LCR Contractors Inc.

Dallas-based L.C.R. Contractors Inc. (LCR) is a privately owned and operated commercial subcontractor specializing in spray-applied fireproofing and spray-applied insulation services. Essentially, LCR provides general contractors and private companies with the necessary services to protect a building during the unfortunate event of a fire and to properly insulate from temperature leaks, both cold and hot. The company’s goal is to use incomparable service to customers, work harder than any subcontractor on the job and maintain the small business environment that LCR is known for.

“We have always just wanted to focus on spray-applied fireproofing and spray-applied insulation products – that’s our thing,” says Buddy Spicer, president of LCR. “We’ve been doing it for over 30 years and our quality of work continues to improve.”

With over 25 spray crews on a daily basis and a collective 150 years of construction experience between the company’s ownership and project managers, LCR is one of the largest and most experienced spray-applied fireproofing and spray applied thermal and acoustical insulation subcontractors in the nation. Therefore, LCR has continued to grow over the past 10 years and currently features a healthy backlog of projects in a wide range of industries.

“Our spray fireproofing services are primarily for commercial construction buildings and are a building code driven scope of work; but we have always seen value in the spray thermal insulation applications,” says Buddy. “We work a lot with our contracting partners on the pre-construction side of the process to help guide them on the fireproofing requirements, as well as offer value-based solutions for the thermal envelope that will give an owner and designer a long-term solution.”

Currently the company conducts a majority of its work throughout Texas; however, LCR is proud of the team’s ability to travel around the country and work in various markets with an extensive construction manager base. “It is very typical for us to be conducting spray-applied operations in four different regions of Texas, while simultaneously working in Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arizona, North Carolina and elsewhere at any given time period,” Buddy explains.

Buddy goes on to note that the company completed a large hospital project for Maine General Health, Maine’s largest hospital, in the Augusta area. “The overall project was a large fireproofing scope of work,” he explains. “We were able to work with the same construction management team that had just completed a similar size project in Texas where we successfully completed the fireproofing for them. We felt like we played an important role in keeping the contractor ahead of schedule and brought a team first approach to the overall project.”

An important part of what makes LCR successful is the company’s persistence on performing all work in-house. “No matter what part of the country we operate in, we use in-house employees and maintain a tradition of training sprayers from within the company,” Buddy explains. “Because we understand the importance of quality work and our reputation is only as good as our last project we are committed to only working on projects that allow LCR to self-perform all the work. We trust our people and that is a good feeling as a business owner.”

Buddy goes on to note that in the company’s history, LCR has performed a lot of large hospital work across the country. “We have also been very blessed to work with great construction partners on projects like the New Dallas Cowboys Stadium, Dallas Perot Museum of Nature and Science, New Baylor University Football Stadium,” he continues. “We are currently working in College Station, Texas on the Redevelopment of Kyle Field for Texas A&M University.”

Furthermore, in 1997, LCR completed the spray fireproofing applications at the Texas Motor Speedway, which was the largest fireproofing project to that point in the company’s history. “The entire team grew from that experience,” Buddy says. “We started to take on more high profile projects that afforded the company the chance to showcase our ability to work as a team and perform at a high level within the spray fireproofing and spray insulation scopes of work.”

Fulfilling such projects requires the backing of quality manufacturers. “We have been very blessed to have our preferred manufacturers support for all these years,” Buddy says. “Determining which materials we use is based on the specific building we are working on, our ability to spray a particular product in that region and during that time period and we also consider the building type and the overall structural design.”

Future growth

In 2006 LCR hired Clay Spicer, Buddy’s son and current vice president of LCR, to start working in the estimating and project management side of the business. After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in June 2001, Clay spent five years in the United States Army as an infantry officer and was deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom II from March 2004 to March 2005.

According to Buddy, Clay’s energy and passion for growing the company allowed for increased opportunities with both existing and new customers, and opened the door for improved performance among an already experienced field base. “Within 24 months the company had started to expand into diversified markets and really started to create a strong business plan for future growth,” Buddy continues. “The development of spray foam insulation in the commercial market was starting to increase in applications and it was a natural fit for LCR to move toward that type of insulation systems.”

“We bought our first spray foam set up in late 2007,” Clay says to explain LCR’s growth. “We focused on growing one qualified crew at a time. As the market started to adapt to the spray foam applications we stayed out front and grew into one of the larger spray foam applicators in this part of the country. Currently we are operating with eight spray foam platforms.”

As the company has grown over the past five years LCR has been fortunate to add great office and field staff to help move the company forward during historically slow economic times. “We are really your typical family run business,” Clay explains. “The ownership is a father and son team, our office manager is married to one of our foreman and their daughter is also on the staff, our superintendents have been with LCR for over 45 years combined or worked hand in hand with Buddy for many years. We take pride in the father and sons that work for us in the field and we have many brothers, uncles, cousins and friends that work within our ranks every day. It makes going to work something personal to everyone on the team.”

Buddy himself spent his first 24 years in the construction industry with a family-owned business for which he performed fireproofing spray services, as well as drywall and plaster project management. “I was always involved in multiple scopes of work in my early years and I had a big appreciation for my mentors and leaders as a young construction manager,” Buddy says. “I carried those experiences over to LCR and I always wanted to focus on what we were good at and keep our scope of work limited to spray-applied fireproofing, spray-applied insulation and now the spray foam applications. It is all important to us.”

In addition to his current title, Buddy has been the president of the Texas Lathing and Plastering Contractors Association and the Dallas-Fort Worth Drywall & Interior Systems Contractors Association. All of this has provided Buddy with in-depth industry knowledge that he has carried over to LCR.

As the company looks out to the future the team is optimistic and committed to staying the course that has brought LCR to where it is today. “We’ll keep providing clients with the best spray fireproofing and spray-applied insulation services possible,” Buddy says. “That is the only way that I know how to do business in this market. That has been our goal for a while and we don’t see any reason to change it.”

Furthermore, it is evident that Buddy, Clay and the team appreciate all the success that has come to LCR. “I would like to thank all our partners from both the construction and administration side of our business that have shown unwavering support to LCR over the past 30 years,” Buddy says proudly.

For the last 30 years, LCR has become the go-to company for organizations in need of reliable, quality spray-applied fireproofing and spray-applied insulation services. From hospitals to universities, stadiums to raceways, LCR Contractors Inc. has helped ensure countless individuals remain safe from fires and free of pesky heat leaks.