The offspring of the second generation of Braun Plastering Company, Jefferson City, Mo., carry on what they learned from their parents. Here’s how it started.
In 1972, George and Rita started Braun Plastering out of their house. In 1978, as they started to become successful, they opened their first office and warehouse. They grew from there until in 1986 they moved the business to its present location.
Curtis Braun, who is now the company’s president, was 12 in 1972 when the business started. When he was 16 he worked as a carpenter’s apprentice during the summers. After graduating from college in 1982 he joined the company full time. Curtis has three sisters. Debbie Forck is the corporate secretary. Sandy Stigall is an attorney, who helps the company with legal matters. Karen Gerbes is in charge of material procurement.
The family aspect of the business does not stop here. “We’ve had several uncles and cousins working for the company,” Braun says. “We’ve prided ourselves on having several father/son or father/daughter teams working with us, whether related to us or not.”
In 1993, Braun’s parents turned the company over to him. To take his father’s place in running the jobs in the field, Braun hired Don Luebbert as field supervisor. Braun himself had done all of the estimating and bids on all the projects, but in 2000, he decided he needed to be on the job more, so he hired another estimator to help out.
HAND DOWN THE KNOWLEDGE
Given George’s Braun’s apprenticeship, it’s not surprising that the company started out primarily in plastering. His first big break, which got his fledging company on a firm footing, was plastering the walls and ceilings of the army barracks in Fort Leonardwood, Mo. The company has grown to include metal framing, drywall, gypsum, spray fireproofing, acoustical ceilings and walls, moveable partitions, and exterior insulation and finish systems.
At this point this company diverges from what is often the case with contractors who start out in plastering. This is because, as Braun explains, the older practitioners of this trade retire, taking with them the knowledge of this difficult discipline. At the same time, the new generation has other options, including much easier ones such as drywall and EIFS.
But this generalization didn’t materialize at Braun Plastering. Braun says, “My father always believed in new workers learning from the old. He set up working relationships so this would happen, and I’ve tried to do the same. It’s not just something out of a bucket you slap on the wall. There’s a lot going on in the mixtures and timing. There’s an art and science to it. So, as the older employees have retired, they’ve passed on their knowledge to the younger ones. We’ve kept the tradition going.”
One result is that the company has almost no competition in this area. He’s done extensive renovation in the Jefferson City state capitol building as well as the remodeling of the governor’s mansion and other government buildings.
“We’re pretty much the only ones called for this work,” Braun says. “And it’s not just the plastering. There’s a lot of skilled work going into the cornices, chair rails and other decorative plastering.” Another dynamic, Braun explains, is that many of these older buildings have steep staircases and high ceilings. His father was very good at determining the right type of scaffolding that would be both safe and also make accessible all parts of the job.
THE DOWNSIDE
A factor Braun has to deal with any plastering restoration is asbestos. “You can’t just chip into the plaster,” he explains. “You have to test for asbestos, and, if it’s there you have remove all the old plaster, going all the way down to the base board. Everybody has heard about asbestos, but owners often don’t realize what’s involved in removing it. You can’t have that dust in the air creating a hazard for the employees.” George Braun, in fact, died of asbestosis in 2002.
Does the prohibition against asbestos now mean that the new plastering will be somehow weaker? “Asbestos was not there for strength, but to make the surface slick, like real soft butter as opposed to a bunched up crunchy peanut butter,” Braun says. He adds that asbestos was also in the air and a hazard to workers in the past when they were mixing the plaster. However, in recent years manufacturers have improved the material and provided better mixing instructions so that the asbestos has been effectively removed with no loss of quality to the plaster.
A UNION WITH THE UNIONS
One aspect of Braun having skilled workers is the practice of older craftsmen passing on their knowledge to the younger generation. But also very important, Braun says, is the fact that his company is union. “We’ve always taken pride in working with unions and have always believed our employees are our greatest resource,” Braun says.
Both Curtis and Debbie have served on the union’s apprenticeship boards. “We’ve always believed on hiring apprentices, as well as giving them work,” Braun says. “They start out at about 55 percent less pay than the journeymen, and it’s usually a four-year process. About 25 to 50 percent of our men started out as union apprentices some years ago.”
By working with the union and providing his employees with a good pay scale, insurance and pension, Braun says he basically solves what is generally recognized as an industry problem, that of “getting and keeping good men.”
Though the company started out about 90 percent lath and plaster, that has now just about reversed, though, again, that business is picking up.
Yet plaster helps the company more than its small percentage of sales might indicate. “I’ll tie the lath and plaster in with the drywall, not breaking it out,” Braun says. “The general contractor wants fewer subs. So if another bid comes in at $90,000 without the plaster, and I bid $100,000 with it, he’s likely to figure the numbers look close enough. He doesn’t know what it might be worth and doesn’t have time to find out, so plaster often both gets you the bid and allows you to boost your profit.”
Even if there’s a relatively small amount of plastering on a job, such as a marquee or other decorative area, the general may want it well done, be impressed with Braun’s résumé and be willing to spend a few thousand dollars to get the plastering done, at the same time handing the entire contract over.
Even when plastering is not a part of the job, the reputation for doing difficult work well often sends the contract to Braun. “We go after the more difficult jobs,” Braun says. “For instance, rather than just going after the typical office job, we’ll bid on a four-story foyer that requires elaborate scaffolding.”
The reason, Braun says, is quite simple: “Many people can do the basic drywall and metal stud; that’s where the competition is, and it’s increasing all the time. But not everyone can do the difficult jobs, and many others shy away from them, so that’s where there is less competition and higher margins.”
This isn’t always easy. “Sometimes we under bid—that ends up costing us, or we over bid, which causes us to lose the job,” Braun says. “But we keep learning from our mistakes. And, like anyone else, we sometimes make mistakes on the job. But I learned from my dad is that you always go back and fix them at once, with no complaints, and move on. That’s why we have been here 32 years. I can honestly say that we are not always the lowest bidder, but our reputation got us the job.”
WORDS OF WISDOM
Whereas estimating standard jobs is fairly cut and dry, the difficult ones can end up costing you, Braun says. “I remember going over difficult work with my father,” Braun recalls. “We’d measure it out as closely as we could, then he would say, ‘Throw in another $100,000.’ The more difficult the job looks, the more difficult it is, and so the more you should incorporate that into your bid.”
Braun remembers that in 1983 when he started bidding, he came up with an estimate of $900,000. “As I walked out the door, my dad said, ‘Put another $80,000 onto that bid.’ When I later walked into the trailer, they looked it over and said, “This looks pretty good, but it’s a little high. We’ll give it to you if you knock $40,000 off. I agreed. They were happy, and I was happy.”
Braun says that “in a negotiated situation, they’re always going to want something, so build it into the bid. One owner came in once a month to hold court. I had a bid for $50,000, and he said, ‘I’ll sign you a check for $45,000 right now.’ Next time, for a similar bid I went in for $60,000. He knocked $5,000 off, and both of us ended up happy.”
On the other hand, Braun saves his customers unnecessary expenses. “We manufacture our own cornice plaster at our warehouse and can make any shape the client wants,” Braun says. “That gets us work, especially since we make it ourselves for more than 50 percent less than the standard cost. When I see people want $25 a linear foot and the plaster is worth about $1 a linear foot, I know there are savings to be made.” When asked whether it’s difficult to do this specialty work, Braun replies, “It’s simple if you have the know-how and the right tools, but most people don’t.”
THE COMPANY IS A TREND-SETTER
Braun was one of the first to apply EIFS in this country, on a school gymnasium in 1977. “As far as I know it’s still standing,” Braun says. “When EIFS arrived from Europe in the 1960s, there was a big learning curve. The problems are usually in the application and caulking. But if you pay attention to detail, as we were trained to do with plaster, it works out fine.”
In 1985, when the company was having trouble getting materials from wholesalers, it formed its own wholesale company, called Braun Drywall, Inc., so it could buy factory-direct. It sells to competitors, as well as to other wholesalers who have since moved into the area. “My dad always believed in playing golf with his competitors, Braun says.
The company started on its present location with one building and an office. But it’s on 11 acres of land and the company has since bought a lumber company and its several buildings there, so it has plenty of space. Annual revenues range from $5 million to $10 million with workers fluctuating from 60 to 160 workers.
“One year we’ll be looking for work, and the next year we’ll be swamped,” Braun says.
No matter what the economy brings, the company has always met the challenges.
And speaking of challenges … Four years ago, Braun’s doctor told him he had a blockage around his heart—to which he responded by becoming a triathlon athlete. He does one quarter of the full “iron man” regime, which means swimming six-tenths of a mile, riding a bike 28 miles and then running 6 miles.
“I’d like to build up to do the full triathlon,” Braun says.
It appears that men brought up on plastering like to do things the hard way.
