Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112 Page 113 Page 114 Page 115 Page 116our short list. Roz and I had grown up in Marin County, just north of the Golden Gate from San Francisco, and wit- nessed both the escalating prices and pace of life, making it difficult on a young middle class family. I’m a first-generation tile contractor and in 2015, had been self-employed for five years. While business was good, I wasn’t so established that relocation was completely off the table. With our oldest starting kindergarten the following year we knew our window for moving couldn’t be better. But, even with all of that, if you had asked me then if I thought I was ever going to leave I’d probably have told you no, and that all the evenings I spent scouring the internet for infor- mation on other cities’ construction markets and housing were just a lark. Then one day the phone rang; it was Dirk. He had been speaking to Martin earlier and heard that I was considering a move. Hawthorne Tile had a great reputation and was the only Five Star Contractor in the city. As Portland grew, Hawthorne’s opportunities did as well, and Dirk was looking to add a project manager to his team. He thought that I might be a fit, since we had met briefly at Total Solutions Plus the previous year. After a long talk with Roz, Dirk and I scheduled a week that sum- mer for me to come work with the Hawthorne team and explore the city with my family. Roz fell in love with the city; I felt comfortable with the team. So with both fear and excitement, we made a decision. Eight months later I had closed down Custom® Building Products is help- ing tile installers save time on showers and other projects with the introduction of SpeedSlope™ Rapid Setting Sloping Mortar. A rapid-setting, rapid-hardening, polymer-modified, pre-blended, cement- based mortar bed and sloping mortar for leveling and ramping up to 3” on horizontal substrates and 5” in confined areas like trenches, SpeedSlope is ideal for shower installations. SpeedSlope sets in one to two hours, and is a perfect surface preparation choice for additional applications including patches, ramps, floors and walls. Used for dry-pack installations on shower floors and mortar beds meet- ing ANSI 108.1, SpeedSlope delivers an exceptionally smooth and hard fin- ish exceeding 4,000 PSI compressive strength – perfect for the application of thin set mortars. SpeedSlope is designed for faster and easier shower installations regardless of size and shape, making it an attractive alternative to prefabricated shower bases. As a high-performance, fast-track, modified sloping mortar, SpeedSlope makes any tile installation job more time and cost-efficient. www. custombuildingproducts.com. MEMBER SPOTLIGHT –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– 52 TileLetter | November 2016