A new family-owned business in town is bringing a local and personal approach to fabrication and design projects.

Jadd Jacox with Stroker Customs began welding and fabrication with Elam Construction and was a regional plant manager for five different sites across the region. Once the locally owned construction company was bought by a larger corporation, it changed the culture of the organization and Jacox set his sights on other pursuits.

Jacox said he wanted to spend more time at home with his family and focus on the things he is passionate about and truly enjoys doing. That’s how Stroker Customs was born.

Originally, Jacox started working with decorative gates, hand railings and custom signs, but then he got into sandblasting and etching.

“This has opened up a bunch of possibilities for me,” Jacox said of etching artwork into glass, wood, stone, cement and other surfaces.

The different media allow Jacox to work one on one with clients to bring creative ideas to fruition. He can use a number of different methods to etch accents and designs into floors, walls, doors and pretty much anything else a customer comes up with.

Jacox said he will consider any kind of creative fabrication project for residential homes, commercial and industrial buildings, and even does protective coatings for smaller projects like vehicles.

“It’s just the art form of it,” Jacox said. “Whether it’s a floor or a plasma cut, it’s a way to get creative and set your mind free.”

Stroker Custom does pretty much everything and anything, and that is exactly how Jacox wanted to start up the business, keeping open to any ideas that a customer might bring.

“I didn’t want to set one product and say, ‘That is all I do,’” he said. “If someone has an idea or a drawing of something, then I would find a way to create it.”

For protective coatings, Jacox is using a new technology that has been tested to be more versatile and durable than many other coatings on the market.

Epoxy coating is the most popular right now, but it can brittle and crack with extended wear. Jacox explained that he is using aliphatic coating, which is more pliable and durable than epoxy coating. Aliphatic flooring is also UV resistant, whereas the epoxy is not.

Jacox explained that if someone were to leave his or her garage door open with epoxy coating, the sun would eventually break down the flooring. The UV resistance with aliphatic flooring protects against this type of sun damage.

Aliphatic flooring can be used to coat many different materials including wood chips, sub floor, concrete and stone.

“Everything is totally customizable, so if someone wanted a big tiger etched in their floor, it could be embedded with wood chips and sealed into the floor,” Jacox said.

Jacox added that every aspect of the work he is doing is eco-friendly. He explained how sandblasting gets a bad name but said there is a lot that can be done with it — from cleaning off brick to clearing graffiti. Jacox also said he does sandblasting using natural materials that don’t leave behind chemicals in the air or on surfaces.

Jacox said there have even been some posts on the community chat about graffiti on a local landmark near the Yampa River, and he offered to clean that up using the eco-friendly sandblasting method that will protect the organic surface once he’s done.

“The biggest thing for us is trying to help the community. That’s what we want to do,” Jacox said.

Stroker Custom is a family-owned business with Jacox, his wife and 14-year-old son. The business is located from their home, which has acreage and is partially zoned commercial, so he has the ability to do design and fabrication from his home-base.

But the goal is to be completely mobile and be able to come to the customers, working with and bringing services to the community.