Last week I travelled to the Mid-Atlantic region and heard the same comment from two different glaziers. “You know, we’re only asking Glass + Metal Craft to quote this.”
In the case of the first glazier, “this” was a rather elaborate glass guardrail. For the other, “this” was a complicated glass entrance system and structural wall.
“This” is because Glass + Metal Craft is unique in our willingness to take on the full complexity of architectural systems. And do it ALL in house.
Here’s the hard truth. When it comes to delivering an architectural system, several resources can procure the hardware. That is, as long as it’s off-the-shelf.
Far fewer have the experience and resources to engineer the project. They struggle mightily with the inevitable project “surprises” that add delays, misunderstandings, and cost over-runs.
And, in my mind, the biggest issue: most procure the glass from third-party vendors, in many cases importing the glass from China. As one of glazier noted, here’s the potential problem with that. They said they were about done with a recent installation when a crate of glass from overseas ALMOST made it to the worksite. Before being shattered in a highway crash. Bingo, that added eight weeks to the install!
Years ago, G+MC decided that the best way to control timing and cost is to do it all under one roof. If there’s a problem with glass, we are NOT a slow boat from China away from a solution. We source our glass from within the United States. If there is a challenge with hardware, we fabricate the solutions. And our engineering expertise looks for problems BEFORE they occur.
The other parts of the equation, of course, are creativity and excellence. We routinely take the glint in the architect’s eye and turn into a stunning system we deliver with stamped drawings, and kitted to flow installation. Our project managers stay with each architectural system from start to finish. They even travel on-site to assist with field measurements and last-minute constraints.
We’re known as Glass + Metal Craft because we do both, glass plus metal, and bring them to bear on a project as it should be done.
We think our name says it all.
