Fechino Files: The Cool Thing About Masonry

Words: Steven Fechino

I have been at this for a long time, and a generation or two have come and gone since I started. I have worked with grandfathers, fathers, and now sons from the same family. I have seen similarities and differences. In one case, I saw a grandson believe he was the creator of all great ideas that the grandfather had done many of, 40 years before. If you work in this industry long enough, you will see it as well; where the new guy thinks he knows more than everyone else, has the greatest ideas, and believes he is just a bit smarter in a trade than anyone who has worked in this trade built on experience, common sense, and hard work.

An example can be as simple as tempering mud on a board or a pan. A laborer can easily walk up to a pan, grab his own trowel, and flip the mortar over a few times with a splash of water and get it super smooth and soft (a method I do not think is best, especially since that trowel can easily fall off a scaffold and hurt someone). Alternatively, he can grab a short hoe or shovel (something he needs to have handy) and roll it over gently so as not to splash the in-place work, stocked materials, or most importantly, the bricklayer who is making the day's money. Even though they both work, the younger laborer "know-it-all" may think he knows a better way when, in fact, it may not be the best-proven method that the trades have been doing for years.

It’s important to understand the sales side and the mason perspective with new products. Things change, I get this, but the trade is relatively a discipline of placing materials in place. What I have seen change more than anything are the support materials that waterproof, flash, and ventilate the envelope, not how we pick up and place brick in the wall. There is a common statement that many folks who sell materials use when trying to sell waterproofing, flashing, or a ventilation product: the contractor may say, "Our family has been doing it this way for 30 years, and we do not see a reason to change."

Well, I agree but sort of disagree. In most cases, someone selling a product is typically not a trained mason (yes, there are many that are, but fewer than those who are not). Here is the thing, how the trade installs materials will continue to be relatively the same. It is the components added to the envelope that will continue to change and improve. This is where the mason has the most change in his operation. In adding new materials that the mason may not have a history of applying or installing, now, the risk is in the hands of the mason. Sales teams need to clearly understand that the mason assumes all of the risk. The masonry team can use common sense in estimating their labor, but typically the mason knows exactly what his labor is for placing masonry. In the new product world, that short-term unknown may offer resistance before the sale. The sales team needs to understand where the mason is working from and why decisions are made as they are, not just assuming that they do not want to purchase the new product. I hope that if you made it this far, a bit of understanding of how a mason may view a new concept will allow the sales team to understand how to present the new product. After all, the sales team has little risk; the mason, again, has great risk when installing something new.

The other night, I was looking at my phone, and a Reel came through where a guy tried to pick up six Concrete Masonry Units. Back in 1981, I was working as a helper for two bricklayers out of West Virginia, John and Peach. Peach was about six-foot-four-inches and red-headed, while John was a smaller fellow who smoked way too much. I asked Peach one day when I was working with him in the spring why they called him Peach. He just said, "You will see this summer." Ok, I moved on, and about two months later, it was about 100 degrees and true to his word, I learned why they called him Peach. This is gross, he had his shirt off and he looked like a giant fuzzy peach. Man, I wish it would have rained that day.

Anyway, John and Peach had a relative come and work with us for about a week. His name was Earl. What a piece of work he was, rough as a cob and just plain nasty. Well, one day it was break time and I did not have money for break, so he said, make you a bet. If you can pick up six blocks (Concrete Masonry Units), he would buy me a break. If not, I would lose break money from my check. Earl set up the block and picked them up, then I did the same thing. He bought me a break, but no longer needed me to work for them the rest of the summer. Turns out, nobody had ever picked up that block trick before.

Years later, while working for Wasco, Inc. and Andy Sneed, I did a bunch of school, VICA, and MCAA promotions where I would set the block up in a configuration of six, pick them up, walk away, and let folks try it. Nobody to this day was as good as Dave Endres back in 1998 during the masonry convention. Dave not only picked them up, but he also dang near spun the six blocks on his pointer finger. We kept adding blocks till we could no longer pick them up—I think we quit at seven and both of us had chapped hands. If you ever have met Dave, well, you know you met a special person and you became better for meeting him. If you are yet to meet Dave, hurry up and meet him; he is the big guy with a smile on his face.

Fechino Files: The Cool Thing About Masonry

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