Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets (Details) (USD $) In Thousands, unless otherwise specified	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 03, 2011	Nov. 27, 2010	Nov. 28, 2009
Goodwill [Line Items]
Balance at	$ 108,970	$ 103,731
Liquamelt Corp acquisition	4,882	0
Revertex Acquisition	0	12,289
Nordic Adhesive acquisition/earn-out	0	805
Currency effect	1,043	(7,855)
Balance at	114,895	108,970	103,731
Amortizable intangible assets [Line Items]
Original cost	187,473	183,151
Accumulated amortization	(61,347)	(52,534)
Net identifiable intangibles	126,126	130,617
Weighted average useful lives (in years)	18	18
Impairment charge amount		8,785
Amortization expense	10,162	10,839	12,038
Future estimated aggregate amortization expense [Abstract]
2012	10,107
2013	10,011
2014	9,920
2015	9,673
2016	9,578
Thereafter	76,837
Non-amortizable intangible assets [Abstract]
Trademarks/trade names	584	900
Purchased Technology And Patents [Member]
Amortizable intangible assets [Line Items]
Original cost	10,860	10,008
Accumulated amortization	(2,932)	(3,174)
Net identifiable intangibles	7,928	6,834
Weighted average useful lives (in years)	12	12
Customer relationships [Member]
Amortizable intangible assets [Line Items]
Original cost	159,351	156,570
Accumulated amortization	(50,986)	(42,975)
Net identifiable intangibles	108,365	113,595
Weighted average useful lives (in years)	19	19
All other [Member]
Amortizable intangible assets [Line Items]
Original cost	17,262	16,573
Accumulated amortization	(7,429)	(6,385)
Net identifiable intangibles	9,833	10,188
Weighted average useful lives (in years)	15	15
North America Adhesives [Member]
Goodwill [Line Items]
Balance at	27,476	25,322
Construction Products [Member]
Goodwill [Line Items]
Balance at	13,337	13,337
EIMEA [Member]
Goodwill [Line Items]
Balance at	47,871	45,169
Latin America Adhesives [Member]
Goodwill [Line Items]
Balance at	5,481	5,051
Asia Pacific [Member]
Goodwill [Line Items]
Balance at	$ 20,730	$ 20,091