The Story
“We started this company with one standard: do the work right. Work hard, take pride in it, be honest, never cut corners. Watching my sons carry that standard forward and build Barragan Drywall into what it is today is the legacy I am most proud of.”
Family is our Foundation
With over 45 years of industry experience, our team of craftsmen takes pride in their expertise and strong reputation within the community. We assemble the craftsmen you’d want for your home. We are a family-led team shaped by different disciplines and united by a single, unwavering standard for quality. We bring together our crew and their craft to develop finishes that celebrate reliable quality for generations.
Built on Trust.
Our journey began with our father, Genaro Barragan Sr. Starting as a tradesman with no formal education, he built this company entirely by word of mouth and with zero marketing. He relied purely on trust, honesty, and the singular caliber of his work.
Sustained by Legacy.
At Barragan Drywall, our mantra: Hazlo bien, which translates to, “do it right.” We take immense pride in our heritage and the meticulous attention to detail that goes into every project. True craftsmanship is found in the details – the precision of each cut, the flawless tapelines, and the clean transitions. We refuse to compromise on our standards because our name is on the work and that means everything.
All Roads Lead to Drywall.
Every member of our leadership team has performed the trade –– from the bottom up. You can’t find that in the industry. We spent our youth on job sites with our father, hanging drywall, framing and mastering new finishes. Beyond the job sites, we also worked alongside our father, on our childhood home, using it as a hands-on stage to practice drywall & finishing skills, cabinetry, flooring and complete remodeling. Because we have done the work ourselves, we know exactly what it takes to achieve a high-end finish.
As we grew older, we each left to pursue distinct professional disciplines. We trained in architecture, engineering, and healthcare. Ultimately, all roads lead to drywall, as our dad used to say. We returned to the family business, bringing our specialized knowledge with us. Today, no one else in the drywall industry has an architect, engineer, and former ICU nurse on their leadership team.
At Barragan Drywall, we assemble the craftsman and engineers you’d want for your project.
Leadership Team
Genaro Barragan Sr.
Genaro Barragan Sr. came to the United States from Mexico as a teenager with nothing but a work ethic and a standard that never moved. He learned the drywall trade from the ground up, went out on his own, and built a company entirely on the quality of his work and his word. The phrase Hazlo Bien, Do it right — came directly from him. He has since stepped back to pursue a lifelong dream, a cattle ranch in Mexico where in 2025 he entered a local roping competition. He won. His sons run the company now, and he trusts them completely. The standard he set is still the one they build to.
Genaro Barragan Sr. grew up working cattle in a small town in Mexico. It was a humble life, built around land, livestock, and the kind of physical work that shapes a person from the inside out. He came to the United States as a teenager with nothing but that foundation — and he built everything else from scratch.
The early years were hard. He worked whatever jobs he could find, learning the drywall trade from the ground up the way he learned everything: by doing it, and doing it right. He was still becoming a man when he became a father — four young children, a growing family, and a standard for his work that never bent regardless of the circumstances. Those years shaped him. The trade shaped him. And somewhere along the way, a simple phrase became the way he said everything that mattered: Haz lo Bien. Do it right. He said it on jobsites. He said it at home. His sons heard it so many times it became the way they heard his voice in their heads long after they’d gone out on their own.
When the 2008 recession hit and work started getting slim — when cuts were being made on jobsites across the industry — Genaro Sr. didn’t wait to find out what would happen next. He went out on his own.
He saw an opening where others saw uncertainty.
Because he was trusted, his first jobs were substantive. Contractors could call him directly — no layers, no middlemen, no waiting. One call and you had your answer. That kind of access is rare in this industry, and word traveled fast among people who’d learned how much it was worth. Barragan Drywall still operates that way today.
His sons grew up on those jobsites, tools in hand, their father working beside them. He was not a man of many words because he didn’t need to be. His presence carried weight on its own. When Genaro Sr. spoke, people listened, not because he demanded it but because he had earned it a thousand times over in the way he showed up, every single day. Look at his hands and you understand immediately — strong, scarred, the knuckles of someone who has never asked anyone to do something he hasn’t done himself.
He has since stepped back from daily operations, handing the company to his sons with complete and wholehearted trust. He returned to Mexico to fulfill a lifelong dream — a cattle ranch, the land and livestock that shaped his earliest years. Last year he entered a local roping competition. He won and donated the prize money to his small town’s church. That’s Genaro Barragan Sr. in full: a man who came from nothing, built something that will outlast him, and still rides better than most.
Benjamin Barragan
B.A. Architecture, California College of the Arts
Ben grew up on jobsites and came back to them by way of becoming an architect. That combination — a trained architect who has hung drywall — gives him a perspective no one else in the industry has. He sees what others miss, solves what others can’t, and pushes every project toward something better than what was asked for.
Ben’s story starts on a jobsite — and so does his education. Long before any classroom, his father was his first teacher, putting tools in his hands and showing him what it meant to do work you could be proud of. The Barragan household ran on two things: hard work and the expectation that his children would go further. Education wasn’t optional. It was the standard.
When Ben was five or six years old, he came across a set of blueprints on a jobsite — back when they were actually blue — and asked his father what they were. Something clicked. From that day forward he looked for them on every job, tracing the lines with his eyes and fingers for hours. He didn’t know yet what an architect was. His father was the first person to ever say the word to him – arquitecto. Ben spent months practicing the pronunciation, first in Spanish, then in English. By the time he had it right, the decision was already made.
He earned his degree in Architecture from the California College of the Arts and went on to work as an architect at a prestigious San Francisco firm, where his eye for design and his instinct for creative problem-solving set him apart. Widely regarded as the most creative member of the family, Ben thrives on pushing boundaries — transforming even the simplest project into something original and memorable. His architectural background gives him a rare perspective; he sees potential and artistry in every detail. He understands design and builds on that — creating assemblies not thought possible and solutions that honor the original tenet rather than compromise it.
But all roads lead to drywall — as their father always said. What pulled Ben back was his original passion: construction. And returning to construction meant staying close to design and architecture every day, which was never something he was willing to give up. He came back bringing something rare with him — an architect who has also hung drywall, who understands not just how a space is designed but how it is actually built, wall by wall, surface by surface.
At Barragan Drywall, that perspective shapes everything. Ben sees what others miss — the downstream consequences of an early decision, the way light will eventually reveal a seam, the opportunity hidden inside a constraint. He pushes the team to look beyond the obvious at every stage. That same energy shaped the new BDI headquarters from the ground up — because Ben has always believed that excellence starts with how you treat the people doing the work.
Outside of work, Ben is always in motion. You’ll find him on the sidelines supporting his daughter Camila and son Benny through whatever sport they’ve taken on that season and at CrossFit with his wife Priscilla, or disappearing into the Sierras in his over-engineered Toyota Tacoma with his family and brothers. He keeps a restomod Mustang retooled into a race-worthy machine. That combination says everything about how he approaches his work: deep respect for what came before, and no hesitation about making it better. Tradition is the foundation. But the bar keeps moving.
Genaro Barragan Jr.
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, San Jose State University
Genaro came from a world where a miscalculation isn’t an inconvenience — it’s a crisis. His background in instrumentation and vibration engineering for energy plants gave him a standard of precision that is genuinely rare in construction. At Barragan Drywall, that standard applies to every estimate, every schedule, and every coordination call.
Ask Genaro Jr. what matters most, and the answer is simple: family. Everything else flows from that. His loyalty to legacy isn’t a tagline; it’s the force that brought him to Barragan Drywall in the first place, and the force that drives how he leads it.
One day he was in khakis and a clean shirt, running analysis for nuclear power plants. The next (literally, the next day), he was on a jobsite, scraping drywall. He didn’t hesitate and that’s just who Genaro is.
His background in mechanical engineering — specifically the kind performed in nuclear environments, where a miscalculation is a crisis, gave him a level of technical precision that is genuinely rare in the construction industry. That high-stakes discipline translated directly: every estimate, every schedule, every coordination call at Barragan Drywall is approached with the same exacting standard he brought to work where there was no margin for error.
Combined with his brother’s background in architecture, Genaro’s engineering expertise gives Barragan leadership a depth of technical perspective no other drywall company can match.
On the jobsite, Genaro is known for his calm and steady presence — the kind of measured leadership that builds trust without demanding it. He communicates clearly, moves deliberately, and holds the team to a standard rooted in doing things right, not just doing them fast. He is relentless in finding smarter paths forward, because he believes the bar can always be raised.
Outside of work, the same values show up. He camps in the mountains with his son, Genaro Barragan III, and his wife. He drives a ’66 Mustang fastback — a car built in an era when things were made to last, and proof that when something is done right, it endures. He brings that same conviction to his work at Barragan Drywall. He believes mastery is built the same way everything worth keeping is: through consistent, careful, generational commitment.
Alejandro Barragan
B.A. Exercise Science, San Jose State University
B.S. Nursing, Ashland University
Alejandro has always been drawn to high stakes — which is how he ended up at the Cleveland Clinic and Stanford’s Pediatric CVICU, two of the most demanding clinical environments in the country. He runs operations the same way he worked on the hospital floor: with precision, calm under pressure, and the kind of people skills that make everyone around him work better.
Alejandro’s story starts with people — what they’re capable of, and how to get the best out of them. He studied Exercise Science at San Jose State and worked as a personal trainer, and while he was good at it, he discovered he was genuinely gifted at something harder to teach: getting people to believe in themselves. But motivating others wasn’t the whole answer. What pulled him toward nursing was more specific — the medicine, the precision of it, the high stakes. Alejandro doesn’t just perform under pressure. He seeks it out.
He went back for a second bachelor’s in nursing and aimed straight for the top. The Cleveland Clinic is legendary for a reason — the teamwork, the systems, the culture of militant organization and relentless excellence that leaves no room for anything less than your best. He absorbed all of it working in the Cardiovascular ICU, and it shaped how he thinks about precision, people, and what it means to operate at the highest level.
What those years revealed, beyond the skill and the pressure, was something his patients already knew: Alejandro puts people at ease — not as a professional technique, but as a natural instinct. Patients trusted him. Families trusted him. That’s not something you can train into someone.
The family pulled him home. He and his wife moved back to the Bay Area, where he joined the Pediatric CVICU at Stanford. Then, the way it always seems to go in this family, Barragan Drywall started pulling too. He came on part time while still working at Stanford, and eventually made the jump. All roads lead to drywall. For Alejandro, it just took a few detours through two of the best hospitals in the country to get there.
He brings all of it to Barragan Drywall. The discipline translates directly — precision and organization aren’t preferences in an ICU, they’re requirements, and he runs operations the same way. The people skills translate too. He listens, he connects, and the people around him work better because of those qualities.
Outside of work, that same drive shows up everywhere. He has hiked the full length of the John Muir Trail — including the summit of Mount Whitney — and tackled trails throughout the Sierras, Wyoming, and Torres del Paine in Chile, many of them with his now-wife by his side. He inherited his mother’s 1997 4Runner — the same truck that took him to middle school — and, a natural tinkerer, he rebuilt a V8 engine for it himself. He camps with his family, introduces his daughter to the outdoors, and cooks with the same attention he gives everything else. Whatever Alejandro does, he does it all the way.
Yeti Barragan
Each day at headquarters, Yeti, our dedicated working line German Shepherd, stands as the vigilant guardian of Barragan Drywall. Yeti instills a sense of security and order throughout the shop. He keeps HQ protected and provides the dependable oversight that allows our team to focus on the work at hand.