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Hard Work & Craftsmanship His Coats of Many Colors ProFile: David Cadriel By Christa Youngpeter Editor's note: Check out the square tanks that Cadriel and his crew coated in the November 2013 issue of CoatingsPro in "Steel Tanks Shipped Of to Sea!" W ith 20 years of industry experience, David Cadriel has quite a bit of insight into coatings as well as advice from his ground-up rise to operations manager at Blastco in Houston, Texas. Te two-decade journey began when Cadriel was fresh out of the military and a single dad raising two daughters. While sitting at a McDonalds, he looked out of the window and said, "Look at those crazy guys on that lift painting a tank." By chance, the same crew of guys was at a local bar that night and ofered Cadriel a job for $8 an hour. It was love at frst coat. After a year of traveling with the crew, Cadriel was made superintendent, thanking his self-described "farm boy" work ethic of "do the best no matter what you're doing" to continue a steady rise…but not without a few ups and downs. Traveling took a toll on the then still-single dad, and he decided to settle into a job in San Antonio, eventually branching of on his own as a subcontractor for several years. Helping Hand Cadriel had always had a good relationship with Blastco, even as a competitor, and three years ago, he began working with them to help develop new industries and triple their project scope. Tat was thanks to growing experience with water tanks, wastewater treatment plans, and dams. In Cadriel's words, "I strive for good work and quality, and I ft into the legacy at Blastco. Tey give me 98 all the resources, and I have the tools." Currently, Cadriel and Blastco are working on a dam with fve sluice gates at Lake Conroe, and they are bidding on a similar project with eight sluice gates. Out of the fve dam projects that he's bid on, Cadriel has lost only one. "We're learning together," he noted, "pursuing long-term projects, lowering our numbers to secure long-term, proftable projects." In addition to the dam projects, Blastco is also heavily involved in underground utility work, structural repair, and even tank building. Despite Cadriel seeing the coatings industry as "a family," there are still black sheep in the mix. "One company thinks it can paint the world, and paint it just one color." But for the most part, he likes to keep in contact with competitors, seeing the beneft of having a network and even suggesting that smaller companies take jobs that aren't the right size for Blastco. Cadriel sees more work coming nationwide, particularly in California, but most work would be in the Houston area and parts of Louisiana, focusing on "big contracts in large cities." Keeping the Drive Like many industry success stories, Cadriel stressed hands-on experience JANUARY 2014 COATINGSPROMAG.COM to those looking to enter the world of coatings. "Go to classes and training, learn as much as you possibly can, and people will start to notice." He added, "Te key to my success is having the drive to deal with the daily stress and never settling for mediocrity." Starting as a general laborer and working his way up gave Cadriel an all-around perspective of the industry and a wide range of insight. While there can be difcult personalities and the stress of near-certain ups and downs, he notes it's important that if "you aren't scared of failure and try to have that child-like mentality where you may fall again, eventually you'll get it right." Maintaining quality, motivation, and a solid administrative staf is a big takeaway, and doing so assures return clients as well as helping them retain a good name in the industry. Moving Forward While he is overall happy in the trade, there are naturally a few hindrances, but the ever-optimistic Cadriel sees them as opportunities to collaborate and learn together. Te constant changes from coatings manufacturers can prove to be a challenge thanks to the domino efect that comes from new innovations in the industry. Employees must be re-trained, and there is the potential for inconsistency and reliability issues with ever-evolving products. Now remarried, Cadriel has fve children and lives just outside of Houston near Lake Conroe. Despite a busy schedule, Cadriel manages to get away to the mountains of central Texas and Colorado where he and his family can enjoy nature together and escape the big city. CP