The Drywall Finishing Council will celebrate 20 years of supporting the building industry through education and industry advocacy at the council’s next meeting on April 17 in Charlotte, N.C., during the INTEX Expo.

“It’s been my pleasure to be affiliated with the Drywall Finishing Council,” said Jack Walker, president of the DWFC. “Our organization continually strives to add value to the drywall finishing industry by providing documents that support better finishing practices. In the end, we want all building owners to be satisfied with their walls and ceilings finish. To that end, we work to develop documents so that all entities have clear expectations of the drywall finish, which we know is the key to great looking walls and ceilings.”

In 1992, a group of manufacturers of drywall finishing materials, out of concern with the lack of industry standards in specification and application procedures, came together to create an organization that seeks to represent the issues that are commonly faced by manufacturers of materials used in the finishing of drywall. It was with this goal that the Drywall Finishing Council was created.

Since its beginning, the council has grown into a well-regarded organization in the industry with 30 active, associate and honorary member companies. This collective convenes twice a year to discuss issues facing the drywall industry and advance projects in the areas of promotion, awareness, and education. Recently, it has published numerous white papers providing education on application, techniques, and specification of drywall finishing materials. A newly redesigned Web site in 2010 delivers an improved look, an easy-to-use format, and an increased access to technical papers, literature, and links to member companies and industry groups in and around the drywall community. The site contains a “Problems & Solutions” section with troubleshooting guides to commonly used materials in drywall finishing. The papers can be downloaded online (free of charge) fromwww.dwfc.org/publications/.

As the council looks forward to its next 20 years, Walker and Vice President Robert Negri said, “As a non-profit organization with the purpose of serving the drywall finishing industry, the path forward is promising because of its members. DWFC recommended specifications and application procedures have become the language recognized within the drywall industry. We are a diverse organization that uniquely speaks in a single voice, a drywall industry voice, represented by drywall finishing and decorating product manufacturers, building material distributors, raw material and drywall finishing tool suppliers, industry technical organizations, and associations that support the drywall finishing and decorating trades.”