When the urban sprawl of a major metro area starts to bleed into the small towns surrounding it, the heat is on for the local builders and subcontractors. This is what’s happening right now in rural Springtown, Tex., located about 25 miles northwest of downtown Fort Worth.
We recently visited one of Springtown’s newly developed communities, which promises all the charms of small-town living, plus all the amenities of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Homes here (like the one pictured below) range from 2,000 to 3,000 square feet, appealing to both first-time buyers and experienced homeowners looking for a little more space (and no HOA fees).
DFW’s Eagle Drywall, founded in 1961, is keeping up with the demands of this fast-moving market. But, when you’ve made your name on decades of high-quality work and long-lasting results, the challenge lies in moving fast without sacrificing your reputation for perfection. Which is exactly what Eagle Drywall achieved here in Springtown, with a little help from Trim-Tex and Murco Wall Products; read on to learn how.
For single-family homes like these, Eagle Drywall is sticking to the basics — time-tested finishes that will look great and last. For their corner trim, they selected two classic Trim-Tex beads that remain among Trim-Tex’s most popular, most proven options: the ¾” Large Bullnose Corner Bead and the standard Trim-Tex Corner Bead.
The rounded look of a Bullnose profile is especially common here in Texas due to its Southwestern, adobe-style drywall aesthetic; the wide-radius ¾” Large Bullnose variety provides a soft, old-fashioned charm to any corner. But beyond their decorative appeal, the Eagle Drywall crew was more interested in another advantage of these Bullnose corners: enhanced durability. Due to their increased impact resistance, they used these beads in all the home’s high-traffic, centrally located areas.
“A lot of our customers require the Bullnose in the main traffic areas,” says Eagle Drywall Operations Manager David Cotten. “They wear and tear less than the square corners — paint chips, things like this — and are a little bit more durable, last longer, look better over a longer period of time.”
For the rest of their corners, the Eagle Drywall team also selected Trim-Tex’s flagship product, the soft-profile Corner Bead. This profile has been used to finish 90° corners by generations of drywall finishers, who prefer its slightly rounded nose for a smoother finish. Eagle Drywall used this highly resilient and highly reliable bead around each of the home’s windows and in its secondary rooms.
“The square corners are just as easy to install, there are no complications with using them,” Drywall Finisher Héctor García tells us (translated from Spanish). “Just like Bullnose, it’s simple — it’s made out of plastic. Just glue, staple and that’s it. It’s easy.”
Additionally, the Eagle Drywall crew — as well as many like them all over Texas and beyond — finds that Trim-Tex beads go hand in hand with proven joint compound from Murco Wall Products. For this job, they selected Murco’s Light Weight mud due to its agile performance, strong bond strength and easy sanding.
“I’ve used all kinds of brands, and Murco has been the best,” says García. “It’s the only one I like to work with. I don’t know why, but the knife glides smoothly with it. It isn’t heavy. Of all the joint compounds I’ve used, that’s the one I’ve liked most.”
Trim-Tex beads are flying off the shelves at a dealer near you. Snag a box or a truckload of your favorite corner profiles today.
For Eagle Drywall, every home they work on is an opportunity to strengthen their already-strong reputation in the DFW area — a reputation they’ve spent over 60 years cultivating. If a client calls about crooked drywall, cracked corners or popped screws, that’s not just a callback. That’s their name on the line.
Aided, in part, by using Trim-Tex beads and accessories, the Eagle Drywall crew was able to work with maximum efficiency while maintaining its status as a provider of great-looking, long-lasting drywall finishes.
“Quality and speed are the two things,” Cotten says. “We need something that works efficiently, is easy to use for the guys, but also is going to stand up over the test of time as well … Trim-Tex is easy to use, quick to apply and lasts a long time — it’s a very durable product for our customers.”
Meanwhile, the relationship between Eagle Drywall and Murco dates to their earliest days in the drywall business.
“Eagle Drywall and Murco have a longstanding relationship going back to the '60s when my boss's dad and [Murco Owner] Joan Benton's dads worked together mixing mud and installing at that time,” Cotten tells us. “We have a close relationship; we work on a daily basis with Murco. They exchange a lot of material, and they're involved in every single project that we do.”
Eagle Drywall, Murco and Trim-Tex are all family-owned businesses with many decades of experience, many decades of solving countless problems for countless customers. And in an industry built on trust — from homeowners to their contractors, from the contractors to their material suppliers — this is what building and maintaining a reputation is all about.
Thank you to David Cotten, Héctor García and the whole Eagle Drywall team for bringing us onto their jobsite; to learn more about their services, visit their website here. And to find a Murco store near you or browse through their drywall finishing products, you can find all you need to know here. And, finally, Trim-Tex publishes features like this one, about real contractors on real jobsites, all the time — sign up for monthly newsletters to never miss another story by hitting the button below.
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