Contractor helps Northeast clients warm to decorative concrete
Ira Goldberg reflects on almost twenty years with Bomanite
by Denise Wendt

Ira Goldberg says he was born with gifted hands. The Brooklyn native wanted to share his gift, so he attended Brooklyn College and graduated with a teaching degree in industrial arts.

But life had other plans for Goldberg, and after graduation he started his own contracting business.

“My partner and I did major high-end renovations and additions. We were number one in New Jersey,” says Goldberg, who owned Alberg Custom Contracting.

Meanwhile, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Bomanite Corporation was just getting started, expanding its reach by establishing franchises around the United States. “Between 1979 and 1982 I saw a lot of plans coming in that called for Bomanite,” says Goldberg. But the fledgling corporation had too few franchises in the area to respond to every request for its product.

Goldberg saw his opportunity. He contacted Bomanite about becoming a franchisee.

“They wanted a concrete contractor,” he says. “We were general contractors and builders. It wasn't a perfect match for them until they checked us out and found out our reputation was impeccable.”

Goldberg became a licensed Bomanite franchisee in 1984. He started with a small area in New Jersey that included Monmouth, Middlesex and Ocean counties. He quickly proved himself there and expanded his territory to include areas from Bergen County to Cape May, eventually incorporating all of New Jersey.

“By 1989 we had added all of Long Island and the five boroughs of New York City to our territory,” Goldberg says. Since then he has added eastern Pennsylvania. Bomanite of New Jersey, New York City, Long Island and Eastern Pennsylvania now employs 36 people (and as many as 60 during peak periods or extremely large jobs) and is one of the largest Bomanite territories (per capita) in the country.

Bomanite stands the test of time
In 20 years, Goldberg has seen a lot of changes. He remembers a time when he had no competition to speak of.

“If a customer wanted stamped, decorative or any kind of high-tech concrete, there was nobody else to call. Now there are thousands of contractors across the United States and hundreds in our area alone who are trying to duplicate what we do.”

“There are people out there who are not quality-minded and make a bad name for the good people out there,” he says. He has to remind property owners and architects alike that all stamped concrete is not Bomanite. “We still separate ourselves [from other concrete contractors] by the quality of our work, the system we use and the proprietary things that make us just a little bit better than the competition,” he says. “They'll get there eventually, and then hopefully we'll be a step ahead of them.”