Meet Jose Dominguez, Founder of Plastering Solutions Inc
Jose Dominguez spent twelve years learning the plastering trade inside a union apprenticeship program before he ever ran a company of his own. In 2018 he started Plastering Solutions Inc with Luz, his wife, a mixer, and his own two hands. Everything the company does today traces back to what those twelve years taught him, and to the family he built the company for.
Twelve years before Plastering Solutions Inc
Jose came up through Local 300, the plasterers and fireproofers union, working from a four year apprenticeship to journeyman, then to foreman. In total he spent twelve years with the union. As foreman he ran crews of nine and ten men on commercial jobs across San Francisco and Silicon Valley, including airports, convention centers, professional sports stadiums and large corporate buildings.
For much of that time, Jose was the crew's nozzle man, the person running the sprayer and the pump while the rest of the crew worked the walls behind him.
There was also what they call a nozzle guy, which is the guy who is in charge of using the sprayer with the pump to be able to spray the stucco over the walls. And then you got another nine or ten guys behind you.
Local 300 covers two trades under one roof, plastering and fireproofing, and Jose worked both, spraying different materials with different techniques inside the same union training. For a period he also served as assistant to the instructor on the union's apprenticeship program, training the next group of plasterers the same way he had been trained.
After twelve years, Jose noticed something. Staying a foreman was never going to take him much further. He spent about a year working toward a contractor license while still working the trade, left the union in December 2018 and started Plastering Solutions Inc with Luz.
With not much of experience in the business, only the trade, with only a mixer and my arms, pretty much.
That is where Plastering Solutions Inc actually started. Not with an office and not with a crew already in place, but with twelve years of trade knowledge and the decision to start over as the owner instead of the foreman. What came out of it since is on projects.
Why this company exists
Jose's apprenticeship ran a structured four year training program that covered safety and technique long before anyone touched a wall. When he looked at residential contracting, he noticed that standard rarely followed anyone home.
So one of the biggest issues that I noticed before entering into the contracting, was because I came from a trade from unions, so we went through an apprenticeship program, the last, I don't know, four years, we go through training, safety, techniques, and so on. So I noticed that on the residential part, most of the jobs, or licensed, even licensed contractors that work on residential properties, there's no training or safety at all. So my focus when I started the company is to bring what I learned from the union, as quality and safety programs, or safety training, to put into the company in order to help homeowners. Even today, we see people getting ripped off, you know, from either licensed or unlicensed contractors.
That is the standard Plastering Solutions Inc still works to. Not a slogan, a direct response to what Jose saw happen to homeowners who had no way to tell a properly trained crew from one that was not.
What actually drives him
Ask Jose why he started the company and the union training is only half the answer. The other half is more personal.
I can tell you that my main motivation is my family. When I first started the company, besides working in the company, I was doing side work. I was doing this, I was doing that, missing days, working on the weekends. 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. And my goal is, if I open this company, I'm going to have more time to spend with the family. And since then, it's been my main focus.
Before Plastering Solutions Inc existed, Jose was working a full trade job and picking up side work on top of it, missing time with his own family in the process. Starting the company, licensed and on his own terms, was the way back to that time. It still is.
No sales background, just help
Jose is direct about what he did not bring into this business.
I don't have the background of a salesman or the business... It was more me like, hey, I'm here to help, and this is the best way to do it, based with my training and safety and materials and technique.
What he brought instead was twelve years of trade experience and the habits that came with it. That is still how he approaches a homeowner's first call.
Outside the job
Jose stays active off the clock. He mountain bikes, has recently taken up dirt biking, and hikes with his family. He and Luz travel together as a family, with Hawaii and the beach among his favorite places, and amusement park trips are a regular family outing. He also plays golf.
He works out and goes to the gym regularly, and ties it directly to the job: he stays healthy, in his words, to be able to run the company.
Faith is part of that same routine. Jose describes his Christian faith as important to him. He and Luz have been married more than twenty two years, and by his own account they do most things together as a family.
In the community
Plastering Solutions Inc attends and sponsors the annual fundraiser gala for Open Doors to Future Possibilities, a nonprofit based in Alameda. The company also supports a local church through galas and events held throughout the year.
Who shows up at your house
Twelve years in the union taught Jose the trade. Family is why he still runs the company on his own terms. That combination, trained hands and a clear reason for the work, is what shows up for every estimate Plastering Solutions Inc schedules. The rest of the crew is on about us.
Jose walks most jobs personally. Tell him what your wall is doing.