Daley’s Drywall & Taping Inc. is an award-winning, family-owned drywall contracting firm founded over half a century ago. Based in Campbell, California, Daley’s offers metal framing, drywall, prefabrication, lath and plaster, acoustical ceilings, insulation, rough carpentry, siding, and building information modeling (BIM).
This spring saw some new developments for Daley’s, as the safety-focused, eco-friendly firm became a certified Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE). The company is also taking a close look at mass framing, an innovative building technique involving layered wood that could portend new opportunities.
Most of Daley’s work is done within the commercial sector, with multi-family coming in “a close second,” says President Brittni Daley-Grishaeva, whose grandfather founded the firm. Other markets include healthcare, tech, research, public works, high-rise, mid-rise, and building rehabilitation. The company primarily works in and around San Jose, Monterey, Silicon Valley, and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to its headquarters, Daley’s has a facility in Stockton, California that performs prefabrication work among other duties.
Daley-Grishaeva says good client rapport has been key to the company’s longevity. “I think the biggest thing with us is we really focus on our relationships with our GCs (general contractors). Most of our work is repeat business. We bend over backwards for customers. We go out of our way to make our clients’ lives easier. That’s kind of the internal motto that we use,” she says.
Daley’s is always expanding its product line and capabilities. Less than a year ago, it started a self-perform insulation and sealants department.
A family legacy
The company was founded in 1963 by Daley-Grishaeva’s grandfather, Gary Daley (who went by the name “Moe”), and his wife, Sally, who handled the bookkeeping while raising kids. The firm initially served as a drywall contractor for apartments and tract housing. In the 1970s, Daley’s started doing metal framing and began taking on commercial drywall projects. A change in leadership occurred the following decade, as Gary’s son Craig stepped up.
“My dad took over in the early 1980s from my grandpa and started transitioning the company to do more commercial work and more public works,” recalls Daley-Grishaeva.
Digitized estimating was introduced in the 1990s and the firm started doing load-bearing metal framing of single-family residences. “As the market changed over time, we started doing more and more work on the multi-family residential side. [My father] worked closely alongside his brother, my uncle, Chris Daley. He was our Vice President and headed up our multi-family residential division for many years.”
Daley-Grishaeva herself began working at the company in 2009. She is currently the majority owner, with Craig Daley serving as minority owner and semi-retired consultant.
While there are no plans to change the company’s family ownership model, Daley’s Drywall became a certified Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) earlier this year. The Women’s Business Enterprise Council – Pacific (a West Coast branch of the national WBEC) granted certification. WBE status is available to companies with majority female ownership and can open doors when bidding on certain projects.
“Since 2018, we’ve been woman owned; we figured that we might as well get credit for something we’re already doing. I don’t know if we’ve necessarily reaped the benefits yet, but we’ve been told in the bidding process that it’s a big help by our clients,” Daley-Grishaeva shares.
Walking the walk, Daley’s has partnered with local unions to hire more women for construction duties in the field. The company also supports the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC), a Fort Worth, Texas organization that advocates for a greater female presence in the construction sector. Daley’s often hosts meetings for the Silicon Valley chapter where speakers are showcased and provides a space where women in the construction industry can network and mentor each other.
Proud projects
Over its decades-long history, Daley’s has taken part in countless major projects, including Ira D. Hall Square, an affordable housing community in Sunnyvale, California. This development features 176 apartment units ranging in size from studios to three-bedroom units. This was “a metal stud load-bearing project,” Daley-Grishaeva tells us. “We like metal stud load-bearing projects because they’re a little different—there’s less concrete and they’re more efficient to build.”
While Daley’s doesn’t do modular construction (in which large segments of a building are put together in a factory then shipped to a building site for assembly), prefabrication is a company specialty. Among other items, the Stockton plant prefabricates walls and soffits.
Making a positive impact
Daley-Grishaeva tells us that sustainability and safety are of primary importance at Daley’s, and the firm’s green initiatives are substantial. “We keep up on all the latest developments and LEED requirements on projects,” she says. “We recycle all of our board and our metal, and we take them to specific recycling facilities. Some of our vehicles are electric, and we have full solar here at the company’s headquarters.”
Daley’s also has a dedicated safety team that tracks potential worksite hazards and regulatory changes. Safety training begins during orientation for new hires and is an integral component of all the company’s work in the field.
These efforts have not gone unnoticed, and industry groups have recognized Daley’s safety-first focus. The company has won the Acrisure Construction Safety Excellence Award (Acrisure is a firm that offers insurance and business services for the construction sector) and safety awards from the Association of the Wall and Ceiling Industry (AWCI).
Daley’s has received industry kudos for its work as well. The firm garnered the 2025 Construction Excellence Award from the Wall and Ceiling Alliance (WACA) trade group in the Green Building category. The award recognized Daley’s work on San Mateo County’s COB3 project, the first civic building in the county to feature cross-laminated timber construction. Achieving net-zero energy and LEED Platinum Certification, the project set a new benchmark for sustainable civic buildings.
Giving back to its community is also emphasized at Daley’s, and the company often supports causes in tandem with its clients and other business partners. Daley’s has participated in creek and beach cleanups, seasonal food drives, and fundraisers for local Boys and Girls Clubs and homeless shelters.
Adapting to a changing market
Navigating economic trends has been challenging as of late. “Our market right now is definitely in a bit of a lull,” notes Daley-Grishaeva. “The good news is, we see it picking up on the bidding side. We do think things will slowly turn around over the next year, but it’s just a tight market right now. There’s work, but there’s less of it.”
Once economic conditions improve, Daley’s wants to bring its personnel back to full strength. As a union shop, the firm engages with unions representing carpenters, plasterers, drywall installers, and more. All personnel are encouraged to abide by the company’s values, which include humility and a hunger to work.
In terms of promotion, Daley’s maintains a website and social media profiles, hosts lunch and learns with clients, offers seminars at industry events, and attends the annual Associated Wall and Ceiling Institute (AWCI) convention and expo. But Daley-Grishaeva tells us that the company’s best promotion comes from positive word-of-mouth and repeat customers.
As for the future of the firm, “We are exploring alternative building solutions utilizing the recent code revisions for Type IV construction with CLT floors and load-bearing metal stud walls. We’re hoping that this helps contribute to solving the current housing crisis,” says Daley-Grishaeva.
While currently a niche process, this solution is “a much more affordable, more efficient way to build housing” than traditional methods, she notes. As such, it might just spur the construction of more moderately priced houses across North America.
“Housing is a huge crisis in many areas, but especially in the Bay Area. We need to add a lot more housing in the area just to keep up with demand. We’re nowhere near close to adding enough,” she says. “The Type IV solution is very forward thinking and out of the box—a different way of building… We believe this will really take off.”
She offers an upbeat forecast for the next five years: “I think we’re on track—we just want to get out there and we want to grow. Slow and steady growth is the name of the game.” Says this third-generation president of Daley’s Drywall & Taping, “We’d like to be doing what we’re doing now but a lot more of it!”
