An enterprising entrepreneur brings older masons into the company, using their expertise for needed repairs, hardscape projects, and exterior enhancements with brick and stone.
Installing brick and stone is an art. Done right, it’s a business.
Schyler Richerzhagen is doing it right. He isn’t a mason but he owns a business that hires those who are. And he is making, or rather remaking, a masonry business that was up and running in the 1990s and paying those who were there back then to come back.
A savvy son-in-law restarted a family business built on craft and experience. Pat & J Masonry and Services is a Winston-Salem legacy reimagined with highly seasoned, top local masonry talent.
Old school craftsmanship
In the 1990s, Patricio Verastegui owned Pat & J Masonry Concrete Finishing, which in its heyday, employed 30 masons and 15 laborers. He spent a lot of time in the Pine Hall Brick Company yard on Shorefair Drive in Winston-Salem, worked hard for years, and then retired.
Richerzhagen, who is married to Verastegui’s daughter, got permission two years ago from his father-in-law to use a variant on his old business name to fill a need in the marketplace.
New school respecting the old school
Now under the name Pat & J Masonry and Services, and with the help of older brick masons from both his father-in-law’s company and from some of his competitors back in the day, Richerzhagen is bringing modern marketing techniques to an old industry.
And like his father-in-law, he is back at Pine Hall Brick Company on Shorefair Drive, sometimes as often as four times a week. But as it turns out, that’s changed too.
It’s now Pine Hall Brick & Stone.
“I am still doing a fair amount with clay pavers but it seems that more people are opting for stone,” he said. “It really helps to have homeowners in Winston-Salem be able to go to Pine Hall Brick and pick out what they want.”
Staying close to the ground is key
Working for homeowners is key. Pat & J Masonry and Services hires older masons and pays them higher than industry average. They work strictly on residential jobs, including residential repairs, hardscapes and exterior enhancements.
The business doesn’t do commercial and thus doesn’t have a need for masons who can build up heavy steel scaffolding decks, climb ladders and haul bricks up inclines that are common to commercial jobs.
Accordingly, the well-thought-out operational strategies extend to its marketing. Pat & J Masonry relies heavily on social media platforms such as Facebook to introduce themselves to homeowners, by displaying before-and-after pictures and relentlessly following up with potential customers.
Take this job and love it
Richerzhagen comes by his business acumen honestly. He worked for 10 years as a supervisor at United Parcel Service, overseeing a workforce of 100 to 150 employees with five to 10 supervisors underneath him.
“I was making someone a billionaire while when I came over here, within a month of starting, I was making my UPS paycheck in a day, day and a half,” he said. “I could start a business with better networking; I am good at managing people and getting the phone ringing. I have the book smarts to do the research and employ the right people to do the right things.”
And those people are four master masons with 25 to 30 years under their belts. And an estimator with 30 to 35 years under his.
“Many people in masonry want to work, want to live out their days making more money doing an easier line of work than commercial,” said Richerzhagen.
And the future?
That could be a lot of things. It could be an expansion of masonry, or it could be entering other construction trades where market opportunities and needs exist. Could be framing, or roofing, or electrical. Plans are underway.
“If you don’t have a 10-year plan, you are setting yourself up for failure,” says Richerzhagen.
He does have a plan and failure isn’t part of it.
Stay tuned.
