Members of Universal Spray & Drywall, Inc.’s residential and commercial divisions.

The Calhoun Beach Club, a 24-story apartment building in Minneapolis, is undergoing a complete remodel of all units and common areas. The Universal Spray & Drywall, Inc. team is framing cloud ceilings in the common areas and performing framing and drywall repairs inside the units.

Sometimes all it takes is a single good idea, that otherwise ordinary moment when an opportunity leaps into crystal-clear focus. Gerald Obraske saw such an opportunity in 1961, laying the foundation for the company that would become Universal Spray & Drywall, Inc., which would be handed down from generation to generation of his family.

Gerald’s idea was simple enough. Inspired by innovations he saw while working in California, he invented a new system for applying ceiling texture mechanically, instead of the conventional—and much, much slower— hand-troweling method.

“When he started the business, he only had one truck,” says Keith Obraske, Gerald’s grandson, who is currently managing the day-to-day operations of the business. “He had to give away his first few jobs to prove to people what he had—they didn’t understand what he was offering. One of those first clients, a homebuilder, actually asked him to come back out and scrape it off, but before he could get back out there, they’d already sold 10 houses. They decided to keep the texture and keep him working.”

Gerald’s original business was Universal Spray Co. His son Mike grew up in the industry, working alongside him from the late ‘60s until Mike left for a stint in the U.S. Marine Corps. In 1975, after Mike returned, he and Gerald started a partnership called Universal Drywall Co. The two businesses specializing in spray texture and drywall services were a natural complement to one another, and success grew. In the early ‘80s. Mike acquired his father’s share of Universal Drywall, then, in 1989, purchased Universal Spray and combined the two into Universal Spray & Drywall, which is based in Blaine, Minn. Though Mike is still the owner, the day-to-day operations are now in the hands of the third generation of the Obraske family: Keith, his sister Crystal Hoppe and his brother-in-law Craig Hoppe.

Keith has been working for the family business since the early 1990s, and spent his first 15 years on one of the company’s trucks, spraying texture, hanging drywall and learning the ins and outs of the industry.

Division of Labor

In recent years, the company has expanded still further, with divisions for spray texture, residential work and commercial work. In 2009, Universal Spray & Drywall added a framing division to its portfolio.

“We got four framers on staff and started picking up framing jobs. That move helped save the company during the recession. As the framing division grew, we started taking jobs that we were a little scared to take at first, and proved we could do it. It wasn’t exactly an overnight success, but it’s working now and it’s become an important part of our business,” says Keith.

Though the company got its start with spraying texture, over the years other specialties have grown to the point that texturing is now the smallest division, coming in behind framing and drywall. Still, it’s part of the backbone of the family business.

“Our residential and commercial divisions are neck and neck,” Keith says. “Texture has become our smallest. But it’s also a matter of scale. We may only do 60 to 100 commercial jobs per year, but we do hundreds of residential projects each year, and over 1,000 texture jobs every year.”

While the spray division may not be the largest in dollar value, it’s a constant source of business, and Gerald’s spray technique—adapted with the march of technology—still plays an integral role in the business he started almost 60 years ago. Each of the company’s spray trucks is a self-contained unit with a separate engine and compressor, as well as different containers for different textures, from splatter to popcorn.

“In a traditional hopper gun system, you can do about 500 to 700 square feet in an hour,” Keith says. “We can do that in 10 minutes. We’ve got four trucks and are building a fifth and our guys are used to doing five or six spray jobs every day. We’ve been known for texturing since we got started, and we’ve even come in to do texturing for our competitors. At one time, we had a high of about 300 texture accounts.”

Through the Generations

The family business, passed down through multiple generations, is more an aspect of the American Dream than the American reality. The fact is, only about 12 percent of family-owned businesses survive to the third generation. When asked about his family’s secret to this longevity, Keith had a ready answer.

“A lot of it has to do with the professionalism passed down, the dedication to customer care, to service and quality,” he says. “It has to do with experience and willingness to work with all sorts of jobs. We do everything— lots of commercial construction, remodels, everything from patching the wall where the teenage son put his fist through it to helping out with a $10-million building.”

“With our family’s business, I think we’re also more able to roll with the ups and downs of the economy. Some family businesses argue and fight and don’t discuss things— that’s not how we operate. Anytime an issue comes up, we solve it right away. It’s helped us stay together and keep moving forward. And it’s something that makes us very different. I just had an apprentice tell me she had a job offer for more money and she turned it down because she loves working here and doesn’t want to leave. For her to say something like that was very heartwarming,” says Keith.

He adds that Universal Spray & Drywall doesn’t just pride itself on being a family business, but on being part of the community as well. The company has a long history with the local Habitat for Humanity, and has textured as many as three or four houses a month for the organization. It was heavily involved with two separate projects for ABC’s television show, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. In the first, the team hung and finished 650 pieces of drywall in 11 hours and in the second hung and finished 400 sheets in 10 hours. During the six-year run of the televised series, Bath Crashers, they did about 50 shows.

The company’s community involvement extends to the industry community as well. Mike is the incoming 2018 President of the Minnesota/North Dakota chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors. Universal Spray & Drywall is also an active member of the local Chamber of Commerce and boasts an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau.

An Eye Toward Growth

An active and forward-thinking approach to networking has helped Universal Spray & Drywall grow significantly in just the last few years, enabling the team to take on larger jobs and expanding the company’s internal capacity.

“Networking with industry groups is an essential part of our success,” Keith says. “Being part of these networks generates lots of contacts and leads.” He adds, “We’re also very forward-thinking. We’re already ready to be guinea pigs for new products and new techniques. We were the first company in the state to bring a commercial standard for soundproofing into new homes.”

Recently, the company has done framing, drywall and texture work on projects including the Homewood Suites by Hilton, a Country Inns & Suites and the HOPE 4 Youth center in Coon Rapids, Minn., a facility to help homeless and at-risk youth.

To date, the company’s largest project was the Sky Dancer Casino and Resort in North Dakota, working on the remodel/new build of the 100,000-square-foot main floor and the completely new seven-story attached hotel. “We spent more than two years going back and forth to North Dakota. Our framers had to sit down and draw up revisions to fix the architect’s plans; the original design just wouldn’t work,” recalls Keith.

Growth in the amount of business has created a need for physical growth as well. In 2000, Universal Spray & Drywall built a new shop initially intended to house an office staff of five. Today, the office staff count is at 13, which required two additional remodels over the years to accommodate further expansion. The company has about 50 employees total.

“I’m just amazed with how fast we’ve grown in the past two years,” Keith says. “I’m actually trying to throttle back on expansion. We just want to keep focused on delivering awesome service and quality. We’ve picked up a couple of bigger jobs than we’d typically take on, just because of the team we have. From the little shop we were when I started in 1993, to the organization we have now, it’s hard to put into words.”

"We're Not Like Other Companies"

The commitment to family, to the business, to the community and to diversification are what Keith credits for the success of Universal Spray & Drywall.

“We have three divisions, and we draw from all three sides to get the job done,” Keith says. “We have guys who specialize in all these things, but all of us are ready to help each other. I can’t say enough about our team members— they’re a great group of people. We preach teamwork and communication in helping each other out. Guys who are exhausted from a day of work will see someone else struggling and just jump in to help. The positive attitudes that all these team members have is priceless.”

He concludes, “People tell us we’re not like other companies. I couldn’t agree more.”