Paint Works is next challenge for Weld Works’ owner, whose creations ‘defy normal’

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He had spent the better part of a decade in the motorsports industry, turning raw steel into a fine art within the body of a race car.

But while the roar of engines and the thrills of the drag strips provided great enjoyment, the on-the-road lifestyle had a finite shelf life for Nick Carleton.

“It was fun, I was single, but I realized I wouldn’t have a family life,” Carleton said. “I knew someday I would need to make real money, so I gave up the cool.”

And he instead began creating cool things for the homes of the rich and maybe famous.

Carleton is the founder and owner of Weld Works LLC, the maker of custom stairways, railings, furniture, pergolas and other intricate metal features and accessories.

Headquartered off Buffalo Road in the town of Gates, Weld Works is celebrating its 10^th anniversary, and next week will launch a complementary venture, Paint Works.

While Weld Works primarily serves high-end residential clients, Paint Works will cater to a mix of clientele, from commercial machine and sheet metal shops to individuals with classic cars or similar painting needs.

His time in racing was fun, but the 41-year-old Carleton has happily moved on. Weld Works has been incredibly rewarding, he said, from solving the engineering riddles required on projects to building a staff of six and booking quarter-million-dollar jobs.

“Our clients are the one-percenters,” he said. “We’re doing railings and stairs on lake houses and in penthouses in New York City. The homeowners are focused on every detail.”

And so is Carleton. He and his employees aren’t building a staircase; they’re creating a piece of art that makes a statement within a home.

“Our bread and butter is stairs — stairs that defy the normal,” Carleton said. “We do floating, cantilevered, very elegant stairs.

“There’s a great sense of pride in what we do. I remember that from race cars. My guys are able to sit back and say, ‘I built that.’ ”

The same is true for Carleton when he looks at Weld Works. He has guided the company from his garage to a business requiring 12,000 square feet of space as well as creation of an ancillary company in just 10 years.

“Weld Works has been a word-of-mouth company,” Carleton said. “I’m not a salesperson, I’m not a marketer, I’m a welder.”

When he launched the business, he lived in the Park Avenue neighborhood and did work for nearby businesses.

“Ox and Stone, Good Luck and Daily Refresher were my first clients,” he said.

Operations at the time were very much in the infancy stage. For the first six months or so, there was no Weld Works, it was just “Nick, a Guy with a Welder Plugged into His Overhead Garage Door Opener.” The name doesn’t exactly flow off the tongue.

“I was doing kitchen exhaust hoods, grease grates and old ladies’ fences,” he said.

But his work caught the attention of others.

“The restaurant owners introduced me to people that might have needed a railing or something else,” Carleton said. “And then those people introduced me to contractors.”

And suddenly Nick, a Guy with a Welder …, became Weld Works LLC.

“Within the first six months I convinced two kids to come work for me, and we got things up and running,” he said.

He leased his first real business space, 2,000 square feet, in the United States Post Office building on Cumberland Street in the city of Rochester in 2015. A few years later he moved to a 5,000-square-foot space in Bermar Park in Gates and in 2022 he bought the building so he could expand.

The geographic footprint has also ballooned. Weld Works serves clients from Buffalo to the west and Syracuse to the east, as well as throughout the Finger Lakes Region.

What helps set Weld Works apart is the involvement in a project. They don’t show up when it’s time to install a staircase.

“We’re involved from the very beginning; from the time they’re excavating the hole in the ground for the building to when they’re hanging art on the walls,” Carleton said.

Paint Works will be unique in its own right. The company’s industrial oven is 25 feet long, eight feet wide and eight feet high, so it can accommodate what others cannot. The oven is used to cure powder coatings on a variety of metal outdoor fixtures, reducing maintenance and extending life.

Carleton believes there is a place within the market for Paint Works, which is why he created the company. “As much as I want routine and structure, I like the challenge,” he said.

Word of mouth remains a powerful tool for Weld Works, which is a testament to their work. Carleton said a designer from Florida recently phoned on behalf of a client who has a home in the Syracuse suburb of Skaneateles.

“It seems like once you get your foot in the door in this world,” Carleton said, “it’s a very small world.”

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