Tyler Nguyen of Pacific Polyurea Solutions (Portland, OR) has built one of the most focused municipal polyurea businesses in the Pacific Northwest, completing manhole and sewer rehabilitation in 23 municipalities over five years. We sat down with Tyler to discuss how he built his pipeline into city contracts, what municipalities look for in a contractor, and why polyurea has become the rehabilitation method of choice for forward-thinking public works departments.
How did you get into municipal wastewater specifically?
“Honestly, I stumbled into it. My first real municipal call was from a city public works superintendent who’d seen a presentation at an APWA conference and wanted to know if what he’d heard was true — that polyurea could rehabilitate a manhole in one shift and it would last 30 years. I said yes and sent him to the polyurea manhole article on American Polyurea. Three weeks later I got my first municipal PO.”
What do municipalities care most about when evaluating a polyurea contractor?
“In order: references, insurance, and documentation. The technical stuff they rely on engineers to evaluate, but the people cutting the checks want to know someone else trusted you first, your insurance doesn’t leave them exposed, and that you will give them a paper trail they can present to their city council. Get comfortable with project documentation. Every project I do has a pre-application substrate report, an application log with temperature readings, film thickness measurements, holiday test records, and a post-application photo set.”
What’s the biggest mistake you see new municipal contractors make?
“Underpricing. Cities have budgets. A lot of new contractors assume they need to be the cheapest to win, but the reality is that a city engineer who has managed a coating failure before will pay a premium for a contractor who clearly knows what they’re doing. I price at the high end and I explain every line item. Cities that have been burned by a low-bid failure before are actually easier to close.”
How do American Polyurea’s resources fit into your business?
“I use the articles as part of my sales process. When a city engineer asks me to explain why they should use polyurea instead of the cementitious liner system their last contractor used, I send them to the infrastructure preservation article and the vs. traditional coatings article. It does the technical education before our next meeting so we can focus on project specifics.”
Tyler is a member of the Pacific Chapter and can be found at upcoming meetings listed on our Events page. His company profile is in our contractor directory.
1 thought on “Member Q&A: Tyler Nguyen on Winning Municipal Wastewater Contracts”
Tyler’s point about using articles as part of the sales process is something I am going to steal immediately. I just sent the complete guide and the applications page to a marina client who was comparing polyurea to rubberized paint. He came back with a yes two days later.