Bricklayer competition promotes industry recruitment of youth, women

HOOKSETT — Amid a shortage of workers in the industry, junior bricklayers from around New England competed in the Spec Mix Bricklayer 500 competition Thursday, and stakeholders hope more young students and women will enter the industry.

Hosted at Del R. Gilbert & Son Block Co., which also maintains a facility in Laconia, the event drew bricklayers from far and wide as they sought to punch their ticket to the World of Concrete national bricklayer competition. 

There are more than 20 regional events like the one Hooksett, and the winners of those events meet in Las Vegas to compete for the national championship. The winner receives a pickup truck and, presumably, ultimate bragging rights.

It was a New Jersey mason who took the top prize on Sept. 12 — $1,600 cash, tools, gift cards and other items. Johnny Langerat of Langerat Masonry will head to Nevada in January to compete on the national stage. 

Langerat competed against a dozen teams, who worked in tandem, to build the tallest and most technically-sound brick wall over a 26-foot span. The bricks from the walls will be transported to Gilbert Block in Laconia to be crushed and recycled. Competitors had an hour to complete their task.

But it was the junior masons who stole the show — six teams of high school age or industry beginners worked to build walls about one-third the size of the professionals. With sweat pouring down their brows, the young bricklayers worked tirelessly to create their structures.

Each team was made of two participants, a bricklayer and a helper. To a background of classic rock music, the helper made sure the fresh concrfete, affectionately referred to as “mud,” remained wet by collecting water using square-point shovels and spooning it over their piles. They kept a steady stack of bricks organized within arm's reach of their bricklayer partner, deliberately tossing unwanted bricks to the side and placing the best ones immediately before their partners. 

Among the six teams of youths, there was one woman in the competition. Briana Murphy, 25, of Hillsborough, said she works full-time in the logistics industry but takes up jobs with her brother, Connor Murphy, 24, on the side as a helper. She’s been doing so for around five years.

“I love it,” she said.

Connor went on to win the competition and Briana could be seen smiling from ear to ear as the judges' decision was announced over a loudspeaker at the end of the day. He took home a $200 cash prize, gift cards, tools and a new tool bag for his efforts. 

Briana agreed there weren’t many women in the industry, and masons in general are rare these days. Bricklaying comes to her as naturally as anything and she said women certainly can hack it and would do well to give the job a try. She said the money available for the work is significant. 

“I like the finished product of it,” she said. “[Connor] lays the bricks and I lay the mortar.”

Murphy said she’s motivated to work in masonry because she likes to help out her brother, enjoys seeing the results of their work and encourages youth and women to enter the trade in order to pass down knowledge to future generations. 

On the industry side, Femm Singer, senior sales representative for Heidelberg Materials, said communicating the benefits of a career in masonry to young women is one of her top priorities. 

“We’ve been to different events in New Hampshire and in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and we have started to see more young women involved,” Singer said. 

Singer said masonry is unique because of the vast array of opportunities available to new workers. She pointed to an ease of entry, working as a laborer or “helper” and chances for upward mobility by going to work for a large vendor or becoming the owner of a company. She noted there are lots of jobs available but companies lack the workforce to fill them. 

There were 298,300 jobs within the masonry industry in 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Masons earned, on average, $53,010 annually, or $25.49 an hour. There's no predicted change in available jobs between now and 2033.  

“It’s being taught in schools but not as much, and it’s also not always something that students aspire to do when they get out of high school,” she said. “It’s something that anybody can take up, this trade.”

Singer said there’s good money available to those interested in starting down the path of the mason. 

“I think if they would be exposed to what is being offered and to see the money that you can make and the flexibility of this industry,” Singer said. “Everybody thinks it might just be shoveling but it’s not just that, it can be a wide range of anything you want to do.

“It takes practice and work,” she said. “If you have the willingness to do it, you can go anywhere."

There were a number of young students who had apparently taken that advice to heart. Anthony Lacaillade, 20, of Claremont, said he’s been working in the masonry trade for seven years and laying brick himself for one year. He was excited to enter the event because he’s got a competitive personality and hoped to “add excitement to his career."

“It’s the sense of competitiveness,” Lacaillade said before the contest began. “You have to have the most brick in 20 minutes.” 

Lacaillade ended up placing second in the junior competition. His father, Scott, competed alongside him as his “tender” or helper.

He’s an apprentice now and hopes to make bricklaying a career, noting it’s hard work and rewarding. 

“I was born into it,” he said. “It’s a neat trade.”

Another junior competitor, Holden Connell, 28, of Lee, said he represents George W. Pynn Masonry and loves the sense of longevity he feels when completing stonework. He’s been working in the trade for eight years but started full-time a year ago. Connell said he started out by working between semesters in college, where he studied engineering. A career behind a desk didn’t appeal to him. The masonry money was great, the work is unique, so he took a leap of faith and began pursuing the trade primarily. 

“If I had to labor, I labored,” he said. “I like working with my hands.”

Connell keeps track of all of the jobsites he contributes to on Google Maps. He’s been all over New England and enjoys seeing his finished work. He remembers helping to construct a rectory in Lawrence, Massachusetts, which he called his favorite project thus far. That church building included 15-foot brick walls with granite inlays. 

“I just got caught up chasing the money,” he said with a smile.