working relationships with the Real Estate and Mortgage industry, finding a niche in remodeling and repairing their foreclosed homes to prepare them to be re-sold. These relationships turned into exclusive contracts with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as one of two designated contractors for the State of Utah for all their repossessed properties. In 2008, the Great Recession hit the US economy and foreclosures skyrocketed. As WMC was exploding with work on foreclosures, Tyler came in to help in the afternoons and evenings to work on developing processes and systems to handle the growth needed. Soon the recession continued to affect many other businesses, and as downsizing began in large construction companies, Tyler saw this as an opportunity to shift gears and team up full time with Mark and help with the huge influx of work that had begun of repair/rehab of repossessed homes needing to be done quickly. Over the next 2 years, WMC boomed from an average of four employees to seventy-five by 2010. They also opened a division in St George, UT. They went from working on an average of ten foreclosed homes per year to 1100 by the year 2011.
During this time, Mark trained and established several painting crews in many areas of Utah to handle the painting of homes they worked on. During this massive boom of foreclosed home remodeling, the busiest crews were the painters, as all homes were repainted regardless of the condition they were in. As other construction companies were having to lay off their workers during those years, we found ourselves in need of many skilled painters, who soon became the largest part of our employee base.
After several years, as the US economy recovered, foreclosed homes began to slow down. WMC found themselves with a lot of great painters but less homes available to work on. With this, and a desire Tyler had to do specialty contracting, Wasatch Mountain Painting (later shortened to Wasatch Painting) was born in 2014, as a division of WMC. We began making new relationships with now busy contractors, and turned our attention to painting for them. Within a short while as the construction industry boomed, Wasatch Painting continued to expand and it has become the primary rather than secondary business for Wasatch Mountain Contracting.
Having joined the Home Builders Association early on, we knew this is where we wanted to partner with other builders. Slowly starting with one home builder then another, Wasatch Painting began to make a name for itself as a trusted trade partner. With decades of experience previously wearing the builder’s hat, we knew what is needed and valued in a good trade partner. That is where we continue to put our focus each day.
Wasatch Mountain companies have always been rooted in relationships of trust and integrity. We value the adage “Do what you say you will do, when you say you will do it. And to always do the right thing, no matter what.” As we continue on in the future we know that living by these values, Wasatch Painting will last for many more generations.
