About Plastering Solutions Inc, a family stucco company in San Jose
Plastering Solutions Inc is a family owned, women owned stucco and exterior remodeling company based in San Jose. Jose Dominguez runs the trade side of the company. Luz Angelica Dominguez, known to many as Angie, runs the numbers. Between them is a story that has never appeared on this website until now, built by two people and a crew that carries a combined 132 years of trade experience into every job.
How it started
Twelve years in the union
Before Plastering Solutions Inc existed, Jose Dominguez spent twelve years with the plasterers and fireproofers union, Local 300, working his way up to foreman. He ran crews of nine or ten men on commercial buildings including airports, convention centers, professional sports stadiums and large corporate buildings across San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Local 300 trains plasterers and fireproofers as two separate trades inside the same union, and Jose worked both, spraying stucco on one side of the trade and fireproofing material on the other. For a period he also served as assistant to the instructor of the union apprenticeship training program.
One mixer and two hands
As a foreman, Jose noticed the ceiling that came with the job. Staying a foreman inside a union crew was not going to take him much further, so he looked into what it would take to get his own contractor license. The process took close to a year. He got the license at the end of 2018, left Local 300 that December, and started Plastering Solutions Inc with Luz.
“OK, so the date from 2018 was when we got the license. But we started the process probably like a year before... I was working as a plasterer, Union Company, Local 300, and I was a foreman running crews on several commercial buildings... And then as a foreman, I noticed that I'm not going to make much if I stay on the trade as a foreman, so I found out that I could get a license as a contractor... I started working on the process of getting the license, took me almost a year... I believe it was December of the same year when I quit the union and started on my own with Luz on the beginning of 2019. With not much of experience in the business, only the trade, with only a mixer and my arms, pretty much.”
Two people, two halves, one company
While Jose learned the trade, Luz built the other half of the business. She studied industrial engineering in Mexico before the couple started the company, then took a year long bookkeeping course in the United States so she could take over payroll, licensing, permits and the books once Plastering Solutions Inc was underway. She goes by Luz Angelica, and some people know her as Angie. Today she serves as CFO.
“I love a lot like working with numbers and having everything in the right place, with a lot of transparency... learning how to manage everything the best way.”
Two people, two halves, one company. Jose learned the trade. Luz built the business behind it. Neither half works without the other.
Why they started it
Jose did not leave a stable union job to build another company that skips the parts a customer cannot see. Twelve years inside an apprenticeship trained union crew showed him what training and safety look like on a jobsite, and what tends to happen on residential remodels when that structure is missing.
“Most of the jobs, or licensed, even licensed contractors that work on residential properties, there's no training or safety at all... Even today, we see people getting ripped off, you know, from either licensed or unlicensed contractors.”
The other half of the motivation was closer to home. Before the company existed, Jose was taking on side work on top of his union job, missing weekends and time with his family.
“My main motivation is my family... So when I said, you know what, we're going to do this thing right. If we go legit, there's no way it can go wrong.”
Starting Plastering Solutions Inc was, in Jose's words, about doing the thing right and getting that time back.
The company today
Plastering Solutions Inc is still the company Jose and Luz built. It is family owned and women owned, licensed, bonded and insured, operating under California contractor license 1044105, Class B (General Building) and C-35 (Lathing and Plastering). Since 2018 the team estimates it has completed roughly 500 projects, a figure they arrived at by reviewing signed jobs rather than a full records pull, so treat it as an estimate rather than an exact count. The crew carries a combined 132 years of trade experience into every project. Jose and Luz both speak Spanish as well as English, and the office serves customers in either language.
If you want to see how a job runs from the first walk to the final walkthrough, that is the process, and what customers say is in their own words.
The people who show up
Behind every estimate and every finished wall is a specific person, not a call center. Jose and Luz lead the company, and those 132 combined years live in the crew below them, from the people who run the jobs to the people who keep communication moving.
The crew
The people on your building
The crew carries a combined 132 years in the trade.
Founder and CEO
Jose Dominguez
Twenty three years in the trade. Twelve years with Plasterers Local 300, a four year apprenticeship, journeyman, then foreman running crews of nine and ten. Ran the sprayer and the pump, trained in both plastering and fireproofing, and served as an assistant instructor in the union apprenticeship program.
Co-founder and CFO
Luz Dominguez
Industrial engineer. Runs the financial side of the company, the budget conversation, warranty terms, the deposit and payment process, and permit administration.
Painter
Cesar
Twenty years in the trade, on interior and exterior painting.
Framer
Simone
Twenty years in framing, on the wood work behind dry rot and termite repairs.
Lead carpenter
Manuel
Twenty years as a carpenter, leading the carpentry on exterior repairs and remodels.
Foreman
Runs the crew on the building day to day and holds the work to the scope that was written down.
Crew lead
Sets the pace on lath, brown coat and finish, and keeps the texture consistent across an elevation.
Project manager, estimating
Measures the job, prices the scope and keeps changes documented before they happen.
Client communication lead
Handles scheduling, resident notices and the questions that come up while the crew is on site, in English and in Spanish.
In the community
Plastering Solutions Inc supports two organizations consistently through the year. The company attends and sponsors the annual fundraiser gala for Open Doors to Future Possibilities, an organization based in Alameda. Asked whether the company attends the event or sponsors it, Jose answered plainly.
“Most of the time we do both.”
The company also supports a local church, taking part in its gala and its events throughout the year. Neither commitment shows up on an invoice. Both are part of how Jose and Luz choose to run the company when nobody is buying anything.
Talk to Jose or Luz directly
Every job that comes through Plastering Solutions Inc still passes through the two people who started it. Jose walks most jobsites personally. Luz manages the numbers behind every proposal and every invoice.
Every estimate starts with a conversation with one of the two owners.