Spokane gatemaker builds business behind quality, creativity

Rick Nelson fabricated his first ornamental gate for his own driveway, but sold it to acquire a rare, vintage gas pump for his collection.

That was 15 years ago, and Nelson’s driveway still doesn’t have a gate.

But his company – Ornamental Gate & Fence – is thriving, and earlier this year Nelson received national recognition for one of his elaborate creations.

He discussed his business (and his unusual hobby) during a recent interview.

S-R: What is it you do?

Nelson: We make and install automatic driveway gates – residential, commercial, industrial.

S-R: How long have you been interested in metalwork?

Nelson: Since I was a kid. When I was 13, I made wind chimes and went around the neighborhood selling them door to door. They were made out of conduit and didn’t sound very good, but that was all I had access to.

S-R: Where did you learn to weld?

Nelson: Probably in school. I consider myself a jerk of all trades and a master at nothing. I’m probably not a very good welder. I’m not a very good machinist. I’m not a very good electrician. But I think I’m fairly good at all of those, if that makes sense.

S-R: What did you do before you started this company?

Nelson: I worked for Heinz for over 16 years. They had an automated pizza bakery in Spokane, and I ran the maintenance department. In 1986, it was the most automated pizza bakery in the United States. On a good day, they put out 100,000 pizza crusts. The machinery was operated by computers, and included parts from all different manufacturers. It kept me on my toes and taught me a lot about keeping machines running.

S-R: What led to starting your own company?

Nelson: When they shut down the pizza bakery, I could have gone to plants in Cleveland or Dallas, but my wife and I wanted to stay here. I’d hired a relative to build a gate for us, and he had some problems. So I built the gate myself. But then a rare gas pump I really wanted came up for sale, so I sold the gate at a swap meet so I could buy the gas pump. That’s what led to it all.

S-R: Did you have a mentor?

Nelson: Yeah, there’s a guy up here on Greenbluff that I hung around as much as possible because he’s a very good machinist, and knows about electrical, hydraulics. I picked his brain, and luckily he was patient with me. What I learned most was not to be limited by what you think you can’t learn.

S-R: What do you like most about your job?

Nelson: It’s given me the flexibility to go to my kids’ soccer games, and buy a bunch of old equipment out of Kaiser-Mead. I bugged those guys for eight years to let me into their shop. If I’d been working for someone else, I wouldn’t have been able to do that. Another thing I like is the creative side of the business, and troubleshooting to find ways to do things better.

S-R: Any projects you’re particularly proud of?

Nelson: One idea started with a dead cedar tree. We built the gate operator into the tree so it would rise and drop back down. The tree weighed 1,100 pounds, and we designed the gate so a woman could lift it manually if she had to. We ended up putting 1,800 pounds of counterbalance in the back end.

S-R: What do you like least about your job?

Nelson: Collecting money from customers.

S-R: Tell me about the national award you recently received.

Nelson: It was from a group called NOMMA – the National Ornamental & Miscellaneous Metals Association. Members include companies that do all kinds of metalwork: gates, handrails, building components. We won one of their annual awards for driveway gates.

S-R: Was the gate your design?

Nelson: Steve Smart from Environment West brought us a drawing of a gate with (a silhouette of) a motorcycle and some bushes. What we like to do is take an idea one or two steps further, so customers will be pleasantly surprised. We had metal from another project that was the perfect size for motorcycle tires. And we used an old motorcycle headlight to illuminate the address.

S-R: What distinguishes you from other gate companies?

Nelson: We’re probably a little more expensive, but we’ve never had a gate lean. We get calls all the time when someone else’s gate starts leaning after two or three years. The strong points of our gate systems are things you can’t see. We just finished a job in Wenatchee where a company installed an automatic gate a couple of years ago and it never worked right. Other companies looked at it and wanted to sell them brand new systems. They called us, we got their existing equipment properly installed, and it’s worked fine ever since.

S-R: Has any particular business decision helped you survive this tough economy?

Nelson: My getting licensed to do everything electrical. We can wire in a panel and go from there all the way out to the gate. Most installers just have the gate license, and hire an electrician to bring power out to the gate.

S-R: Has anything not worked well?

Nelson: Trying to nurse employees along, thinking if I just work with them, they’ll do OK. Now, if they don’t cut it, they’re gone.

S-R: What does it take to succeed in this business?

Nelson: It’s pretty tough, because we’re competing against guys who come home from their regular (welding) jobs and throw gates together in their garage after hours.

S-R: Has the recession impacted your business?

Nelson: The past several years have actually been our best. We did a couple of years’ worth of work out at Honeywell, which was nice.

S-R: What’s the outlook?

Nelson: I’m optimistic. We’re going in some new directions – more into the security, video-surveillance end.

S-R: Do you have any hobbies?

Nelson: I do something I call machine rescue. We have machines from Kaiser-Mead, like 1946 power hammers. I like heavy, old equipment. I also rescue old gas stations. One of mine sat next to Commellini’s Restaurant for 52 years. We started restoring it last summer. Another one is from a boom town about two miles south of Ford, Wash., called Uranium City.

S-R: Is it radioactive?

Nelson: We’re not going to talk about that.