“Not Just Lines on the Slab:” How Ford Drywall & Stucco Manages Risk with Dusty
A Team with a Vision
Ford Drywall & Stucco is one of Florida’s most respected framing and drywall contractors — a nine-time honoree on the Walls & Ceilings Top 50 Contractors list and a trusted builder for healthcare, higher education, commercial, and high-end residential projects across the state. John Ford, President, says, “We have about 250 people working for us, and we consistently do $30M to $40M in revenue a year. From Tampa down to Marco Island on the west coast of Florida, and we follow our key clients — like our healthcare clients — up and down the state.”
He’s quick to cite his team as the source of that success. “Our people are our family. They’re our village.”
"Dusty ties into an operational process that drives quality. It’s the preventative. It means we mapped it out, we measured twice, we cut once, and we got it right. We prevented the problems from happening.”
Ford is clear that his team needs smart workflows and tools that work across a varied portfolio. “We do healthcare, we do museums, we do residential homes that look like museums, we do production work. We’re in all these different lanes. But they all require layout.”
Ford is laser-focused on risk. Not just to individual projects, but to the business. “In this industry, we’re in the habit of pointing fingers. At a trade, at the designers — everybody gets a chance to be the bad guy at some point. But [construction risk] doesn’t really come from anyone in particular. It’s really the whole industry failing as an industry. If we don’t get information from the model to the field, we’re wasting the precon investment. Dusty absolutely does that."
When Ford chose Dusty, he didn’t make that decision within the confines of a single project. Instead, he’s sought a repeatable workflow that spans his entire portfolio — one that drives accuracy and reduces risk across his business, and gives Ford Drywall more ways to deliver value. “Dusty doesn’t replace the hard-won discipline we’ve built over time, but it does help us execute those standards more consistently. It helps make our wins more repeatable.”
"Dusty helps us execute our standards more consistently. It helps make our wins more repeatable.”
Building Alignment with Other Stakeholders to Reduce Risk to the Business
For Ford, Dusty isn’t just as a layout tool, but a communication tool that makes it possible for Ford’s team to give clarity to every stakeholder. “We can accurately print anything we want, in any language we want. And what we get out is consistent surfaces, verified compliance, reduced rework.”
That kind of added value has definitely helped Ford in project pursuits. “Dusty gives us a wow factor: ‘Wow, look at what Ford’s doing,’ you know? But there’s a good reason for that: with Dusty, we save the project owner money.”
“It's a tangible thing, what we can offer with Dusty,” Ford continues “It's something we can all touch and see. So, the owner walks through, sees an issue, and says, ‘wait, what's that?’ Now we know there’s a change — before we frame it, and that's a good thing. And we all gain that kind of visibility — not just us, but all the trades. Dusty’s layout helps us all be transparent and collaborate. So we can fix issues.”
Recentering Framers in the VDC Process
Ford believes layout is not just a task on the critical path — it’s the point in time at which the value of the coordinated model is realized. And he sees Multi-Trade Layout as the clear path to maximizing that value.
“It is so obvious that one party should be doing all the layout for the job,” he says. “That’s not about hoarding ownership — it’s the opposite. It’s about transfer of information from [Autodesk] Revit to the slab.”
"It is so obvious that one party should be doing all the layout for the job. That’s not about hoarding ownership — it’s the opposite. It’s about transfer of information from [Autodesk] Revit to the slab.”
That sentiment presupposes that a well-coordinated model or plan exists, which is something Ford wants framers to play a bigger role in. “From my perspective, it’s bad for VDC that the mechanical trades have controlled the process. I’m not being anti-mechanical, but as framers we’ve been absent. We let them just tell us where they want the holes in the wall. We’ve done it that way for two decades. Dusty opens the door as the framer to bring value to that process and contribute our expertise."
What are the blockers to realizing that vision? For one, “I don’t have an in-house VDC team.” While Ford certainly considered building his own team, and still may, that path would have been slow.
Instead, Ford is moving fast by leveraging partnerships. He’s working with New Vision, a Dusty VDC Partner, to scale this workflow right now — without having to wait years to build up staff and skillset.
“Dusty referred New Vision to us. We talked to them and said, how can we help each other? As a team together, we can handle all the precon coordination. We can drive from design to printable layout.”
He believes strongly that it’s good for the project for the Framer to sit in that role. “Framing drives all of that MEP rough-in later. We are the critical path. There isn’t a single trade that doesn’t install their work either inside of our work or on top of our work.”
The Payoff Is In the Bottom Line…
Ford makes it clear that the cost savings he’s after aren’t in the layout labor line item. “Dusty helps our field teams execute complex layouts more consistently, allowing supervisors to focus on coordination and verification. And the result is less rework. Less backcharging. Faster installation.”
Ford talks about the significant investment he’s making in achieving his overall vision for the VDC and layout workflow. “Dusty costs money, our partnership with New Vision costs money. As a business owner, I need a reason for that investment. So I go back to old jobs [before we were using Dusty] and I look at all my change orders and my rework, I look at all the schedules that went backwards because of issues or bad collaboration. And… I think this is a no-brainer. Our jobs will be better on all of those fronts. That makes that investment worth it.”
…And In the Future Team
“Dusty doesn't replace my layout foremen. It’s their tool, and this is how much better we are with that tool.”
Not only does Dusty help his current team perform, it helps attract the team of tomorrow. Ford Drywall operates an impressive internal apprenticeship program to bring up new talent. And as part of that, Ford says “Dusty helps me sell construction to the kids we want to work here. It's pretty tough to get a high schooler to get past the fact that it's hot, dirty work, and understand that this is fun, and hey, you can make money. For that, Dusty is a game changer.”
"Dusty helps me sell construction to the kids we want to work here. It's pretty tough to get a high schooler to get past the fact that it's hot, dirty work, and understand that this is fun, and you can make money. For that, Dusty is a game changer.”
He talks about the attraction going beyond getting to play with the latest technology. “It’s really cool, but it also raises the importance of their job. It gives them an understanding that they're not just labor. What they're doing is they're creating a blueprint on the slab, which turns into this amazing structure.”
“I’m all in” with Dusty
“I’m all in. I’m invested. And I will wholeheartedly renew with Dusty.”
Ford has big plans for where that future partnership will go. “One thing I hope to achieve is to make operational information like labor planning and project controls printable. To make it easier for the Super, for the PM, to make everything else smoother.”
He also looks forward to the day when owners specify and require Dusty on their projects, which he firmly believes will happen. “I don’t want to have to pitch it. And I won’t have to if the client who is funding the project says, ‘I want Dusty.’”
In the meantime, he’s patient. He sees the value in starting small so that other stakeholders can get exposed to the technology, and giving them the time to catch his vision. “We’re confident enough in our quest. But we say, hey, on the next one, give me that plan three months earlier. Let us look it all over, go through with our VDC partner, and really dial this thing in.”
“For us, it’s not just lines on the slab," says John Ford, President of Ford Drywall. "Dusty ties into an operational process that drives quality. It’s the preventative. Quality assurance means we mapped it out, we measured twice, we cut once, and we got it right. We prevented the problems from happening.”
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