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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
Sometimes the limits of what EIFS can do get pushed too far, and problems ensue. Usually these misguided uses of EIFS are well intentioned, and are due to a lack of understanding of the properties of EIFS.
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