Every day in the United States, more than 10,000 workers are injured on the job with 14 of those injuries resulting in death. While the sheer number of those injuries is staggering, the financial impact to employers is crippling.

Portable power drills are some of the most useful tools in the construction industry, but without taking the proper safety precautions they can quickly become some of the most dangerous.

Regardless of the amount of safety training and precautions you take as a company, at some point in time an accident will happen. When that accident does occur, do your employees know the proper way to react?

For the past few years here at Walls & Ceilings magazine, we’ve been considering the fundamentals of traditional plasters.

Lime plaster has a notable place in the history of art, architecture and design throughout the world, from the Egyptian pyramids to the Italian Renaissance frescos.

News flash for those of us in the Northern climates—winter is coming. The cold weather will bring a host of problems: equipment will be strained, men become cold and frustrated, daylight hours will dramatically shorten; but construction schedules will keep on moving along. One trade dramatically affected by cold weather is fireproofing.

Wichita’s Advanced Learning Library in Kansas is the city’s newest and largest public library, replacing the old downtown branch.

Loading docks generally aren’t known for their stylishness, but a new such structure at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is breaking with that tradition. The addition of glass curtainwall and a protective overhang clad in copper-toned metal tiles create a real visual pop in the middle of the airport’s runway area.

For years, metal cornerbead was the industry standard and it still remains a reliable choice today. 

Looking for a solution for projects with tight budgets and deadlines that call for rush delivery? We have the answer for you: Rondolo Quick Ship by Decoustics.

Florida acquisition expands complementary product offering in Southwest Florida; four new greenfield locations expand presence in key markets.

Fernando Sanchez expands his long career with L&W to become manager of the Colorado Springs, Colo., branch.

AD member Action Gypsum Supply adds sixth branch location in two years.

Construction official says “desperate” proposal won’t address root causes of higher fuel prices but will blow a huge hole in the federal highway trust fund and undermine efforts to fix infrastructure.

CertainTeed, a leading North American manufacturer of building materials, today announced the launch of Terminus Transitions and Terminus Glazing Channels as new product extensions to the company’s Terminus Perimeter Trim line. The Terminus Perimeter Trim line is a premier suspension system accessory that allows for easy installation of suspended ceilings with exposed edges, including clouds, peninsulas and islands.

During a time where there is a need for affordable housing, Westlake Royal Building Products, one of North America’s largest manufacturers and distributors of exterior and interior building products, celebrated its 300th home built in partnership with Habitat for Humanity - MidOhio, an organization that aims to build homes, empower families and develop communities. On Thursday, Sept. 15, the keys to a three-bedroom, two-bath single family home were turned over to a partner family in Columbus. For this home, Westlake Royal donated 20 squares of siding, including Exterior Portfolio Vinyl Siding and Portsmouth Shake & Shingles Siding, as well as Royal Shutters, Mounts and Vents accessories - marking its 300th siding donation to Habitat MidOhio over the last 20 years.

Novo Building Products is pleased to announce the opening of a new Empire Moulding and Millwork distribution facility in Amherst, New Hampshire. Strategically located 60 miles north of Boston, the new 217,000-square-foot facility services 750 independent lumberyards, specialty millwork shops, stair manufacturers, door fabricators, ProDealers and home centers across New England.

Curious as to the differences between drywall installation/taping in the U.S. vs. Mexico? Read on.

Westlake Royal Building Products announced that it has acquired Palight Trimboard from its long-standing partner Palram Americas. Through the acquisition of Palight Trimboard product lines, Westlake Royal will expand its portfolio of brands offered under Westlake Royal Trim & Mouldings Solutions, which provides the finishing touch for the interior and exterior of a home.

Westlake Royal Building Products announced three partnerships that will distribute Versetta Stone (Lumbermen’s Inc., Mid-Am Building Supply and Wausau Supply Company). These partnerships will expand the Versetta Stone footprint in the Midwest as well as the East Coast.

One product that can help save time and money and reduce waste

Plastic Components announced the death of its longtime president, Tom Stark, on March 6.

Westlake Royal Building Products has partnered with Operation Tiny Home to build and dedicate a custom-built tiny home to a Lummi Nation U.S. Veteran facing housing instability.

Westlake Royal Building Products has been named 2022 Vendor of the Year by Carter Lumber, one of the nation’s top building materials retailers. Despite industry shifts and challenges, the partnership has remained strong, allowing both companies to continue meeting the needs of customers.

Tamlyn received the prestigious “Best Family-Owned Business” award from the Houston Business Journal.

Westlake Royal Building Products, Inc. announced Sept. 7 that Palight Trimboard is now Skytrim, a sophisticated line of PVC trim options.

Plastic Components now offers individual brochures for its PVC Trims and Accessories product lines, which include stucco/plaster, stone veneer, drywall, Direct Applied Systems, Exterior Insulated Finish Systems and fiber cement board trims.

Westlake Royal Building Products announced Nov. 28 expanded partnerships with U.S. LUMBER and Amerhart, which are both Specialty Building Products brands, that will encompass multiple products and locations. U.S. LUMBER and Amerhart are leading distributors of building materials.

Ideal for EIFS and direct-applied, 2209MESH Corner Bead combines Plastic Components’ reliable PVC corner bead with fire- and alkaline-resistant, 4.5-ounce fiberglass mesh for a time-saving alternative to wrapping corners by hand with multiple pieces of mesh.

Save time with Plastic Components’ non-rusting continuous insulation trims. They improve job quality and deliver a better finish.

I recently had the opportunity to visit Ft. McMurray, which is located about 300 miles north of Edmonton, in Northern Alberta, Canada. It’s not the northern most point on the road but you can see it from there. The area is a phenomenon because it contains the largest known cash of petroleum in the world. You didn’t know that? Well, neither did I until recently. The amount of oil sand in Alberta is enough-at their current rate of consumption-to provide Canada all of the petroleum it would need for the next 475 years. It’s enough oil to meet the needs of the entire planet for the next 15 years.

I met Kevin Moyer at the national plastering contest held last year in Long Beach, Calif. I listened as he spoke of the future of the plastering industry and the need for skilled plasterers to meet the expected demand of a trade once in decline, but now on the eve of a renaissance. I asked him then if I could have the opportunity to interview him for Walls and Ceilings and recently our schedules permitted us to get together.

My journey through the inner sanctum of the USG Research & Technology Innovation center continued through one testing laboratory after another, each with its own specialty… With over 100 years of innovation and leadership in the walls and ceilings industry, there is no aspect of the business that has escaped the purview of the USG scientists.

Created in the 1960s by the Lyndon B. Johnson administration as part of the “War on Poverty,” 40 years later, Job Corps continues to enjoy strong bi-partisan support in Congress. It continues its mission to help young men and women fulfill their life’s potential, and it may just be part of your solution to meeting the demand for skilled labor in today’s transitional labor market

Since the early 1980s the percentage of the construction industry that has been dominated by unionized companies has decreased, that is until the last few years. Something has changed. Unions offer training programs, a ready supply of skilled labor, and a level playing field of wages and established fringe benefits.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor - Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are approximately 6 million citizens or legal residents of the United States between the ages of 18 and 64 who are actively seeking work, but who are unemployed. What happened?

It is estimated that there are over 24 million U.S. Military Veterans. More than 2 million of them are under 35 years of age, and many of those are in need of good paying jobs.

I recently had the opportunity to revisit Chicago, the home of one of my personal heroes, Byron Dalton. To most in the industry today, the name Dalton has little or no significance. But to some of us older die-hard plastering fanatics, Dalton could be considered the American patriarch of the plastering trade.

I was 14 years old and the tool I held uncomfortably in my hand had long ago been relegated to the bottom of a pick-up truck tool box; the dark and dusty graveyard where old trowels with rusted blades and popped rivets go to die. You see plasterers very rarely throw away their old trowels; they just put them out to pasture. A quality built trowel will serve its purpose for many years, even decades if cared for properly.

Online Blogs, Chat Rooms, and Community Forums; these cyber communities have become the modern version of the neighborhood bar, the office water cooler, and the campus coffee shop...

Have you ever been to an industry trade show? I usually attend several each year; the INTEX Expo, World of Concrete, and this year I had the opportunity to attend the Remodeling Show sponsored by the National Association of Home Builders at the Convention Center in Baltimore. You can always tell when a trade show is in town. Local restaurants and hotels are filled with small groups wearing matching shirts.

Plastering being one of the oldest of occupations, or as I am fond of calling it, the second “oldest profession” is represented in the United States and Canada by the Operative Plasterers’ and Cement Masons’ International Association, which was chartered in 1864 and is the oldest of all the active building trades unions in North America.

“Some men must follow, and some command, though all are made of clay” ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I stood along the rail of an upper tier at the Nashville Convention Center, home of the 2009 AWCI Convention and Intex Expo trade show. I watched two middle-aged men approaching each other on opposing escalators, one going up, the other going down.

I know that it has been a while since I was a small remodeling contractor, but has the state of the art really fallen this far?

When I first began to learn how to plaster, if someone would have told me then that it would one day become necessary for me to learn to speak Italian, I would have chuckled and turned away.

As the director of a national training program for plasterers, I help develop and implement training criteria and curriculum materials for young people just entering the trade. So, nothing gives me greater pleasure than to witness young men and women, who’ve got a few years under their belt, excelling at the craft-especially in a down economy! 

Are contractors who pay their employees cash or who misclassify their workers as “subcontractors” for the purpose of avoiding taxes, worker compensation insurance cutting into your business?

Dimitris Spiliadis’ great-grandfather once owned a hotel in Constantinople, which was lost when the Turks invaded the magnificent and historic city (now known as Istanbul).

We’ve all watched and enjoyed the Discovery Channel television show “How It’s Made” and maybe even had a passing thought about how great it would be to have such a program showcase and explain to the general public what it is we do.