Owners Corner
Why masonry? Why Ernest Maier?
By Brendan Quinn
As a person that came to Ernest Maier as a consultant from the financial services industry, I never expected to end up owning the company. In search of something more tangible, I found it here at Ernest Maier. What I learned most from the product and the market is that we as an industry had never articulated an argument for our product and, therefore, never "branded" masonry as the highest quality type of construction.
The value of masonry is intuitive to most. It is durable. It maintains its look over time. It is that "old brick house" on the corner. By its very nature, it implies that it is costly. It takes money and time to build. Other types of construction became the "hare" and masonry became the "tortoise." Since masonry buildings last and hold their aesthetic qualities, why was the tortoise losing to the hare?
To answer that question, it is better to talk the inherent qualities of our products than discuss competitive products. Let's explore those qualities here:
THE INHERENT QUALITIES OF OUR PRODUCTS
Durable.
The buzz word of the day is sustainable. Sustain is defined as "to keep in existence; maintain." Durable is defined as "capable of withstanding wear and tear or decay." My guess is that lumber companies, drywall manufacturers or the steel stud industry brought that word into the design lexicon. If you want to build a school, an apartment building, an office building or a home, would you rather it be sustainable or durable? I choose durable. If you want to build a building to last ten years, build with other products, but, if you want to build for a lifetime which is a real investment, build with masonry. When combining today's costs and its ability to hold both its aesthetic and investment value, masonry is the low-cost, longer-lasting choice.
Green.
This word has a myriad of meanings in design today - reusable, regional, recycled. Masonry is all things to all people and, especially, at Ernest Maier.
Reusable.
Tear down a masonry building and reuse the brick or crush the block and put it into concrete and cull out the steel to be smelted back into a usable form. Many manufacturers including us will put used materials in our products.
Regional.
Brick and block products have weight and, therefore, you will find a brick and block manufacturer close to any project that you design. It affords an owner or designer the option of really narrowing the radius of his project from the accepted 500 miles to a much more intimate one. Less transportation means less carbon dioxide.
Recycled.
Masonry can use recycled content from expanded slag to expanded clay fines to glass and many more options to help a project achieve its recycled content percentage target. All of our concrete masonry units contain recycled content. In addition to the content in our product, we gather used cooking oil from local restaurants and process it into diesel to fuel our forklifts.
Ernest Maier also offers to "Go Zero" any project. Through its partnership with The Conservation Fund, Ernest Maier will offset all of the embedded carbon dioxide in its masonry and hardscaping products.
Innovative.
A prominent school construction official told me one of the most profound things about masonry, "I have traveled the world and all of the greatest buildings were built out of masonry." They are block or brick or terracotta or stone, but they are all masonry. It has always amazed me that people say that masonry construction is not innovative. It is the mind that innovates. When constructing the great cathedrals of the world or great buildings in our cities, the designers never let the products limit their imagination. In fact, it made them challenge themselves to design with greater imagination. When I go by an all-glass building, I am impressed only when, in its reflection, I see the great masonry buildings that surround it.
American.
When I travel to Capitol Hill or discuss our products with architects or builders, I remind them of its uniqueness among building materials. It is "made and laid in America." Masonry products are made by Americans and laid by American hands. Masonry jobs are not exportable. Masonry projects employ people in your community. Those block makers, brick makers, stone masons, bricklayers and laborers spend their money locally and strengthen the community with middle class jobs. Masonry is an investment in America.
