Meet the Contractor: Tom Fluharty

Tom Fluharty uses Trim-Tex to save time and labor.

how long have you been in the industry?

I’ve been drywalling in some form or another for 25 years. It’s in your blood. Either you love it or you hate it.

I work for myself now, which is great. I make my own hours. If I want to take off a day off I can (but I hardly ever do). I love it.

why do you use trim-tex products?

They save so much time and labor. One example is the Buttboards. They’ve been out for a while, but we just started using them last year on all our houses. You don’t have to run the butt joints. You can just cut 4 sheets all the same, put them up, install the Buttboards, and you’re done. It’s a tremendous time saver. So are the tear away beads.

They changed the game when they came out with Architectural detail products. Arches were fantastic when they came out. The Mud Sets? I don’t know why everybody doesn’t use them. It’s no different than paper bead in practice but it’s virtually indestructible. Same with the vinyl beads – they’re tough.

We used to pay for faced tape inside the windows. One day I was browsing at a drywall supply house, saw some Trim Tex, and said to myself, “That’s pretty sweet.” Other companies also started using it, and I started seeing it at more and more supply houses.

how many types of bead do you typically use on a project?

Usually we use one type throughout the whole house. If they want square, we’ll put square everywhere. Sometimes I’ll do a bump out for a fireplace or a rock – something interesting that breaks it up a bit. Usually it’s one continuous bead throughout the whole house, but I like to also an accent piece with a different type of bead, like the 350.

what do you like best about working with Trim-tex?

What it boils down to is that Trim-Tex saves you money. It impacts how much I can put in my pocket and take home at the end of the week, at the end of the month and year. The vinyl bead is significantly cheaper than metal bead. It has the quality and durability I need. And the Mud Set saves me even more because I use less mud to put it on. All that adds up over time. I also can’t say enough about their customer service. Any question I have, anything that I need, they’re there to help right away. It’s a great product, and it helps us make more money.