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By Chrysa Smith
Geographic regions have their own identity. In Bucks County people from other states clamor to get a peek inside an old stone farmhouse. The nostalgia. The charm. The stuff house tours and HGTV’s Stone House Revival are made of.
Meet Jon Madle of Home and Hearth Masonry. A veteran stone mason located in Perkasie, he likes nothing better than to get his hands on these structures and let his talent go to work. As you might expect in the county with a hundred plus year-old buildings, a large portion of a mason’s work is restoration. And so it goes that Madle, who got much of his training on the job, laid his carpenters tools to the side and picked up his trowel and hasn’t looked back. During trade school Jon, who studied carpentry, worked for a friend’s family who owned and operated a masonry business. He was hired for his carpentry skills, but as he says of the masonry trade, “I fell into it.” Accepted as an apprentice for the Philadelphia Brick Layer’s Union, he became a journeyman and eventually received his certification. And somewhere around age 22, he was in business.
“I started off with restoration work, stone and older homes,” Jon says, “and then redirected my focus onto fireplaces and chimneys. I moved from Chestnut Hill to Bucks County back in 2008 and found old homes with bake ovens that people wanted me to work on. I took classes, received certifications and learned how to restore them.” You might say it’s a niche market, with about eighty percent of his business coming from restorative work, the other building custom fireplaces, both indoors and outdoors, laying walkways and maintaining it all. Jon will tell you that one of his favorite projects was a job involving Mercer Tile. In fact, those with historical properties and who live in Central Bucks are likely familiar with the use of Mercer Tile within backsplashes, floors and fireplaces. While most Mercer Tiles are clay, this one involved a concrete tile that Henry Mercer came up with in the early part of the 1900s. Known as a color concrete inlay, classes on this type of tile are offered at the Moravian Tile Works in Doylestown.
Madle took the concrete tile class for a fireplace project. While there, he met up with another artisan named Jesse, and the two collaborated on the project. They built concrete tiles for the fireplace and a bake oven, which not only won them the hearts of their client, but worldwide recognition as well. An annual competition brought Madle and his friend face-to-face with masons from around the world. Germany. China. And in that year, 2014, they won the international title. Jon does a consultation with each prospective client, followed by a pencil and paper sketch to scale. Materials are selected, custom details are added and as expected, constant communication with the client until the work is complete. “I make masonry that suits lifestyles, as opposed to a standing structure that supports a deck.” The North American Masonry Heater Association (MHA), who sponsored the award, and other trade organizations have been a great source of referrals for him. In fact, referrals account for the largest part of Jon Madle’s work. And he’s busy in what I would estimate is one of the best places for a stone mason. Annual maintenance is important in preserving the lifespan of a fireplace. And with two level fireplaces costing anywhere from $80-$100k, that investment is one of a lifetime.
While indoor, historical fireplaces are perhaps the bread and butter of the business, increasingly, Madle has turned his attention also to outdoor living spaces. “People are home more, working on their homes and outdoor entertaining is more popular,” according to Jon. He tries to add features that can really enhance outdoor entertaining. Features like concrete benches, tables and countertops and also hearths. Adding a bench next to a fireplace will radiate the heat through the concrete, warming the bench for cooler weather.
“My core belief is finding out you are good at something and then sharing that with others; helping people—making the world a better place,” Jon says. And he has. He went to Guatemala a couple of times to help impoverished people cook in their homes with corrugated metal roofs. Smoke had been building up inside, causing a high incidence of health problems. Madle helped build structures that would redirect or vent cooking smoke outdoors, improving their quality of life. In Bucks County he helped build a memorial skate park for a skateboarder involved in a fatal car accident.
While located in Perkasie, Jon Madle’s Home and Hearth Masonry business does work throughout the Greater Philadelphia Area, serving older homes in Bucks and Montgomery Counties. But as I suspect, he has a long-term influence upon people well beyond our borders.
For more information call 610-844-2838 or visit www.homeandhearthmasonry.com.