Goodwill and Other Intangibles - Segments (Details) $ in Thousands	9 Months Ended
May 31, 2017 USD ($) segment
Changes in the carrying value of goodwill
Balance at the beginning of the period	$ 43,576
Acquisition of Resin Designs, LLC	7,592
Sale of the fiber optic cable components business	(409)
Foreign currency translation adjustment	(71)
Balance at the end of the period	$ 50,688
Number of reportable segments \| segment	11
Number of operating segments \| segment	2
Construction Materials
Changes in the carrying value of goodwill
Balance at the beginning of the period	$ 10,696
Foreign currency translation adjustment	(4)
Balance at the end of the period	10,692
Industrial Materials
Changes in the carrying value of goodwill
Balance at the beginning of the period	32,880
Acquisition of Resin Designs, LLC	7,592
Sale of the fiber optic cable components business	(409)
Foreign currency translation adjustment	(67)
Balance at the end of the period	$ 39,996

Amount after accumulated impairment loss of an asset representing future economic benefits arising from other assets acquired in a business combination that are not individually identified and separately recognized.

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 350
-SubTopic 20
-Section 50
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (a)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=35741047&loc=d3e13816-109267

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 350
-SubTopic 20
-Section 45
-Paragraph 1
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6388280&loc=d3e13770-109266

Reference 3: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 350
-SubTopic 20
-Section 45
-Paragraph 5
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=64834752&loc=SL49117168-202975

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Number of operating segments. An operating segment is a component of an enterprise: (a) that engages in business activities from which it may earn revenues and incur expenses (including revenues and expenses relating to transactions with other components of the same enterprise), (b) whose operating results are regularly reviewed by the enterprise's chief operating decision maker to make decisions about resources to be allocated to the segment and assess its performance, and (c) for which discrete financial information is available. An operating segment may engage in business activities for which it has yet to earn revenues, for example, start-up operations may be operating segments before earning revenues.

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