April 2014

Cold hard stone?  Not in the hands of master mason Mark Mendel and his crew at Monterey Masonry.  When you talk to Mendel you realize that his business has a lot more to do with warmth than you might anticipate.  In fact, Mendel’s “bread and butter” since he founded Monterey Masonry in 1982 has been in building fireplaces.  Mendel specializes in building energy-efficient “Rumford” fireplaces, designed by Count Rumford in the 1790s.  But Count Rumford hasn’t had his hands in the mortar for a while now, and over the course of more than 40 years as a mason Mendel has learned “a few tricks to modify and tweak Rumford’s design.”  Monterey Masonry can build a fireplace that throws a lot of heat.