Format: Video of Slides with Audio

Presenter: Chuck Muehlbauer, Michael Picco

When the market for stone countertops was growing rapidly, many exterior stone contractors successfully diversified in creating an interior stone division within their corporations to complement their existing exterior stone fa?ade businesses. Currently, the waning interior market is luring many interior contractors to do the reverse, and diversify into the exterior cladding sector of the stone industry. While a few have been successful, many have had disastrous results as they embarked into a business arena for which they were inadequately prepared, inexperienced, and poorly qualified. This session will explain the basic varieties of exterior cladding systems, and will explain the required resume? of minimum skills and experience that should be secured before venturing into each variety of work. This discussion is not intended to frighten or discourage the contractor from pursuing this sector, but rather to prevent causing harm to oneself by venturing into an unknown world without the resources needed for survival. ? Define the basic variety of exterior wall cladding attachment systems available ? Recognize the minimum resources necessary for competent participation in the exterior markets ? List many of the risks and liabilities specific to the exterior cladding contracting sector of the industry ? Identify the resources available to obtain further education to become a competent provider of exterior stone cladding systems