More Than a Product Company

We’re not just a product company. Every one of us came up through this wild industry — guys with 20 to 40+ years in the plaster game. Between us, our crew has been:

• Plaster, quartz, pebble, and polished-finish applicators, mixers, and foremen
• Pebble Tec trainers, applicators, and certified builders
• WetEdge certified applicators and pioneers (the late, great Loren Granstrom)
• SGM, PMM, CLI, and Florida Stucco certified applicators — one of us was the largest Diamond Brite applicator in the world until the late 1990s
• Interior finish manufacturers — one of us created and bagged the original Quartzscapes before it was acquired
• Repeat Pool & Spa News Top 50 builders and remodelers
• Start-up pros and green-to-clean specialists
• Cement scientists, inventors, product developers, and manufacturer reps
• Former National Plasterers Council committee and board members — one of us even chaired the NPC

So use us. By phone or in person, sleeves rolled up and spikes on. If you’ve got a product question, or just want to talk finish protection, washing, or exposure — we’re here. Coast to coast.
Truth is, none of our guys wanted a bio. Here’s a real exchange from when we started writing these:

Us: “Josh, we’re putting bios on the site.”
Josh — our National Training Director: “I’m not a fan of bios. I’d rather people meet me on a jobsite. Then they’ll see what I know.”
Us: “We get it. But we want people to understand why our crew knows interior finishes. You’ve been plastering, what, 30 years?”
Josh: “A lot of guys have been plastering pools for 30 years. That doesn’t mean they’re good at it.”

He’s got a point. So instead of selling you on titles, we’ll just tell you where these folks came up — and let the work speak.

Meet the Team

Alan Smith — Co-Founder & Chairman

Alan got his start in plaster in 1974 as a mixer and was finishing and running crews by 19. In 1981 he co-founded Alan Smith Pools in Orange, California.

He was a founding member of the National Plasterers Council in 1989 and later served as its president. He also helped rally the funding and industry support to build the National Pool Industry Research Center at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Alan Smith Pools is a regular on the Pool & Spa News Top 50 list — and they still use MicroGlass products on close to 1,000 pools a year. Alan co-founded MicroGlass, led the company as CEO in its early years, and serves as Chairman today.

Loren Granstrom — Co-Founder

Loren spent about 35 years in the trade and knew exposed aggregate finishes as well as anyone. He ran high-volume pebble operations and helped develop new aggregate finishes and finishing methods. He was a senior director and early pioneer at WetEdge Technologies before helping found MicroGlass.

Loren has since passed, but his fingerprints are forever seared on this company and the products we make. He loved this industry and was known for his dedication to helping his friends reduce interior finish problems. We’re proud to keep building on what he started. We miss you, Loren!

— The MicroGlass Team

Josh Parrott — National Training Director

Josh is not a fan of bios. He likes people getting to know him on the jobsite. But we want to introduce him to you.

He’s spent 30 years in the plaster game and, as he says, is “still learning new things every day.” He started on the back of the rig, moved to troweling and finishing, and ran crews as a foreman. Before joining MicroGlass, he owned and operated his own remodel and renovation business, where he and his crews used MicroGlass products as a paid service for their customers’ pools.

With MicroGlass, he trains pool pros across the country — not just on MicroGlass or using SetNCure in the mix, but on best practices in troweling, washing and neutralizing, polishing, and troubleshooting. If you’ve got a pool problem, Josh has probably already run into it on a jobsite, and he’s happy to help if he can (or meet you on site).

Bill Shrock — Product Specialist & Field Trainer

Also a plaster guy who — surprise — doesn’t like bios. But here’s what we want you to know about him:

Bill started plastering in 1986 and founded Magic Marcite in 1989 in Florida — a plaster and renovation outfit that grew to 127 employees across residential, commercial, and major waterpark work. He was the first SGM Diamond Brite applicator, and until 1997 the largest Diamond Brite installer in the world.

In 1999 he started making his own quartz and pebble finishes. He created and blended the original Quartzscapes before it was bought out, and trained crews in 25 countries on installing finishes like SGM Diamond Brite, NPT Quartzscapes, CL Industries SunStone, Wet Edge Technologies, and more. Bill sold his plaster company in 2021 — and we’re thrilled to have forced him out of retirement to join the MicroGlass team in 2024.

Lalo Garcia — Product Specialist & Field Trainer

When we asked Lalo what he’d like his bio to say, he responded: “Well, if I’m being honest, I’d like my bio not to say anything. You know I HATE stuff like this about myself!”

But we have to tell you a little about Lalo!

He started at CenTex in ’99 and has been managing plaster companies around Texas since — working in plaster, gunite, and remodels. Lalo’s reputation on the jobsite is one of integrity, kindness, and hard work. Prior to joining MicroGlass, Lalo started putting SetNCure in every pool to cut down on call-backs.

Lalo served on the National Plasterers Council board and several of its committees. Joining MicroGlass in 2025, Lalo brings a general manager’s eye for the whole build — and fluent Spanish and expertise — to crews across the country.

Joel Padilla — Product Specialist & Field Trainer

Joel would rather his bio just be a photo of his troweling callouses. But here’s the recap:

He got his start in 1994, mixing plaster in the back of a truck. Over the next thirty years, he’d do it all — moving from mixer to troweler to foreman, and up to crew lead by 1997, for some of the most respected names in the trade.

Joel still does it hands-on — he’d rather climb in the pool with the crew than call it out from the deck, and that’s earned him respect on jobsites wherever he goes. He came up in the early PebbleTec days, troubleshooting mixing and exposure methods and adapting on the fly; at its peak, his crew was efficiently shooting five pebble pools a day.

Based in Las Vegas and fluent in Spanish, Joel is the newest member of the MicroGlass team. Welcome, Joel!

Reese Penke — Product Specialist & Field Trainer

Reese’s bio is coming soon — he’s out earning it on a jobsite. (Dallas finish applicator, former Pebble Tec trainer. We’ll drag the rest out of him shortly.)

Thomas Cruz — National Sales Representative

Tom’s bio is in the works. Short version: he’s the guy answering when you call about the product benefits or water chemistry troubleshooting — and he’d rather be talking pools with you than writing about himself.

Ben Evans — Managing Principal

Pool guy. Doesn’t like bios. Here’s what MicroGlass wants you to know:

Ben built one of Central Florida’s best-known pool companies from the ground up. He and his wife Diane founded American Pools & Spas in Orlando. Over more than two decades, and a lot of hard work, they grew it into a frequent name on the Pool & Spa News Top 50 builders list — around 75 employees turning out hundreds of pools a year across Central Florida.

He’s given back as much as he’s built. Ben has served on the Florida Swimming Pool Association’s Central Florida Chapter board since 2015, was chapter president in 2019, and was named FSPA’s Person of the Year in 2022. Ben retired in 2023 after selling his company, which operates as American Pools & Spas, A Cody Pools Company.

We overheard someone ask him recently, “What else you got going on?” He said: “MicroGlass. It’s my only job. That and golfing.”

Ben frequently talks about how MicroGlass products help reduce his warranty claims and go-backs. His builder’s-eye view — what actually holds up in the field, and what customers live with for years — informs much of what we do at MicroGlass today.

Brent Bywater — COO

Brent keeps the whole operation running — manufacturing, logistics, and everything in between. Full bio in the works; the buckets ship on time in the meantime.

Patrick Brindle — Director of Business Development

Patrick works on the business side — distribution, partnerships, and growth. Before MicroGlass he was an environmental engineering consultant in aggregate stabilization, working with road crews at steel plants and municipalities. He also served as a manufacturer’s rep of construction materials in the Middle East.

The Crew Behind the Crew

None of it ships without our in-house manufacturing, testing, warehouse, and admin team — the folks mixing, quality-checking, and capping every bucket, wrapping every pallet, and loading every truck.

Sleeves rolled up, spikes on, standing with you. Coast to coast. — Team MicroGlass!