In the construction industry, loyalty counts. Employees staying with the same company for 10 to 20 years and even longer means the company is doing something right, says Rusty Plowman. Long before becoming President of Denver, Colorado-based Delta Drywall, Plowman learned a great deal about the industry and the importance of respecting staff from his father, Ross.
“My dad would drag me out to job sites when I was a little kid, so I was around the business my whole life,” says Plowman, who started out sweeping up drywall scraps. “I grew up in the business and learned how to work hard. My dad was a hard worker, and that’s the way it was. He taught me a really good work ethic.”
Before incorporating Delta in 1969, Ross was working for another construction business. Joining up with three partners who were using metal studs, the four formed a company that would do metal stud framing and drywall. “When rivers come together, they create a delta, and that’s why they picked the name Delta,” Plowman shares.
When he started with Delta in the 1980s, Rusty saw that many general contractors were making the move from union to non-union workplaces. Delta’s founding partners felt it was important to take care of their workers by providing fair wages and benefits like 401(k), health insurance, vacation time, and more, an approach they maintain to this day.
“We take care of our people because they are important to us,” says Plowman, who looks forward to awarding employees bonuses and certificates at milestone anniversaries. The proof is in the pudding: all of his superintendents have been with Delta for over 25 years, and there are, astoundingly, about 40 staff members who have been with the company for 30 years or more.
After earning his degree in construction management from Colorado State University, Plowman came to work for the company as a project manager and estimator in 1986. Today, he is the sole owner of the business, which takes on projects including schools, retail construction, recreational facilities, multi-story office buildings, hospitals, and MOBs––medical office buildings––in Colorado. A prequalified and preferred subcontractor, Delta is on the select bid list for many projects for design-build contractors. The company’s drywall expertise recently saw Delta complete CBOC, a community-based outpatient clinic for the Veteran’s Health Administration in Aurora, Colorado.
“We’ve been in pretty much all of them at one time or another,” says Plowman. Along with MOBs, Delta has done work for numerous schools in the state, and about 200 remodels of King Soopers for American supermarket and retail giant Kroger.
One of Delta’s most prominent projects remains Coors Field. Home to Major League Baseball’s Colorado Rockies, the $300 million ballpark has a capacity of over 50,000, including more than 4,500 club seats and 63 luxury suites. The team at Delta Drywall spent about a year on the landmark project, which opened in 1995.
At Delta, professional services include light gauge and structural steel stud framing, engineered metal trusses, interior and exterior insulation and finish systems, suspended drywall ceilings, acoustical ceilings, engineered load-bearing structural metal studs, plaster, and more.
Amassing an expansive portfolio over the decades, Delta’s work includes education (high schools, universities, and colleges), grocery stores, self-storage, veterans’ facilities, and myriad other projects. Delta is frequently chosen for the most elaborate jobs, as with the new campus building at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law. The work required 358,500 square feet of framing—238,500 square feet of wall framing and 120,000 square feet of ceiling and soffit framing.
“Of the 238,500 square feet of wall framing, 35,000 comprised 10” 12-gauge studs used to achieve a plenum for all of the mechanical equipment located on the fifth floor,” says the company. “Additionally, the College of Law consists of 576,000 square feet of drywall—equal to 15,000 sheets of drywall. Delta installed pre-constructed 16-gauge panels to build up the floors in classrooms and also constructed a stadium-style mock courtroom. The law building features three floors of library space and classrooms. One full floor is dedicated to office space.”
Other major projects include Western Union’s world headquarters in Colorado, and some of the company’s recent work includes Northglenn City Hall, a new 32,600-square-foot structure. A Net Zero building, the $34 million Northglenn City Hall project will generate the same amount of energy as it uses and will be Colorado’s first municipal building to receive Core Green Building Certification. Other recent Delta projects include the Prairie View High School CTE Center. Delta regards the school as more than a client, donating time and teaching young men and women about construction and hanging drywall.
Going beyond standard drywall, Delta also works with specific client requirements. Both Northglenn City Hall and the new 43,300-square-foot Windsor Police Headquarters utilize bullet board in certain areas. Weighing hundreds of pounds per sheet, the 1.5” thick drywall can resist assault rifle blasts.
“We don’t do just big projects; we also do a lot of little stuff for people,” says Plowman. This includes work for repeat customers such as medical facilities requiring lead-lined board for new MRI machine rooms. “These are clients we’ve dealt with for years, and they count on us.”
Health and safety are, of course, critical in this industry, and Delta Drywall implemented a written safety and health policy back in the 1980s, one the company continues to expand upon today. A long-time member of safety associations including ABC, ASA, and AWCI, the company has been Cost Containment Certified by the State of Colorado for over 30 years.
Under the leadership of veteran Safety Manager Mike Funk, who is celebrating his 30th year with the company, Delta Drywall continues to be a leader in safe and healthy work practices. The company has always been—and always will be—committed to a safe and healthy workplace for every employee who works on its projects.
With a full-time in-house safety director overseeing policy with the cooperation of everyone from the owner, field superintendents, project managers, and field foremen to the most recent new hires, every Delta employee has input and is charged with the maintenance and enforcement of the policy.
“Delta employees are safety-orientated, both when hired and throughout their employment, on topics such as fall protection, scaffold safety, personal protection equipment, aerial lifts, and electrical safety, as well as any site-specific topics should they arise,” says Funk. “All training, from orientations and weekly job-site safety meetings to site-specific training, is bilingual to make sure all employees understand,” he shares.
“Delta also maintains an aggressive claims management policy with a good partnership with our designated providers and insurance company to keep our employees working while maintaining an Experience Modification Rating at or below a 10-year average of .91 credit. Every employee is an integral part of the successful safety and health policy that ensures all of those employees stay safe and go home each day the same way they arrive––injury-free.”
Delta is an active member of some of the most respected construction organizations in the U.S., including the Association of the Wall and Ceiling Industry, Associated Builders and Contractors, and the American Subcontractors Association of Colorado, which recently saw one of Delta’s estimators/project managers complete his term as Colorado’s President. Rusty Plowman himself is Past President of the Colorado Association as well as Past President of the National Association.
“I served as National President of The American Subcontractors Association from 2022 to 2023, and sat on their Board of Directors for about 10 years,” he says. During that time, he worked on local legislation and was involved with national lobbying efforts. Ross Plowman was a founding member of the American Subcontractors Association in the 1970s, and took Rusty along to meetings. “He felt that was very important because that’s where you learn to understand contract language and other things like that to be better businesspeople.”
Optimistic about the immediate and long-term future of Delta, Plowman says plenty of projects are lining up for 2025, including schools, a Ford dealership, municipal buildings for Adams County, and a new bus depot. As for Delta itself, he assures us there are others in line to see the company enter its third generation and looks forward to seeing the company succeed long into the future.
